and eloquent argument on that occasion. He contended that

power to charter companies was not specifically given in the constitution, and furthermore, that it was of a nature which forbid its transfer by implication. The extended interests it embraced, and the vast compass of the power itself, were the chief points upon which he dwelt, in maintenance of his position. He unquestionably made one of the strongest arguments ever advanced against a National Bank; and the fact that his opinions, at that early day, are cited, at the present, by the opponents of such an institution, as the firmest basis of their opposition, conveys no slight tribute to his logical power and intellectual ability. He lived himself, however, to see the weakness of his arguments and the falsity of the conclusion to which they led him. The grounds upon which he was induced to change his opinions upon this subject will become the topic of remark in another and more appropriate place. His efforts in the Senate, however, were successful against the combined forces of the federalists and a strong portion of the democratic party. The bank charter at that time was not renewed.

At the expiration of his brief Senatorial term, Mr. CLAY returned to Kentucky. But the reputation he had already acquired, as an active, eloquent and influential member of the national legislature, secured his speedy return to its halls; and at the opening of the special session of Congress, on the 4th of November, 1811, he took his seat as a member of the House of Representatives, and upon that very day, the first of his appearance upon the floor, he was elected Speaker of the House, receiving 75 out of the 128 votes cast-Hon. GEORGE W. BIBB, of Georgia, being his opponent. He ac-1 cepted the responsible office, in a brief but neat and perti

nent speech. This, we believe, is the only instance on record in which the confidence of Congress has been yielded, in so marked a manner, to any person at his first entrance as a member. The distinguished ability with which Mr. CLAY had discharged the duties of a similar office in the Legislature of Kentucky, added to his wide and most honorable reputation as a rising statesman of surpassing talents and remarkable energy of character, won for him, thus early, this high distinction.

The condition of the country, which had rendered necessary this early convention of Congress, was highly critical. Hopes had been entertained, at the close of the preceding session, that the British government would repeal her Orders in Council, since the causes which first led to their promulgation had been deprived of their original force by the formal revocation of the edicts of France. But instead of this, they were put into a still more vigorous execution, under the pretence that the Berlin and Milan decrees had not been effectually repealed; and, although Great Britain, through her minister, Mr. FOSTER, in his official correspondence with Secretary MONROE, expressly admitted, that no blockade could be binding which was not supported by an adequate force, she still demanded of the United States a rigid observance of her orders closing the ports of France, from the Elbe to Brest, against vessels that did not carry on their trade through Great Britain, while there was no pretence that, at any time, there had been on the French coast a force sufficient to enforce the prohibition. England was thus aiming a deadly blow at the commerce of the United States, a neutral nation, merely to obtain revenge for an empty threat thrown out by France in her Berlin and Milan decrees. Our vessela

were constantly seized upon the ocean, on suspicion of an intention to violate this paper blockade: they were pursued to the very mouths of our harbors; and upon a recent occacasion, that of the President and Little Belt, an American frigate had been fired upon, wantonly and without provocation, by a British cruiser. Added to this cause of just complaint was the impressment of American Seamen upon suspicion that they were British subjects. The right to search our ships had been officially asserted and repeatedly exercised; and under protection of this unfounded claim, our brave countrymen had been forced into the service of their enemies, and, at the date of which we write, more than seven thousand men were thus held in captivity. The attempted negotiations upon these questions, and others of minor but stil formidable importance, at issue between the two nations, had failed of success; and Congress was now convened to devise measures, either to avert the impending danger, or to provide for vigorous and manly resistance to these repeated and outrageous aggressions.

The message of President MADISON briefly recapitulated the causes of complaint against Great Britain, and urged an immediate and effectual vindication of our national honor. It recommended the increase of the Army and the Navy, an adequate provision of cannon and other munitions of war, the encouragement of our home manufactures, as at all times of great and manifest, but then of more urgent, importance, and a general preparation for war with Great Britain. The receipts of the Treasury for the year had been above thirteen and a half millions, sufficient to defray the current expenses, to pay the interest on the public debt and to discharge more than five millions of the principal.

The message of the President was referred to a Select Committee of which, with high sagacity and patriotism, Mr. CLAY had appointed Hon. PETER B. PORTER, an able and zealous Republican from New York, the Chairman, and had associated with him a majority whose political feelings accorded with his own. The report of the Committee was presented in the House on the 29th of November. It was brief but most eloquent and patriotic in its tone. It began by a recapitulation of the wrongs which had been committed against us, by the two leading powers of Europe, and by a glance at the condition into which they had brought all the great interests of the nation. France, for more than five years, in execution of her oppressive Berlin and Milan decrees, had seized the property of our citizens, and carried derangement and ruin into our commerce upon the high seas, in the endeavor to cripple the ocean prosperity and power of her British foe. Great Britain, by her Orders in Council, having for their professed purpose retaliation for the injuries she had sustained from France, had laid waste the remaining half of our foreign trade. Thus menaced on both sides, after all appeals to the magnanimity and justice of these two great powers had been made in vain, the United States, in selfdefence, in May, 1810, had adopted the non-importation law, at the same time offering important commercial advantages to that nation which should first revoke her hostile edicts. France soon accepted the proffered terms and repealed her injurious decrees. But Great Britain refused to fulfil her promise and proceed pari passu with her foe in the restora tion of amity with a neutral nation, until the whole French system of commercial warfare, adopted in connection with her continental allies, and of which the late decrees formed a part, should be abandoned: thus in effect demanding, that,

as a condition of peace with us, we should compel France and the continental powers in league with her, to receive British goods and British produce. These arrogant pretensions had been followed up by a desolating war upon our commerce, and by seizing, condemning, and confiscating our ships at the very mouths of our harbors. After a slight allusion to the continued impressment of American scamen, the Committee reported this eloquent and stirring passage:

"To wrongs so daring in character, and so disgraceful in execution, it is impossible that the people of the United States should remain indifferent. We must now tamely and quietly submit, or we must resist by those means which God has placed within our reach. Your committee would not cast a slander over the American name, by the expression of a doubt which branch of this alternative will be embraced. The occasion is now presented when the national character, misrepresented and traduced for a time, by foreign and domestic enemies, should be vindicated.

"If we have not rushed to a field of battle like the nations who are led by the mad ambition of a single chief or the avarice of a corrupted court, it has not proceeded from a fear of war, but from our love of justice and humanity. That proud spirit of liberty and independence which sustained our fathers in the successful assertion of their rights against foreign aggression, is not yet sunk. The patriotic fire of the Revolution still burns in the American breast with a holy and inextinguishable flame and will conduct this nation to those high destinies which are not less the reward of dignified moderation than of exalted valor.