Would, like a tempest, rush amidst the nations, My angry thunder on the frightened world. Tam. The world! 't would be too little for thy pride: 5 Thou wouldst scale heaven. Baj. I would. Away! my soul Tam. Thou vain, rash thing, That, with gigantic insolence, hast dared 10 To lift thy wretched self above the stars, 15 And mate with power Almighty, thou art fallen! Baj. 'Tis false! I am not fallen from aught I have been! At least, my soul resolves to keep her state, And scorns to make acquaintance with ill fortune. Tam. Almost beneath my pity art thou fallen! To what vast heights had thy tumultuous temper Been hurried, if success had crowned thy wishes! Say, what had I to expect, if thou hadst conquered? Baj. Oh! glorious thought! Ye powers! I will enjoy it, 20 Though but in fancy: imagination shall Make room to entertain the vast idea. Oh! had I been the master but of yesterday, I would have caged thee for the scorn of slaves. Tam. Well dost thou teach me What justice should exact from thee. Mankind, With one consent, cry out for vengeance on thee; 35 Loudly they call to cut off this league-breaker, This wild destroyer, from the face of earth. Baj. Do it, and rid thy shaking soul at once Of its worst fear. Tam. Why slept the thunder 40 That should have armed the idol deity, And given thee power, ere yester sun was set, Hadst thou an arm To make thee feared, thou shouldst have proved it on me, Amidst the sweat and blood of yonder field, When, through the tumult of the war I sought thee, Baj. Oh! blast the stars That fated us to different scenes of slaughter! As now, been in my power, and held thy life I bid thee live. So much my soul disdains 15 This royal tent, with such of thy domestics Hard terms of peace; but such as thou mayst offer LESSON CCXXVIII.-AN INDEPENDENT JUDICIARY.-JAMES A. BAYARD. Mr. Chairman, I am confident that the friends of this measure are not apprized of the nature of its operation, nor sensible of the mischievous consequences which are likely to attend it. Sir, the morals of your people, the peace 5 of the country, the stability of the government, rest upon the maintenance of the independence of the judiciary. It is not of half the importance in England, that the judges should be independent of the crown, as it is with us, that they should be independent of the legislature. Am I ask10 ed, Would you render the judges superior to the legislature? I answer, No, but coördinate. Would you render them independent of the legislature? I answer, Yes, independent of every power on earth, while they behave themselves well. The essential interest, the permanent 15 welfare of society, require this independence; not, sir, on account of the judge; that is a small consideration; but on account of those between whom he is to decide. You calculate on the weaknesses of human nature, and you suffer the judge to be dependent on no one, lest he should be 20 partial to those on whom he depends. Justice does not exist where partiality prevails. A dependent judge can 15 not be impartial. Independence is, therefore, essential to the purity of your judicial tribunals. Let it be remembered, that no power is so sensibly felt by society, as that of the judiciary. The life and property 5 of every man, are liable to be in the hands of the judges. Is it not our great interest to place our judges upon such high ground, that no fear can intimidate, no hope seduce them? The present measure humbles them in the dust; it prostrates them at the feet of faction; it renders them 10 the tools of every dominant party. It is this effect which I deprecate; it is this consequence which I deeply deplore. What does reason, what does argument avail, when party spirit presides? Subject your bench to the influence of this spirit, and justice bids a final adieu to your tribunals. We are asked, sir, if the judges are to be independent of the people. The question presents a false and delusive view. We are all the people. We are, and as long as we enjoy our freedom, we shall be, divided into parties. The true question is, Shall the judiciary be perma20 nent, or fluctuate with the tide of public opinion? I beg, I implore gentlemen to consider the magnitude and value of the principle which they are about to annihilate. If your judges are independent of political changes, they may have their preferences; but they will not enter into the spirit of 25 party. But let their existence depend upon the support of the power of a certain set of men, and they cannot be impartial. Justice will be trodden under foot. Your courts will lose all public confidence and respect. The judges will be supported by their partisans, who, in 30 their turn, will expect impunity for the wrongs and violence they commit. The spirit of party will be inflamed to madness; and the moment is not far off, when this fair country is to be desolated by a civil war. Do not say, that you render the judges dependent only 35 on the people. You make them dependent on your president. This is his measure. The same tide of public opinion which changes a president, will change the majorities in the branches of the legislature. The legislature will be the instrument of his ambition; and he will have 40 the courts as the instrument of his vengeance. He uses the legislature to remove the judges, that he may appoint creatures of his own. In effect, the powers of the govern ment will be concentrated in the hands of one man, who will dare to act with more boldness, because he will be sheltered from responsibility. The independence of the judiciary was the felicity of our constitution. It was this principle which was to curb the fury of party on sudden changes. The first moments of power, gained by a 5 struggle, are the most vindictive and intemperate. Raised above the storm, it was the judiciary which was to control the fiery zeal, and to quell the fierce passions of a victorious faction. We are standing on the brink of that revolutionary tor10 rent which deluged in blood one of the fairest countries of Europe. France had her national assembly, more numerous, and equally popular with our own. She had her tribunals of justice, and her juries. But the legislature, and her courts. 15 were but the instruments of her destruction. Acts of proscription, and sentences of banishment and death, were passed in the cabinet of a tyrant. Prostrate your judges at the feet of party, and you break down the mounds which defend you from this torrent. I have done. I 20 should have thanked my God for greater power to resist a measure, so destructive to the peace and happiness of the country. My feeble efforts can avail nothing. But it was my duty to make them. The meditated blow is mortal, and from the moment it is struck, we may bid a final 25 adieu to the constitution. LESSON CCXXIX.-MEMORIALS OF WASHINGTON AND FRANK- [From Mr. Adams' speech on the reception, by Congress, of the battle sword of Washington, and the staff of Franklin.] The sword of Washington! The staff of Franklin! Oh! sir, what associations are linked in adamant with these names! Washington, whose sword, as my friend* has said, was never drawn but in the cause of his country, and never 5 sheathed when wielded in his country's cause! Franklin, the philosopher of the thunderbolt, the printing-press, and the plough-share!-What names are these in the scanty catalogue of the benefactors of human kind! Washington and Franklin! What other two men, 10 whose lives belong to the eighteenth century of Christendom, have left a deeper impression of themselves upon the age in which they lived, and upon all after time? Washington, the warrior and the legislator! In war, contending, by the wager of battle, for the independence of his *Geo. W. Summers. country, and for the freedom of the human race; ever manifesting, amidst its horrors, by precept and example, his reverence for the laws of peace, and for the tenderest sympathies of humanity; in peace, soothing the ferocious spirit 5 of discord, among his own countrymen, into harmony and union; and giving to that very sword, now presented to his country, a charm more potent than that attributed, in ancient times, to the lyre of Orpheus. FRANKLIN! The mechanic of his own fortune; teach10 ing, in early youth, under the shackles of indigence, the way to wealth, and, in the shade of obscurity, the path to greatness; in the maturity of manhood, disarming the thunder of its terrors, the lightning of its fatal blast; and wresting from the tyrant's hand the still more effective 15 sceptre of oppression: while descending into the vale of years, traversing the Atlantic ocean, braving, in the dead of winter, the battle and the breeze, bearing in his hand the charter of Independence, which he had contributed to form, and tendering, from the self-created nation, to the mighti20 est monarchs of Europe, the olive-branch of peace, the mercurial wand of commerce, and the amulet of protection and safety to the man of peace, on the pathless ocean, from the inexorable cruelty and merciless rapacity of war. And, finally, in the last stage of life, with fourscore win25 ters upon his head, under the torture of an incurable disease, returning to his native land, closing his days as the chief magistrate of his adopted commonwealth, after contributing by his counsels, under the presidency of Washington, and recording his name, under the sanction of de30 vout prayer, invoked by him to God, to that Constitution under the authority of which we are here assembled, as the representatives of the North American people, to receive, in their name and for them, these venerable relics of the wise, the valiant, and the good founders of our great con35 federated republic, these sacred symbols of our golden age. May they be deposited among the archives of our government! and every American, who shall hereafter behold them, ejaculate a mingled offering of praise to that Supreme Ruler of the Universe, by whose tender mercies 40 our Union has been hitherto preserved, through all the vicissitudes and revolutions of this turbulent world,-and of prayer for the continuance of these blessings, by the dispensations of Providence, to our beloved country, from age to age, till time shall be no more! |