and makes money out of them, let whichever party conquer. He also goes in the steamboats whenever there is to be a race; plays "poker" on board; and lives on the profits. He has a small capital in wild lands, likewise; and owns a few corner lots in Cairo, and other cities laid down in his maps. These he will sell cheap for cash. He affects the man of business, and ignores ladies' society. His evenings are spent at a club house, having the name of "Young America " blazoned on its front in large gilt letters. He dines at the crack hotel of the town; and, having free passes over all railroads, he keeps up his importance in the world, by going to and fro, and putting on the airs of a man owning half the Western country.

As to the ladies-God bless them all the world over-I did not see them at the West, and have not a word to say respecting the beauty of their persons or the tenderness of their hearts. The only remark which could be hazarded, touching the few who passed under my observation would be, that they were either fat or lean. I did not have the opportunity of noting any other difference. A flounce or two more; a deeper shade of red or yellow in the silk; longer ringlets; short-sleeve dresses, cut higher in the neck; a little fresher look of the country and the band-box; an air more independent and self-relying, or more awkward and abashed at the sight of men-these minor differences might be detected, but the only distinct impression remaining on my mind is, that the few ladies whom I chanced to see, were either fat or lean. I will not venture any remark beyond that.

But the most interesting sight I saw in my hotel, was from its windows. Even had I gone West "for the question was frequently asked me at Chicago, "Going West, sir?" I could have seen nothing more striking and significant. Niagara, the Mississippi, the Lakes, are not after all the great spectacle to be witnessed in this country. Nor is the sight the most characteristic and American, that of the Yankee whittling on a rail, or the Virginian talking politics over his saddle-bags; not the Arkansas citizen playing at bowie-knives, or the Kentuckian offering to bet upon his rifle; not the New Yorker living in carved brown stone in the Fifth Avenue, or the negro swiltering in the rice-fields of South Carolina. It is

a sight simple, still. It is the passing by of the emigrant, bound for the prairies. A family of Germans going by the hotel one morning, as I sat by the window, struck me as the most remarkable show I had seen in the West. It was, indeed, nothing new or uncommon; it was no pageant. No trumpets were blown to announce the coming of this small detachment of the army general. Probably not a soul in the city noticed the passage of this poor family, save myself. Yet in it was wrapped up the great American fact of the present day-the coming in of European immigrants to take possession of our western plains. If these States did not have lands for sale at low prices to attract the desires of the poor and the oppressed in all the earth, they would be of little importance among the nations. For centuries, the Swiss have had liberty, but no land; and have been a nullity. But we hold a homestead for every poor man in Europe; and, therefore gathering his pennies together, he is setting out for America as the world's land of promise, and the only Eden now extant.

The father strode down the middle of the street. Unaccustomed to the convenience of sidewalks in his own country, he shared the way with the beasts of burden, no less heavily laden than they. His back bent beneath its pack. In it was, probably, the better part of his goods and chattels, at least the materials for a night bivouac by the road-side. By one hand he held his pack, and in the other he carried a large tea-kettle. His gude-wife followed in his tracks, at barely speaking distance behind. A babe at the breast was her only burden. Both looked straight forward, intent only upon putting one foot before the other. In a direct line, but still further behind, trudged on, with unequal footsteps, and eyes staring on either side, their firstborn son, or one who seemed such. There were well towards a dozen summers glowing in his face. A big tin pail, containing, probably, the day's provisions, and slung to his young shoulders, did not seem to weigh too heavily upon his spirit. He travelled on bravely, and was evidently trained to bear his load. A younger brother brought up, at a few paces distance, the rear, carrying, astride his neck, one more of the parental hopes. It was the most precious pack in the party, and, judging from the size of the little one's legs, not so very much the lightest. It was a sister, I fancy, that

the little fellow was bearing off so gallantly; and very comfortably did she appear to be making the journey.

I watched this single file of marchers westward, until they disappeared at the end of the avenue. They would not stop or turn aside, save for needful food and shelter, until they crossed the Mississippi. On the rolling prairies beyond, the foot-worn travellers would reach their journey's end, and, throwing their weary limbs upon the flowery grass, would rest in their new home, roofed by the sky of Iowa. Before the frosts of autumn should set in, the log-hut would be reared, and their small household gods set up in it. In due season the sod will be turned, the seed cast in, and later, the harvest would make glad all hearts. Years rolling by, the boys will grow up freemen, and will make the surrounding acres tributary in wheat and corn as far as the eye can reach. Forgetting their uncouth patois, the children will learn the softer Anglo-Saxon accents of liberty, and take their place among their equal fellows, in a society where none are bondsmen. The daughters, relieved of

the hard necessity of toiling in the fields, will gradually grow up in the delicacy of native American beauty, retaining only the blue eyes and golden hair of their German nativity. In the evening of their days, the brave grandparents will sit in the shadow of vines, sprung from the seeds piously brought by them from the Neckar or the Rhine; and their sons, and their son's sons, in the enjoyment of plenty, happiness, and human rights, will remember, with blessings, the original immigrants, and founders of their

name.

Omnibus

"All aboard! All aboard! ready for the Michigan Central cars." I crawled out of the hotel, and took my seat in the carriage, resolved not to stop until I had regained New York. I felt almost as well acquainted with the country, as if I had spent my forty days in going to and fro in it. The men of the West had come to me in my hotel, though I had not gone out to them. In one prairie I had seen all. "All Western men and prairies are alike," said I to myself, in stepping into the train; "how I wish I were walking down Broadway."

HE present aspect of American poli

THE

tics invites reflection and calm discussion. The issues which have formerly divided our people into two great parties have passed, or are rapidly passing away. Upon no single question of present practical moment can either the whig party or the democratic party be rallied in unbroken phalanx. The life of their organizations is gone. The age presents new issues, in comparison with which the old shibboleths fade into insignificance; and, under new banners, with new devices, the yeomanry of the country are rallying. We have arrived at a stand-point in history when it behooves every patriot man to pause and reflect. The living present imposes the weightiest responsibilities; the past is teeming with instruction; and the future is radiant with hope. Three-quarters of a century bound the horizon of the former, but the piercing eye of faith seeks, in vain, a limit in the long vista of the latter. Yet, to the more despondent, there are shades and shadows ahead. Meridian light does not illumine every footprint of the future. America, however, expects every man to do his duty; and if we are but true to the sacred trust He has devolved upon us, our confidence is strong that in His own good time the Spirit of our fathers' God will move above the troubled waters with creative power, evolving light from darkness.

The old political parties of our country are just now thoroughly disorganized. The necessity for new issues, and a rearrangement of the elements of warfare, is manifest to the most casual observer. Hence, the rapid progress of a secret society which has recently made its appearance among us, and for which its more sanguine friends anticipate, at no distant day, a controlling influence in the counsels of the Confederacy. So far as we can gather its objects, the organization rests upon a single idea of federal policy. The amendment of the naturalization laws, so as to require a longer residence in the applicant for the rights of American citizenship, seems to be their only distinctive political suggestion. They may accomplish this, though we doubt it. Whether they do or not, the VOL. IV. 41

organization, we are satisfied, will be ephemeral in existence, and abortive in result. We readily admit the excessive provocation which animates their efforts. The indecent and habitual intrusion of popery, as a political element, into all our elections of late years, naturally suggests the proscription of its adherents and sympathizers; and the disgusting truckling of our political aspirants to the prejudices of our alien population, indicates the propriety of a counterpoise element at the polls. The Know-Nothings have already exercised a salutary influence, to some extent, in developing the genuine American sentiment of our people -a sentiment which both parties, from prudential considerations, have concurred in suppressing. Were they content to maintain a secondary position, this influence might be extended and perpetuated; but, in aspiring to the control of the State and Federal Governments, they seal their early ruin. We do not make issue with them upon the propriety of their proposed change in the naturalization laws. But that will not suffice to accomplish the end they have in view. Many of the States confer the elective franchise upon resident aliens prior to their naturalization. That may or may not be a violation of the Constitution, but it clearly indicates that the concurrence of all the State Governments in the legislation suggested, is essential to its success. presume, the most sanguine KnowNothings dare not hope for contemporaneous success in each of the thirty-one States of the Confederacy. Their actual strength is already, we believe, vastly over-estimated, and will diminish, we are satisfied, as rapidly as it has arisen. The spell of mystery with which their proceedings are invested is potent for temporary effect. Curiosity will introduce among them many whose reason they might in vain address. So soon, however, as the charm of novelty is dissipated, there will be numerous desertions from their ranks; and so there should be, as long as their secresy is maintained. The obvious impropriety of secret political societies is a burden under which no principle of public policy, however wise, can stagger into

We

success.

The disorganization of the party may be anticipated at no very distant day, and with the disorganization will come a recoil disastrous to its upholders now. Popery will gloat over the abortion as her triumph. The foreign vote will be ten times as exacting as it has ever been; and KnowNothingism will see the evils she professes it her mission to remedy, enhanced and perpetuated by herself.

The present aspect of the slavery agitation seems to present a much more probable basis for permanent party strife. The elements of anti-slavery appear inclined to harmonize their differences, and concentrate their strength for one grand and persevering assault upon the vested rights of the South. With the instinct of self-preservation, her sons are preparing to ignore past differences, and unite for the conflict. With a front unbroken, save here and there by a single traitor, they await the shock. Come when it may, or how it may, the South is practically a unit at last.

The institution of African slavery existed in nearly all of the States at the time of the adoption of the Federal Constitution. It was even then so thoroughly interwoven with their domestic polity, that the entire and absolute control over the subject was reserved to themselves. We need not say that all the powers of the Federal Government are derived by grant from the States, and that the entire grant is contained in the provisions of the Federal Constitution. In that instrument we look in vain for any grant or any covenant divesting the individual States of their inherent rights to regulate the whole subject as in their wisdom may seem most expedier.t. three clauses refer to the subject. One was a compromise in the apportionment of representation between the Slave States and the Free States; another contains the explicit and solemn covenant for the return of fugitive slaves; and the third empowers the Federal Government, after 1808, to prohibit the African slave trade. Contemporary history, in confirmation of the pregnant negative of the grant, informs us that more extensive powers were carefully and cautiously avoided.

But

The inquiry may well suggest itself here-how, under these circumstances, the question ever intruded into the arena of federal politics? Certainly the South never brought it there; and no less certainly its introduction indicates

bad faith somewhere. But of this more anon. There it is: to that extent the aggression is complete.

Early in their colonial history, slavery was introduced into the colonies. The mother country-that same England which so recently received the authoress of "Uncle Tom's Cabin" with open arms -encouraged the importation of slaves from Africa, and in spite of the protests and remonstrances of the colonies fastened the system upon them. In Virginia, and perhaps in other colonies, the legislatures essayed to prohibit the traffic; but in every instance the negative of the Royal Governor interposed to protect it. The preamble to the first Constitution of Virginia enumerates this among other prominent causes of complaint against the King of England-provoking her repudiation of his rule. When the independence of the colonies was established, the prohibition of the African slave trade was still with her a favorite measure of policy, and, in the formation of the Federal Constitution, she desired to empower and require the new government to place the traffic under the ban of law. But to this Massachusetts and New York demurred. With the exclusion of European competition they reckoned upon a monopoly of the profits of the trade, and earnestly opposed its suppression. With the aid of South Carolina and Georgia, they extorted a respite for twenty years. The predominant sentiment of the Slave States called for the immediate abolition of the traffic, and that sentiment ought to have been respected. Even then, however, the South was not permitted to regulate her domestic institutions for herself. For nearly one quarter of a century she was forced to receive into her bosom a population she then believed an enemy to her peace, and an impediment to her prosperity. New England avarice fastened upon her that institution, for the existence of which New England fanaticism now makes war against her. Abolition never grew upon New England soil till the year that doomed her favorite traffic had passed: but, in a few fleeting years thereafter, it was a tree of sturdy growth. The slave trade was suppressed in 1808. In 1814, the Hartford Convention denounced the slave power of the South, and suggested a crusade against the compromises of the Constitution.

We readily admit that the general sentiment of the colonies, during the revolutionary era, was adverse to sla

very; and nowhere did that sentiment prevail more extensively than in the South. With that devotion to abstract principle which has ever characterized her, Virginia, in donating an empire to the Confederacy, exacted a covenant for the perpetual exclusion of her own institutions. An impression almost universally existed that slavery was to be but temporary in its duration. The slave States cheerfully assented to the antislavery provisions of the ordinance of 1787. Their policy was the immediate prohibition of the foreign trade, and the number of slaves among them was not more than sufficient to supply their own pressing demands. Had importation from abroad then ceased, abolition might have been practicable and easy. But that twenty years of respite did its work effectually. Day by day and hour by hour the anti-slavery statesmen of the South saw their hopes decay. The destiny of the South was fixed against her will. Sister States, who had repudiated slavery as an incubus upon them, and professed to regard slave-holding as a violation of the "perennial principles of right," ignored their professions, and for filthy lucre's sake, imposed slavery upon her, perpetuating among her people the "sin" of the slaveholder and the "misfortune" of the slave.

Abolitionism claims to be the party of progress. So did Jacobinism, and with equal propriety. The one as little as the other conceals the features of the ass under the skin of the lion. Robespierre and Saint Just were as loud in their protestations of loyalty to the principles of '76 as Garrison and Sumner; and, if not as honest, were quite as rational. The American Jacobins are not unlike their French prototypes. Blood and carnage, fraternal discord, and civil war are as rashly courted now as in 1793. They differ in this respect, however: the madmen of France evoked a storm to spend its fury in their own midst. The fanatics of America sow the seed of strife abroad, and gloat in coward malignity over the anticipated triumph of a servile insurrection, from the hazards of which distance protects them. The one no less than the other ridicules the teachings of experience and revelation. The God of the Bible is not the God of equality, and Abolitionism rejects him as disdainfully, if not as openly, as Jacobinism. The infidel spirit of this anti-slavery crusade is at once its damning crime and the unerring index

of its failure. The printing-press. with which Voltaire designed to overthrow the Bible, is now publishing its words of life and truth to a world of sin and death. Man may not with impunity thrust himself against the bosses of Jehovah's buckler. Anti-slavery directly impugas either the wisdom or benevolence of our Saviour, for its interpolations into the inspired code of morals presume the inefficiency of his morality to accomplish the end for which it was designed. Abolition preachers of our day profess to believe themselves recreant to duty, if they fail to denounce slavery at a distance. The Son of God lived and moved in a slaveholding country and a slaveholding age, and from his sacred lips slavery never received a single rebuke. If they be right, could he have been the God-man? Some short time since, a friend was discussing the Maine liquor law with an ultra temperance man, and in the course of conversation he adverted to the miracle at the marriage in Cana of Galilee. The prompt reply was, "I have always regarded that the greatest indiscretion Jesus ever committed." The shocking blasphemy of the expression is a key to the radical principle of more than one ism of the day. It is the vain effort of human pride to amend the work of divine wisdom. The spectacle of foolish man thus passing judgment upon his God, and pronouncing him incompetent for the accomplishment of his holy purposes, and assuming them for himself, will, when properly considered, yet awaken in all sections of our country a public sentiment that will sweep the God-defying empiricism from among us with the besom of destruction. We do not pretend to impute infidelity to all abolitionists. Many of the best of our northern brethren, we know, have been misled into their ranks by names and abstractions. Slavery, as it exists in the South, is not known to a fraction of the people of the North. Misrepresented and distorted as it has been, we have, perhaps, reason for congratulation in the existence of any class among them willing to do us justice. We speak now of the creed, and not of its professors. It is a legitimate offshoot from that school of sentimental piety that assumes to try the mysteries of the Godhead by the standard of human comprehension, consistently denying the divinity of the Saviour and the inspiration of the Bible. In the pulpits of that faith it finds an appropriate place. The heresiarchs of