Chapter XIV: Conclusion

Such are prophetic voices, differing in character and importance, but all having one augury, and opening one vista, illimitable in extent and vastness. Farewell to the narrow thought of Montesquieu, that a republic can exist only in a small territory![647] Through representation and federation a continent is not too much for practical dominion, nor is it beyond expectation. Well did Webster say, “The prophecies and the poets are with us”; and then again, “In regard to this country there is no poetry like the poetry of events, and all the prophecies lag behind their fulfilment.”[648] But my purpose is not with the fulfilment, except as it stands forth visible to all.

Ancient prophecy foretold another world beyond the ocean, which in the mind of Christopher Columbus was nothing less than the Orient with its inexhaustible treasures. The continent was hardly known when the prophets began: poets like Chapman, Drayton, Daniel, Herbert, Cowley; economists like Child and Davenant; New-Englanders like Morrell, Ward, and Sewall; and, mingling with these, that rare genius, Sir Thomas Browne, who, in the reign of Charles the Second, while the settlements were in infancy, predicted their growth in power and civilization; and then that rarest character, Bishop Berkeley, who, in the reign of George the First, while the settlements were still feeble and undeveloped, heralded a Western empire as “Time’s noblest offspring.”

These voices are general. Others more precise followed. Turgot, the philosopher and minister, saw in youth, with the vision of genius, that all colonies must at their maturity drop from the parent stem, like ripe fruit. John Adams, one of the chiefs of our own history, in a youth illumined as that of Turgot, saw the predominance of the Colonies in population and power, followed by the transfer of empire to America; then the glory of Independence, and its joyous celebration by grateful generations; then the triumph of our language; and, finally, the establishment of our republican institutions over all North America. Then came the Abbé Galiani, the Neapolitan Frenchman, who, writing from Naples while our struggle was still undecided, gayly predicts the total downfall of Europe, the transmigration to America, and the consummation of the greatest revolution of the globe by establishing the reign of America over Europe. There is also Adam Smith, the illustrious philosopher, who quietly carries the seat of government across the Atlantic. Meanwhile Pownall, once a Colonial governor and then a member of Parliament, in successive works of great detail, foreshadows independence, naval supremacy, commercial prosperity, immigration from the Old World, and a new national life, destined to supersede the systems of Europe and arouse the “curses” of royal ministers. Hartley, also a member of Parliament, and the British negotiator who signed the definitive treaty of Independence, bravely announces in Parliament that the New World is before the Colonists, and that liberty is theirs; and afterwards, as diplomatist, instructs his Government, that, through the attraction of our public lands, immigration will be quickened beyond precedent, and the national debt cease to be a burden. Aranda, the Spanish statesman and diplomatist, predicts to his king that the United States, though born a “pygmy,” will some day be a “colossus,” under whose influence Spain will lose all her American possessions except only Cuba and Porto Rico. Paley, the philosopher, hails our successful revolution as destined to accelerate the fall of Slavery, which he denounces as an “abominable tyranny.” Burns, the truthful poet, who loved mankind, looks forward a hundred years, and beholds our people rejoicing in the centenary of their independence. Sheridan pictures our increasing prosperity, and the national dignity winning the respect, confidence, and affection of the world. Fox, the liberal statesman, foresees the increasing might and various relations of the United States, so that a blow aimed at them must have a rebound as destructive as itself. The Abbé Grégoire, devoted to the slave, whose freedom he predicts, describes the power and glory of the American Republic, resting on the two great oceans, and swaying the world. Tardily, Jefferson appears with anxiety for the National Union, and yet announcing our government as the primitive and precious model to change the condition of mankind. Canning, the brilliant orator, in a much-admired flight of eloquence, discerns the New World, with its republics just called into being, redressing the balance of the Old. De Tocqueville, while clearly foreseeing the peril from Slavery, proclaims the future grandeur of the Republic, covering “almost all North America,” and making the continent its domain, with a population, equal in rights, counted by the hundred million. Cobden, whose fame will be second only to that of Adam Smith among all in this catalogue, calmly predicts the separation of Canada from the mother country by peaceable means. Alaman, the Mexican statesman and historian, announces that Mexico, which has already known so many successive races; will hereafter be ruled by yet another people, taking the place of the present possessors; and with these prophetic words, the patriot draws a pall over his country.

All these various voices, of different times and lands, mingle and intertwine in representing the great future of our Republic, which from small beginnings has already become great. It was at first only a grain of mustard-seed, “which, indeed, is the least of all seeds; but when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof.” Better still, it was only a little leaven, but it is fast leavening the whole continent. Nearly all who have prophesied speak of “America” or “North America,” and not of any limited circle, colony, or state. It was so, at the beginning, with Sir Thomas Browne, and especially with Berkeley. During our Revolution, the Colonies struggling for independence were always described by this continental designation. They were already “America,” or “North America,” (and such was the language of Washington,) thus incidentally foreshadowing that coming time when the whole continent, with all its various states, shall be a Plural Unit, with one Constitution, one Liberty, and one Destiny. The theme was also taken up by the poet, and popularized in the often quoted lines,--

“No pent-up Utica contracts your powers,
But the whole boundless continent is yours.”[649]

Such grandeur may justly excite anxiety rather than pride, for duties are in corresponding proportion. There is occasion for humility also, as the individual considers his own insignificance in the transcendent mass. The tiny polyp, in unconscious life, builds the everlasting coral. Each citizen is little more than the industrious insect. The result is reached by the continuity of combined exertion. Millions of citizens, working in obedience to Nature, can accomplish anything.

Of course, war is an instrumentality which true civilization disowns. Here some of our prophets have erred. Sir Thomas Browne was so much overshadowed by his own age, that his vision was darkened by “great armies,” and even “hostile and piratical assault” on Europe. It was natural that Aranda, schooled in worldly life, should imagine the new-born power ready to seize the Spanish possessions. Among our own countrymen, Jefferson looked to war for the extension of dominion. The Floridas, he says on one occasion, “are ours in the first moment of the first war, and until a war they are of no particular necessity to us.”[650] Happily they were acquired in another way. Then again, while declaring that no constitution was ever before so calculated as ours for extensive empire and self-government, and insisting upon Canada as a component part, he calmly says that this “would be, of course, in the first war.”[651] Afterwards, while confessing a longing for Cuba, “as the most interesting addition which could ever be made to our system of States,” he says that he is “sensible that this can never be obtained, even with her own consent, but by war.”[652] Thus at each stage is the baptism of blood. In much better mood the poet Bishop recognized empire as moving gently in the pathway of light. All this is much clearer now than when he prophesied.

It is easy to see that empire obtained by force is unrepublican, and offensive to the first principle of our Union, according to which all just government stands only on the consent of the governed. Our country needs no such ally as war. Its destiny is mightier than war. Through peace it will have everything. This is our talisman. Give us peace, and population will increase beyond all experience; resources of all kinds will multiply infinitely; arts will embellish the land with immortal beauty; the name of Republic will be exalted, until every neighbor, yielding to irresistible attraction, seeks new life in becoming part of the great whole; and the national example will be more puissant than army or navy for the conquest of the world.

FOOTNOTES

[1] Conférences Américaines, p. 143.

[2] Müller’s Voyages from Asia to America, tr. Jefferys, (London, 1764,) p. 45.

[3] Articles XV., XVI.: Billings’s Expedition, Appendix, No. V., pp. 41, 42.

[4] Voyage, Tom. II. p. 147.

[5] A translation of this document is given in Barrow’s Arctic Voyages, Appendix, No. II., pp. 24, seqq.

[6] Voyage of Malaspina: Barrow, p. 127.

[7] Barbé-Marbois, Histoire de la Louisiane, (Paris, 1829,) p. 335.

[8] Prefixed to Coxe’s Russian Discoveries (London, 1780).

[9] Essai Politique sur le Royaume de la Nouvelle-Espagne, Tom. I. pp. 344-346.

[10] United States Statutes at Large, Vol. XV. pp. 539-543.

[11] Article VI.

[12] Articles VII., VIII.: Hertslet’s Commercial Treaties, Vol. III. p. 365.

[13] Art. VI.: Ibid.

[14] Art. XII.: Ibid., Vol. VI. p. 767.

[15] Ibid., Vol. X. p. 1063.

[16] Wheaton’s Elements of International Law, ed. Lawrence, (Boston, 1863,) Part II. ch. 4, § 19, p. 359.

[17] Greenhow, History of Oregon and California, p. 346. Executive Documents, 20th Cong. 1st Sess., H. of R., No. 199, pp. 23, 44.

[18] Wheaton, Part II. ch. 4, § 18, p. 353.

[19] Voyages from China to the Northwest Coast of America, (London, 1791,) Vol. I. p. 354.

[20] Ibid., Vol. II. pp. 283-291.

[21] Arctic Zoölogy (London, 1792), Vol. I. p. 104.

[22]

“Por Castilla y por Leon
Nuevo mundo halló Colon.”

[23] Works, Vol. IV. p. 293.

[24] Journey round the World, Vol. I. p. 209.

[25] Band XXII. pp. 47-70.

[26] Russian America and the Present War.

[27] Tom. I. p. 345.

[28] Act of July 1, 1864: Statutes at Large, Vol. XIII. pp. 340, 341.

[29] Diplomatic Correspondence, 1865-66: Executive Documents, 39th Cong. 1st Sess., H. of R., No. 1, p. 366.

[30] Joint Resolution, May 16, 1866: Statutes at Large, Vol. XIV. p. 355.

[31] Letters to John Jacob Astor, May 24, 1812, and November 9, 1813: Writings, Vol. VI. pp. 55, 248. See also Letter to Mr. Breckenridge, August 12, 1803: Ibid., Vol. IV. pp. 498-501.

[32] Speech at Faneuil Hall, November 7, 1845: Boston Daily Advertiser, November 10th.

[33] Letter on the Florida Treaty, June 20, 1820: Parton’s Life of Jackson, Vol. II. p. 585.

[34] Attributed to Matthias Corvinus, King of Hungary. See Coxe, History of the House of Austria, (London, 1820,) Ch. XXV., Vol. II. p. 89.

[35] Cicero, Epist. ad Atticum, IV. 6.

[36] Erman, Die Russischen Colonien an der Nordwestküste von Amerika: Archiv, Band XXII. p. 48.

[37] Voyage, p. 118.

[38] Voyage, Vol. I. p. 275.

[39] Part I. ch. 11, p. 148.

[40] Voyages, Vol. I. p. xvi.

[41] Voyage, Vol. II. p. 518.

[42] Ibid., pp. 509, 515.

[43] Billings’s Expedition, p. 157.

[44] Ibid., p. 161.

[45] Voyage, Tom. I. p. 232.

[46] Captain D’Wolf, whose little book was not printed till 1861, says there was “little or no game but foxes,” and he adds that in fact he “was the only Wolf ever known upon the island.”--_Voyage to the North Pacific_, pp. 69, 70.

[47] Ethnographische Skizzen über die Völker des Russischen Amerika, von H. J. Holmberg: Acta Societatis Scientiarum Fennicæ, 1856, Tom. IV. Fasc. 2, pp. 281, seqq.

[48] Blodget, Climatology, p. 532.

[49] Voyage to the Pacific (London, 1784), Vol. II. p. 509.

[50] Billings’s Expedition, p. 274.

[51] Ibid., Appendix, p. 55.

[52] Ibid., p. 171.

[53] Ibid., p. 172.

[54] Ibid., p. 173.

[55] Voyage to the North Pacific, pp. 63, 64.

[56] Voyage, Tom. I. p. 153.

[57] Voyage, p. 145.

[58] Voyage, pp. 214, 215.

[59] Ibid., p. 153.

[60] Voyages and Travels, Vol. II. pp. 69, 70.

[61] Voyage, p. 54.

[62] Voyage, Vol. II. p. 107.

[63] Voyage, Vol. III. p. 314.

[64] Voyage, p. 22.

[65] Voyage, p. 51.

[66] Voyage round the World, Vol. I. pp. 95-106.

[67] Journey round the World, Vol. I. pp. 218, 219, 220, 227.

[68] Voyage, 1783-87: Coxe’s Russian Discoveries (4th edit.), p. 219.

[69] Voyage, pp. 192, 193.

[70] Voyages and Travels, Vol. II. pp. 67, 68.

[71] Ibid., pp. 69, 70.

[72] Voyage, p. 179, note.

[73] Billings’s Expedition, p. 157.

[74] Langsdorff, Voyages and Travels, Vol. II. p. 43.

[75] Billings’s Expedition, p. 273.

[76] Ibid., p. 155.

[77] Cook, Voyage to the Pacific, Vol. II. p. 362.

[78] Billings’s Expedition, p. 197.

[79] Voyage, Tom. II. p. 205.

[80] Voyage, p. 167, note.

[81] Voyage, pp. 48, 49.

[82] Belcher, Voyage, Vol. I. p. 94.

[83] Journey round the World, Vol. I. p. 225.

[84] De l’Esprit des Lois, Liv. XIV.

[85] Voyage to the Pacific Ocean, Vol. II. p. 520.

[86] Part. III. § 6, pp. 196, 197.

[87] The Oregon Question, p. 28.

[88] Voyage, p. 118.

[89] Voyage, Tom. II. p. 187.

[90] Voyages and Travels, Vol. II. pp. 101, 102.

[91] Voyage, pp. 52, 53.

[92] Belcher’s Voyage round the World, Appendix, Vol. II. p. 332.

[93] Voyages and Travels, Vol. II. p. 61.

[94] Voyage, Vol. I. p. 70.

[95] Müller, Voyages from Asia to America (London, 1764), p. 85.

[96] Voyage, Tom. II. p. 191.

[97] Voyage, p. 145.

[98] Voyage, Tom. I. p. 101.

[99] Voyage, Vol. II. p. 379.

[100] Voyage, Tom. II. pp. 187, 188.

[101] Voyage, pp. 102, 251.

[102] Voyages, Vol. I. pp. lxiv, lxv.

[103] Expedition, pp. 197, 198.

[104] Voyage, Vol. III. p. 95.

[105] Voyages and Travels, Vol. II. p. 103.

[106] Voyage, p. 191, note.

[107] Voyage, Tom. I. p. 105.

[108] Voyage, Vol. I. pp. 73, 97.

[109] Langsdorff, Voyages and Travels, Vol. II. p. 65.

[110] Voyage, Vol. II pp. 425, 520.

[111] Voyage, Vol. II. pp. 476, 480, 482.

[112] Voyage, Vol. I. p. 249.

[113] Voyage, Vol. II. pp. 478, 494.

[114] Voyage, pp. 251, 252.

[115] Voyages, Vol. I. p. lxv.

[116] Expedition, p. 182.

[117] Voyages and Travels, Vol. II. p. 34.

[118] Voyage, Vol. I. p. 74.

[119] Müller, Voyages, p. 90.

[120] Voyage, Vol. II. pp. 519, 520.

[121] Voyage, Tom. II. p. 188.

[122] Voyage, pp. 118, 242.

[123] Voyages, Vol. I. p. lxiv; II. p. 287.

[124] Expedition, pp. 182, 198.

[125] Voyage, Vol. III. p. 233.

[126] Voyages and Travels, Vol. II. p. 34.

[127] Voyage, Tom. I. p. 118.

[128] Voyages and Travels, Vol. II. pp. 35, 62.

[129] Voyage, Tom. I. pp. 105, 151.

[130] Voyage, Vol. I. p. 300.

[131] Lisiansky, Voyage, p. 236.

[132] Müller, Voyages from Asia to America, pp. 85, 90.

[133] Voyage, Vol. II. pp. 379, 380.

[134] La Pérouse, Voyage, Introduction, Tom. I. p. 340.

[135] Voyage, Tom. II. pp. 151, 152, 192, 207.

[136] Voyage, Vol. II. pp. 335, 339.

[137] Voyage, p. 150.

[138] Voyages, Vol. II. pp. 33, 34.

[139] Voyage, p. 108.

[140] Voyages, Vol. II. p. 291.

[141] Voyage, Vol. I. p. 214.

[142] Page 112.

[143] Band XXV. pp. 229, seqq.

[144] Sauer, Billings’s Expedition, p. 274.

[145] Voyage, Vol. II. pp. 357, 358.

[146] Billings’s Expedition, p. 277.

[147] Voyage, Vol. I. p. 101.

[148] Coxe, Russian Discoveries, (3d edit.,) pp. 11, 12.

[149] Billings’s Expedition, p. 275.

[150] Voyages and Travels, Vol. II. pp. 66, 73-75.

[151] Journal, Vol. XXII. p. 120.

[152] Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, Vol. XXII. p. 120.

[153] Voyage, Tom. I. p. 256.

[154] Wrangell, Nachrichten über die Russischen Besitzungen, pp. 23, 24. Wappäus, Geographie, p. 302.

[155] Journey round the World, Vol. I. pp. 221, 222.

[156] Richardson, Fauna Boreali-Americana, Part I. p. 94.

[157] Ibid., pp. 94, 95.

[158] Voyage, Vol. II. p. 293.

[159] Voyages and Travels, Vol. II. p. 74.

[160] Rymer, Fœdera, Vol. XX. p. 231.

[161] Journey round the World, Vol. I. p. 222.

[162] Voyage, Vol. II. p. 458.

[163] Hakluyt (London, 1599), Vol. I. p. 5.

[164] Voyage, Vol. II. p. 295.

[165] Voyage, Vol. III. p. 294.

[166] Voyage, p. 29.

[167] Voyage, Vol. II. pp. 295, 296.

[168] Voyages, Vol. II. p. 23.

[169] Voyage, Tom. II. p. 190.

[170] Tom. I. pp. lxxiii, seqq.

[171] Müller, Voyages from Asia to America, p. 101.

[172] Russian Discoveries (3d edit.), p. 14.

[173] Voyages from Asia to America, p. 108.

[174] Voyage, Vol. II. p. 357.

[175] Voyages, Vol. I. p. xxvii.

[176] Voyage, Vol. III. p. 151.

[177] Billings’s Expedition, p. 155.

[178] Voyages and Travels, Vol. II. pp. 73, 74.

[179] Voyage, p. 281.

[180] Müller, Voyages from Asia to America, pp. 85, 86.

[181] Levascheff: Coxe’s Russian Discoveries (3d edit.), p. 211.

[182] Voyage, Vol. II. p. 298.

[183] Ibid., p. 320.

[184] Ibid., p. 379.

[185] Ibid., p. 417.

[186] Ibid., p. 432.

[187] Ibid., p. 481.

[188] Voyage, Vol. II. pp. 495, 511.

[189] Voyage, pp. 100-123.

[190] Voyage, pp. 229-241.

[191] Voyages, Vol. I. p. lxv.

[192] Ibid., Vol. II. pp. 29-32.

[193] La Pérouse, Voyage, Introd., Tom. I. p. 333.

[194] Voyage, Tom. II. p. 189.

[195] Voyage, Tom. I. p. 235.

[196] Expedition, p. 161.

[197] Expedition, pp. 181, 182.

[198] Ibid., p. 264.

[199] Voyage, p. 164.

[200] Ibid., p. 239.

[201] Voyages and Travels, Vol. II. p. 33.

[202] Ibid., p. 76.

[203] Ibid., p. 108.

[204] Voyage, p. 53.

[205] Voyage, Tom. I. p. 116.

[206] Ibid., p. 148.

[207] Voyage, Vol. I. p. 85.

[208] Journey round the World, Vol. I. p. 227.

[209] London Philosophical Transactions, 1767, pp. 280, 291. Cuvier, Animal Kingdom, (London, 1827-35,) Vol. X. p. 508.

[210] Voyage, p. 63.

[211] Voyages, Vol. II. p. 23.

[212] Voyage, Vol. I. p. 264.

[213] Geographische Mittheilungen, 1867, p. 120.

[214] Executive Documents, 39th Cong. 1st Sess., H. of R., No. 1, Vol. 2, p. 161.

[215] Voyage, p. 50.

[216] John Adams to Secretary Jay, November 5, 1785: Works, Vol. VIII. p. 339.

[217] Histoire Naturelle des Poissons, Tom. V. p. 429.

[218] Winslow’s Brief Narration: Young’s Chronicles of the Pilgrims, p. 383.

[219] Speech on Conciliation with America, March 22, 1775: Works (Boston, 1865-67), Vol. II. pp. 116-118.

[220] Austin’s Life of Gerry, Vol. I. p. 289.

[221] Secret Journals, Vol. II. pp. 161, 230.

[222] Works of John Adams, Vol. VII. pp. 45, 46.

[223] The Generall Historie of Virginia, New-England, and the Summer Isles, (London, 1626,) p. 248.

[224] Sabine, Report on the Fisheries, p. 174.

[225] Voyage, Vol. II. pp. 505, 506, October, 1778.

[226] The word Alaska was not improved when spelt Alas_h_ka, and the dropping of the letter _h_ in Oon_alaska_ seemed to show the better and more natural spelling. The following communication, more than a year after the Speech, was in answer to an inquiry about the spelling with an _i_, as Al_i_aska, which was adopted by several journals.

“SENATE CHAMBER, May 8, 1868.

“DEAR MR. BARNEY,--I have your note of the 8th in reference to
the spelling of Alaska.

“I think ‘Aliaska’ is a mistake, for which the Coast Survey,
in the first map of this country, are partly responsible. On
inquiry, I found there was no particular authority for this
spelling, and at my suggestion it was altered to Alaska in a
subsequent edition.

“When called to consider the purchase of this territory, I
found that it had the general name of ‘Russian Possessions in
America,’ or ‘Russian America.’ In the event of transfer to the
United States, this was evidently improper. Looking for a name,
my attention was arrested by the designation of the promontory
stretching to the Aleutian Islands, called by Captain Cook,
the first Englishman who visited the region, Alaska, without
an _i_, as the large and neighboring island was called
Oon_alaska_. This is the first time, so far as I am aware,
that the name appears. Though at a later day it was sometimes
written ‘Aliaska,’ it seemed to me that the earlier designation
was historically more just, while in itself a better word. On
this account, at the close of my speech I ventured to propose
it as a name for the whole country.

“While I was doing this in Washington, General Halleck, in San
Francisco, was writing an elaborate letter to the Government
about the new territory, in which he proposed the same name,
with, as I understand, the same spelling.

“Yours truly,

“CHARLES SUMNER.

“HON. HIRAM BARNEY, New York.”

A new edition of the map appeared with the pamphlet edition of the Speech, on which Mr. Hilgard, of the Coast Survey, in a letter dated May 25th, wrote to Mr. Sumner:--

“As this edition will make its first appearance appended to
your speech, I have ventured to put on it the name Alaska,
proposed by you, as I have no doubt it will be generally
adopted.”

[227] Bancroft’s Life of Washington (Worcester, 1807), p. 47.

[228] _Ante_, Vol. XIV. p. 355.

[229] Hon. Charles G. Atherton, Representative from New Hampshire,--author of the resolutions of December 11, 1838, on which was based the notorious 21st Rule of the House, providing that “No petition, memorial, resolution, or other paper, praying the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia or any State or Territory, or the slave-trade between the States or Territories of the United States in which it now exists, shall be received by this House, or entertained in any way whatever.”

[230] Article IV.: United States Statutes at Large, Vol. XV. p. 542.

[231] Article VI.

[232] The allusion to Kentucky drew from Mr. Davis, of that State, some days later, a vehement Philippic, where, among other things, he said: “The Senator from Massachusetts himself has been complicated in the crime of treason” (alluding to his opposition to the Fugitive Slave Bill).… “Massachusetts now is in high feather. Why? She feels conscious and proud that the Constitution of the United States is prostrate at her feet, and that she is leading the whole Radical host of America to execute her wild, oppressive, and unconstitutional behests.… The Senator from Massachusetts pretends to be a statesman, and gets up to speak in this Chamber, not only to the Senate, not only to the people of the United States, but to the legislators and statesmen and publicists of Europe, … as if he fancied himself the autocratic lawgiver of the whole land,--as though he was a great Colossus in wisdom and power, bestriding Government, Constitution, and country.… The people of the South are enslaved; they are enslaved by the usurped power of the Senator from Massachusetts, in part, and he knows it.… If justice could overtake the States of this Union, Massachusetts would be reconstructed and brought to greater shame than even South Carolina. The honorable Senator was almost in an ecstasy, a few days ago, when he foretold the advent of negro Senators into this body. He was jubilant.… We see the fell purpose of the honorable Senator from Massachusetts. We know with what persistence he pursues his objects.” Mr. Sumner, in reply, simply read extracts from speeches by Judge Goodloe, Willard Davis, G. H. Graham, and General Brisbin, all of Kentucky, at a recent celebration, on the 4th of July, at Lexington, in that State.[A]

[A] Congressional Globe, 40th Cong. 1st Sess., July 13, 1867,
pp. 631-633.

[233] See, _ante_, p. 190.

[234] Statutes at Large, Vol. XV. pp. 14-16.

[235] _Ante_, p. 193.

[236] Statutes at Large, Vol. XVI. p. 3.

[237] The Veto of the Third Reconstruction Act.

[238] Statutes at Large, Vol. XV. p. 31.

[239] Statutes at Large, Vol. XV. pp. 263, 264.

[240] The character of the Senate as a court of impeachment was discussed by Mr. Sumner in his Opinion on the Impeachment of President Johnson.

[241] In the Description of England, prefixed to Holinshed’s Chronicles, and dated 1586, one of these gifts is mentioned: “Of the potato and such venerous roots as are brought out of Spaine, Portingale, and the Indies to furnish vp our bankets, I speake not.”