defender of Liberal principles." This we tegrity and supremacy of the Union he lived could not admit, however well we might think to consolidate. Though you may not expect of his talents or his aims. What his ultimate to be Washingtons, each of you should strive principles are or how conservative, time and to be, and might hope to be, like him, an honchance alone can decide. Nor do we know est man, and a good citizen. You may adopt what he or his country would do or be if lib-his golden motto, "that above ourselves, our erated from a foreign yoke. We would be glad country should be dear." And if it shall be to see all men, everywhere, as free and as bles-your fortune to act important parts in coming sed as ourselves. But we ought to know that scenes, remember that popularity is not refew are qualified for the achievement or enjoy-nown, and that notoriety is not fame. Impress ment of those great and peculiar privileges of on your hearts the universal truth that the espopular liberty and equality. Government is teem of wise and honorable men is the conrelative-and that is the best for any people stant shadow of sound principles and honest which is the most suitable to their grade in the acts. And never forget that the magnet alscale of intelligence and virtue. And we know ways pointing to the pole star of duty is not that Hungary is better prepared for dem-thatocratic self-government, than France, Ireland, 'One self-approving hour far outweighs England, Scotland, Poland, Germany or Italy. Whole years of stupid starers and loud But we may confidently assert that a people, properly prepared for free institutions, will, in the congenial season, have them either in form or in substance. Let all who feel it, prudently manifest sympathy for the Magyar race, and let our social hospitality be extended to their exiled leader-our Government may, if it please, offer him an asylum under the flag of our Union; but let us not offer assistance to their cause under the bloody banner of intermeddling war. The best we could now do for him and his doomed country would be to convince them by our own conduct and condition at home, that peace, liberty, justice, and progress are the fruits of such institutions as ours administered on the platform of Washington's principles, precepts, and example.

Fellow-countrymen-are those principles ours? will we observe those precepts ? do we admire that example?

Ladies-though you have no political, you exercise much moral power. If you do not utter, you help to form public opinion. As citizens you have, in your sphere, rights to preserve and duties to perform: and mothers in a republic are missionaries of order and truth. The characters of their children, moulded under their plastic tutelage, will make them either a blessing or a curse to their country.

huzzas."

This conscientious sentiment was .the mentor of Washington.

All that was mortal of that rare man has crumbled into dust, and reposes in solemn silence on the banks of the majestic Potomac almost in sight of the Metropolitan city of his

own name.

But if, as the wisest men believe, his spirit is still conscious of the affairs of earth, he feels anxious concern for the welfare of the country of his cradle and his grave, and for the sucIt would not therefore, be either impious or cess of the free institutions he helped to found. irrational to imagine that, this day, he looks down with emotion on the millions of freemen whose grateful hearts are pouring out offerings to his memory-and would address them in something like the following manner:

"Children of the Pilgrim Fathers, and citizens of the promised land-Listen, once more, to the counsels of a departed friend who devoted his earthly life to the cause of civil and religious liberty, and whose memory, therefore, you this day honor. It was his fortune to be born in America, when a comparative wilderness under the dominion of England. He lived to see his countrymen free and independent, and united in a political Then, mothers of America, hold up before brotherhood, as one and the same people. your nurseling sons the life of Washington. That independence he helped to achieve-that teach them his principles-impress on their Union he helped to establish. They are ininfant hearts the excellence of his parting ad-dissoluble companions-neither can peacefully dress to his countrymen-and point them to the light of his beautiful example. This may historic truth is inscribed on the tombs of all or prosperously exist without the other. be the best you can do for them, next to teach-buried republics and confederations of sover

ing them the word of God.

This

over all such interests at home as are not con

Young gentlemen of Transylvania Law De.eigns. To maintain Liberty and Union, it partment at whose request this faddress is was indispensable to establish a National Gordelivered-having come here to study juris-ernment, vested by the people of the United prudence, it is peculiarly your duty to become States with exclusive power over all common thoroughly imbued with the principles of your concerns abroad, and with supreme authority country's organic institutions. Do you now understand them as Washington did?-Defined to the people of a State. Convinced by consider the National Constitution as he did fearful experience of the necessity of such a when he signed it as President of the Federal Government, the people of the States, then Convention, and as it was illustrated by him federal, voluntarily surrendered the requisite while he was President of the United States? portions of their independent sovereignty, and If you do, you are prepared with the best transferred all that mass of power to a comarmour for defending, to the uttermost, the in-prehensive National Government, constructed

by the Constitution of the United States, of as being consistent with the spirit, the object, which they alone could have authoritatively the provisions, or the supremacy of your great established. With less power than what was National theater.

thus granted, and without inherent and Like the Mosaic Economy-according to paramount authority to uphold and en- which, each of the Twelve Tribes exercised force it, the harmony, justice, or even exis- local Government under the supervision and tence of the Union could not have been long ultimate control, as to all national interests, of maintained. No power was delegated to the the National Government, just as families, and General Government except what the guardian hundreds and thousands, exercised subordinate of the Union should possess for preserving sovereignty in each tribe-each State in your peace and promoting "the common welfare" Union possesses a local sovereignty for reguof the people and of the States. To reclaim lating its own separate interests, and each any essential portion of that national power, county and incorporated city of every State or to object to the full exercise of it, might exercises, subordinately, a more circumscribed frustrate the desirable ends for which it was sovereignty-the Government of the Union entrusted to the constituted organs of all the being the ultimate sovereign, as to every nacitizens of the United States. And to deny tional interest or concern. If in every conflict the ultimate right of the representatives of between the Government of an integral porthe whole Union to decide authoritatively on tion of the Union, and the Government of the delegated powers of the whole, would in- the whole Union, as to their respective spheres volve the absurdity of claiming its inferiority and subjection to each of its integral parts, the practical subordination of which was the purpose of the Constitution, and is required by its declared and necessary supremacy. Without such right the General Government would not be sovereign-for authority to decide on its powers is the distinguishing element of all true and legitimate sovereignty. The depository of the national powers expressly granted has the implied, as well as the declared, right to employ the requisite means for fulfilling the great trust. And the charter should be so construed, and its powers so exercised as to fulfil, as far as may be, the beneficent objects of the grant. Submission to the acts and decisions of the General Government, or relief from them only in a mode prescribed by the compact of the Union, is the civic obligation of every citizen, and of all associations of citiThis is the object of all Constitutional Government; and none could long exist under any other theory or practice.

zens.

of constitutional authority-the former should have concurrent and co-equal sovereign power, any one State might stop the wheels of the General Government, and annul or paralyse any of its delegated powers. This we never intended-and we all thought we had made a Constitution and established a Government which would forever prevent a State from again overruling the United States in any of their acts held to be Constitutional by the Authorities provided by their Constitution for that purpose. This is the vital principle of the Federal Constitution-without it your Union would have no power to preserve its own existence-with it, that Union-the wisest, best cemented, and most hopeful the world ever saw-may last as long as the memory of the Patriots who achieved your Independence, and of the Statesmen who, by adopting its magna charta, did their best to establish your liberties on the Rock of Ages. My valedictory address contains my opinions as to the nature and value of your political Union. I re-endorse it. It was my fortune to be an actor in fra- Representing the people and responsible to ming and adopting the Federal Constitution-them, like the State Governments, there is called a Constitution, because it was made not as much danger of usurpation by the Genby the freemen of the United States as their eral as by a State Government-because the fundamental law, for "consolidating" their former is not so near the affections and felt inUnion, and overruling all opposition, from in- terests of its constituency, and is subject to dividuals or States, to their aggregate power more checks. The tendency of your political and will-and called also Federal, because the system is centrifugal, rather than centripetal. people, in their federal capacity made it, and There is no danger of too much centralization, because, in the same capacity they were still unless it should arise from a corrupt abuse of permitted to act as subordinate sovereignties Executive patronage-it will never result from over their own local concerns. The great ob- Legislative or Judicial encroachment on State ject was to substitute a presiding Government rights. But should it ever approach, resort to over the people of all the States in lieu of a no other than peaceful and constitutional remconfederation of sovereign States, and to endow edies, unless you shall be well satisfied that that Government with all power necessary for revolution will be better for you and the maintaining, against all opposition, its own cause of liberty, than submission. You have authority. Thus universally understood, I never hitherto had cause for that last resort of approved and signed it as President of the oppressed man-and there is but little ground Federal Convention, and, with the same under- for apprehending that you ever will have suffistanding, it was ratified by the people of the cient cause for breaking up a Union which you States. Such an absurdity as a concurrent could never again re-establish on as good sovereignty in the States was not then thought foundations. Its destruction would be an

act of madness. The map of North America -with its rivers, its lakes, its mountains, its seas, its climates, and its soils-points to Union. Its population-of common origin, common language, common faith, common history, common name, and common gloryinvites to Union; the blessings it has conferred, and the history of all confederations demonstrate the value of the principle of your Union; and the memories of the past, the enjoyments of the present, and the hopes of the future, consecrate that Union as cemented with the blood and constructed by the wisdom of your revolutionary fathers. Under its auspices you have grown and prospered beyond exampleyour will rules from the Northern Lakes to the, Gulf of Mexico, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean-every citizen is a sovereign in his sphere, and every freeman is as free and secure as he could be under any good government-your progress and improvement are the wonder of the age, and you are already the light of the civilized world. Be grateful for those unequalled blessings, and cling to your Union as the ark of their and your safety. Let him who is not content with it remember the illustrative fable of the members of the human body, complaining of the stomach as monopolizing and rapacious, and on that delusive egotism, proposing to destroy the source of their nourishment and health.

Forcible resistance to the authorities of the Constitution is not a political right-successful resistance by force would therefore be revolution-and unless the result should be an aggregate blessing, it would be treason to your Constitution-treason to the genius of liberty -treason to the memory of your predecessors -treason to the hopes of your posterity, and treason to all mankind.

Whoever shall attempt such manifold and sacriligious treason, would deserve eternal infamy. But go on as hitherto, and there will be no danger. Cherish your own boundless resources of matter and mind. Improve your country-encourage fraternity and intelligence by arteries of circulation throughout your land-educate all your children-cultivate their bodies, their minds, and their morals-indoctrinate them in the benign principles of a rational and charitable christianity -acquaint them early with the true principles and history of your institutions-attend to your own concerns-abstain from officious interference with those of other nations-elect your best and ablest men to all places of public trust-never become parasites or placemen, or sycophants of rich men-countenance virtue, and frown on vice, in whatever habiliments they may be clad-uphold the law as the shield of the weak and the sanctuary of

the innocent-love your country and your kind-and steadfastly maintain your blessed Union and all its vital powers and functionsand then the close of this century will exhibit to the admiration of good men and angels, and to the terror of bad men and demons, one hundred millions of freemen, of the Caucasian race, on the continent of North America, far ahead of all other people in privileges and enjoyments, and blessed with institutions more rational, laws more just, and a country more beautiful than any on which the sun will then shine-then "American" will be the most honored of national names-Liberty the most cherished of earthly possessions and all things may be ready for the dawn of millennial light and peace; and then, too-though last, not least-American principles and the English language Americanised will be understood and admired, if not adopted, wherever christianity has a templo, science a monument, or Liberty an altar on the footstool of God."

Fellow-citizens of the United States, if we of this generation will follow these counsels, this patriotic vision will become historic truth. But, if we discard the principles or neglect the precepts of the tutelar genius of our country, we must expect that the doom of all fallen republics will, at no distant day, become our unhappy destiny. Shall this doleful tale ever be told of the countrymen of Washington, of Franklin, of Hamilton, of Jefferson, of Madison, of John Marshall, of Webster, of Clay? Shall they, by their apostacy from the faith of their fathers, verify the predictions of the foes of self-government, and, by their degeneracy and recreance, blast the best, and perhaps the last, hope of the friends of equal right? Shall they, unmindful of their own dignity and of the history of ages past, yield themselves up to selfish demagogues-surren der the glorious name of American-cast lots for the vestments of Washington-crucify his name, and scatter his ashes to the senseless winds? Forbid it reason--forbid it libertyforbid it our household gods-forbid it heaven. No-this must not, cannot be our ignoble fate. The age, with its cheering tokens, points to a far nobler future. Under a benignant Providence, we have cause to hope, that our course will continue onward and upward until man shall reach his ultimate state of sublunary dignity.

Then let us live in the trust that the all-wise Creator of our race-who guided the pilgrim band from the old to the new world, and has, thus far, signalized their adopted country with peculiar blessings-will still guide us in the pathway of duty and bless the great mission of liberty and light to this Land of Promise

PRELECTION,

The following judicial opinion on important Constitutional questions; and the following Briefs in the Supreme Court of the United States, and petition for a re-hearing in the Appellate Court of Kentucky, contain matter deemed useful and rather peculiar; and are therefore herein re-published for more general circulation.

M. W. DICKEY, against The Maysville, Washington, Paris and Lexington

Turnpike Road Company.

[Messrs. Robinson and Johnson for appellant: Mr. Owsley for appellee.]

FROM THE CIRCUIT COURT OF MASON COUNTY.

Chief-Justice Robertson Delivered the Opinion of the Court.

Having been constructed by an association THE only question presented for consideration in this case, is whether Milus W. Dickey, of individuals incorporated into a private body as the contractor for carrying the United States' politic by an act of the Kentucky Legislature, Mail from Maysville to Lexington, in this which gave the corporation the right to charge State, has the right, in execution of his en- tolls according to a prescribed scale, in congagement, to transport the mail in stage sideration of the appropriation of its own funds coaches on the turnpike road between those to the construction of the road for the public termini, without paying, to the use of the benefit-the turnpike road from Maysville to Turnpike Company, the rate of tollage exac- Lexington should be deemed private property, ted by it, under the authority of its charter, so far as the value of the franchise and the from other persons for the transit of their hor-right to preseve it, as conferred by the charter ses and carriages.

wherever Congress should elect to carry it, no more nor otherwise than it obstructed or impaired the right of every freeman to travel on any public way he might choose thus to use..

in the nature of a contract, may be concerned. All national power should belong exclusive- And therefore, the public-whether it be Kenly to the general or national government. tucky or the United States-can have no conAnd, as nothing can be more national than stitutional right to use the road without conthe regular and certain diffusion of intelligence tributing, to its reparation and preservation, among the people of the United States through either a just compensation for the use, or the the medium of the public mail, therefore, the rate of tollage prescribed by the corporation power "to establish post offices and post under the sanction of its charter. By authorroads" is expressly delegated by the federalizing the company to exact a fixed compensaconstitution to the Congress of the United for the use of the road, the charter interfered States; and that power being necessarily ex-with or impaired the power to carry the mail clusive, plenary, and supreme, no State can constitutionally do, or authorise to be done, any act which may frustrate, counteract, or impair, the proper and effectual exercise of it Had Congress designated this road as the by national authority. From these axiomatic truths it follows, as a plain corollary, that the mail route from Maysville to Lexington, the general government has the unquestionable right to use it as such would have been subject right to transport the national mail whenever to the condition of paying either a just comand wherever the National Congress, in the pensation, or the toll which every citizen is constitutional exercise of its delegated powers required to pay; for the road would still have shall have prescribed. But full, and exclu-been the property of the corporation, and the sive, and sovereign, as this power must be burthen of repairing it, when dilapidated by admitted to be, it is not unlimited. It cannot the horses and coaches of the mail contractor, appropriate private property to public use would have devolved on the stockholders. without either the consent of the owner, There is no restriction, as to locality, on the or the payment of a just compensation for the federal power to establish post offices and But the right to use private propthe property or for the use of it. If the post roads. general government may constitutionally use erey for a mail route, as for any other national a private way, or establish a post road through purpose, being qualified by the constitutional the lands, or a post office in the house of a condition that a just compensation be made private person, any person whose property for the use unless the owner shall voluntarily shall be thus taken or used for public benefit, waive it, the power to establish post offices may lawfully demand a just compensation for and post roads wherever Congress deem it exthe property, or for the use of it; the federal pedient to establish them, though exclusive constitntion expressly secures it to him by in- and supreme, does not, therefore, imply an terdicting the appropriation of private property authority to take or to use, for that purpose, to public use, without the owner's consent, or the land or the house of a citizen, or the railjust compensation. road or McAdamised road, of associated citi