from year to year, untiringly and continually, as the billows of the ocean dash against its shore. They chuckle like fiends when it seems that Franklin Pierce and the granite Democracy of New Hampshire are about to be borne down by our enemies, so as no longer to be able to shield us from danger. But the true men in the Northeast, though for a time overpowered, return to the contest with renewed zeal. Remembering that, though the British armies once had possession of their territories, the spirits of their ancestors were unbroken, and that the revolution failed not, they rally again and boldly proclaim that the battle for the Constitution "has only begun." Pennsylvania, Collecting all her might, dilated stands, across the entire breadth of the way, and says to fanaticism and treason, "Hitherto shalt thou come but no farther, and here shall thy proud waves be stayed." The young giants of the Northwest, lamenting that they were not old enough to have marched under the banner of Washington, press eagerly forward to take the front of the column if any of the Old Thirteen should falter in the hour of trial. On every side there are coming up the brave and true for the decisive struggle. Many a party banner has risen and stooped again; but there is a flag which has never yet gone down before the eyes of mortal man. It first shone in the sunlight on the 4th of July, 1776; and though it wavered in the dark hours of the Revolution, it went not down, but kept its place, and still has kept, through many a stormy period since, on land and sea. The old flag of the Republic now looms high over the field of danger, summoning its friends to gather around it. There is only one of the political organizations that can stand under that banner. And will you leave the Democratic party, weakened in former contest for the right, to fight this great battle unaided, and alone to triumph, or alone to die, in such a cause? Where will you be found, gentlemen when such a field is to be fought and such a banner is to be upheld? Look back into the past, and see that in the olden time the enemy approached our section only to be repulsed. The mountain peaks which looked down on the rapid flight and destruction of Ferguson's army, still stand silent but impressive monitors. Though, of the bold riders who dashed through their gorges and forests, only the last linger yet a little while, the memory of their deeds is immortal, and will again kindle the flames of patriotism to future triumphs. A victory in this contest saves the Constitution from danger, overwhelms its enemies, and gives the highest assurance that our magnificent ocean bound Republic will continue for ages to run a career so bright and glorious as to challenge the wonder and admiration of the world. Respectfully, CITY OF WASHINGTON, March 16, 1856. T. L. CLINGMAN. After Mr. Buchanan's election, I had a conversation with him in regard to the foreign policy of his administration, to commence on the coming fourth of March. I regretted to find that he had weakened greatly, and did not appear then willing to stand by the policy of the Ostend manifesto. In fact, on my praising it in high terms to him, he seemed disposed to qualify it. and rather to explain away some of his strongest points. I told him that I would, before the close of the session, speak on it, and that I felt confident that it could be placed in a most favorable light before the American people. In the hope that he might be strengthened in his feelings and induced to maintain bold American ground the speech which follows was made: SPEECH ON BRITISH POLICY IN CENTRAL AMERICA AND CUBA, The House being in the Committee of the Whole on the state of the Union- Mr. Chairman: My purpose in rising to address the committee to-day is to call the attention of gentlemen to a subject of some practical importance at this time, and of great moment in the future of this country. One of its points is already understood to be undergoing examination in the other end of this capitol; and I hope some of these days to bring another important branch of it to the consideration of the American Congress. Before referring directly to these points, however, I desire to of fer some general observations which nevertheless have a direct bearing on them. Much is said, sir, of fillibustering; and when the British newspapers read us lectures on our propensities in that respect, some of our own people hold up their hands in horror at the prospect presented of the moral depravity of the country. It is undoubtedly true, that since the commencement of our existence as a nation we have extended our territory from a little less than one million of square miles to about three millions. How stands the case with Great Britain? The whole island, including England, Scotland, and Wales, has an area of eighty-nine thousand square miles, and yet the entire dominion governed by this island includes territory to the extent of nearly eight million square miles! While we have added two hundred per cent. to our territory, she has acquired about nine thousand per cent. We have increased three-fold in area, she ninety-fold! And yet she is shocked while witnessing our rapacity for acquisition, and complains that the American eagle is a "fast fowl"greedy bird. What, then, shall we say of the appetite of the British lion? Why, her possessions in North America alone are more extensive than all the territory of the United States. Her Australian dominions are themselves, likewise, greater in area than all we hold. In the East Indies, on a territory larger than the settled parts of the United States, she controls despotically a population of one hundred and forty millions. -a Besides these, she has her provinces, islands, and military and naval stations in every sea, and on every shore. It used to be the boast of Spain that the sun did not set upon her empire; but whichever side of the globe be turned to that luminary, and at any hour of the twenty-four, it never fails to send its rays down on a section of the British empire larger than all the United States. Nor have her efforts to expand her domain been relaxed in view of her immense acquisitions, but on the contrary they are at this very time being pressed forward with great zeal, both by the gov ernment and its subjects. They denounce us for our alleged failures to maintain a strict neutrality towards other countries; but this Government was the first to pass laws on that subject: and our statutes are more strict, I think, and have been better observed, than those of most countries. In Great Britain they are liable at any time to be suspended by the will of the Crown; and, in fact, bodies of many thousand men have been organized without objection in and about London, to carry on wars in the Spanish Peninsula and elsewhere, while the Government professed to be at peace with the parties assailed. Indeed, companies have been chartered by the Parliament to carry on what would in these days be called fillibustering operations. The East India and Hudson's Bay Companies are examples. The people of the United States are assailed because a few individuals have gone down into Central America to aid Walker. What would they, then, say of us, if Congress should charter a company, the "Transit Company," for example, and furnish it men and money to conquer and hold Central America for our benefit? And yet such an act would be following the example of Great Britain in chartering and upholding the East India Company, and enabling it to conquer and enslave a people five times as numerous as the whole population of the United States. Our territorial expansion has indeed been remarkable; but so has been our progress in all respects. Our tonnage equals-probably exceedsthat of Great Britain herself. We have changed the system of maritime law for the world; and Britain no longer boasts of possessing the empire of the seas. Already has been verified, in part, the prediction of Pownal, the sagacious Englishman, who nearly a century ago said: "America will come to market in her own shipping, and will claim the ocean as common—will claim a navigation restrained by no laws but the law of nations, reformed as the rising crisis requires." "America will seem every day to approach nearer and nearer to Europe." "The independence of America is fixed as a fate. She is mistress of her own fortune-knows that it is so; and actuate that power which she feels, both so as to establish her own system, and to change the system of Europe." "America will become the arbitress of the commercial world, and perhaps the mediatrix of peace and of the political business of the world.” So remarkable has been our progress that these wonderful prophecies seem like the offspring of inspiration. Great Britain has herself, too, by her conduct, verified another striking prediction, that the sovereigns of Europe "When they shall find the system of this new empire not only obstructing but superseding the old systems of Europe, and crossing upon the effects of all their settled maxims and accustomed measures, they will call upon their ministers and wise men, 'Come, curse me this people, for they are too mighty for me; their statesmen will be dumb; but the spirit of truth will answer: 'How shall I curse whom God hath not cursed?" " Great Britain has exhibited the feelings here depicted, and has resisted our progress with a perseverance, a skill, and an energy creditable to her ambitious sagacity, if not to her justice and magnanimity. Latterly she has directed her efforts, in the first place, to prevent our acquiring territory; and, secondly, to render that territory, if acquired, a source of weakness rather than strength. It is to her policy on these two points that I now, Mr. Chairman, ask the attention of the House. Holding as she does herself the entire northern half of this continent, she easily bars our progress in that direction; on our eastern and western borders are the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Our only field of extension, therefore, lies to the south, and her efforts are perseveringly and energetically directed to that quarter. The Central American question has been prominent before the country for some time past. Great Britain acquired her foothold there in direct contravention of her treaties with Spain, to whom the whole of that region originally belonged. In 1763, however, she agreed by treaty to demolish her fortifications, &c., and cease to interfere with the rights of Spain, &c. As this treaty failed to secure the country, however, from British occupation, a more stringent one was made in 1783; and three years later, in 1786, additional articles were ratified. As these are all substantially the same, I read a clause from that of 1786: "ARTICLE 3. Although no other advantages have hitherto been in question, except that of cutting wood for dyeing, yet his Catholic Majesty, as a greater proof of his disposition to oblige the King of Great Britain, will grant to the English the liberty of cutting all other woods, without even excepting mahogany, as well as gathering all the fruits and produce of the earth, purely natural and uncultivated, which may, besides being carried away in their natural state, become an object of utility or commerce, whether for food or for manufactures; but it is expressly agreed, that this stipulation is never to be used as a pretext for establishing in that country any plantations of sugar, coffee, cocoa, or other like articles; or any fabric or manufacture by means of mills, or other machines whatsoever, since all lands in question being indisputably acknowledged to belong of right to the Crown of Spain, no settlements of that kind, or the population which would follow, can be allowed. The English shall be allowed to transport and convey all such wood and other produce of the place, in its natural and uncultivated state, down the rivers to the sea, but without ever going beyond the limits which are prescribed to them by the stipulations above granted, and without thereby taking an opportunity of ascending the said rivers, beyond their bounds, into the countries belonging to Spain.' "The seventh article of the same treaty again provides for the entire preservation of the rights of the Spanish sovereignty over the country, in which is granted to the English only the privilege of making use of the wood of various kinds;' and it goes on to stipulate that the English 'shall not meditate any more extensive settlements' than the one defined." It would be difficult to make a stronger stipulation against British encroachments than is here contained. Yet, though its enforcement was attempted to be secured by periodical visits of Spanish commissioners, it, like its predecessors, proved wholly ineffectual. As late as the year 1814, all these old treaties were renewed between Great Britain and Spain, and were at no time abandoned by the latter; and yet, in the face of such solemn engagements, the former has established her present position in Central America. For a full detail of the means she has used, I refer gentlemen to a work published in 1850 by Frederick Crowe, a Baptist missionary from England to Honduras and Guatemala. With the indignation of an honest, upright man who blushes for his country, he details the expedients and shifts to which British officials have resorted to obtain the control and actual dominion of Honduras and Mosquito coast, in such passages as the following: "Nor is this the only national disgrace and absurd exposure which has resulted from the British protectorate on the Mosquito shore. Several writers have already noticed the humiliating scenes to which the coronation of the present line of Waikna monarchs have given occasion; and all the witnesses, except, perhaps, some whose sense of decorum and moral rectitude were little or not at all superior to that of the poor deluded Indians themselves, concur in branding these ceremonies, not only as ridiculous in the extreme, but as disgusting exhibitions of human degradation, and impious profanations of the name of God, which has been wickedly associated with them. Indeed, it is not a little surprising that Government officials-civil, military, and ecclesiastical-laying claim to reason and sensibility, (to speak of no loftier endowments,) could at any time be found willing to lend themselves to mockeries so puerile, and to deceptions so palpable and gross. But some such have ever been found ready to take a public part in the desecrations of the so-called religious forms, and in the name and on behalf of royalty, to place in the least imposing light imaginable, "The low ambition and the pride of kings.' "On such occasions, British men-of-war have been employed to convey the royal person, and the naked and barefooted nobles composing his court, to and from Jamaica, or British Honduras. A titled colonial bishop has been in requisition to consecrate and anoint with holy oil the semi-savage, the tool of governmental schemes of national aggrandizement. The various native lords, generals, admirals, and captains, have been clad for the occasion in gay regimentals, which they wore shirtless on their tawny skins, and so earicatured the 'soft raiment that even the pencil of a Cruikshanks could scarcely do justice to their attitudes and grimaces while writhing under the confinement of braided coats, military stocks, tight boots, &c., &c. "The coronation of King Robert took place at Belize on the 23d of April, 1825. None of the above elements were then wanting, except that the part of the Archbishop of Canterbury was performed by the chaplain of the settlement in the room of his superior, whose absence was more than atoned for by other details of the pageant. On this occasion it was deemed necessary to qualify the Waikna nobility for the part assigned them, viz: swearing allegiance to their King, by first placing them within the pale of the national establishment. Consequently the 'ministration of baptism to such as are of riper years' was superadded to the coronation service,' and the poor savages |