productive. Come, children of sorrow! you on whom the Old World frowns; crowd fearlessly to the forests; plant your homes in confidence, for the country watches over you; your children grow around you as hostages, and the wilderness, at your bidding, surrenders its grandeur of useless luxuriance to the beauty and loveliness of culture. Yet, beautiful and lovely as is this scene, it still by far falls short of the ideal which lived in the affections of Jackson. His heart was ever with the pioneer; his policy ever favoured the diffusion of independent freeholds throughout the labouring classes of our land.

It would be a sin against the occasion, were I to omit to commemorate the deep devotedness of Jackson to the cause and to the rights of labour. It was for the welfare of the labouring classes that he defied all the storms of political hostility. He longed to secure to labour the fruits of its own industry; and he unceasingly opposed every system which tended to lessen their reward, or which exposed them to be defrauded of their dues. The labourers may bend over his grave with affectionate sorrow; for never, in the tide of time, did a statesman exist more heartily resolved to protect them in their rights, and to advance their happiness. For their benefit, he opposed partial legislation; for their benefit, he resisted all artificial methods of controlling labour, and subjecting it to capital. It was for their benefit that he loved freedom in all its forms-freedom of the individual in personal independence, freedom of the states as separate sovereignties. He never would listen to counsels which tended to the centralization of power. The true American system presupposes the diffusion of freedomorganized life in all the parts of the American body politic, as there is organized life in every part of the human system. Jackson was deaf to every counsel which sought to subject general labour to a central will. His vindication of the just principles of the constitution derived its sublimity from his deep conviction that this strict construction is required by the lasting welfare of the great labouring classes of the United States.

To this end, Jackson revived the tribunicial power of the veto, and exerted it against the decisive action of both branches of Congress, against the votes, the wishes, the entreaties of personal and political friends. "Show me," was his reply to them, "show me an express clause in the constitution authorizing Congress to take the business of state legislatures out of their hands." "You will ruin us all," cried a firm partisan friend, "you will ruin your party and your own prospects." "Providence," answered Jackson, "will take care of me;" and he persevered.

In proceeding to discharge the debt of the United States—a measure thoroughly American-Jackson followed the example of his predecessors; but he followed it with the full consciousness that

he was rescuing the country from the artificial system of finance which had prevailed throughout the world; and with him it formed a part of a system by which American legislation was to separate itself more and more effectually from European precedents, and develope itself more and more, according to the vital principles of our political existence.

The discharge of the debt brought with it, of necessity, a great reduction of the public burdens, and brought, of necessity, into view, the question, how far America should follow, of choice, the old restrictive system of high duties, under which Europe had pressed America; or how far she should rely on her own freedom and enterprise and power, defying the competition, and seeking the markets, and receiving the products of the world.

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The mind of Jackson, on this subject, reasoned clearly, and without passion. In the abuses of the system of revenue by excessive imposts, he saw evils which the public mind would remedy; and, inclining with the whole might of his energetic nature to the side of revenue duties, he made his earnest but tranquil appeal to the judgment of the people.

The portions of country that suffered most severely from a system of legislation, which, in its extreme character as it then existed, is now universally acknowledged to have been unequal and unjust, were less tranquil; and rallying on the doctrines of freedom, which made our government a limited one, they saw in the oppressive acts an assumption of power which was nugatory, because it was exercised, as they held, without authority from the people.

The contest that ensued was the most momentous in our annals. The greatest minds of America engaged in the discussion. Eloquence never achieved sublimer triumphs in the American Senate, than on those occasions. The country became deeply divided; and the antagonist elements were arrayed against each other under forms of clashing authority, menacing civil war; the freedom of the several states was invoked against the power of the United States; and under the organization of a state in convention, the reserved rights of the people were summoned to display their energy, and balance the authority and neutralize the legislation of the central government. The states were agitated with prolonged excitement; the friends of freedom throughout the world looked on with divided sympathies, praying that the union of the states might be perpetual, and also that the commerce of the world might be free.

Fortunately for the country, and fortunately for mankind, Andrew Jackson was at the helm of state, the representative of the principles that were to allay excitement, and to restore the hopes of peace and freedom. By nature, by impulse, by education, by conviction, a friend to personal freedom-by education, political

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sympathies, and the fixed habit of his mind, a friend to the rights of the states-unwilling that the liberty of the states should be trampled under foot-unwilling that the constitution should lose its vigour or be impaired, he rallied for the constitution: and in its name he published to the world, "THE UNION: IT MUST BE PRESERVED." The words were a spell to hush evil passion, and to remove oppression. Under his guiding influence, the favoured interests, which had struggled to perpetuate unjust legislation, yielded to the voice of moderation and reform; and every mind that had for a moment contemplated a rupture of the states, discarded it for The whole influence of the past was invoked in favour of the constitution; from the council chambers of the fathers who moulded our institutions-from the hall where American independence was declared, the clear, loud cry was uttered-" The Union : it must be preserved." From every battle-field of the Revolution -from Lexington and Bunker-Hill-from Saratoga and Yorktown -from the fields of Eutaw-from the cane-brakes that sheltered the men of Marion-the repeated, long-prolonged echoes came up"The Union: it must be preserved." From every valley in our land-from every cabin on the pleasant mountain sides-from the ships at our wharves-from the tents of the hunter in our westernmost prairies-from the living minds of the living millions of American freemen-from the thickly coming glories of futurity-the shout went up like the sound of many waters, "The Union: it must be preserved." The friends of the protective system, and they who had denounced the protective system-the statesmen of the north, that had wounded the constitution in their love of centralism-the statesmen of the south, whose minds had carried to its extreme the theory of state rights-all conspired together; all breathed prayers for the perpetuity of the Union. Under the prudent firmness of Jackson-under the mixture of justice and general regard for all interests, the greatest danger to our institutions was turned aside, and mankind was encouraged to believe that our Union, like our freedom, is imperishable.

The moral of the great events of those days is this: that the people can discern right, and will make their way to a knowledge of right; that the whole human mind, and therefore with it the mind of the nation, has a continuous, ever improving existence; that the appeal from the unjust legislation of to-day must be made quietly, earnestly, perseveringly, to the more enlightened collective reason of to-morrow; that submission is due to the popular will, in the confidence that the people, when in error, will amend their doings; that in a popular government, injustice is neither to be established by force, nor to be resisted by force; in a word, that the Union, which was constituted by consent, must be preserved by love.

It rarely falls to the happy lot of a statesman to receive such unanimous applause from the heart of a nation. Duty to the dead demands that, on this occasion, the course of measures should not pass unnoticed, in the progress of which, his vigour of character most clearly appeared, and his conflict with opposing parties was most violent and protracted.

From his home in Tennessee, Jackson came to the presidency resolved to lift American legislation out of the forms of English legislation, and to place our laws on the currency in harmony with the principles of our government. He came to the presidency of the United States resolved to deliver the government from the Bank of the United States, and to restore the regulation of exchanges to the rightful depository of that power-the commerce of the country. He had designed to declare his views on this subject in his inaugural address, but was persuaded to relinquish that purpose, on the ground that it belonged rather to a legislative message. When the period for addressing Congress drew near, it was still urged that to attack the bank would forfeit his popularity and secure his future defeat. "It is not," he answered, "it is not for myself that I care." It was urged that haste was unnecessary, as the bank had still six unexpended years of chartered existence. "I may die," he replied, "before another Congress comes together, and I could not rest quietly in my grave, if I failed to do what I hold so essential to the liberty of my country." And his first annual message announced to the country that the bank was neither constitutional nor expedient. In this he was in advance of the friends about him, in advance of Congress, and in advance of his party. This is no time for the analysis of measures, or the discussion of questions of political economy: on the present occasion, we have to contemplate the character of the man.

Never, from the first moment of his administration to the last, was there a calm in the strife of parties on the subject of the currency; and never, during the whole period, did he recede or falter. Always in advance of his party-always having near him friends who cowered before the hardihood of his courage, he himself, throughout all the contest, was unmoved, from the first suggestion of the unconstitutionality of the bank, to the moment when he himself, first of all, reasoning from the certain tendency of its policy, with singular sagacity predicted to unbelieving friends, the coming insolvency of the institution.

The storm throughout the country rose with unexampled vehemence: his opponents were not satisfied with addressing the public or Congress, or his cabinet; they threw their whole force personally on him. From all parts men pressed around him, urging him, entreating him to bend. Congress was flexible; many of his personal friends faltered; the impetuous swelling wave rolled on, with

out one sufficient obstacle, till it reached his presence; but, as it dashed in its highest fury at his feet, it broke before his firmness. The commanding majesty of his will appalled his opponents and revived his friends. He, himself, had a proud consciousness that his will was indomitable. Standing over the rocks of the Rip Raps, and looking out upon the ocean, "Providence," said he to a friend, "Providence may change my determination; but man no more can do it, than he can remove these Rip Raps, which have resisted the rolling ocean from the beginning of time." And though a panic was spreading through the land, and the whole credit system, as it then existed, was crumbling to pieces and crashing around him, he stood erect, like a massive column, which the heaps of falling ruins could not break, nor bend, nor sway from its fixed foundation.

[At this point Mr. Bancroft turned to address the Mayor of the city of Washington; but, finding him not present, he proceeded.] People of the District of Columbia,—I should fail of a duty on this occasion, if I did not give utterance to your sentiment of gratitude which followed General Jackson into retirement. Dwelling amongst you, he desired your prosperity. This beautiful city, surrounded by heights the most attractive, watered by a river so magnificent, the home of the gentle and the cultivated, not less than the seat of political power-this city, whose site Washington had selected, was dear to his affections; and if he won your grateful attachment by adorning it with monuments of useful architecture, by establishing its credit, and relieving its burdens, he regretted only that he had not the opportunity to have connected himself still more intimately with your prosperity.

As he prepared to take his final leave of the district, the mass of the population of this city, and the masses that had gathered from around, followed his carriage in crowds. All in silence stood near

him, to wish him adieu; and as the cars started, and he displayed his gray hairs, as he lifted his hat in token of farewell, you stood around with heads uncovered, too full of emotion to speak, in solemn silence gazing on him as he departed, never more to be seen in your midst.

Behold the warrior and statesman, his work well done, retired to the Hermitage, to hold converse with his forests, to cultivate his farm, to gather around him hospitably his friends! Who was like HIM? He was still the loadstar of the American people. His fervid thoughts, frankly uttered, still spread the flame of patriotism through the American breast; his counsels were still listened to with reverence; and, almost alone among statesmen, he in his retirement was in harmony with every onward movement of his time. His prevailing influence assisted to sway a neighbouring nation to desire to share our institutions, his ear heard the footsteps