had to satisfy me that the honorable Senator from Maryland had been elected a member of this branch of the legislature when I heard his credentials read.

Now, sir, I am prepared to answer the only argument of the honorable Senator from Maryland against the admission of New Mexico, which is, that the Constitution of New Mexico may be one creating a kingly government, if the honorable senator does not disdain to examine a constitution not officially laid before the Senate. It begins with these words:

We, the people of New Mexico, in order to establish justice, promote the welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity:""

This, so far, is the language of the Constitution of the United States. Then it proceeds—

Acknowledging with grateful hearts the goodness of the Sovereign Ruler of the universe, and imploring His aid and direction in its accomplishment, do ordain and establish the following Constitution:"

We see that here are a people who acknowledge a higher power than the Constitution.

These people of New Mexico then say they have "established a government for the purpose of establishing justice, securing the blessings of liberty for themselves and for posterity, and that they acknowledge the superintending power of the Sovereign Ruler of the universe, and invoke His blessing."

Now, let us see what kind of government they make. They form themselves into a free and independent state, by the name of New Mexico. The next question is, whether they have established a "kingly" government. This may be learned from their declaration of rights:

"All men being born equally free and independent, and having certain natural, inherent, and inalienable rights, amongst which are the enjoying and defending of life and liberty, the acquirement, possession, and protection of property, and the pursuit of and attainment of happiness: therefore, no male person shall be held by law to serve any person as a servant, slave, or apprentice, after he arrives at the age of twenty-one years; nor female in like manner, after she arrives at the age of eighteen years; unless they be bound by their own consent, after they arrive at such age, or are bound by law for punishment of crime.

"All power is inherent in the people; all free governments are founded in their authority; they have therefore an inalienable and indefeasible right to institute government, to alter and reform, or to totally change the same, when their safety or happiness requires it."

Well, sir, so far this is sound republicanism; it is the republicanism of the British Constitutions of 1640, of 1688, and the American Constitution of 1776. Well, have they established a

king, with an hereditary aristocracy to exercise the powers of government? No, sir: quite the contrary:

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The powers of the government of the state of New Mexico shall be divided into three distinct departments, and each of them confided to separate bodies of magistracy, to wit: Those which are legislative, to one; those which are judicial, to another; and those which are executive, to another.

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No person, or collection of persons, being of one of those departments, shall exercise any power properly belonging to either of the others, except in those instances hereinafter expressly directed or permitted.

"The legislative powers of the state shall be vested in two distinct branches; one to be styled the Senate, the other the House of Representatives; and both together the Legislature of the State of New Mexico. The style of all laws shall be, Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of New Mexico

"The members of the House of Representatives shall be chosen by the qualified electors, and their term of office shall be two years from the day of their general election; and the session of the legislature shall be held annually, at such time as shall be prescribed by law.

The senators shall be chosen by the qualified electors for the term of four years, and shall be divided by lot into two classes, as nearly equal as may be.

"The governor and lieutenant-governor shall be elected by the qualified electors of the state, at the time and places of choosing members of the legislature.

The judges of the Supreme Court shall be appointed by the governor, with the consent of both houses of the legislature in joint ballot; and shall hold their offices for the term of six years, and until their successors be duly nominated and qualified."

"A general diffusion of knowledge being essential to the preservation of the rights and liberties of the people, it shall be the duty of the legislature of this state to make suitable provisions for the support and maintenance of public schools.

The legislature shall, at as early a day as practicable, establish free schools throughout the state, and shall furnish means for their support by taxation; and it shall be the duty of the legislature to set apart not less than one-twelfth of the annual revenue of the state, derived from taxation, as a perpetual fund, which fund shall be appropriated to the support of free public schools, and no law shall be made diverting said fund to any other use.

"Every male person at the age of twenty-one years or upwards, (Africans or the descendants of Africans, and uncivilized Indians, excepted,) belonging to either of the following classes, and who shall have resided in this state for six months next preceding any election, shall be a qualified elector at such election:

First. Citizens of the United States residing in this state.

"Second. Persons who were elected to remain citizens of the Republic of Mexico according to article eighth of the treaty of peace, made aud concluded between the United States of North America and the Republic of Mexico, at Guadalupe Hidalgo, and ratified by the Congress of the United States the thirteenth day of May, A. D. 1848, and who shall have taken, at least six months preceding any election, before some judge of the Supreme Court in this state, or before a clerk of any court of record in this state, an oath renouncing and abjuring all allegiance or fealty to the government of the Republic of Mexico, and to support the Constitution of the United States and of this state.

"Third. Persons of foreign birth, not referred to in the two preceding clauses, who shall have declared their intention to become citizens of the United States, conformably to the laws of the United States on the subject of naturalization.

"No soldier of the army of the United States shall be entitled to vote in this state."

This, then, is the Constitution of New Mexico. It is a republican constitution, and the argument of the Senator from Maryland against the admission of New Mexico is refuted.

INDEMNITIES FOR FRENCH SPOLIATIONS.

JANUARY 21, 1851.

WHILE no lawful public engagement ought ever to be broken, debts founded on the appropriation of private property to the general use, and especially to the discharge of obligations incurred in the war of the revolution, are practically guarantied by the Constitution, and are stamped with a peculiar equity. They ought, therefore, to be held as sacred as the safety of the state itself. The claims before us fall within that class of inviolable obligations.

The peace of Paris, in 1763, reduced the broad possessions of France in America to Cayenne on the continent, and the islands. of St. Domingo, Martinique, Guadaloupe, Marigalante, St. Pierre, Miquelon, Grenada, and Dominica, in the Atlantic ocean. Great Britain, at the same time, acquired the Canadas, together with the vast region of New France, and thus secured to herself an empire extending from the Gulf of Mexico to the Arctic circle.

In February, 1778, the new thirteen American states were struggling to disengage themselves from that empire. It was a conflict ripened and final between Great Britain to retain supreme dominion, and the United States to acquire absolute sovereignty and independence. Great Britain, so lately victorious over her great continental rival, was now confessed mistress of the seas. The United States had, then, a free population scarcely surpassing their present number of slaves. Their sovereignty had been assumed only nineteen months before, and had not yet been recognized by any foreign nation, nor even by the least of the hundred savage tribes whom the wilderness protected within and around their borders. They had no navy, mercantile marine, fortifications, constitution, nor even confirmed confederation. The hopes which had been kindled by early successes were almost extinguished by

recent and successive disasters. Boston had, indeed, been regained, and Burgoyne had given back the passes of the north; but the enemy yet retained New York, and now victorious over Washington in successive pitched battles, on fields chosen by himself, on the Brandywine and at Germantown, was marching unobstructed toward Philadelphia, then the American capital. The precious metals seemed to have hidden themselves again in the earth, and paper credits had everywhere collapsed. The chaplain of Congress implored Washington "to give over the ungodly war in which he was engaged." The discomfited army, without recruits, pay, or even sufficient food, had tracked their way with bleeding feet into winter quarters on the Schuylkill. Two hundred officers had resigned and retired; the hospitals and the neighboring farmers' firesides were crowded by soldiers without blankets or shoes; and the great leader, in the midst of discontents fast growing into mutiny, announced to the loosely constituted legislature, which was now convulsed with distrust and faction, that "unless some great and capital change should occur, the troops under his care must starve, dissolve, or disperse."

A great and capital change did occur. Allied armies, fresh, vigorous, and well appointed, co-operating with a gallant fleet, met the invader, and his surrender at Yorktown opened the way to peace, sovereignty, and independence. An auspicious star had led Franklin, Deane, and Lee, the first of American ambassadors, to Paris; and it was an alliance with France, a hereditary foe, but thenceforth a fraternal nation, that wrought out this great and capital change, and effected that triumphant consummation.

The courses of the allies immediately separated, and thenceforward widely diverged. The United States completed their Union in peace and tranquillity, and established their constitution on the unremovable foundations on which loyal citizens hope, and wise men throughout the world believe, that it stands firmly fixed forever; while, by well-directed devotion of the national revenues to the payment of their debts and the establishment of their credit, and a wise cultivation of arts and industry, they prepared the way for permanent and extended empire.

France, on the contrary, began the descent toward revolution in the very year when the United States emerged from its dangerous labyrinths; and thereafter, distracted herself, for thirteen years she convulsed all Europe.

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It was during this period that these claims for indemnities for spoliations arose.

The political and commercial relations between France and the United States had been defined by treaties.

First. The Treaty of Amity and Commerce, the most ancient treaty of the United States, executed on the 6th of February, 1778. It stipulated [Art. 1] a firm, inviolable, universal, and perpetual peace. [Art. 2.] That all commercial privileges to be granted by either party to any state should become common to the other contracting party. [Arts. 3 and 4.] The most favored footing for each party in the other's ports. [Arts. 5 and 6.] Reciprocal protection to vessels in their respective jurisdictions. [Art. 8.] The aid of France in negotiations by the United States with the Barbary powers. [Art. 12.] The mutual exhibition of passports and certificates of cargo in cases of suspicious vessels making the ports of an enemy of one of the parties. [Art. 14.] That goods of either party should be forfeited if laden in ships of an enemy of the other. [Art. 17.] That armed vessels of one party might freely carry prizes into the other's ports, without paying duties to courts, and might freely depart to the places designated in their commissions, and that neither party should give shelter to captors of prizes from the other. [Art. 22.] That privateers of an enemy of one party should not be allowed to be fitted out or to sell prizes in the ports of the other. [Art. 23.] That free ships should make free goods. [Art. 24.] Defined articles contraband of war, and excepted from that class many articles not free by the law of nations. [Art. 25.] In case one party should be at war, the vessels of the other should be furnished with sea-letters, or passports, and with certificates containing the particulars of the cargo, so as to relieve the rigors of search.

Secondly. The Treaty of Alliance, concluded on the same day, February 6, 1778. In this treaty, the parties recited the execution of the Treaty of Amity and Commerce, declared that they had considered the means of strengthening their engagements, particularly in case Great Britain, in resentment against those engagements, should break the peace with France, either by direct hostilities, or by hindering her commerce and navigation, contrary to the rights of nations and the peace subsisting between those countries; and that therefore they had agreed, that [Art. 1] if war should break out between France and Great Britain during