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to their latest posterity, the transactions of the present times; and though I confess my exclamations are not worthy the hearing, they will see that I have done my utmost to preserve their liberty: for I never will give up the power of direct taxation, but for a scourge. I am willing to give it conditionally; that is, after non-compliance with requisi tions: I will do more, sir, and what I hope will convince the most skeptical man, that I am a lover of the American union; that in case Virginia shall not make punctual payment, the control of our custom-houses, and the whole regulation of trade, shall be given to congress; and that Virginia shall depend on congress even for passports, till Virginia shall have paid the last farthing, and furnished the last soldier.

Nay, sir, there is another alternative to which I would consent; even that they should strike us out of the union, and take away from us all federal privileges, till we comply with federal requisitions; but let it depend upon our own pleasure to pay our money in the most easy manner for our people. Were all the states, more terrible than the mother country, to join against us, I hope Virginia could defend herself; but, sir, the dissolution of the union is most abhorrent to my mind. The first thing I have at heart is American liberty; the second thing is American union; and I hope the people of Virginia will endeavour to preserve that union. The increasing population of the Southern States is far greater than that of New England; consequently, in a short time, they will be far more numerous than the people of that country. Consider this, and you will find this state more particularly interested to support American liberty, and not bind our posterity by an improvident relinquishment of our rights. I would give the best security for a punctual compliance with requisitions; but I beseech gentlemen, at all hazards, not to grant this unlimited power of taxation.

56.-FIFTH EXTRACT FROM THE SAME.

MR. CHAIRMAN,-This constitution is said to have beautiful features; but when I come to examine these features sir, they appear to me horribly frightful. Among other

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deformities, it has an awful squinting; it squints toward monarchy and does not this raise indignation in the breast of every true American? Your president may easily become king. Your senate is so imperfectly constructed, that your dearest rights may be sacrificed by what may be a small minority; and a very small minority may continue for ever unchangeably this government, although horridly defective. Where are your checks in this government? Your strongholds will be in the hands of your enemies. It is on a supposition that your American governors shall be honest, that all the good qualities of this government are founded; but its defective and imperfect construction puts it in their power to perpetrate the worst of mischief, should they be bad men. And, sir, would not all the world, from the eastern to the western hemisphere, blame our distracted folly in resting our rights upon the contingency of our rulers being good or bad? Show me that age and country where the rights and liberties of the people were placed on the sole chance of their rulers being good men, without a consequent loss of liberty. I say that the loss of that dearest privilege has ever followed, with absolute certainty, every such mad attempt.

If your American chief be a man of ambition and abilities, how easy will it be for him to render himself absolute ! The army is in his hands, and, if he be a man of address, it will be attached to him; and it will be the subject of long meditation with him to seize the first auspicious moment to accomplish his design. And, sir, will the American spirit solely relieve you when this happens? I would rather infinitely-and I am sure most of this convention are of the same opinion—have a king, lords and commons, than a government so replete with such insupportable evils. If we make a king, we may prescribe the rules by which he shall rule his people, and interpose such checks as shall prevent him from infringing them; but the president in the field, at the head of his army, can prescribe the terms on which he shall reign master, so far that it will puzzle any American ever to get his neck from under the galling yoke.

I cannot, with patience, think of this idea. If ever he violates the laws, one of two things will happen: he will come at the head of his army to carry every thing before

him; or, he will give bail, or do what Mr. Chief Justice will order him. If he be guilty, will not the recollection of his crimes teach him to make one bold push for the American throne? Will not the immense difference between being master of every thing, and being ignominiously tried and punished, powerfully excite him to make this bold push? But, sir, where is the existing force to punish him? Can he not, at the head of his army, beat down every opposition? Away with your president: we shall have a king: the army will salute him monarch: your militia will leave you, and assist in making him king, and fight against you and what have you to oppose this force? What will then become of you and your rights? Will not absolute despotism ensue ? HENRY.

57. THE BATTLE OF BUSACO.

BEYOND Busaco's mountains dun,
When far had roll'd the sultry sun,
And night her pall of gloom had thrown
O'er nature's still convexity!

High on the heath our tents were spread,
The cold turf was our cheerless bed,
And o'er the hero's dew-chill'd head
The banners flapp'd incessantly.

The loud war-trumpet woke the morn
The quivering drum, the pealing horn,-
From rank to rank the cry is borne
"Arouse for death or victory!"

The orb of day, in crimson dye,
Began to mount the morning sky;
Then, what a scene for warrior's eye
Hung on the bold declivity!

The serried bayonets glittering stood,
Like icicles, on hills of blood;
An aerial stream, a silver wood,
Reel'd in the flickering canopy.

Like waves of ocean rolling fast,
Or thunder-cloud before the blast,
Massena's legions, stern and vast,
Rush'd to the dreadful revelry.

The pause is o'er; the fatal shock
A thousand thousand thunders woke:
The air grows sick; the mountains rock⚫
Red ruin rides triumphantly.

Light boil'd the war-cloud to the sky,
In phantom towers and columns high,
But dark and dense their bases lie,
Prone on the battle's boundary.

The thistle waved her bonnet blue,
The harp her wildest war-notes threw,
The red rose gain'd a fresher hue,
Busaco, in thy heraldry.

Hail, gallant brothers! Wo befall
The foe that braves thy triple wall!
Thy sons, O wretched Portugal!
Roused at their feats of chivalry.

ANONYMOUS.

58.-BOADICEA, AN ODE.

WHEN the British warrior queen,
Bleeding from the Roman rods,
Sought, with an indignant mien,
Counsel of her country's gods;

Sage beneath a spreading oak
Sat the Druid, hoary chief,
Every burning word he spoke,
Full of rage and full of grief:

Princess! if our aged eyes

Weep upon thy matchless wrongs,

'Tis because resentment ties

All the terrors of our tongues.

Rome shall perish-write that word
In the blood that she has spilt;
Perish hopeless and abhorr'd,
Deep in ruin as in guilt.

Rome, for empire far renown'd,
Tramples on a thousand states,
Soon her pride shall kiss the ground-
Hark! the Gaul is at her gates.
Other Romans shall arise,

Heedless of a soldier's name,
Sounds, not arms, shall win the prize,
Harmony the path to fame.

Then the progeny that springs

From the forests of our land,
Arm'd with thunder, clad with wings,
Shall a wider world command.

Regions Cæsar never knew

Thy posterity shall sway,
Where his eagles never flew,
None invincible as they.
Such the bard's prophetic words,
Pregnant with celestial fire,
Bending as he swept the chords
Of his sweet but awful lyre.
She, with all a monarch's pride,
Felt them in her bosom glow,
Rush'd to battle, fought and died,
Dying, hurl'd them at the foe.

Ruffians, pitiless as proud,

Heaven awards the vengeance due,

Empire is on us bestow'd,

Shame and ruin wait for you.

COWPER

59.

-ON THE DOWNFALL OF POLAND.

O! sacred truth! thy triumph ceased a while, And hope, thy sister, ceased with thee to smile, When leagued oppression pour'd to northern wars Her whisker'd pandoors and her fierce hussars,

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