army; a liberally appointed navy, an obedient bank, a wellchecked legislature, long executive terms, manufactures, commerce, agriculture, and internal communication under strict, parental management; in brief all the care and control that kingcraft and old usages had centred in the person of the monarch, Federal conservatism, in its idolatry of " past experience," and distrust of man, wished to gather into the grasp of the Supreme Government. Unconsciously, though practically, it acted upon the exploded faith, that the government was the fountain of power, and that so much of its responsibilites as the people exercised, was a concession from above, not an inherent right reserved to themselves. Republicanism sought on the other hand to reduce the power and cut away the prerogatives of the Federal government; trusting fondly, and without stint, to the intelligence and equity of the masses, it would have them delegate away the least possible amount of their power-while they demanded the most rigid accountability for its exercise. Thus the whole contest resolved itself into this, Federalism battled for the central government and the increase of its power, in order to assure the tranquillity of the statu quo; Republicanism fought for the people, for their right to change, to innovate, to progress, and as always has been, and under our institutions always must be, the cause of the masses was victorious. Whatever the question may be, whatever are its pretensions to abstract right, the popular sympathies will govern the popular vote.

Every collateral question of bank, tariff, internal improvement, domain or revenue, thrives or is defeated as the discussion brings it down to the roots, and lays bare its conservative or progressive tendency. Our republican nature is restless and onward. It cannot pause, and still less, can it turn back; but it is purified and sometimes restrained in its impetuous advance, by the warning counsels of Conservatism, who in spite of herself, is carried forward, with its eager march. She does not mean to desert them, but step by step she leaves behind, her old land-. marks of Federalism, of limited franchise, of legislating for sections and classes, for banks and tariffs; of governing to excess, as she yet will-territory by territory, and acquisition by acquisition--her present aversion to extend the limits of the Union.

Annexation is now the watchword of Progress, nothing is too bold for his daring, nothing too expansive for his love. He longs to fold the whole continent in his embrace. He woos timid Cuba with words of promise, and forces savage and reluctant Mexico to a Sabine bridal, while his frightened conservarite sister protests against new adoptions in the family of freedom, and talks of alien interests and the dangers of an extended sovereignty, quoting in tears and tremors, the centralised military despotism of Rome as a warning and parallel, though there is no parallel between

that imperial camp with its ferocious, all-devouring heart of power, and dead extremities of cold, unwilling, unrepresented provinces, and our confederation with its equally diffused life, and the well-shared sovereignty of brotherhood.

Yet there is one argument against annexation, hitherto overlooked, which Conservatism might address with some effect to the selfishness of those floating, unreliable, election-deciding bands, that do not belong entirely to either party. The admission of every new State dilutes the sovereign influence, and reduces the rank of the elder members of the Union. When there were but thirteen States, Rhode Island and Delaware were more truly, and really the peers of New York and Pennsylvania, than they found themselves when twenty States sent their representatives to the national council. When there were but twenty States, rich, populous, and sometimes, dictatorial New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, had an imposing weight in Congress; this weight has been seriously diminished by the advent of ten new sharers in the rule and sovereignty of the Union, and they must recede to a yet more diminished space when ten more come to divide the voice of legislative command, and the baton of executive rule. Progress will never stop this side of the Isthmus of Darien to listen to this argument, but when our eagle has spent to the northern ocean, and protects with outstretched wings our Pacific commerce, as it pours into the Atlantic, through the severed isthmus, the spirit of extension may be silent while Conservatism appeals with success to the selfishness of the individual States, and induces them to refuse a farther division of power.

Up to that point and period, "more," and "still more," territory will be the cry of the masses. The glory of the Union is the darling thought of the people, and in this political cycle it finds expression in the earnest determination to "enlarge the area of freedom." The thought of the first era of our nationality was to establish republicanism. All the earlier struggles of Conservatism were for assimilation to the habits and practices of the old world monarchies, while Progress was vigilant and increasing in their efforts to break through and escape from their influence. This thought elected Jefferson. The people and republicanism conquered, and the battle-field remained in their possession.

The central and state governments yielded one by one, universal suffrage, election of officers by the people, constitutional amendments, and all the minor mitigations consequent upon the more direct and active participation of the masses in the conduct of their own affairs, until the democracy of 1848 is as much in advance of the republicanism of 1783, as that republicanism was of the constitutional monarchy of George the Third.

The second stage of national thought was to throw off the dread of foreign powers, and maintain the republican dignity abroad, as completely as it had escaped from the thraldom of their wornout theories at home. Under this impulse, Louisiana and Florida were bought to remove France and Spain from our gates, and the wars with England and Tripoli were fought to prove our strength and nationality. These measures were so necessary to the popular sentiment, that no statesman who strongly opposed them, had much after prosperity in the public love an indication of the force of the ruling national sentiment which the wary politician will not fail to write in his guide-book, and compare with the popularity of Jackson, the man of that thought. Republican habits of thought had been consolidated beyond dispute at home, and asserted with sufficient energy to command respect abroad, and in the long pause of rest, that followed the old lines of demarcation were become obscured and confounded by a troop of discussions and issues, that belonged more to sections and classes, than to the whole nation, or to either of its elemental principles of contention.

Then the cry of annexation arose, and sent an elective thrill through the public heart, and called forth a new array for battle. It was the third stride.

The presidential election of 1840 was not a contest for principles, though the leaders on each side endeavored to keep before the people their respective plans of policy. Parties had fallen from their high estate as the representatives of important political creeds to mere mercenary legions who only fought for the spoils of victory. The party press had become as venal and corrupt as the party leaders, and unblushingly sold the popular interests to the highest bidder. No enlightened man could wholly rely on its statements, no honest one wholly follow its advice. Far and wide, from surface to centre it was corrupt, set at a price and held for auction by political demagogues. The nation wearied of this shameless traffic called for "new men, fresh from the ranks of the people," forgetting that it is practically impossible to select from the unknown and untried a candidate certain to be qualified for the high duties of the executive. Nevertheless the general discontent elected Harrison and Tyler. The death of Harrison and the accession of Tyler to the chair of state made the disintegration of the old leaderships and inferior issues more complete by casting into the arena a larger and more powerful subject for the energies of popular discussion.

The annexation of Texas was a thing pertaining to the glory and interest of the whole Union, and it seized upon the public heart with engrossing force. The idea slept in abeyance until it was adopted and nurtured by the neutral press, which had been called into existence by the incapacity of the party press to

mirror the popular necessities and enforce the popular will, and it rapidly become the accredited voice of the masses in the great cities of the Union. When this new power wrote annexation on its banner President Tyler hailed with joy the decisive movement, and made it at once the chief measure of his administration. It supplied the vacuum in politics, and closed the dull armistice between Conservatism and Progress, who had been slumbering over their rusted arms while their unscrupulous partisans were skirmishing for plunder. Lances were burnished and banners were planted, for the national heart was stirred to its depths at the thought of setting another bright star in our constellation by independent treaty of annexation. Unbought, unsolicited, a sovereign republic asked to merge her sovereignty in the embrace of the Union, and the Union met her with enthusiasm. Both political parties, as then constituted, saw this enthusiasm with alarm, but the one most imbued with the adventurous spirit of Progress laid aside its hasty impression of dislike and made the cause of annexation its own. Some politicians evade the confession, but the fact is evident that the question of faith, principle and policy to the presidential candidates of 1844 was that of annexation. On that darling paramount idea was Mr. Polk-as the vowed champion of the extension of the area of freedom-raised to the executive chair. Banks, internal improvements, surplus revenue, high protection, and the like obsoletes were prattled over by the dismayed party chieftains, but the voters scarcely heeded them as they rushed to the ballot box to summon Texas to the altar of confederation.

The accomplishment of this great act induced, not necessarily indeed-but in the ill-managed chances of a devious policygrave national consequences. The boundary line between Texas and Mexico was unsettled, and the United States, in pressing her claims to their extreme limits, provoked hostilities from Mexico. A brave officer, a "rough and ready" leader, was in command of our troops at the critical hour, and he not only repulsed with brilliant success the attacks of the Mexicans on the disputed territory, but carried our arms beyond the utmost limits of our claims. When Congress was informed of the first appeal to force, General Taylor had already crossed the Rio Grande and quartered his victorious soldiers in the conquered city of Matamoras.

There was a momentary pause of indignant astonishment at the unexpected hardihood of the Mexicans in making good their threat to defend the approach to their border, seaport and city, and then Congress proceeded to endorse the war. Then, if ever, the equity of its cause and beginning should have been investigated, and this duty devolved on Congress. General Taylor was safe for the time, and there was ample margin for investi

gation and the honorable recall of his troops to a secure but unaggressive position on the debatable ground. But no! with a reckless, inconsiderate haste unbecoming, if not impossible, to brave and wise legislators, both houses of Congress passed almost unanimously an act recognizing the existence of war with Mexico, and providing largely for its energetic prosecution. If this war was unjust in its inception, unwise in its prosecution, and infamous in its termination, Congress should endure the chief odium, for it had the power to stifle it in its birth, and did not. It had the means to ascertain, as it was its duty to proclaim, its exact merits, while there was yet time to save the nation a grievous waste of blood and treasure, and it was recreant to the people's trust. If millions have been expended to carry our flag through fire and blood up the lofty seirras of Mexico only to retreat from the conquered empire in dust and dishonor, fruitless in all but the execrations of a lost and hopeless people, let not our weak and faulty servants in Congress escape their share of the odium. They betrayed their trusts, they were false to their sworn duties, and by their act, without which the administration could not make a war, they involved the nation in an unexpected career of invasion and conquest. After they had precipitated us into the necessity of prosecuting the war, or of receding from Mexico amid the sneers and misapprehensions of nations as blood-thirsty, short-sighted, and vain-glorious as herself, some of those very legislators went about the country condemning in set terms as the most wicked and abominable of wars this work of their own hands. Thenceforth it became a party question. The Democrats defended it from beginning to end as wise, just and holy in all its causes, objects, and results. The Whigs were equally unmeasured in their denunciations. There was nothing but evil, black, unmixed evil in all it did or brought, and in their vast, unwavering sympathy for Mexico they expressed the most magnanimous indifference to American losses and sufferings. The Democrats hoped, and the Whigs dreaded, in it more accessions of territory, and in the excitement of the war and anti-war struggle both parties overstepped the line of justice and sound policy-both outraged the popular instinct of what had been due our neighbor, and what was due themselves. As the press in fulfilling the obligations which Congress had neglected, gradually developed the imperfection of the title of Texas to the Rio Grande boundary, and unfolded in a clearer light, the rash, unstable grounds on which we had been hurried into war, a cry of indignant surprise, of confidence betrayed, rang throughout the land. The people loved glory and were ready for acquisitions→→→→ when money and soldiers were called for all Europe gazed in astonishment to see fifty thousand volunteers called for and two hundred and fifty thousand offering for the muster-but then it