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FOREIGN MISCELLANY.

πολλῶν δ' ἀνθρώπων ἴδεν ἄστέα, καὶ νόον ἔγνω

"He beheld the cities of many nations, and became acquainted with the opinions of men."-ODYSSEY.

There is nothing in which the contrast between our age and the remotest times is more apparent, than in the manner and the means of conveying from country to country a knowledge of the thoughts and customs, the character and the deeds, of distant and various nations. To the most enlightened communities of antiquity, individual travellers were the only communicators of foreign tidings. People were forced to be content, when some chance wanderer could recount his wonderful adventures, and impart a little knowledge of other lands and strange races of men. Now, in simple fact," the ends of the earth are brought together," and the garrulous knowledge of Herodotus, delighting Olympic crowds with Eastern marvels, and the wisdom of Ulysses, gathered by long wandering acquaintance with "many cities, and the minds of many men," is brought every day to our doors, and may be perused in solitary chambers. But the amount of intelligence now crowded upon us is exceedingly miscellaneous. Selection is necessary, or a multitude of items destroy distinct impressions. We should not attempt such a task, however, were there not several distinct fields, of which a most important onethe movements of the world in literature and art-is greatly neglected by the daily press. To this, then, after some hesitation, we have concluded to bestow careful attention. Whatever of political or social matters may be of peculiar interest, or furnish ground for remark, will also be added. Little of value can be given at present, as our arrangements will not be completed for some months.

The packets of the last month have brought little of stirring interest, either to the scholar or to the politician. We may gather, however, one gratifying fact to us as a people-that we are rapidly growing to a wide importance in the eyes of Europe, not only for commerce and unwearied enterprise, but for statesmanship, commanding political eminence, and an enviable stand for art and knowledge among enlightened nations. The Parisian press commented at large upon the result of the last election, and were hailing it with regret or joy, as they chanced to espouse the principles of free trade or a restricted commerce with us. Doctrinaire Legitimiste, Radicus, and the partisans of La Jeune France, each had something to say of America and the Americans, and attempted to philosophize upon, what seem to Europeans, the incomprehensible motives of our nation. The result of their comments has been, that those interested in sustaining the peculiar doctrines of the administration of Mr Van Buren consider their cause as won, while the other party build their hopes of the continuation of the Tariff, upon the majority of Whig Senators, with an equal certainty. The Journals of London were very diffuse upon this subject, and exhibited much chagrin at the defeat of Mr. Clay. Looking upon his election as certain, they had esteemed the Tyler and Texas war-cry as the merest sound. They now look around with as much dismay as as the magician of old may be supposed to have done at the devil raised by his disciple who had opened a necromancer's scroll and read, by hazard, a spell for Dagon.

Even in Germany, the land of deepest absolutism, news of the result of the election, gave rise to much comment. The treaty of the Zollverein, to which the commercial classes had looked with much anxiety, the deep interest in all that relates to our antiquarian remains, the history of the present Indian race and the traditions of the people who have preceded them, and the almost idolatry of our political institutions by young Germany, made this election one of great interest even there. But the press of Germany is, in all that relates to politics, gagged, and dares to say less than the people feel. From Italy and Spain, no voice has been heard. The one cowering beneath the burden of foreign usurpation, the other torn to the centre by domestic convulsions-they also have thoughts and wishes which they dare not speak. They can afford to look at little beyond their individual safety. . . . The Diplomatic Policy of the United States has excited much comment and approval in Europe, especially our skill at commercial arrangements. The Presi dent's Message, however, has been unsparingly criticised; and Mr. Calhoun's despatches to Mr. King, weak, foolish, and uncalled for, as regards their chief points, have been severely and justly condemned.

The English papers give us but little literary intelligence. Nothing appears_to occupy the public mind so fully as the Puseyite controversy and the strange state of affairs it has created in many diosceses. What will come of this condition of things it is difficult to say. Though undermining the very foundation of the English church, we see no remedy for it. The leaders of this

schism, have appealed to the popular opinion for support, and the cause must be decided before that court of high judicature. If the views of the Oxford divines be impeached, their answer is an appeal to the rubric, the constitutions of the church.

In France but little seems stirring in Literary circles. Sue throws off weekly an instalment of the Wandering Jew, which is bought up, but does not, happily, excite the anxiety elicited by the publication of the "Mysteries." Some persons venture to say that it is stupid, but in whispered tones, for he now is recognized as the novelist of France, leaving d'Arlincourt, and all the Romanticists, George Sand and De Balzac ⚫ far behind him in the public estimation. The Constitutionel says, that it has made arrangements with him for the publication of a new Romance, whose title is to be the "Seven Mortal Sins," in addition to the completion of the "Wandering Jew." The New Work will be completed during the year 1845. La Democratic Pacifique openly claims the Novelist as a partisan of Fourier. In the publications of this character, and the shorter historiettes with which the Parisian Journals are filled, is to be found the true reflection of the present literary character of the French people. The first talent of the land occupies itself in throwing off these stories, whose subject is various as the character of the nation now drawn from the old romantic periods of history-now the age of Louis XIV, and the revolution, or the pretty conte de societe. Dumas, De Balzac, Marie Acord, George Sand, and hosts of others, contribute to this miniature literature, not the refuse of their portfolios, but the products of the best energies of their minds. Poetry we rarely hear of. De La Martine is become a politician, and writes nothing, or if he does, it is not published, and the Schools of Eclecticism, where Cousin uttered his eloquent lectures to such large audiences, are now silent. The bellicose disposition of the French people, thoroughly excited by the recent escapade at Morocco, seems to have absorbed, entirely, the attention of the public. Thiers, however, still pursues his series of great historical works, elaborating the united wisdom of the scholar and the statesman. . . . In the last number of the Revue de Paris it is stated that the Prison discipline introduced by De Tocqueville from our own country, and in France called "The Humanity System," has been found not to work well. The Review says that thanks are due to the present minister for not having extended it farther.

Rome is, as usual, filled with painters and sculptors from every country in Christendom. Crowds of our own countrymen are said to be there, crowning native genius with acquired laurels. As yet, however, American students labor under great disad

vantages-having no academy, as the English and French have. Greenough is still at Rome. But Genoa seems to be now the great point of re-union of American artists in Europe. Huntingdon, of this city, is there with his family, and Morse and Cheney of Boston. Crawford, it seems, is acknowledged to be the best worker in Basso Relievo in Italy, and Cole is said to paint landscape without a superior. Cheney's heads, in Crayon. attract everywhere in that country the closest attention. The great number of Americans studying there. and the frequent arrivals of our men-ofwar, serve to attract an unusual attention to our country.

At a recent session of the states of Denmark, it was proposed to abolish slavery in the Danish colonies. It was decided to send out a commission, to make inquiries relative to the doing away with this institution.

On the 11th of November, a commemoration of Shiller took place at the Hotel de la Pologne of Leipsic, which was honored by the presence of the most distinguished men of Germany. Speeches and toasts were made and drunk as with us, and the greatest enthusiasm prevailed. The chief point, however, of literary interest to us, is the announcement that the great publishing houses of Germany are about to establish a depot in Philadelphia, for the increased circulation of their literatureas there are great numbers of German citizens in this country, and the study of the language is rapidly increasing among us. The chief point of interest for Europe is the announcement in the continental papers that the King of Prussia has forwarded to the different governments of Europe an expression of his intention to give a constitution to his country. The bases are already determined upon.

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In Spain, the two parties are amusing themselves with shooting their prisoners. The race, both in Europe and America, appears to have an unconquerable liking for military executions, bull-fights, and such like divertisements. . the pianist, has been at Madrid, and been received with the greatest distinction by the Queen mother. He has been presented with the cross of Carlos III. Why a musician should receive an order of merit, is readily conceived; but to make one a knight of an ancient chivalric order, pertakes of the awkward innovations that are stealing in upon all the feudal institutions of Europe. . . . Some years since, there was a brief gleam of a literary revival in Spain, but it has been overcast entirely. In a large file of Spanish papers, we have been able to find not one item of literary intelligence.

Portuguese literature may be algebraically expressed, = — √x.

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THE last sands of the present Congress run low, and soon amid the deafening huzzas of the exulting, scheming, strug gling thousands who have assembled in Washington to dignify and grace by their presence the Inauguration of the new President, it will noiselessly dissolve into its original nothingness. Undeserving as it may be of a mausoleum, or even a monument, it may not so clearly be denied an epitaph. Public justice demands that its history should be written-to that history these pages may serve as a prelude and a contribution.

The Twenty-Eighth Congress was elected and constituted under auspices the most unfavorable to an expression thereby of the calm judgment of the American people on their public concerns. The recent defection of John Tyler had dealt incalculable injury to the Whig cause— injury which years were required to repair. While the great mass of the more intelligent and patriotic citizens regarded his treachery with a profound abhorrence and detestation, there was a class, small but not insignificant in the balanced scale of political ascendency, who, amid the wreck and ruin of their party's and their country's hopes, could coldly calculate the chances of personal advantage, and indulge dreams of ambition and emolument based on the betrayal of their compatriots and the overthrow of those principles which they had professed to cherish as essential to the Nation's wellbeing. These early prepared to assume the part of the King's friends,' played in a not dissimilar crisis of English history by a faction equally sordid and sy

cophantic, and to throw their votes and their influence into whichever political scale the nod of the great dispenser of patronage should dictate. Behind them ranged a still larger class who were really perplexed by the strange and sudden transformation which had been wrought since the death of Gen. Harrison-who still hoped against hope that the acting President might yet be reconciled to the party which had deserved so much at his hands; or who, but meagerly acquainted with the course of public affairs, imagined that he could not wantonly and wickedly have courted all the obloquy which his eccentric course had excited, and that some other cause than his faithless and preposterous ambition must lie at the bottom of the rupture which had occurred. A still more numerous body had been utterly soured and disgusted by the sudden reverses and sore disappointments of the eventful year, 1841, and were indisposed to any farther political action whatever.

Such were the aspects presented at the opening of the elections at which Members of the House were to be chosen for the Twenty-Eighth Congress. The great mass of the Whigs, probably fivesixths of the whole number who shared in the struggle of 1840, were as devoted to their principles and as firm in their support as in that memorable contest; but of the residue the great majority were confused, sullen, indifferent, or hopeless, and so inert; while an active and scheming minority, unembarrassed by principles or scruples of any kind, were marshaling their thin but agile

ranks in preparation to follow the executive standard-(the device, an officeseeker couchant with arm extended and porridge-dish right side up, held expectingly, beseechingly in the oily fingers)—— into the most exposed interspaces of the adversary's line, and thence charge with desperate venom on the weakened defences of their late brethren in arms. On the other side was ranged the ever active and formidable party which rallies under the profaned name of Democracy, having retained the exasperation and recovered from the depression of the rout of 1840, under the stimulus of the novel and sanguine hopes which recent events had inspired and justified-its ready instinct sharpened by the prospect of a restoration of the comfortable offices it had so lately forfeited, and the gratifying prestige of ascendency which, after long possession, it had so lately yielded. This party was now far stronger than if it had not been defeated in 1840; the Whigs proportionally weaker. Even victory afforded little sunshine to the latter; for if they carried the next Congress, to what end was it carried? Its measures were sure to be met and crushed by the inexorable Veto. In any event, the substantial power as well as the patronage of the government was sure to be against them; a barren prospect of responsibilities incurred without hope of corresponding opportunities, and expectations excited without a chance of satisfying them, was all that victory held out to the Whigs. Two-thirds of the States had been previously, or were simultaneously, districted by their opponents so as to secure to themselves an advantage equal at least to the twenty-three odd Members-in other words, on an equal division of the aggregate popular vote, the Democrats' would carry at least one hundred and twenty-three Members of the House to not more than one hundred Whigs. Of course, there could be at no time a rational doubt of the result; and the election of a House wherein the Whigs had, at its organization, less than seventy members to one hundred and forty opponents, was very nearly what any safe calculator would have anticipated.

The Senate, though weakened by the results of the popular elections of 1841-2, was still obedient to the more powerful impulse of 1840, and exhibited a moderate but decided Whig majority. But this

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conservative and dignified body did not assume to measure strength with its more numerous and popular coördinate branch, contenting itself with arresting the destructive measures originated in that assemblage. The Breakwater of the Constitution,' it was no part of the Senate's duty to dash out upon the broad ocean in search of mountain waves to breast and shatter; its high purpose was answered when it calmly rolled back the breakers which were hurled upon it in reckless but impotent fury. How this duty has been performed the sequel will indicate and history shall proudly record. Meantime, be it noted that in speaking generally of the Twenty-Eighth Congress we intend to refer to its numerical majority--to its impelling not its resisting force--to that which began and ended with its appointed two years.

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The Session was opened with the choice, as Speaker of the House, of a Member* who had been returned by 33 majority, and whose seat was then contested by his opponent -a most excep. tionable proceeding, though in this instance its practical mischiefs were precluded by a unanimous agreement, on due investigation, that Mr. Jones was entitled to the seat. But this the House did not, could not foreknow, and there was a fair presumption against it, from the closeness of the popular vote on a heavy poll, and the fact that there are always many illegal votes taken in an exciting contest under the suffrage-restricting Constitution of Virginia. pose the right had been with Mr. Botts, or had been extremely doubtful, would a Committee appointed by Mr. Jones, composed in major part of his co-partisans and supporters, be expected to weigh the evidence and apply the law with perfect impartiality-to sift the immense mass of testimony presented, with a patient resolution to render equal and exact justice? At the very best, the decision of a Committee so constituted could not be expected to carry with it the moral weight of a clearly impartial judgment. This was admitted by Mr. Jones in his subsequent deference of the choice of the Committee on Elections to the House-a course imperatively dictated by propriety, but which itself suggests the awkwardness of the Speaker's position. No man can properly be the

* Hon. John Winston Jones, of Chesterfield, Virginia.

† Hon. John M. Botts.

chosen presiding officer of a legislative body at the same time that his right to sit in that body is seriously contested, and he liable, at any day, to be declared no member and his seat the rightful property of another.

The next important step taken by the House was one of far greater moment of vital and enduring significance. It was a clear, naked, undeniable Nullification of a law of the land by a simple resolution of one branch of the Federal Legislature. In earlier instances of Nullification it was deemed requisite that the invalidity of a subsisting enactment should be determined and pronounced by a body at least equal in authority (though not of commensurate jurisdiction) with that to which it owed its existence. But here the House alone nullified a provision of law which had been enacted by the Senate and House, signed by the President, and duly inscribed on the statute-book of the Union, to be heeded and obeyed by every loyal citizen. For this disorganizing act, not even the poor excuse of a party necessity could be given. It was a simple dethronement of Law, to exalt a perverse and disloyal Will-a prostration of eternal Right at the footstool of temporary Power. Let the facts be duly set forth.

On the twenty-seventh Congress devolved the duty of determining, under the census of 1840, the ratio of population upon which Members of the five succeeding Congresses should be chosen, and thereupon apportioning to each State its due number of Representatives. This was done; and, by a second section of the Act of Apportionment, it was plainly directed that each State should be divided into as many Congressional Districts, each of contiguous territory, as it was authorized to choose Members to the House, each District being entitled and restricted to one Member. This provision, which had been originally reported by the Committee entrusted with the framing of the Apportionment bill, had been fully debated in each House, and duly passed by each. Its policy was based not only on the general and obvious propriety of replacing incongruity by congruity, multiformity by uniformity, and thus securing to the American people that equality of representation demanded alike by the genius of our government and the obvious requirements of our Constitution, but on an immediate

and glaring instance of partisan abuse of the license before accorded to the several States of choosing by general ticket, by single districts, or by such a patchwork blending of the two as had prevailed in this State and in Pennsylvania. The State of Alabama had chosen her Members of Congress by single districts, prior to the Presidential Election of 1840. In that election Mr. Van Buren carried the State on the aggregate vote, but a majority for Gen. Harrison was given in three of the five Congressional districts. The Legislature met soon after; the Members of the Twenty-Seventh Congress were to be chosen the following August. To deprive the Whigs of the local advantage which had fortuitously accrued to them, (just such as their opponents are now enjoying in the case of Tennessee,) the Legislature repealed the Districting Act and directed that the five Members of Congress should be chosen by a general ticket. They were chosen accordingly-all of the dominant party-though such was the dissatisfaction of the people at this bare-faced partisan juggle, that a decided popular majority at the same time directed a restoration of the district system. But the end of the manœuvre had been gained; an example had been set of changing the mode of election from time to time in accordance with the exigencies of the party having control of the Legislature, and it was morally certain to be followed and retaliated, until each State should come in time to be newly districted, or have its district system changed to a general ticket, or vice versa, at every fluctuation in its politics.

But not alone to ward off occasional or apprehended evils was the uniform district system demanded. It was required to obviate and correct existing and flagrant inequalities in the relative power of the several States in the House. Let a single instance be considered: Vermont and New Hampshire, two States of equal extent, population and representative capacity, have for years stood opposed in politics by very decided majorities. Vermont is a Whig State, warmly attached to the Protective Policy; New Hampshire is Loco-Foco, and ostensibly for Free Trade. Vermont, since 1820, has chosen her members by single Districts; New Hampshire hers by General Ticket. Vermont, with five Representatives under the census of 1830, had sometimes two of the party decidedly a

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