her acerbities at home; controlling by a firm though peaceful policy the hostile spirit of the European Alliance against Republican Southern America; extorting by the mild compulsion of reason, the shores of the Pacific from the stipulated acknowledgment of Spain; and leading back the imperial autocrat of the North, to his lawful boundaries, from his hastily asserted dominion over the Southern Ocean. Thus strengthening and consolidating the federative edifice of his country's Union, till he was entitled to say, like Augustus Cæsar of his imperial city, that he had found her built of brick and left her constructed of marble.

In concluding this discourse, permit me, fellow-citizens, to revert to the sentiment with which it commenced; and if it be true that a superintending Providence adapts the talents and energies of men to the trials by which they are to be tested, it is fitting for us to be admonished that the trial may also be adapted to the talents destined to meet it. Our country by the bountiful dispensations of gracious Heaven, is, and for a series of years has been blessed with profound peace; but when the first father of our race had exhibited before him by the Archangel sent to announce his doom and to console him in his fall, the fortunes, and the misfortunes of his descendants, he saw that the deepest of their miseries would befal them, while favored with all the blessings of peace, and in the bitterness of his anguish he exclaimed

"Now I see

Peace to corrupt, no less than war to waste."

It is the very fervor of the noon-day sun, in the cloudless atmosphere of a summer sky, which breeds

the sweeping whirlwind's sway,

That, hush'd in grim repose, expects his evening prey."

You have insured the gallant ship, which ploughs the waves, freighted with your wives and your children's fortunes, from the fury of the tempest above, and from the treachery of the wave beneath. Beware of the danger against which you can alone insure yourselves—the latent defect of the gallant ship herself. Pass but a few short days, and forty years will have elapsed since the voice of him, who addresses you, speaking to your fathers, from this hallowed spot, gave for you, in the face of Heaven, the solemn pledge, that if, in the course of your career upon earth, emergencies should arise, calling for the exercise of those energies and virtues which, in times of tranquility and peace, remain, by the will of Heaven dormant in the human bosom, you would prove yourselves not unworthy of the sires who had toiled and fought and bled, for the independence of their country. Nor has that pledge been unredeemed. You have maintained, through times of trial and danger, the inheritance of freedom, of union, of independence, bequeathed you by your forefathers. It remains for you only to transmit the same peerless legacy, unimpaired, to your children of the next succeeding age. To this end, let us join in humble supplication to the Founder of empires and the Creator of all worlds,

that he would continue to your posterity, the smiles which his favor has been bestowed upon you: and since "it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps," that he would enlighten and lead the advancing generation in the way they should go. That in all the perils and all the mischances which may threaten or befall our United Republic, in after times, he would raise up from among your sons, deliverers to enlighten her Councils, to defend her freedom, and if need be to lead her armies to victory. And should the gloom of the year of Independence ever again overspread the sky, or the metropolis of your empire be once more destined to smart under the scourge of an invader's hand, that there never may be found wanting among the children of your country a warrior to bleed, a statesman to counsel, a chief to direct and govern, inspired with all the virtues, and endowed with all the faculties, which have been so signally displayed in the life of James Monroe.

MONROE'S ADMINISTRATION.

WHILE the possession of brilliant genius or talents, will not be claimed for James Monroe, even by his warmest admirers, it will not, on the other hand, be denied, that he carefully improved the varied and numerous advantages he enjoyed, during a protracted public career; and that, as the acquisitions of a long experience, he added, to his natural prudence and good sense, a tact, and a knowledge of men, which eminently fitted him for a successful politician. When, therefore, he proposed, in 1814, as Secretary of War, his measure for the increase of the army, to which the term of "conscription" was opprobriously, yet unjustly applied, he foresaw that it might seriously affect his popularity; and, inasmuch as his name had been proposed as the successor of Mr. Madison, he came to the deliberate determination, after consultation with his confidential friends, to which he would unquestion`ably have adhered, to decline standing as a candidate, in the event of the continuance of the war. The peace, however, relieved him from this position of embarrassment, and his friends at once began, openly and zealously, to advocate his selection as the candidate of the republican party.

Other candidates for the nomination were likewise

proposed by their respective friends. In November, 1815, Aaron Burr suggested to Joseph Alston, his sonin-law, and ex-governor of South Carolina, the propriety of bringing forward General Andrew Jackson, of Tennessee. Had this been done, and had due advantage been taken of the enthusiastic attachment of the people of the South and West to the hero of the Creek war, and the brave defender of New Orleans, the movement might have been successful; but, in consequence of severe domestic afflictions, though concurring with Colonel Burr in opinion, Mr. Alston was not disposed to take any active part in the canvass, and therefore nothing was done to further the project.

Daniel D. Tompkins, the governor of New York, was also urged, with some pertinacity at first, by the citizens of his own state; but on discovering that his chances were hopeless, they no longer pressed his name; and the opposition to Mr. Monroe, within the pale of the republican party, finally centered on William H. Crawford, of Georgia, who had succeeded the former in the charge of the War Department.

The congressional caucus was held on the 16th day of March, 1816; and upon balloting for a candidate for president, Mr. Monroe received sixty-five votes, and Mr. Crawford fifty-four; whereupon, the former was declared duly nominated. The opposing candidates for the nomination for the vice-presidency were Daniel D. Tompkins of New York, and Simon Snyder of Pennsylvania, both governors of their respective