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WASHINGTON. t< Liberty and Uuioa, mow aua lorever, oue and inseparable." SATURDAY, JULY i4, 1847. ? THE LATEST PROCLAMATION. The Californian document, which we copied into our paper of Saturday last from the New Orleans Picayune, seems beyond question to be authentic. It is copied from a journal published at Puebla, where the main body ot Gen. Scott s army was then in possession, and was there copied trom the Government press of Mexico, the piario. This new manifesto is, from beginning to end, but a re-production of the previous Sloat and Iyeak ny proclamations, long since disavowed by the Executive here ; but, as some time since we were compelled to show, disavowed without the slightest sincerity. The present paper is, we repeat, sub stantially the same, the chief difference being that the stretches of" power assumed by Gen. Kearny, as bestowed upon lAirf by the President, are less plainly worded in some points. It is therefore evi dent, we think, that this instrument has been sup plied to the Executive Viceroy in Monterey at a period subsequent to the murmurs of astonishment with which the disclosure of the tirst Santa Fe and Californian proclamations was received through the United States at large. As, then, botii the external and internal evidence of authenticity satisfies us, it is our duty not to let pass, without a strong il brief exposure, the fresh flagrancy of such an Ex ecutive act. This proclamation dates above four months back. The authority, therefore, under which it is issued must have been granted by the Executive probably as early as December last. It bestowed, however, subsequently to the assembling of Congress, these extraordinary powers were bestowed, without con sulting either branch ol it, out oi the personal, not the official power ol Mr. Polk alone; for the Pre sident of the United States neither has nor can delegate any such authority ; and il these merely usurped, illegal, voluntary, discretionary authorities were bestowed before the meeting of Congress, the President?or rather Mr. Polk?has not chosen even to seek to obtain, by a legislative sanction, such cure as Congress could give, by its assent, to merely imperial acts ; nor even to do the Legisla ture and the country the grace to inform them ot these astonishing assumptions. Nay, the Execu tive has actively concealed, by denial of the lact, these monstrous violations ot not only all that is legitimate under domestic and constitutional but even national law ; and, dispensing himselt Irom these, has equally dispensed himselt lrom e\en the poor decorum of asking the Senate s concurrence in the bare appointment of a Governor to a per petual'Territory of the United States, constituted such by his own single and absolute individual pleasure alone. We have called the appointment itself vice-regal; yet that name falls far short of the sweeping and universal powers which this proclamation now m contestably exhibits Mr. P??lk (not the President, for he could not) as conferring upon Gen. Kear ny. Never did the absolute monarch of Spain bestow upon anv viceroy set over Mexico such un limited faculties ; for even such royal deputies held under the laws of Spain at least, and could not, at their will, declare in force (as Governor-General Kf.arny may do) whatever code liked them. Nor, indeed, did Spanish despot ever appoint vice roys without at least consulting the Council of the Indies. The new office and the new province, then, are more like those satrapies which, at the height of the Persian power, the potentate whom the Greeks were accustomed to call " the Great King," sent out with unlimited command of life and death. Never was Roman consul or pro-consul invested with sucli rights until, all freedom having ceased, an Emperor, like Domitian, no longer deignbd to as semble the Senate, except to mock them with idle and insulting questions. It must be recollected that the only possible ex cuse for this war, as made by the President, is that the Rio Hravo is the rightful boundary of Texas, and that the act of annexation constituted all on this side of it legally and actually a territory of the United States. If so, we need not say that Santa Fe and its population were suhject to no law, and ?ould have no governor, except such as are given by the ordinary legislative, judicial, and executive authorities of the Union. By what has been done in Santa Fe, then, the President?or rather Mr. p0LK has involved himself in this inextricable dilemma: that either he has invaded Mexico, or that he has upon a United States territory trampled upon everv law and every right. Nor, though different, is the case less monstrous which he has made against himself in California. Whether, previously or subsequently to his taking possession there, a part of the United States, the Executive is a mere usurper, and the wantonest ol j usurpers, when he undertakes to do any acts there < which do not inure in the ordinary Executive power over a Territory of this I nion. If he would shelter himself (as his apologists say he in a j under the military power of commander in-chief t.c officio, that does not better the matter, for, as commander of the armies of the Union, he ran take no civil powers; or, if he can, he <.111 equally take them over the entire I nion, and has just as much right to send Gen. Kt.arw to \ ir ginia and North Carolina, there to take upon him all authority, alter their laws, remove or abrogate their officers- and their State functionaries, as to do tin's in California. We have said that these usurpations are most wanton. It is now about a year since militarj measures were uiken for annexing New Mexico and ('alifornia. The success of those measures was considered, by the Executive, certain; arrange ments were therefore taken as for the administration of legal and permanent acquisitions : instructions were issued for their civil government: territorial officers were provided. Now, all this was done c bifort the meeting of Congress. Say that there be circumstances under which a temporary and jiruvisional establishment of this'sort might We justified, us nccthsary : here, no such necessity can be pleaded : a military possession was the only one which could be pretended or has been effected. Hut bad it been otherwise, it was the inevitable duty of the Executive to terminate, at the earliest day, that illegal state of things, by coming to Con gress for the lesfal enactments which were wanted. Mr. Polk has sulie-red.an entire session of ( ongress to ass away, not only without taking that neces sar step, but has not even deigned to refer to Con graa the great and paramount question which they aloie were competent to decide?the question whe theioj not we would annex to the United States couaries which not even Conquest can make right fully ours, until Mexico shall, by a treaty of peace and ession, have given us a title. Tie President has, says this now rescript, * de volve!" upon Mr. Kearny the civil government of California. Is this new phrase some ingenious in ventioi of Strict Construction, meant to avoid the ( onstiution, which says that the President may, by uni with the advice aiul consent 0/ the Senate, appoiit! Mr. Polk has not appointed Mr. Kear ny : h: has " devolved" him ! Is n?t the new civilian still a Brigadier General in the (tegular Army of the United States ? And can th're be any thing more contrary to all the spirit if our institutions, or to every thing republi can, thin this uniting in the same person the civil and th? military functions ? But Mr. Viceroy cu mulate; even upon these: he is supreme legislator, and, if he likes, (. hiel Justice ot California, our eternal territory ! lie may give these perpetual citizens of the United States as much or as little of their n;w birthright, the Constitution, as he shall judge vhojesome for their young stomachs : babes are not fed with meat. < >f tueir joint skill in such interpretation, we are alreadv favored with an exquisite sample ; the Con stitute 1 says that " Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or abridg ing the free exercise thereofand the very first tiling which the potentate and sub-potentate do is. to make a law Respecting an establishment of re ligion, and abolish the established church of Cali fornia ! These profound and cautious jurists have evidently construed the Federal Constitution as conferring on Congress the power actively to bring about religious equality; whereas the whole ob ject was to prevent their meddling at all with reli gious matters. One would think that the President of the I nited States at least might know that reli gious disabilities against the Catholics existed, until of late, in the State from which he draws his ori gin, North Carolina; or that they still exist in the superlatively Democratic State of New Hampshire. ?? It is the desire and intention of the United States" (these new freemen are condescendingly in iorined; " to procure for California as speedily as possible a free Government, like that of their own I erritories ; and they will very soon invite the in habitants to exercise the rights of free citizens in the choice of their own representatives, who may enact such laws as they deem best adapted to their interests and well-being." Happy freemen ! that shall be tree some day or other ! Happy citizens ot the United States?in prospect.! Fortunate territory, that shall have "a free Government like ' one. oj our own Territoriesat some future time ! But by what hocuspocus has all this been found out ? " It is the desire and intention of the United I Stales.'" Who has any authority to say so ? un- j less ego et re.r meus are the United States ? The Californian magistrates are to remain in au-' thority, provided they swear to be faithful to the ' Constitution of the United States. This is better 1 and better. That they are not capable of under standing what they are to administer is certain enough: but no matter. The operation by which the New Mexicans were through Wi n. K., evicted (he called it " absolved'*) from their allegiance to their own native and volun-. tary Government, is now, by virtue of a proclama-1 tion, repeated upon the Californians: the President' and the Governor?who are the United States take the Californians to themselves. The Californians " will be regarded as citizens of the United States;" that is to say, regarded as citizens in every thing but the rights of citizens : as citizens who may be hung, shot, or whipped, at the pleasure of courts martial or a grand jury of foreign soldiery! But ? as long as the sun shall shed its light, the stars and stripes shall wave over California !" So 1 have royal and viceroyal wills pronounced. The Uni-1 ted States have no voice, Mexico 110 rights, in the matter! This is, indeed, throwing off the mask en-j tirely, and dismissing all pretences of justice, or peace, or settlement. Nor is it less perfidious than unjust, nor less foolish than either. At this instant, the Executive is pressing upon Mexico for a ne gotiation, terms of fair and honorable peace for both sides ; whilg here its envoy, Mr. Trist, is con fronted with its proclamation that it means to keep, subject to no negotiation, near one-half of the Mexi can territory! A thing more monstrous in the eye of National Law or J ustice has not been done for centuries. Even in Afghanistan and China, Britain took as hers no ting but as a momentary advantage, subject to treaty and restitution. And, firtally, we raise our voice once more in warning to the country, that the President is making no real con/juests in Mexico: it i i only the Constitution of hit own country that he ii conquering. Alabama.?Governor Martin, who was elected .Governor of the State of Alabama in 1845, in op position to the regular Democratic candidate, has withdrawn from the canvass thi* vear, and left a clear field to Mr. Ih:i bkn CiiaI'Man, the nominee ot the iMnocrats, and Capt. Nicholas Davis the camhii itg of the \\ lii???<?. - An examination of the Midshipmen attached to the A aval S hool at Annapolis is now goiniron un der t;. > supervision of the following gentlemen: 011,1 I'hos. \r C. Jones, President of tlu Board; < oinnvniorc* Parker and Sloat, and Captains Mr. LANKY lilld Pai I.DING. . he S. . rotary of War has instructed Lieut. Col. iKv in, oj the second regiment Ohio volunteer*, re cently returned from Me\ico, that, if the regiment is reorganized so as to consist of a large portion of, : , r,'"n ;?nd men, its services will be received lor the war i . Mexico. Col. Irvin has coinmuni* , . "r'i-rto the officers of the regifnent, some of w ? Mil re endeavoring to reorganize it. A le.tei wr;'>n irom China, and address* I to a, person in the eity of Nantes, in France, by a French ' missionary, b ten .that several captains of vessels, | K. ongin ' to the marine of the three nations of I trance, and the United States, had been received m o the presence of the Emperor ofi Japan, i rom w 0,1, they n:ir| solicited the opening the ports o n> Miifiioin to the commerce of Europe and America. 1 Fiie A !?? \an,)ria (i tvtte *ay* that examination* are making in Prince \V,||jam county, Vjrgink, for copper, and that <0\ far they have l*en ,]uae .ueceaafuL The Gazette add- that' ' ^HUI' ^ ol ore 'iave been tfiiipped to Uoston with a view j of determining its quality. COMMERCE AMONG THE STATES. i The Chicago Convention has been made the occa sion, on the part of several Administration journals, for renewing all the common-place objections to the exercise by the Government of the power of inter nal improvement. The editor of the official journal in particular, by way of sustaining the doctrines of the Veto of President Polk, has occupied seve ral numbers of his paper with a repetition of the almost lorgotten quiddities of "construction con I strued," and other antique Virginia authorities, which it would have been more charitable to per mit to slumber undisturbed on the shelf. The folly i of this resuscitation of antiquities, on the part of ; the government editor, is rendered the more signal ! from his having selected the letter of Mr. Webster to the Chicago Convention as the text for his lucu i bratioiis?a selection certainly more commendable for its boldness than its discretion. The opinions offered by Mr. Webster in that brief letter, naked and un argued as they are, have all the force of sell-evident truths, and will be found as impregnable to the shafts of the editor of the "Union" as the satne opinions proved in the Senate to the best abilities of the allest champions of the "strict-construction" school. The fact is, that the common sense of this practical age has settled these questions irrevocably | against the school of abstractionists, and we hardly | know of one in the whole range of constitutional I powes of which it were now more needless to enter j on a formal argument. As, however, the editor cf the "Union" has taken occasion to re-assert 1 opinions which it devolved upon us years ago j and oft to controvert and expose, we will brielly re peat some of the more obvious arguments on the other side, in respect to that branch of internal im provement had in view by the Chicago Convention. The Constitntion of the United States declares that " Congress shall have power to regulate com merce with foreign nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian tribes." Under this power Congress have not only regu lated foreign commerce, by imposing duties upon ! articles of foreign growth and manufacture, but they have legislated upon all the exigencies arising I out of an enlarged commercial action. The in struments ot commerce?such as the vessels in which it is cariied on ; the papers which identify and give a character to the cargo; tlje duties ol the men who work the ship ; and, in short, every thing which pertains to a commercial intercourse with foreign nations, is a subject for national legislation. But the power is not limited to these objects. It has been exercised on the seaboavl to enlarge our j harbors and make them safe, by ths construction of piers, breakwaters, and other works, Lighthouses have not only been established at our Atlantic har bors, but on our sea-coast, as guides to our ves sels. The pilot laws of the States hate been adopt ed by Congress, which make them, \n effect, na tional acts. All this, and much mo^e, has been done under the general power to remtate foreign t commerce. Now the question is, whether this s^ne power may be exercised in, the regulation ol commerce " among the several States." The powfr is given in the same sentence, and in words of the same im port ; and, unless there be something in thereserved powers of the States, or in the local circumstances of the case, it may be exercised to the same extent. Before the adoption of the Constitution, counter acting commercial regulations were made bv* the respective States, which excited local hosiilities that endangered the peace of the Confederacy.' This was one of the principal causes which led to I the formation of the Union. In the Constitution 1 the object is declared to be " in order to lorn, a i more perfect union, establish justice, ensure do mestic tranquillity," ?Skc. The power " to regulate commerce among the several Slates " being vested in Congress, the same power cannot be exerciied by a State, or by any number of States less than the whole, and in the form authorized by Congress. A State may regulate its own internal commerce independently of the Federal power. The words "among the States" limits the National power t<5 two or more States. And it may be admitted thai Congress cannot, among the States, adopt any com mercial system which shall operate unequally. They cannot raise a revenue to the Union by tax-1 ing articles imported from one State to another. By the fifth clause of the sixth section of the Con stitution it is declared that " no tax or duty -hall be laid on articles from any State," <fcc., and '? vessels bound to or from one State shall not be obiiged to enter, clear, or pay duties in another." In our foreign commercial relations we adopt, either by treaty or legislation, such regulations as are deemed politic and just with a nation, without regards other nations. The States of our own coun try, in regard to this power, are a unit, and stand upon an equality. But, whatever differences there may be in the Federal exercise of the commercial power " with foreiey nations and among the several States " in respect to the imposition of duties and other matters, there is none in regard to the facili ties of commerce. Lighthouses may be placed, upon our lakes, bays, and rivers, the same as upon i the sea-shore; and the obstructions to commerce may !>e removed, and harbors opened and improv- j ed, in the one ca9e the same as in the other. It Congress may construct a breakvater over the Delaware to protect our vessels, they may do the same thing in our navigable river> and bays tailing into the (vult ol Mexico. Congress requires the registration of vessels engaged in internal com- j merce as it does of those engaged in external com-' nier<'e. ()dicers of our internal ports have been | appointed under their authority. Steamboats, which ply between places and ports in different States, have been regulated ; and obstruction? have been removed, until recently, from the Ohio. Mississip pi, Led, and otner rivers. 1 his commercial power has been exercised by Congress in a greater or less degree from the formation of the Constitution ; and it is unaccountable how, upon any established rule | of construction, a different decision i? now main tained. Whether we look to the Constitution or to its established construction, the power under consideration is equally clear. And we may re-! mark that the commerce among the States requires I the fostering care of the Federal .Government as' much as our foreign commerce. The commerce among the States is three times i greater in amount thai our foreign commerce. In-! deed, the property that annually floats upon our Western rivers and lakes is in value much greater than that which we export to and receive from foreign countries. Is it not extraordinary, then, that under such circumstances the new construction of the comihercial power should find advocates in the West??a construction not only against the let ter and spirit of the Constitution, and in violation of the long-established rule on the subject, but latal to the commercial prosperity of the West! For commercial purposes, Congress have juris diction over navigable rivers and lakes, which in no respect interferes with the jurisdiction ol the re spective States. Over the quays extending to low water mark on our rivers, bays, and lakes, the Fe deral Government can exercise no jurisdiction, nor can it exercise a jurisdiction over similar improve ments on tide water. No one doubts that, under the commercial power, Congress may adopt any system of laws to facilitate our commercial action, which shall apply to our internal as well as our ex ternal commerce. The principles of the maritime law may be thus extended, as has been done over our lakes and the rivers which fall into them. ?o ' THE FOURTH IN SOUTH CAROLINA. The Charleston Mercury gives a description of the late celebration of the 4th of July at Calhoun's Mills by the Abbeville Artillery Company ; and the proceedings fully sustain our good opinion of the manner in which such matters are conducted in the Palmetto State. Passing by the ceremonials of the day, such as the presentation of a flag, the delivery of a set oration, and a sham fight between the Ar tillery and a company of infantry, we come to the toasts, the letters, and the speeches. Amongst the first, after the requisite avowals on the subjects of the day, the constitution. Southern institutions, and free trade, we find the following: " Cur Senators in Congress: As watchful to discover dis guised assaults upon the rights of their constituents as they are prompt and able to expose and repel them." Mr. Butler, one of the Senators from South Carolina, being present, responded to this toast, and his speech, though manifestly not fully reported, is well worthy of public attention : "Mr. Butler (says the Mercury's condensed report) spoke in high compliment to Mr. Calhoun. He said he himself en tered the Senate unprepared upon the great questions debated in that chamber ; that he felt his embarrassment, and frankly told his colleague that upon some questions they might diller, but that, on those questions which he had not studied or fully comprehended, he would be guided by the light ol his ac- . knowledged wisdom and integrity. Mr. B. then spoke of his intention on entering Congress to sitpport Mr. Polk's Ad i ministration but that the course pursued by the President 1 could not meet with his approbation, but rather of itself fore? ? ed him into opposition. He alluded in no measured terms to the attempt to create a Lieutenant General with proconsul power. He spoke of it as a measure that would disgrace the honor of the professional soldier, and virtually disband the regular army. The power given to this civico-warlike Lieu tenant was illustrated by Angelo in the play : 'We have with special soul elected him our absence to supply ; lent him our terror; drest him with our love, and given his deputation all the organs of our own power?What think you of it ?' But we will pass to the main subject of Mr. Butler's speech, the Wilmot Proviso. Upon this momentous subject, which terribly agitates us now, but which in a few months will set our blood on fire, Mr. B. gave only his sentiments,as a South ern and constitution loving man. He said the imagination of a disrupted Union appalled him?it overwhelmed his mind, j and left no reason to determine the course to pursue if this ac cursed treason to the constitution should be enacted. Upon the course to be pursued in the event this or some other simi- j lar proviso be enacted by Congress, he had none to ofler. He j confessed his inability to propose, and would leave it to those 1 of more wisdom and of longer experience in political life to j determine the course of the South. But in his mind there wore two methods to avert the crisis. The first was, a holy union of all parties in the South, who would make this ques tion the great volume of their political creed until the dunge had passed away. This though, he said, was impossible, j And the second was, to distinctly state to the North our de- | termination to maintain our political rights under the constitu- | tion at any and every hazard. Mr. 15. was careful in not ex- I pressing opinions ; he gave us only his sentiments. To give | his feelings on this subject, he quoted Mentor's remarks to , Tclemachus, when setting out on his travels : ? You see I tremble before entering into danger ; but when in, you see me ! no longer tremble.' ** We will closeour synopsis of this speech with his remarks j upon Mr. Polk. Senator Butler seems to condemn the Pre sident for his huge faith in the Democratic party. Nothing I could be done unless in the name and by the invocation of the Democratic gods; the war must Itc a Democratic war, com manded by Democratic officers, and each battle fought in the 1 faith of the Democratic creed. After censuring Mr. Polk for this unseemly fault, he paid (ten. Taylor the compliment of having fought the greatest battle on this continent, and which can be compared to the bloody field of Wagram alone. Mr. B. descril>ed the indomitable McDonald, heading his column of sixteen thousand men to retrieve the error and mis fortunes of the day in glowing language, and said this alone 1 was to be compared to the achievements of Taylor at Buena Vista." Here Mr. Butler touches the true issue between the President and the people in respect to the Mexi can war. Although, as he alfirms, he entered the Senate determined to uphold the Administration, he now deliberately tells the country that the Presi dent has been conducting the war, not with a view i to national interests, but a single regard J or the. ag- I grandizement of the Democratic party. The Whigs have frequently charged the same thing, but this is the first occasion when it has been solemnly attest ed by a friendly witness. And what must be the judgment of the country upon an Administration which is thus proved to have been faithless to its highest trust?the protection of the honor, the lives, and the treasure of the nation ??Richmond Times. , . Plurality Law in Maine.?The Senate of Maine rejected the resolves contemplating an amend ment of the constitution, providing that a plurality of votes cast at any election should secure a choice. | The vote stood fourteen in favor of the proposition to twelve against; but two-thirds were necessary to j its passage. (tov. Dodoe, of Wisconsin, intends?so say the Wisconsin papers?to call together the Legislature early in October, for the purpose of preparing another constitution, and the admission of the Tcr-, ritory into the Union. Before the adjournment of the next Congress, Representatives and Senators from Wisconsin may take their appropriate scats in the grand Council of the Nation, Congressional Elections are yet to be held in the following States, viz. Kentucky, Indiana, Ala- ' bama, and Iowa, on the first Monday in August; in North Carolina and Tennessee on the Thursday following ; in Maryland, October 6th; and in Mis- j sissippi and Louisiana, Monday, November 1st. The elections in these States will complete the members to the next Congress. Mr. Qeoroe W. Cakr (Locofoco) has withdrawn j from the Congressional canvass in the sixth district of Indiana, leaving David M. Dobson the only De mocratic candidate now in the field. 'I his is the j/ district which was formerly represented by the late gentlemanly Speaker ol the House of Representa- j lives. . * , MlCltttl s( hir.?The Treasurer of Michigan has given I notice that all Treasury notes (Htate scrip) bearing interest, i issued under the ?? act to provide for the anticipation of certain i instalments of the five million loan, and for other purjioses, I approved April 13th, 1841, and now outstanding, will be re I deemed on presentation at his office in Detroit. Interest is to ? cease on the notes from the 8th instant. THE WORKING OF THE CONSTITUTION. Visionary us have shown themselves the results of much of that system-building which has prevail ed in Government during the last seventy-live years, perhaps no one of these results has proved more illu sory than the great and confident idea of the secu rities for freedom, and especially the fixedness, af forded by Written Constitutions ; the supposed vir tue of which has, thus far, been almost as little realized in the experiment as ever were the chemie hopes of those whol in the infancy of experimental science, were constantly flattering themselves that they had detected Nature's great secret ot turning l all the base metals into gold, or had achieved the preparation of some divine elixir that bestowed 1 upon its possessor perpetual youth and health. Few I things in the history of human error have been more remarkable, and one might say instructive, but that ' nations seem Seldom to be very apt scholars, and | often become, quite early, too old to learn. At any ' event, there is a certain point in their progress 1 when their hearts become hardened, as were those. : of Pharaoh's people of old, and when they refuse I to be taught either by the example of other cuun \ tries or by their own experience. ! If Written Constitutions, unsupported by the ha bits and fixed principles of a People, gave those certainties to freedom which they have been sup 1 posed to carry, how came it that France, from the 1 assembling of her States-General down to the as | sumption of Empire by Napoleon, saw, within a dozen years, as many Fundamental Codes, all won drously wise and free, and all witnesses in turn of i nearly every evil which a Government can inflict, from the despotism of one cut-throat up to the furies of thousands ? The most perfect and refined ideas I that all the wisdom of the world, past or actual, old or new, could supply, were then embodied for France ; and with what effect ? Only such as will, while history shall last, make one of its strangest and most dismal pages. Unwarned, however, by the example, Spain, still less prepared than France for the innovation, caughl the contagion of Constitutions; and how have they prospered with her, or with her neighbor and cou sin, Portugal? So marvellously as to have con-| verted the entire Peninsula, ever since, into a field of faction and of blood, where every man fights like a gladiator, while Europe gazes on the combat, utterly unable to divine for an instant what they are fighting for or what against. Upon this continent, from the Sabine of Texas almost1 to Patagonia, the efficacy of Written Con stitutions has been, for some twenty-five years, sub mitted to still wider tests. Let any man count, if he can, the fruitless crops of them which have been grown in Mexico, Peru, Colombia, Buenos Ayres, and all over-Spanish America. " Plans," " pro nunciainentos," " bases," " proyectos "?every I tiling, from the germ of a Constitution to its gayest I blossoms, has sprouted there, as fast as mushroom9 in a sweltery September night, and perished in a succession almost as rapid as that in which they sprung into existence. The virtue, then, of the Paper Constitution has no proof of its potency, that we are acquainted with, unless we take it from the success of that inven tion among ourselves, llow far it has succeeded in this country, and, so far as it has not succeeded, why it has failed, are questions which are becom-; ing dailv more and more vitally important. Viewing it fairly, the Constitution of the United States has both succeeded and failed. Down to 1828 it must be considered as successful to a very | remarkable extent. Since that time, it is difficult J for any candid man to deny that the paper bul- ( warks of our rights have been broken through, or j battered down, almost wherever it has pleased pow er and party to bring a gun to bear upon them. The irresistible popularity of Gen. Jackson ena bled him to add to the Written Constitution, or to take away from it, whatever provisions it liked him; and the ready submission to his usurpations has taught the two last of his successors to usurp as boldly as he. In a word, the Written Constitution has, in other countries, shown itself able to create no freedom, no political securities, where such did not previous ly exist in the constitution, temper, habits of the people: these must ever make the real Constitu tion : for Charters do not carry in them, independ ently of grantor and grantee, any particular energy which makes their execution inevitable. Such is manifestly the fact in other countries, where Con stitutions have proved of no avail. In our own, where at one time they have been operative and at another at least partially nugatory, it would seem a strong conclusion that the amazing safety which they have been supposed to afford was such chiefly tvhen there teat no attack. Gibraltar, strong as it is, not only requires a brave, an incorruptible, and a skilful garrison, with plenty of munitions, to keep it, but a garrison numerous enough to man all its works: turn it, however, into a rock on paper and walls of ink, with tape and sealing-wax for the ar tillery, and you will find that not a mere garrison, but a great army is necessary to guard it; and that pven such an army will tail, if the soldiers have no will to fight and the commander wishes the place taken. What is, in order that this should be other wise, the instrument which wo call a Constitution? It is a hope, not a reality; it is but a prophecy, not the event: the hope may be irrational just in proportion as it is bright; and the prophecy may be any thing but a genuine inspiration. A Constitution is but a preface, not a book?a prologue, not the drama?the portico, not the church. If a wise one, it is a good finger-post, to show you where your road, lies; but merely look ing at the finger-post will not, unless you follow its direction, bring you to your journey's end. For our part, we know very well how this mat ter stands, according to all history. We have al ready referred to the most notable facts, the receut ones: but these are far from being all. Written ^ Constitutions are no modern invention : Antiquity . knew them, and docs not appear ever to have known them so little as to imagine them capable of afford ing, at a single and short effort of a people s or some legislator's wisdom and virtue and labor, something that was to make all further patriotism, sagacity, and public trouble useless. I hat en lightened idea was reserved for us last of the mo derns. When Lycurgtis remodelled the Spartan1 and Solon the Athenian Governments, we know that they gave their respective countries Written Con stitutions. These things arc, therefore, almost as old as history itself. Even in America, John Locke gave, as far back as about 1670, a philosophical Written Constitution to the Colony of Carolina. j It proved as great a failure as many other things of ; the sort. The world, then, at the very time when it was pleased to greet Written Constitutions as I forming a new era and supplying a new principle in the Art of Government, was already in posses sion (if it had known it) of abundant evidence that this wonder-working resort had been repeatedly tried, without conferring any very particular trans* , ceudency of wisdom or efficacy or durability upon the institutions thus reduced to writing. Solon and Mr. Loi ke (out of the last three instances we have mentioned, the nearest to modern times, and therefore the wisest) produced their Written Con-j stitutions when not very young men; but livedj long enough to have walked as pall-bearers to their ( own codes, it any body besides had cared enough lor dying laws to bury them with the honors of a procession. If we are right in the date which we I have fixed as the fatal inroad upon our Federal j Constitution, President Madison and Chief Justice j : Marshall might have borne part in the same sort i I of obsequies. Now, from all this what do we mean to infer? Certainly not the paradox, as idle as the opposite one, that Written Constitutions are worthless ; nor even that they may not, in spite of some inherent \ objections to them which wise men comprehend, be come, under happy circumstances, the bases of very perfect polities, which shall better than others withstand the lapse of time, though they may not i defy the force of all human decay. We intend not to argue that there is 110 virtue in them; but merely that, even when best, there can be 110 such virtue, no such might in them, as shall, in the de cline of the public spirit *nd the loss of the public sense which created them, preserve the govern ments, of which diey should be the rule, from cor ruption, degeneracy, imbecility, usurpation ; from i the fury of factions ; from that common bane of a government, too high or too low, the demagogue 1 and the courtier, equally ready to llatter kings or the mob; and from all those other diseases of which States die, some old, some young, according as they were or were not healthy, temperate, pru dent, and fortunate. Nothing, indeed, is more common, in public affairs, than to see the body of i State survive its faculties, just as men live 011 in decrepitude and impotence, with scarcely the con sciousness that they have lost all that made life J worth having. The name of the " Democracy" i was still as dear to Athens when she bent to the 1 Thirty Tyrants whom Socrates alone (hint whom j she afterwards voted to death as a public corrupter and enemy) dared to resist, as when Miltiades and Cyaion led her 011 to victory and greatness, oV Pe ricles showed her how she might be the mistress of Europe ; and Rome, when no longer even the Prrc torian bands, but distant legionaries of Barbarians gate away the imperial diadem for largesses, still rejoiced in the title of " Republic," and held her self the sovereign people of the entire globe. These j things perpetually repeat themselves, 110 matter what the original form of a nation's institutions, or what their degradation : in the very depths ol pub lic debasement, when but a shadow remains of what was once a legitimate pride?nay, at times, when nothing remains but a dim tradition ol lormer greatness or freedom?-a people is seen still to cling to the mere idea of a former superiority. No tinc ture so fast as the dye of a people's vanity. The Turk, forgetting present humiliation in the memory of times when all ?urope trembled at the name of his master, still hails him as " the Light of the Universe the rat-fed Chinese looks scornfully upon Europe and America as lands of" <^uter Bar barians the Mexicans have constantly grown more boastful as their freedom became less and their arms feebler: the Italian is still as vain as when Italy gave law to the world : Rome is proud er than all the rest of Italy, though now breeding heroes no longer: and it is not a hundred years since the Khan of a little Tartar horde in the de serts above the Caspian, mindful of the time when his ancestors ravaged continents, never rose, in his tent of skins, from his banquet of raw horse-flesh, without a trumpet and a herald's proclaiming ? That all the monarch's of the world might now sit down to dinner !" When nations change an old mode of govern ment for a new (though better) one, the great diffi culty is, not in devising a very wise and happy body of institutions, but in finding out their attend ant difficulties, and in learning (for there's the rub) how that which they have designed maybe brought about; how what was but a scheme shall become an effect; how whatwas but a foreshadowing shall be made the substance. All this must be the work of time, no matter how wisely and earnestly a country may set about it; and, meantime, before it can be accomplished, how fortunate if some do mestic agitation of factions, or some foreign ques tion seized and converted to their purposes, does not intervene, to postpone or even to mar that working-out of the Constitution to its proper prac tice, to its harmonious and complete body of pre cedents, and to its proper establishment of correla tive administrative usages, all which are necessary to convert the Written Constitution into the real, the Constitution into the Government ! The conjuncture of some foreign event, not really involving the principles or the safety or the Govern ment, but rousing public passions or sympathies, may cast every thing at sea again, as happened when, in the very outset of President Washing ton's labors to set our new institutions fairly and soberly to work, the French Revolution and the contagion of all its wild Jacobinism came, to found for uh disorder just when every opposite influence was needed, and plunge us, who had made our Re volution, into a new one, which would have been utterly without object, unless a change of persons, not of principles ; for principles, besides that those of General Washington have since proved them selves to be right, had scarcely begun to be tried, and were then judged, not by their agreement with what it was his duty to carry into effect?our own scheme of constitutional organization and action? hut by their conformity to new doctrines, and the wants, at best, of another quarter of the globe. There, the tyranny of kings and nobles and a hier archy had been justly shaken off: there the people had, for the first lime, risen into a political existence: but what had tee to do with the downfall of princes or priests or aristocracy, when our land had scarce ly ever known them, and now knew them no more ' Or what signified popular emancipation to us, who were all /ico/>le, and can be nothing else ? \ et, motiveless as was the emulation ol French princi ples which then suddenly arose amongst us ; strong as were our public inducements to perfect our own