from the sermons of seven Popes, I shall be victorious. I doubt that you can produce a single passage. Yet there were some Popes who held the doctrine, but not in the way that you appear to insinuate; like the "Gratia Dei," the "jure divino" has a meaning which a little more examination into the law of nations, the feudal system, and Christian morality would exhibit, and which even natural religion, or the "jus divinum naturale," would establish for yourself as long as the constitution of Georgia permits it, and no longer. But, I consent that we shall not construe the passages of sermons on either side upon this sound principle; those which I have will not admit such construction; it is for you to say what construction your passages will require.

Now, your excellency must admit that in revolting against King George III, Mr. Jefferson and his associates were aided by a Catholic king, the eldest son of the Roman Catholic Church: and the revolt was against a Protestant king who persecuted Roman Catholics for not swearing that they would desert and reject the Pope. Yet, with admirable facility, with a tact peculiar to yourself, you give as the prelude to your insult upon the Roman Catholics and your assertions regarding the Pope, a declaration that the most inveterate of the enemies of Rome was the superstitious Protestant despot.

"Mr. Jefferson had already done enough for his country and for his own fame-he had marched with his comrades in the vanguard of freedom, had palsied the arm of despotism, broken the chains of superstition, declared the independence of his country, and promulgated the natural, imprescriptible, and inalienable rights of man.”

In doing all which he was aided by Roman Catholics! A Roman Catholic signature to his declaration pledged not only life and sacred honor, but a million of money; General Washington testified that no blood was more freely shed in defence of Mr. Jefferson's principles, than that of Roman Catholics; the king of a Catholic nation, the king of all others most attached to Rome, sent his

fleets and armies to be the copartners in palsying the despot's arm and breaking the chains of superstition. What superstition? Certainly not Roman Catholic; because there was no Catholic superstition to enchain any person

whom Mr. Jefferson had freed. What then does it mean? Protestant superstition! Be it so, if you will. It is not my province to contend with you that it was not. But if so, I ask you, why you attack the Pope and the Roman Catholic Church in the next paragraph? Come, honestly declare that you used the words as many of our fellowcitizens use them every day, merely for their sound, and without considering whether they had reason or not. Why would you then carelessly insult a large portion of your fellow-citizens? I have done.

TRUE BASIS OF REPUBLICANISM.1

"And I proclaimed there a fast by the river Ahava, that we might afflict ourselves before the Lord our God, and might ask of Him a right way for us, and for our children, and for all our substance."-1 Esdras, c. viii, v. 21.

THIS declaration exhibits the acts of him who was commissioned to aid in rebuilding the temple of the Lord in his country and for his people. They had been scourged by the hand of God on account of their transgressions, and now assembled together and were seen entering into themselves to repent of their sins-determined to remember and apply that principle of religion which their fathers had forgotten and which they had neglected, but the observance of which they now found must necessarily be the true and only basis of their prosperity. They had had many occasions to see the truth of that declaration; if the Lord build not the house, in vain doth man endeavor to raise it. The history of preceding generations had exhibited to them the wonderful works of God towards their own and other nations. They had seen that the race was not always to the swift nor the victory always to him who, from his superior strength, was led to expect it. They looked back through the lapse of years, and beheld their fathers released from their bondage in Egypt, the horses and chariots of their oppressor overthrown, and his armies swallowed up in the Red Sea, as they pursued his late captives. In the pride of his heart he had said: "They shall again be mine; with chains will I bind them and they shall serve me-they and their children." But he counted that it was an arm of flesh that he opposed, but he soon realized that he had to struggle against the God of heaven. When he

1 Preached at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross, Boston, May 14, 1841, the day of general fast throughout the United States.

beheld his chariots and his horsemen buried in the waves of the sea, he knew it was the Lord who had done this thing. So when Israel contended against Amalek, the victory was achieved by him who had been raised up by the hand of the Lord. And Ezra, looking back and beholding these things, and feeling a great desire to build up the prosperity of Judah, knew that it must be done through the blessing of heaven and not by the cunning devices of man; therefore in his affliction, he commanded the people to afflict themselves and observe a day of fasting before the Lord. And we, my brethren, called together in so solemn a manner, after a dispensation which is new to us, should prostrate ourselves before God, and beseech of Him His blessing, that He will secure to us the fruit of so many a wise council, and so many a well-fought field--and that we may, serving the Lord with our whole hearts, have our days serene upon the earth, and through the merits of our Saviour, enter at last into regions better than these.

After a contest peculiarly marked by vigorous contention, we beheld it settled in the one constitutional way. We beheld the man who was the choice of a majority of the States and the people, raised to a station so high that the monarchs of the old world might envy it. We saw him take the solemn oath prescribed for his office, and about to enter upon the more active discharge of his duties. And we then beheld him in a moment stricken down, as it were, by an arrow from the grave! We have seen the calculations and the hopes of those who had for years deliberated and toiled, baffled and overthrown at the very moment when they seemed to be fully realized-the cup that was already lifted to the lip dashed from the hand-and twenty-six independent though connected republics astounded by an event as unexpected as it was unforeseen. We see every child of the republic weeping for the death of a common father, forgetting their dissensions, their divided interests, their clashing opinions, and compelled to feel how impotent are the exertions of man unless they

be ratified by God. They and we are approaching to-day our holy altars, to the end that we may so repent of our sins, that we may have peace and prosperity bestowed upon us by heaven. We pray to God that He may protect and bless us, and so prosper our endeavors, that our country may be enabled to take and maintain her high place among the nations of the earth-so that peace may be our crown here, and happiness our reward hereafter.

There is one peculiarity which forcibly strikes us in the midst of this scene, and which may not inappropriately be noticed here. Our minds are drawn to the contemplation of the wisdom which pervaded the councils of those who framed the Constitution under which we live. They foresaw to what contingencies we might be liable, and provided wisely and efficaciously for the wants which might arise. In past times, such an event as has now befallen us would have carried desolation and ruin into any republic; the nation, without a head, would have been shaken to its centre, dissolved into its original elements and from the highest glory cast down into utter disgrace. But behold, by the peaceful and legal operations of the provisions of our Constitution, all this is avoided. One is raised up to supply the place of him who is gone, and everything moves on as before. No change takes place. Our relations abroad, our councils at home, are unaltered and undisturbed. Everything is preserved in that perfect order which has been secured to us by the wisdom of those men of former times who framed our government. A source this is of great gratulation to ourselves, that by the blessing of God-even in the midst. of party interests and political contests-by an exact observance of those principles we all have sworn to maintain, through a scene like this we can go on without feeling those convulsions which would have uprooted another people.

But we should not rest on this. We should teach ourselves to look forward and see in what manner we may secure the continuance of these blessings to our children and our children's children.