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YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

ENGRAVED JBY T, B. WELCH,

THE LIFE

WILLIAM PINKNEY,

BY HIS NEPHE-W,

THE EEV. WILLIAM PINKNEY, D.D.

" Tanta vis animi, tantos impetus, tantus dolor, oculis, Txiltu, gestn, digito denique isto
tuo, Bignificari solet: tantum est flumen gravissimornm optimorumque verborum, tam
intigrae sententise, tam verae, tam novae, tam sine pigmentis fucoque paerili, ut mihi non solum
ta incendere judicem, sed ipse ardere, videaris. — Cioebo de Obatoeb,
" His opinions had almost acquired the authority of judicial decisions." Bob. Goodloe Habfeb.

NEW-YORK:
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY,
200 BROADWAY.
MDCCCLIII.

7^^o
Entered, according to Act of Congress, -by
D. APPLETON AND COMPANT,
in the Clerk's 0£E.oe of the District Court of the United Statea for the Southem
District of New--i'ork.

TO
THE BAE OF MAEYLAND,
E-7EE EENQ-WNED POR THE ELOQUENCE AND LEAENING OP ITS
ADVOCATES,
THIS WOEK
18 RESPEOTFFLLY DEDICATED
BY THE AUTHOR.

PREFACE.
Maktland has been far more favored by Divine Providence
in her Hst of illustrious sons, and exciting historic incidents,
than by the pen of skilful and enlightened historians or
faithful and competent biographers. This is just matter
of surprise, and good ground of impeachment. Next to
the production of great men, who inscribe their names upon
the monuments of their country's glory, is the energetic
endeavor to hand down to after ages a true and faithful
record of their deeds ; and, what is of greater importance
still (for deeds lose something of their power to fascinate
and charm by the changing scenes of the present moment),
of their intellectual qualities and moral virtues, which are
the true picture of the man, and make up his claim to an
immortality on the earth.
It is no less the duty than the interest of the State to
be jealous of the glory of the past. It is her treasury of
wealth, from which she may draw largely not only for pre
sent exigencies but for fature advancement. The most
illustrious of the historians of Eome thus -wrote : — " Nam
SEepe audivi, 0. Maxumum, P. Scipionem, praeterea civitatis
nostrse prseclaros rkos solitos ita dicere, cum majorum
imagines intuerentur, vehementissume sibi animum ad vir-
tutem accendi. Scilicet, non ceram iUam, neque figuram,

6 preface.
tantam vim in sese habere ; sed memoria rerum gestarum
eam flammam egregiis viris in pectore crescere neque pnus
sedari, quam virtus eorum famam atque gloriam adffiqua-
verit." The very sight of the statues of our ancestors is inspirit
ing, for though in themselves but cold marble, they have a
voice that speaks at once to the heart and hopes of the
young who are grouped around them. But if mere statues
be thus eloquent and instructive, what must be said of the
life-like and life-revealing biography ? If the chisel of the
sculptor, or the pencil of the artist, can accomplish so won
derful a work as the retaining here on the earth the image
of departed worth, what may not the pen of the historian
do? In history we have accomplished much, though not so
much as the rich variety of our material demands ; but in
biography we have scarce made more than our first essay.
Bozman, of old and fragrant memory, has earned just praise
for the facts he has rescued from oblivion ; which, while
they diminish naught from the stirring glories of Plymouth
Eock, show conclusively that a higher Eock, of firmer basis
and more broad protecting shade, was laid in this westem
world by our forefathers in the colonizing of Maryland —
where liberty in higher form pervaded our charter, and a
more enlightened .toleration was secured to the pioneers of
freedom. The gifted historian of Frederick City has added
another flower to our garden of history that wiR never fade.
McMahon, our most illustrious living orator, who wears the
robe of our old renown in great names so gracefuUy, has
given to the country and the world a good pledge of what

PEEFACE. 7
her sons can accomplish in this most difficult field of literary
pursuit. It is deeply to be regretted that his -vigorous pen
has ceased to record the glowing deeds of the past, and
sketch -with those master-strokes the moral beauty and
intellectual grandeur of her sons, whose names and deeds
are inseparably blended with her history. It is to our
shame and disgrace, that the historian is yet alive, patient
iu study, and sHlled in. all that can give force and beauty
to narrative ; and yet that narrative be not completed. It
is a burning reproach that one of the original thirteen sta^g
(whose very first scintillations of liberty were the solace and
consolation of the oppressed, and whose peculiar brilliancy
was always meekly blended -with that of the blazing galaxy)
is not yet fixed in the firmament of history. We sincerely
hope that the day is not far distant, when the pen of
McMahon shall once more recall to mind the fact that Eome
had her Livy ; and enable us, -with the modesty of truth,
to say that Maryland may exultingly point to hers.
But in biography what have we done ? With the ex
ception of Wirt's Life, by Kennedy, the hand of strangers
has had to write the only lives of our lamented dead ; and
we all know that a stranger cannot so well gather up the
lights and shades of character as those who, famfliarized
¦with the hearth-stones whence are reflected the daily habits
of the daily life, tread the very soil they trod and iUumi
nated with their glory.
We are not ignorant of the difficulties that compass the
path of those who would fain write biography ; nor are we
insensible to the rashness of the undertaking. We have
not the vanity to suppose that we can execute it with such
skill as to disarm criticism and win her approval.

PREFACE.

Ours is a work of peculiar hazard. We foUow in the
steps of one who adorned the repubUc of letters, and illus
trated the virtues that belong to the enUghtened and ac
compUshed American citizen while he Uved ; and, in death,
received the most touching tributes of the admiration of a
sorrowing country — and that too at a time when many of
the most interesting incidents are lost, and some of the
most copious and important -written documents that sur
vived him were tningled in the -wreck. We have studiously
aoUected together aU that has been preserved; and where
we have dra-wn from oral tradition, we have been careful to
test the accuracy of each statement by direct and unim
peachable testimony.
Mr. Pinkney's real character is but Uttle known and
appreciated in the present day. That character we have
endeavored to draw ; and the facts coUated more than sus
tain the justice and accuracy of the portrait. It is not pos
sible to write such a Ufe as would be most edifying and
pleasing. There is not enough of the requisite material.
We had either to adopt the plan selected, or give up the
idea altogether. The altemative was promptly chosen, for
we thought that the faintest sketch would be better than
nothing. In the execution of our work we have had occasion now
and then to re-^iew the opioions and statements of others ;
and, while we have been careful to deal as tenderly as pos
sible -with their motives, we have unflinchingly exposed what
we deemed to be injustice to the memory of the subject of
our memoir. Passages in his life, which were obviously
misunderstood or seemingly misrepresented, have been cleared

PREFACE. 9
up, and his. title tothe admiration and confidence of the
present and future estabUshed, based upon what he was, and
the part he enacted proved him to be. Less than this would
have been gross injustice to his memory— ^a connivance at the
wrong perpetrated. We know that critics have labored
hard to cry down this habit of defending the character ; and
we are fi-ee to admit that there may be vicious extremes to
which it may be pushed ; but, while we -vdndicate the pro
priety of the one, we have been careful to guard against the
other. Against but three classes of assailants have we raised
our voice ; and we have met those, not with the weapons of
argument or declamation, so much as -with stubborn and
incontrovertible facts.
Some may be tempted to charge us -with extravagant
eulogy. We only ask to be judged by our facts. If they
condemn us, we are prepared to plead guilty to the charge
and sue for pardon. If they condemn us not, we may weU
chaUenge the approval of mankind.
It has been said, that he who causes a spire of grass to
grow where none grew before, is a public benefactor. If so,
what shall be said of him who succeeds in setting forth an
iUustrious character in its true Ught. Criticism may sneer
at the style, and denounce the over-estimate of abiUty, which
pursues an aim above its reach. But surely the endeavor
to accompUsh so good a purpose under so many discourage
ments, and amid such a dearth of materials, may well con
found the critic, and shield us from his poisoned shafts.
If those "who discommend -wiU mend" the work, they
will find me the first to ofier them the sincerest tribute of
gratitude ; and may rest assured that none will rejoice more

10 PBEPACB.
iu a faUure, which shaU secure for WilUam Pinkney a
biographer worthy of his fame, than myself.
A number of pubUc and private letters never before incor
porated in a biography, some of them never before pub
lished elsewhere, are now given to the world.
He wrote some most admirable articles, under the sig
nature of " Decius," in favor of Madison's re-election, and
against the pretensions of De Witt Clinton, which I have
endeavored in vain to secure for pubUcation in this work.
They were known to be his by his more intimate friends.

LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.

William Pinkney was born at AnnapoUs in the State of
Maryland on the I7th of March, 1764. The place of his
birth was every way worthy of her iUustrious son. Situated
on the banks of the Severn, girded in by a belt of waters, al
most an island, in fuU view of the noble old Chesapeake,
the paragon of bays ; and surrounded by a scenery richly
variegated, of mingled beauty and sublimity, — ^it is not pos
sible to look out upon this ancient city, even amid the
touching monuments of her decline, without admiration.
She was, at the period of which I speak, the seat of refine
ment, elegance, and taste — the Athens of the New World.
Genius and wealth lend their combined attractions to grace
the legend of her glory. She was also the theatre of stir
ring revolutionary scenes. It was -within her precincts
that the off'ensive and unjust legislation of the mother coun
try met -with a rebuke, full as significant and emphatic as
that which has since given to Boston an immortality of
reno-wn and made her, as it were, the consecrated cradle of
Uberty. Young Pinkney loved and honored this the place
of his birth. Possessed of a soul which was peculiarly
attuned to those nobler feeUngs of our nature which delight
in the thrilling reminiscences and ennobUng associations of
the past ; and more than ordinarily susceptible to the power
of local attachments, he always prided himself upon An
napoUs, the place of his birth. His heart clung to it -with
pecuUar tenacity even amid the beauties of London. Stand-

12 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
ing on the shores of classic Italy, and drinking in, with
every sense, the potent spell that lingers by the spot where
the past so gloriously mingles -with the present, he was
often kno-wn to look over the wide waste of waters, and sigh
that his eye rested not upon the city washed by Chesa
peake's broad waves. To wander by the banks of her rivers,
and survey her exquisite natural scenery, was ever his de
Ught. It was there he fed his strong natural taste for the
beautiful and subUme, and kindled the flame of his bound
less ambition. If those banks had a voice, or those grottoes
were now vocal, they would, doubtless, echo back the stir
ring notes of his youthful eloquence. How he loved An
napoUs and treasured through aU after years the touching
memory of her beauty, may be ascertained from the follow
ing passage of one of his pubUshed letters. r
" In itself the most beautiful, to me the most interesting
spot on earth, I would fain beUeve that it is destined to en
joy the honors of old age, -without its decrepitude.
" There is not a spot of groimd in its neighborhood, which
my memory has not consecrated, and which does not produce
as fancy traces it a thousand retrospections that go directly
to the heart."
Demosthenes was not more proud of Athens nor Cicero
of Eome. Webster was not more proud of Boston than was
William Pinkney of AnnapoUs. And she was pre-eminent
ly worthy of his ardent attachment and exulting pride ; for
in all that can give dignity and honor, the charm of patriot
ism and the fascination of genius to the character of man,
she was at that time most richly endowed.
Mr. Pinkney's ancestors came over from Normandy to
England -with WUliam the Conqueror. His father sprung
from one of the most respectable and ancient families of
Britain ; the same that gave to CaroUna some of her most
brilUant and iUustrious names. It has been sometimes af
firmed that his origin was obscure ; but nothing could be

LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 13
farther removed from the truth. The elder Pinkney emigra
ted to the United States, and located himself at AnnapoUs,
where he Uved in quiet seclusion and Ulustrated the virtues
that adorned his character. He was a hero in spirit, a man
of indomitable moral courage and the highest moral integri
ty, who never sacrificed conscience to expediency, and never
yielded up its dictates but to clear convictions of duty. He
adhered -with a mistaken but honest firmness to the cause
df the mother country, and suff'ered severely the conse
quences of his conscientiousness. Even those who may be
disposed to censure his adherence to the oath he 'had taken
as a subject of the British crown, must admire the sterling
and heroic spirit he displayed, in sacrificing his ease and com
fort and fortune to what he believed to be his duty, and con
fronting, unawed and unappaUed, the -violent outbreaks of
the popular feeling, that branded his conduct as unpatriotic
and disgraceful. He died as he lived, without a stain upon
his honor, the victim of a mistaken sense of duty. The
mother of young Pinkney was a lady of most vigorous un
derstanding and tender sensibilities. Her image was the
guiding star of his destiny. He always spoke of her as the in^
strument, under Providence, of aU that gave him any title to
pubUc confidence and esteem. She watched over his infant
years -with the fondest soUcitude, and aided by her pious
counsel and beautiful example in the development of his
mind and heart. It was his misfortune to lose her fostering
care when but a boy ; and he retained, through aU after-life,
the freshest recoUection of her many virtues and superior in
teUect, and never mentioned her name but -with deepest vener
ation and truest and most heartfelt affection. Poverty was the
portion of his early chUdhood. His father's property con
fiscated by the government, whose infant struggles at once en
Usted his warmest sympathies, he was thrown penniless on the
world. Without money or the patronage money brings with
it, through exertions all his o-wn, the giant resolve to be

14 LIFE OF -WILLIAM PINKNEY.
something and do something to reflect some new lustre on
the city and State of his birth — ^he pushed on in his enter
prising career -with a steadiness and industry, that were the
surest pledge of success.
"Concerning the early education of Mr. Pinkney, there has
been much misapprehension. During the lifetime of his father,
and before his troubles began, no expense was spared in secur
ing for him the best and most skilftil instruction. He was
sent to King William school, a first class academy, founded
in 1696. "It stood on the south side of the State House,
and is said to have been a plain buUding, containing school
rooms and apartments for the teacher and his famUy." At
the time he entered its walls, it was under the government
of a gentleman by the name of Bref-hard, who was a first-
rate scholar and pre-eminently fitted to have charge of youth.
Perceiving the extraordinary abiUties of his young pupil, Mr.
Bref-hard took uncommon pains in imparting to biTn the ru
diments of a first-rate education. He left school about the
age of thirteen — ^but his teacher, conscious of the uncommon
promise of hi^ interesting charge, continued to give him pri
vate lessons at his own house ; and watched with unbounded
interest the development of his mind, as long as he remained
in the country. This gentleman formed for his pupU a warm
personal friendship, which was never afterwards -withdrawn.
That he received a first-rate English education and was weU
grounded in the classics is indisputable ; but it is more than
probable, that his reading in the classics at that early period
was not extensive, as he did not long continue to enjoy those
invaluable privUeges.
This school has been sometimes confounded -with St.
John's CoUege, and therefore that institution has been not
unfrequently regarded as his aUna mater. The misappre
hension no doubt originated in the fact, that the funds
of King WiUiam school were by an act of assembly con
signed in 1785 to St. John's CoUege. The coUege was found-

LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 15
ed in 1784 and opened and dedicated in 1789'; so that the
school may be said truly to have been merged in the coUege.
For St. John's Mr. Pinkney felt a strong attachment.
It was with not less pride than pleasure that he saw her
become the boast and pride of Maryland ; and witnessed her
distinguished success in rewarding the State's Uberal patron
age by returmng to her bosom, sons who were qualified, by
profound and elegant scholarship and high toned manly prin
ciples, to guide and control her future destinies. This ven
erable edifice stiU stands, and fulfils her important mission.
The strong hand of power struck her do-wn in her bright ca
reer, but Mr. Pinkney left his indignant and decisive protest
against the mad poUcy of her foes, by pronouncing the day,
that -witnessed her degradation, the darkest Maryland had
kno-wn. Old St. John's once more enjoys the fostering care
of the State, and prosecutes -with quiet and unobtrusive dig
nity her aUotted work.
Academic instruction was aU, then, that the subject of this
memoir enjoyed. And even in academic groves he was per
mitted to rove but for a few fleeting years. WhUe a resi
dent in London it is weU kno-wn that he employed his leisure
moments in the study of the Latin language and the critical
study of his o-wn. Finding himself far behind the classical
attainments of the prominent men of England, he devoted
time and attention, under the superintendence of a private
tutor, to the renewal of those studies ; and never rested sat
isfied until he had made up aU deficiencies. He became an
admirable Latin scholar, and acquired a knowledge of his
own tongue, singularly accurate and discriminating, rarely
if ever equalled, never exceUed. Unwilling to appear in the
learned and poUte circles of EngUsh scholars ignorant ; and
unwilUng to affect a knowledge he did not possess, he at that
late period put himself to school, and thought it no degrada
tion to assume the attitude of a learner, although the rep
resentative of one of the proudest nations of the world, and

16 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
placed in ahnost constant contact with the most experienced
statesmen and profound jurists of another.
There are many floating traditions, which conspired to
give to his early years the pledge of his future vast renown.
But stUl for the most part, his youth was passed in the
straggles of pride and a lofty aspiration -with the rough and
appalling realities of life, when poverty settles down, Uke
night upon the sea, on the youthful aspirant.
His first thoughts were directed to medicine. He enter
ed the office of Dr. Dorsey and pursued his studies for a
short time.
Discovering that it was an uncongenial pursuit, he very
soon abandoned it for that, which owned him pre-eminent.
Judge Chase, of distinguished memory, was his patron and
his friend. He studied in his office, and received many fa
ciUties in the accompUshment of his desires in this new and
untried field, from that able jurist ; which he lived to repay
in after years to Chase's descendants. In the bright cata
logue of the illustrious men (whose names are stiU the boast
and ornament of the Maryland bar) Pinkney felt the exciting
stimulus for exertion. The field of fame was preoccupied.
Laurels were strewed aU around him in wild proftision, worn
by other brows and kept in unfading lustre by their energetic
efforts. In the splendors of Dulany, her setting luminary
(one of the most remarkable men of his age), and in the
meridian blaze of her Chase and Martin, who were just then
culminating to their zenith, he felt as the sons of genius
ever feel, whose stoppings are in an illuminated pathway,
that those, who would foUow in their steps, must give their
days and nights to study and emulate their greatness by em
ulating their love of labor. He studied for the mastery.
His aim was high from the start, and he never withdrew his
eye from the goal. In the "stmggles of the debating club,
-with his young associates around him (each one doing his
utmost to ecUpse his feUows and -win the palm of ascenden-

LIFE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY. 17
by against aU competitors), Pinkney easily acquired an envia
ble pre-eminence ; and yet he did not dare even then to enjoy
it in ease. He was indefatigable as a student. He studied
the grand principles of the law in the -writings of its pro
foundest and deepest expounders ; and in those earliest strug
gles, where he acquired his training for the more earnest con
flicts of the forum, he poured forth all his powers, and often
extorted praise from the admiring crowd, who were the de
Ughted spectators of those youthful contests.
He was admitted to the bar in 1786. Harford county
was chosen as the arena of his first professional efforts.' She
received and rewarded the young adventurer. She saw his
worth and appreciated it. In April, 1788 (but two years
after his settlement in the county), he was elected a delegate
to the convention of the State of Maryland, which ratified
the constitution of the United States. This -was the begin
ning of his iUustrious public career. Unhappily there is no
record preserved of the debates of that body, and consequent
ly we are not able to determine what part young Pinkney
took in its deUberations, or in what way he signaUzed him
self But the bare privilege of sitting in such a body, and
mingUng in the councUs of the fathers of the Eepublic, and
recording an affirmative vote in the adoption of such an in
strument as the constitution of the United States — the being
consMered by so inteUigent a constituency (among whom he
had been but two years a resident) worthy of so high and
responsible a post, was honor enough and distinction enough
for so young a man. There seems to be, to my mind at least,
a beautiful and appropriate coincidence in the beginning and
the close of Pinkney's career. It opened amid the splendors
of the new formed constitution (that wise substitute for the
impotent and inadequate confederation) ; and it closed in the
very act of giving a last and finishing exhibition of the
truest, safest, profoundest principles of its interpretation.
In October, 1788, he was elected a member of the House
2

18 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
of Delegates. In those days Maryland had cause to be proud
of that body. They were men chosen for their inteUigence,
purity, patriotism, learning and eloquence. He there met
with competition to test the strength of the strongest, and
fire the enthusiasm of the most aspiring. His style of speak
ing is represented by those who were competent to judge,
to have been singularly rich and attractive. With a voice
of uncommon melody apd power, ari elocution beautifuUy
accurate, and action gTaceful and impressive, he held the
listening crowds upon his tongue in rapt astonishment and
wonder. The tradition is stUl alive in Maryland, which
echoes the -wide-spread rumor of his fame ; and those are stUl
Uving, kno-wn to this writer, who heard from competent Ups
the confident prediction of his future pre-eminence.
It was there he raised his voice, iri bold and manly tone,
against the law that would deny to the holder of slaves
the right of manumission. T-wice on the floor of the House,
in speeches of considerable power and fervid eloquence, he
deprecated the insertion of such an odious and despicable
principle in the State's legislation. The sentiments deUver
ed on that occasion were such as did infinite credit to his
heart. They indicated a spirit that shunned not the respon
sibiUty of speaking out its honest opinions and con-victions
of public policy, without reserve or equivocation. But those
opinions and convictions were not iu disloyalty to the Union
or in contravention of the constitution. In advocating the
right of the power to manumit, and holding up to universal
scorn and rebrobation the law that would have laid low that
right, Mr. Pinkney was speaking to Marylanders on a sub
ject exclusively their own. He was addressing himself to the
representatives of a Southern State in relation to an institu
tion purely local, and enforcing the wisdom and propriety of
clemency and moderation in the legislation about to be adopt
ed. I dweU upon this, because the views of Mr. Pinkney
have been singularly misconceived and misrepresented on the

LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 19
floor of the American Senate. His name has been identified
-with modern aboUtionism. The speeches of his youth have
been arrayed against the grand effort in the Missouri compro
mise in the maturity of his years ; with what show of justice
wiU be seen, when we compare the positions in which he stood
in the one case and the other. In the Legislature of Maryland,
he raised his voice against what appeared to him to be cruel
and oppressi-ve legislation, touching an institution aU her
o-wn, -within the express terms and spirit of the coristitution.
He implored Marylanders to do, what it was perfectly com
petent for them to do with their own, in the spirit of an en
Ughtened and elevated humaiuty. There was not one word
uttered against the clear constitutional rights of a sovereign
State of this Union — not one principle advanced that was in
violation of that great constitutional compromise. He was
pleading on Maryland soU -with Marylanders, for the exercise
of a clemency and justice in her legislation, that was per
fectly in consonance -with her constitutional rights and priv
Ueges. He who can discover any sort of affinity between
this earnest remonstrance, addressed to the constitutional
authorities of a sovereign State, and the revolutionary and
inflammatory appeals of abolitionism, which assail constitu
tional prerogatives and war upon State sovereignty, possess
es a power of tracing resemblances between things that are
intrinsicaUy unlike ; and confounds aU the existing and weU
estabUshed distinctions that divide contrarieties from each
other. In the Missouri compromise, on the floor of the Ameri
can Senate, Mr. Pinkney maiatained the right of the State
under the constitution to regulate and control this institution
for itself, and denied the power of Congress to place any re
striction upon a State applying for admission. There is no
antagonism between the views of Mr. Pinkney during any
period of his pubUc career upon this delicate and important
subject. He was too zealous and consistent a supporter of

20 LIFE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY,
the constitution to have ever sanctioned aggression, either of
the States upon the general govemment or the general gov
ernment upon the States. Those who have invoked his
name to the support of principles, that are destructive of the
peace, harmony, and perpetuity of the Union, have done
great injustice to his memory ; and for lack of knowledge or
want of reflection have faUed to distinguish between things
essentiaUy diverse. The perpetration of the injustice is not
so wonderful as the failure to rectify it when pointed out.
At this early period of his professional and legislative
career, he was noted for the careless simplicity of his dress
and manners ; the very opposite of the punctilious and stu
dious elegance and attention to dress, which he acquired in
foreign courts, to avoid singularity, and which he retained to
the close of life.
In 1789 Mr. Pinkney was united to Miss Ann Maria,
daughter of John Eodgers, Esq., of Havre de Grace, and sis
ter of Commodore John Eodgers ; a man of bold, chivalrous
spirit, who never tarnished the flag under which he gaUed,
and lost no opportunity of seeking to plant it in triumph,
whenever he navigated the seas.
Ten chUdren were the fruit of this marriage, all of whom,
with the beautiful and accompUshed kdy who united her
happiness and destiny to his, survived him. Mrs. Pinkney
lived to an honorable old age; and her decUniug years,
though saddened by severe bodUy infirmity, were soothed by
those who best knew her worth, until death gently closed
the scene. She was in early Ufe the picture of health and
feminine beauty. Her easy manner, affabUity of disposition,
and strong vigorous inteUect, eminently qualified her to
adorn the social position she was called to fill, and fitted
her to cheer the anxious careworn pUgrimage of her iUus
trious consort. She paid his memory the most precious trib
ute of affection and respect, and sought and found, in the"

LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY, 21
bosom of her famUy and a few select and tried fiiends, the
solace of her -widowhood.
In 1790 he was elected a member of Congress by the
citizens of his adopted county. His election was contested,
but, after a most powerful and conclusive argument in his
own behalf, ratified and confirmed. He however subsequently
decUned the honor for reasons of a prudential and private
nature. In 1792 he was elected a member of the Executive Council
of Maryland, of which he was for a time the president. This
position of great responsibUity, under the old Constitution,
he fiUed with increasing reputation and ability.
In 1796 he was appointed commissioner to England un
der the seventh article of Jay's treaty in connection with Mr.
Gore. This was a truly honorable appointment, the more
honorable because conferred without soUcitation by the dis
crimination of a Washington, who in his o-wn State was
surrounded by the very stars of the Eepublic, and in the
bestowment of office looked to the quahfications, and refused
to be swayed in his choice by narrow, contracted or local pre
judices ; which alas ! in our day too much influence executive
patronage. Official position adds nothing to the intrinsic
inteUectual power and moral greatness of a man. It only
affords a sphere for the display of the talent, and exhibition
of the high quaUties for rule that are possessed. It does
not enrich or endow. It only developes. But stiU in those
early days it was a sure and unerring indication of talent ;
for office was then conferred, not sought, the reward of dis
tinction, not the price of servile partisanship. The manner
in which he discharged the duties of his high functions during
this embassage is matter of history; and his recorded opinions
are splendid specimens of profound and eloquent argumen
tation, worthy of the country he represented and the distin
guished legal ability that characterized the discussion he
was caUed upon in part to adjudicate. He also rendered

22 LIFE OP -WILLIAM PINKNEY.
most valuable service to the State of Maryland in recovering
800,000 dollars, which was acknowledged in a pubUc vote of
thanks by the Legislature.
Mr. Pinkney's private correspondence during the period
of his absence on this mission is very beautiful and interest
ing. Although much of it has been unhappUy lost, it is in
my power to add a few letters, that have never before graced
the pages of any preceding biography. Dr. Johnson in his •
Ufe of Pope admonishes us that "epistolary intercourse affords
the strongest temptation to fallacy and sophistication," and
scouts the idea that "the true character of men may be
found in their letters." There is doubtless much force and
truth in the views of the venerable Doctor ; but stUl we
incUne to the opinion of another of England's noble writers
" that the comparison of letters, from whatever hand, -will
assist materially in estimating the disposition as weU as the
talents of a writer." A criterion it is ; — ^but one which must
be narrowly watched, entertained with caution, and carefuUy
weighed. In interwea-ving portions of Mr. Pinkney's letters
into this memoir, I do not so much design to Ulustrate
character as to give currency to his -views and reflections on
men and things. A rich variety was put into the hands of
Mr. Wheaton, consisting of letters from England, Naples,
Eussia, and Italy, written to indi-viduals in different parts
of the country and never designed for the perusal of any but
the warm, tried friends of his heart. Of those that were
not pubUshed (among which were some of the most beautiful)
none, that I know of, were returned to his friends. A few
have been received from unexpected quarters ; these -wUl be
read with satisfaction, and leave an increased regret that
the lost cannot be now recovered. There is one noble quality
in those letters, viz., their freedom from haughty egotism and
bitter acrimony. There is no effort at what may be caUed
¦fine writing ; no gush of heart-reveaUng in them. They
are the natural, unaffected, artless interchange of thought;

LIFE "OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 23
To entertain, please and instruct., was his end and aim — to
describe what he saw and felt, was his simple, single-minded
desire. We read -without effort, and rise from the perusal,
charmed -with their natural eloquence, simplicity and beauty.
We Usten to his first impressions of England and her great
and distinguished sons, and find them delivered with freedom,
but in a spirit of friendly criticism. He held the mind of
Pitt in august admiration. He admired Wilberforce ; revered
his character, and secured his warmest friendship and most
unbounded admiration. He duly appreciated the power
and skUl of the Bench and Bar of that great country; and
showed his high respect for parUamentary eloquence by a
patient and unflagging attendance upon its debates.

MR. PINKNEY TO HIS BROTHER JONATHAN.
"London, 2Qih August, 1796.
" Dear' j. ':-^We are now London housekeepers. I found
it would not answer to take lodgings unless we meant to do
penance instead of being comfortable. Our present residence
is merely temporary. I have taken a short lease of a new
house in Upper Guilford-street, No. 5, to which we shall re
move in about six weeks. The situation is airy, genteel,
and convenient enough to the commissioner's office. We are
compeUed to Uve handsomely, to avoid singularity; but our
view is stUl to be as economical as the requisite style of
Uving wiU admit. We do not, and shall not want for the
most respectable and agreeable society. The American
famiUes here are on the most friendly and intimate footing
with us, and we have as many EngUsh acquaintances as we
desire. In short, we may pass our time here (for a few
years to come) with considerable satisfaction — not so happily,
indeed, as at Annapolis, but still with much comfort and
many gratifications. My health is apparently bettered, and
Mrs. P. is e-vidently mending, — but we have not yet had

24 LIFE OF -WILLIAM PINKNEY.
sufficient experience of the cUmate to be able to conjecture
its future effects on us. The chUd continues well.
" Our namesake (the late American Minister) is an amia
ble man. We have been much with him, and have received
from him every possible attention. He unites with an ex
ceUent understanding the most pleasing manners, and is at
once the man of sense and the poUshed gentleman. Every
body speaks well of him, and deservedly. There is no doubt
of our relationship. His famUy came from the North — I
think from Durham, where he teUs me he stUl has relations.
The loss of his wife appears to have affected him deeply, and
has doubtless occasioned his anxiety to return to America.
He leaves us soon, and I am sorry that he does so.
" Yesterday we appointed the fifth commissioner hy lot.
He is an American (Colonel John TrumbuU), and was secre
tary to Mr. Jay, -when envoy at this court. I made the
draft. We all quahfied this moming before the Lord Mayor,
and shaU commence business very soon. Every thing in re
lation to the commission wears ai present a favorable aspect,
and I have now expectations of being able to return to my
friends within a period much shorter than I had ventured to
hope for.
"2d Sept. 1796, P. S.— Your letterof the 2fith June has
just reached me. Be assured that nothing can diminish my
attachment to AnnapoUs. , I have nothing to complain of
from the inhabitants ; on the contrary, they have done me
honor beyond my merit. I feel the worth of their atten
tions, and shaU never lose the grateful recoUection of them.
They have treated me with flattering and friendly distinc
tions, and I wiU never give them cause to regret it. In a
word, the hope of once more becoming an inhabitant of my
native city forms one of my greatest pleasures. If I cannot
be happy there, I cannot be happy any where. If I were to
settle in any other place, interest, not incUnation, must give
rise to it. I know not where the wish of procuring a com-

LIFE OF -WILLIAM PINKNEY. 25
petence may hereafter fix me ; but if that competence can
be obtained at AnnapoUs, there wiU I labor for it.
"I intended to have written to Mr. James WUliams, but
have been so much interrupted and engaged as not to be able
to do so. Indeed I have no subject for a letter but what is
exhausted in this. His friendly offices on the eve of my
departure, proved the goodness of his heart, and made a deep
impression on mine. Let me be remembered to him in the
warmest terms. I -wUl write to aU my friends in due time,
and in the interim tell them to -write to me — a letter is now
of real value to me.
" Sept. 18th, P. S. — I missed the opportunity of sending
my letter, and do not now know when I shall have another.
" The shooting season began here the 15th inst., but I
have not yet had a gun in hand. I envy Dr, Sheaff the
sport he wiU have in the neighborhood of Annapolis, There
can be none in this country to equal it,
" Adieu : if I keep my letter by me much longer, it wiU
become a volume of postscripts.
" October 14th. — I have just got yours of the 14th Aug.
It is kind in you to write thus often. Persevere in a prac
tice so weU begun, and you wiU obUge me highly. The
commissioners commenced business the 10th inst, I was
presented to the King on Wednesday last at St. James's.
It was necessary, and I am glad it was, for while I am here
I wish to see as much as possible. I was in the House of
Lords at the opening of Parliament, and heard his majesty
deUver his speech ; but I was not able to hear the debate
upon it in the House of Commons, as I wished to do. I have
attended the theatre pretty often, and have seen all their
great performers. Be assured that we are accustomed in
America to rate their exceUence too high. There is hardly
an exhibition in London which report does not exaggerate to
us. I was led to expect more than I have been able to find.
There are subjects, however, upon which I have not been

26 LIFE OF -WILLIAM PINKNEY.
disappointed ; the beauty and flourishing appearance of the
country — the exceUence of the roads — the extent and perfec
tion of their various manufactures — the enormous stock of
indi-vidual wealth which to-wn and country exhibits, &c., &c,,
cannot be too strongly anticipated,"

MR, PINKNEY TO THE HON. VANZ MURRY.
LoNDOK, February ^tli, \*l%^,
" My Dear Sir : — I thank you for requesting to hear
from me, but did npt intend to wait for such a request. I
wished to feel a Uttle at home before I troubled you -with a
letter — and a stranger in London continues a stranger for
some time. I find it difficult, even now, to accommodate
myself to a world in aU respects new to me. My habits
were at variance -with a London Ufe, and habits contracted at
an early period, and long cherished, are stubborn things^ I
have, however, made a virtue of necessity, and struggled with
considerable industry to like what I must submit to whether
I like it or not. StUl I cannot look back upon my own
country without strong regrets. Absence has consecrated
and sweUed into importance the veriest trifles I have left be
hind me. You have doubtless experienced this enthusiastic
retrospect, and know with what soft and mellow colorings
imagination paints the past in a situation Uke mine, and
how the visionary picture indisposes one to the scenes of the
moment. Upon the whole, however (when I can keep down
this picture drawing propensity), I manage better than I ex
pected. I have found here those -whom it would be want of
UberaUty not to esteem. I have found much to amuse and
more to instruct me.
" Our circle of acquaintance is a pleasant one, and as
extensive as we wish it ; and if I did not find some friends^
too, in such a place as London, I should be afraid that I did

LIFE OF -WILLIAM PINKNEY. 27
not deserve any. In short, my time passes agreeably, though
not so happily as in Maryland : my fancy is more amused
and my understanding more -widely occupied, but the heart
is not so much interested.
" It is the misfortune of almost aU traveUers, that they
set out with expectations so extravagant that their gratifica
tion is absolutely impossible. This was in great measure
my case, and the consequence has been frequent disappoint
ment. I presume it is to be attributed to my too sanguine
anticipation, that I have seen Mrs, Siddons in her most
favorite character without emotion or approbation — ^that I
have heard Mr. Fox on the most interesting and weighty
subjects, without discovering that he is an orator — that I
have heard Mr, Grey on the same occasions, without thinking
biTin above mediocrity — ^in short, that I have seen and heard
much that I was told I shoiUd admire, without admiring it
at aU, Mr, Pitt rudeed has not disappointed me. He is
truly a wonderful man. I never heard so clear and masterly
a reasoner, or a more effectual declaimer. They have all
one fault, however. They do not understand the power
which may be given to the human voice by tones and modu
lations. In consequence of our public character. Gore and
myself are aUowed to sit under the gallery of the House of
Commons — a pri-vUege of which you wiU suppose I do not
omit to avaU myself — 1 could sit there for ever to Usten to
Mr. Pitt. In argument he is beyond example correct and
perspicuous — and in declamation energetic and commanding.
His style might serve as a model of classical elegance, and
has no defect, unless it be that it is sometimes overloaded
with parentheses. You have seen and heard him, and there
fore need not be told that his manner is against him — that
his voice is fuU and impressive and his articulation unusuaUy
distinct. I thought at first that his pronunciation was too
precise and analytic. It is, in fact, a sort of spelling pro
nunciation, that gives unnecessary body and importance to

28 LIFE OF -WILLIAM PINKNEY,
every syllable ; but I am now familiarized to this scholastic
particularity, and hardly feel its impropriety, I observe that
he, as weU as Mr. Fox, closes his periods -with a cadence
unknown in America. I think it unmusical and harsh. It
is, however, so completely fashionable, that you meet with it
even in Westminster HaU. Of Mr. Fox, I think that he
has a vigorous mind — ^but that he is a speaker in spite of
nature and Ms stars. He is, notwithstanding, generaUy pow
erful in debate. I have heard Mr. Erskine once — ^in the
House of Commons. I thought nothing of him, but I am
assured by good judges that at the Bar he is formidable, and
indeed eloquent, although he makes no figure in parUament,
I do not understand this — ^but I know one half of the fact to
be true in Mr, Erskine's case,
" Mr. Secretary Dundas is mediocre. I incline to think
that in America the art of speaMng is more advanced than
any other country. We have, it is true, swarms of praters,
but we have also more (I mean a greater number of) able
speakers than are to be found here or elsewhere. The Bar,
in this country, are sound lawyers, but nothing more. In
America they are something more. Perhaps in all this I
make my estimate a little too petulantly, and -with too much
pride of country about me ; but I am writing to you who
have the same prejudices, and can make aUowance for me.
" You -wUl have heard, before my letter reaches you, of
the wonderful victory obtained by Bonaparte over the fifth
army of the Emperor in Italy — ^23,000 prisoners and 6,000
slain ! It is almost beyond beUef — and we have yet nothing
upon which to ground beUef but the French accounts. They
state, however, the official dispatches of Bonaparte to the
Directory — and there seems to be no reason to doubt them.
If they be true, the fate of Italy is decided. Wurmser,
however, stiU holds out in Mantua— but it is uncertain
whether Alvinzi succeeded in throwing provisions into the
garrison or not. That Wurmser was in great want of pro-

LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY, 29
visions is certain, and to relieve him in this respect was the
great object of the attack of the Austrians on Bonaparte.
" You wiU also have heard of the attempt by the French
to make a descent on Ireland. The weather defeated it ;
but the greatest part of the vessels sent on this -wUd expedi
tion have returned safe to France. We do not know precise
ly how Mr. Pinkney stands at Paris. He has not been re
ceived, and the papers here state that he is about tp leave
Paris for Amsterdam, to wait the orders of his government ;
but this wants confirmation.
" The Emperor of Eussia seems to embarrass aU the bel
ligerents. An universal pacification is supposed to be his
object. He has much in his power ; and it is fervently to be
-wished that he may make a proper use of his situation.
" Our commission has experienced some unexpected em
barrassments, but the govemment has removed them in a
way highly honorable and satisfactory. The king's agent
objected to our jurisdiction in a case — a leading feature of
which was that the Lords Commissioners of appeal had af
firmed the original condemnation. When the fifth commis
sioner, Gore, and myself were ready to overrule this objection,
our right to decide upon our own jurisdiction was brought
into question ! The government has said that both points
were against those who started them, and we are now pros
perously under way again. I have no fears of a fair execu
tion of the 7th article by this country.
" This letter is becoming so unreasonably long, that I
-wiU only add that I am in every sense of the word your sin
cere friend.
" P. S. — When you go to Baltimore, if you should have
any curiosity to know the precise nature of the embarrass
ments above aUuded to, Mr. Chase wUl show you an explana
tion of them which I send him by the same vessel which car
ries this ; be good enough to -write to me as often as your
leisure -wUl aUow, Mr. McDonald (one of the commissioners

30 LIFE OF -WILLIAM PINKNEY,
on the part of this government under the 6th article of the
Treaty), who is just on the point of sailing for America, I am
acquainted -with. If you should meet him, I need not
ask you to attend to him when I inform you that he is an
amiable, well-informed gentleman, and carries with him the
best disposition towards our country."

MR. PINKNEY TO HIS BROTHER JONATHAN,
"London, 26th April, 1199.
"Dear J. : — I have received your letter of the 4th of
March, inclosing one for Mr, TrumbuU ; but that of the
17th of AprU, covering a dupUcate of Mr, TrumbuU's letter,
I have not received, Mr, T, has charged me -with his thanks
for your attention, and wOl, I presume, write to you him
seU". " I am grieved by the style of your letter. If I have
neglected you, it has not been from want of affection or for
getfulness of what I owe to your worth, I did not know
that it would be acceptable to you to hear very often or very
fuUy from me ; and if on that account I have sometimes
made you trust to others for tidings of me, and at other
times have -written rather scantUy on subjects that might
have been interesting to you, I ask to be forgiven,
"To say the truth, a long letter of a mere friendly com
plexion is not easily made. It would be idle to give you in
such a letter the news of the moment, for the news would
cease to be so before the letter could reach you ; and I should
fatigue you to death if I were to doom you to read accounts
of London amusements, or of the manner in which I pass my
time. Such details would soon have no novelty to recom
mend them, and would lose all attraction.
" I have seen in this country, and continue to see much
that deserves the attention of him that would be wise or

LIFE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY. 31
happy ; but I would prefer making aU this the subject of
conversation, when Pro-vidence shall permit .us to meet again,
to putting it imperfectly on paper for your perusal when we
are separated. There is not perhaps a more dangerous thing
for him who aims at consistency, or at least the appearance
of it, than to hasten to record irnpressions as they are made
upon his mind by a state of things to which he has not been
accustomed, and to give that record out of his own posses
siou. I have made conclusions here, from time to time, which
I have afterwards discarded as absurd ; and I could wish
that some of these conclusions did not show themselves in
more than one of the letters I have occasionaUy written to
my friends. I have made false estimates of men and things,
and have corrected them as I have been able ; in this there
was nothing to blush for, for who is there that can say he
has not done the same ? But I confess that I do feel some
little regret, when I remember that I have sent a few (though
to say the truth, very feio) of those estimates across the
Atlantic, as indisputably accurate, and have either deceived
those to whom they were sent, or afforded them grounds for
thinking me a precipitate or superficial observer. The con
sciousness of this has indisposed me to a repetition of simi
lar conduct ; and I have desired so to -write in future as to
be able to change Ul-founded opinions without the hazard of
being convicted of capriciousness or foUy. You wiU observe
that I am aU this time endeavoring to make my peace with
you on the score of your complaint of negligence ; but after
aU, I must in great measure rely upon your disposition to
bear with my faults, and to overlook those you cannot fuUy
acquit. I must not, however, omit to state my beUef that you
do not receive aU the letters I send you, and of course that
I appear to you more culpable than I reaUy am,
" I wish I could teU you when I shall be likely to see
you ; although my time passes in a way highly gratifying, I
am anxious to retum. Our acquaintance has lately very

32 LIFE OF -WILLIAM PINKNEY,
much enlarged itself, and our situation is altogether peculiar
ly pleasant for foreigners ; but I sigh now and then for home.
I am told I am considerably altered since I came here, and I
incUne to think there is some foundation for it ; but I shaU
not grow much -wiser or better by a longer stay, I am be
coming famUiar with almost every thing around me, and do
not look out upon Ufe with as much intentness of observa
tion as heretofore, and of course I am now rather confirming
former acquisitions of knowledge than laying in new stores
for the future — I begin to languish for my profession — I want
active employment. The business of the commission does
not occupy me sufficiently, and visiting, &c,, with the aid of
much reading, cannot supply the deficiency. My time is al
ways fiUed in some way or other ; but I think I should be
the better for a speech now and then. Perhaps another
twelvemonth may give me the opportunity of making speeches
till I get tired of them — and tire others too,
" There are some respects in which it may be better that
I should remain here a little longer ; my health, though
greatly mended, is stiU deUcate — I look better than I am ;
and perhaps a summer at Brighton or Cheltenham may make
me stronger. The last winter has been unfavorable to me,
by affecting my stomach severely, and I have at this mo
ment the same affection in a less degree accompanied -with a
considerable headache. I ought to have good health, for I
take pains to acquUe it ; and have even gone so far as to
abandon the use of tobacco, to which I was once a slave. It
is now about eighteen months since I have tasted this per-'
nicious weed; but I did not forbear the use of it solely on
account of my health; I found that it was considered here
as a vulgar habit, which he who desired society must discard."

LIFE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY. 33

MR, PINKNEY TO THE SAME.

"London, Uth February, 1800.
" Dear J, : — It is n^w so long since I have . had a Une
from you that I must conclude l^have been unlucky enough
to give you offence, for which it is necessary I should atone.
What it can be I have no means of conjecturing ; but let it
be what it may, you ought to believe that it has been wholly
accidental. You complained to me some time ago that I was a
negUgent correspondent ; I explained the cause, and asked to
be forgiven. If that explanation did not satisfy you, at
least my prayer of pardon had some claim to be weU receiv
ed, I think I know you so weU that I may venture to be
certain you are not angry -with me for the old reason. There
must be some new ground of exception. Let me know it, I
entreat you, and I -vrUl make amends as far as I am able. I
had indeed hoped that it wojild not be for ordinary matters
that you would forget my claims to your friendship, if not
your affection. I had supposed that you would not Ughtly
have been induced to treat me as a stranger ; and to substi
tute the cold intercourse of ceremony for that of the heart.
Why wiU you aUow me to be disappointed in expectations so
reasonable, and so justly foimded on the natural goodness of
your disposition, and the soundness of your understanding ?
Can you imagine that I do not recoUect how much I am in
debted to your kindness on various occasions, and how strong
is your title to my attachment and respect ? If I have ap
peared to slight your letters by sometimes giving them short
answers, and sometimes delaying to give them any, can you
think so meanly of me as to suppose that therefore I have
not placed a proper value on them and you ? I declare to
God that if you have made this supposition, you have been
unjust both to yourself and me. There is not a person on
earth for whom I have a more warm and sincere regard, nor
3

34 LIFE OF -WILLIAM PINKNEY,
is there one whose correspondence, whUe you permitted It to
last, was more truly grateful to me, I beg you, therefore,
to resume it, and to resume it cordially. But if, after aU,
you are so different from yourself as to persist in regarding
me as one who has no better ties upon you than the rest of
the worid, at least teU me why it is that this must be so,
"Of the late revolution in France and of Bonaparte's
advances to negotiation, with the rejection of these advances,
you wUl have heard before this can reach you. I was pres
ent very lately in the House of Commons at the debate on
the rejection of these overtures. So able and eloquent a
speech as Mr. Pitt's on that occasion I never witnessed. Ex
perience only can decide how far the conduct he vindicated
was wise. Administration have undoubtedly sanguine hopes
of restoring the House of Bourbon ; and prodigious efforts
-wiU be made during the next campaign with that object. I
do not think that this wiU succeed. The co-operation of
Eussia stiU remains equivocal; but even if Eussia should
give aU her strength to the confederacy, it will not have
powet to force upon France the ancient dynasty of that coun
try with aU the consequences inseparable from it. The present
govemment of that Ul-fated nation is a mockery — a rank
usurpation by which political freedom is annihilated ; but it
is a government of energy, and wUl be made yet more so by
an avowed attempt to overturn it by a foreign army in fa
vor of the exiled famUy. This is my opinion ; but the war
in Europe has so often changed its aspect against aU calcula
tion that prophecies about its fature results, are hardly worth
the making. The death of General Washington has ascer
tained how greatly he was every where admired. The pane
gyrics that aU parties here have combined to bestow upon
his character have equaUed those in America.
" P. S. — ^As our commission is at a stand on account of
the disagreements under the American commission, I can
form no guess as to the probable time of my retum. There

LIFE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY, 35
is Uttle prospect, however, of its being very soon. I must be
patient, and am determined to see it out ; but I wish most
ardently tcp revisit my country and my friends. I think it
likely that my brother commissioner. Gore, will take a trip
to America next summer, and come back in the course of
the autumn. I am afraid we shall both have leisure enough ,
for a voyage to the East Indies. I have nothing to do here
but to visit, read, write, and so forth. In this idle course I
certainly grow older and perhaps a little wiser ; but I am
doing nothing to expedite my return.
*' Pray can you make out to send me a box of Spanish
cigars ? If you can, I wiU thank you ; for I find it benefi
cial to smoke a cigar or two before I go to bed. This I do
by stealth, and in a room devoted to that purpose ; for smok
ing here is considered a most ungentlemanlike practice. Hav
ing left off che-wing tobacco, which was prejudicial to me, I
have taken up the habit of smoking to a very limited extent
in Ueu of it ; and as I find it ser-viceable to me, and nobody
knows it, I think I shaU continue it. Eemember me affec
tionately to Ninian, and teU him I mean to -write to him
soon. Mrs. Pinkney hears that WUUam is able to write
something Uke a letter. If this be so, she begs you wiU re
quest Ninian to make him write to her."

MR. PINKNEY TO THE SAMB.
"London, August 21th, 1800,
" Dear J, : I received your letter of the 27th May, while
in the country, and delayed answering it tiU my return to
to-wn. For your good intentions relative to the cigars, I am
much obUged to you, and I heartUy wish it was in my power
to thank you for the cigars themselves, of which I have heard
nothing otherwise than in your letter. Perhaps I may stiU
get them — ^but I have not much hopes. Make my acknowl-

36 LIFE OF -WILLIAM PINKNEY,
edgments to Mr, WUUams for the box you speak of as be^
ing a present from him. As there is no person for whom I
feel a more warm and sincere regard, and upon whose fiiend-
ship I more value myself, you may be assured that this little
proof of his recoUection gives me the greatest pleasure. I
, shaU not easUy forget the many kind attentions I have re
ceived from hun ; nor can I ever be more happy than when
an opportunity shaU occur of showing the sense I entertain
of them,
• " Whether the justification you offer for ceasing to write
to me is a sound one or not, it is not worth whUe to inquire.
You have written at last, and this puts out of the question
aU past omissions. Perhaps we have been both to blame —
or perhaps the fault has been whoUy mine, I -wUl not dis
pute -with you on this point, but I entreat that in future it
may be understood between us that trifles are not to be
aUowed to bring into doubt . our regard for each other, and
that our intercourse is not to be regulated by the rules of a
rigorous ceremony, WhUe I admit what you urge in regard
to my neglect of you, I take leave to enter my protest in
the strongest terms against the general charge made in your
letter that I have neglected several others, in the same way,
I have had no correspondent in America (I have excepted
you) who has not generaUy been in rny debt. The truth is,
my friends have overlooked me iri a strange way, and I have
been compelled to jog their memories more than perhaps I
ought to have done. As to Ninian, you know very weU that
in -writing to you I considered myself as writing to him ; for
I did not imagine it was desirable that I should make two
letters, which should be little more than duplicates, when
one would serve just as weU, But since I have discovered
that Nmian wished me to write to him, I have taken plea
sure in doing so ; and for some time past, I think he has no
cause to complain of me on this score.
"It is my earnest wish to return home without loss o£

LIFE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY, 37
time, and to apply in earnest to my profession for the pur
pose of securing, whUe my faculties are unimpaired, a com
petence for my helpless famUy, For several months past I
have thought of desiring from my govemment to be recalled,
and if the prospect of our resuming our functions does not
greatly change for the better before next spring, I shaU un
doubtedly have recom-se to this step. At present, it is not
practicable to form even a conjecture upon this subject.
We have been stopped by the difficulties that have occurred
under the 6th article of the treaty, and not by any thing
depending on ourselves, or connected -with our own duties,
Tf we had not been thus arrested in our progress, we should
have flnished ere now, or at farthest by Christmas, to the
satisfaction of aU parties. The arrangement under the 6th
article wUl be accompUshed, I am afraid, very slowly, if at
aU; and even when that arrangement shaU be made, the
execution of it wOl demand several years ; and we are not, it
seems, to outstrip the advances it shaU make. Thus it is
probable that I shaU grow old in this country, unless I re
sign. In short, I see very Uttle room to doubt that I shaU
be driven to this expedient. So much for the mismanage
ment and foUy of other people !
" The commission in America has been -wretchedly bun
gled. I am entirely convinced that with discretion and mod
eration a better residt might have been obtained ; be this
as it may, it is time for me to think seriously of revisiting
my country, and of employing myself in a profitable pursuit,
I shaU soon begin to require ease and retirement ; my con
stitution is weak and my health precarious. A few years of
professional labor wiU bring me into the sear and yellow
leaf of life; and if I do not begin speedUy, I shall begin too
late. To commence the world at forty is indeed dreadful ;
but I am used to adverse fortune, and know how to struggle
with it ; my consolations cannot easily desert me — the
consciousness of honorable -views, and the cheering hope

38 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY,
that Providence wUl yet enable me to pass my age in
peace. It is not of smaU importance to me that I shaill go
back to the bar cured of every propensity that could divert
me from business— stronger than when I left it— and, I trust,
somewhat wiser. In regard to legal knowledge, I shaU not
be worse than if I had continued ; I have been a regular and
mdustrious student forthe last two years, and I beUeve my
self to be a much better lawyer than when I arrived in Eng
land, There are other respects, too, m which I hope I have
gained something — ^how much, my friends must judge. But
I am wearying you with prattle about myself, for which I
ask you to excuse me.
" I received Ninian's letter by Mr. Gore, but have not
now time to answer it. I wrote him very lately. Bequest
him to get from Mr, Vanhome the note-book, or note-books
I lent Hm, and to take care of them for me,' In one of my
note-books I made some few reports of General Court and
Chancery decisions. Let it be taken care of When I write
again, I hope to be able to state when it is probable I shaU
have a chance of seeing you. When I do retum, it is my
present intention to settle at AnnapoUs, unless I go to the
federal city. No certainty yet of peace — but I continue to
prophesy (notwithstanding the Emperor of Eussia's troops)
that a continental peace vriiU soon take place. The affair be
tween this country and Denmark wUl probable be settled by
Denmark's yielding the point. I have no opinion of the
armed neutraUty so much talked of. It could do nothing
now, if it were fonned — but I doubt the fact of its forma
tion,"

MR, PINKNEY TO HIS BROTHER NINIAN.
" London, J^uly 2Ut, 1801.
" Dear N. : — Eeport has certainly taken great Uberties
-with my letter to Mr. Thompson. Undoubtedly I have

LIFE OF -WILLIAM PINKNEY. 39
never -written to any person sentiments that go the length
you state. When the contest for President was reduced to
Mr. Jefferson and Mr, Burr, my judgment was fixed that
the former ought to be preferred — and I went so far as to
think that his superiority in every particular that gives a
title to respect and confidence, was so plain and decided as
to leave no room for an impartial and unprejudiced man to
hesitate in giving him his voice. Of course, it is probable
that in reference to the result of this competition, when it was
known, I have expressed myself in some of my letters to my
friends as highly pleased, and that before it was known, I ex
pressed my wishes that the event might be such as it has
been. It is highly probable too that, even before the con
test was brought to this alternative, I have said that, what
ever may have been my -wishes, I felt no alanns at the idea
of Mr. Jefferson's success. I do not remember that I have
said thus much, but I beUeve it to be Ukely, because it would
have been true.
" I have at aU times thought highly of Mr, Jefferson, and
have never been backward to say so. I have never seen, or
fancied I saw, in the perspective of his administration the
calamities and disasters, the anticipation of which has filled
so many with terror and dismay,
" I thought it certain that a change of men would follow
his elevation to power — ^but I did not forbode from it any
such change of measures as would put in hazard the public
happiness, I believed, and do still beUeve him to be too
wise not to comprehend, and too honest not to pursue, the
substantial interests of the United States, which it is in fact
almost impossible to mistake, and which he has every possible
motive to secure and promote. I did not credit the sugges
tions that unworthy prejudices against one nation, or childish
predUection for another, would cause him to commit the
growing prosperity of his country to the chances of a war,
by which much might be lost, but nothing could be gained.

40 LIFE OF -WILLIAM PINKNEY.
except the fruits of petty hostUity and base piUage on the
ocean. I did not credit, and often did not understand, the
vague assertions that he was a disorganizer — an enemy to aU
efficient govemment — a democrat — ^an infidel, &c, &c.
" In the past conduct of Mr, Jefferson, so far as it had
come to my knowledge, I discovered no just foundation for
these assertions — and I am not to be influenced by mere
clamor, from whatsoever quarter it may come. In short, I
never could persuade myself to tremble lest the United
States should find in the presidency of Mr, Jefferson the
evUs which might be expected to flow from a weak or a wicked
government. I am, on the contrary, satisfied that he has
talents, knowledge, integrity, and stake in the country suffir
cient to give us weU-founded confidence, that our affairs wUl
be weU administered so far as shaU depend on him ; although
he may not always perhaps make use of exactly the same
means and agents that our partiaUties or peculiar opinions
might induce us to wish.
" I hope you are deceived as to the possible consequences
of the ensuing State elections. What has Mr. Jefferson's
being President of the United States to do -with your Gen
eral Court, Chancery, &c,.? Without tracing the peril in
which these establishments manifestly are, to the ascendency
of this or that poUtical party in the nation at large, it may
be found in the local interests of the different counties at any
distance from the seat of justice — ^in the interests of the
attorneys who swarm in every part of the State, and in the
House of Delegates— in the plausible and popular nature of
the theory that justice should be brought home to men's
doors, and that it should be cheap, easy, and expeditious— in
the love of change which half the world beUeve to be synon
ymous with improvement— in the disgust of parties who have
lost their cause and their money at AnnapoUs or Easton, and
who imagine they would have done better in the county
court— and in a thousand other causes that a long speech

LIFE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY, 41
only could enumerate. Five years ago your House of Dele
gates voted the aboUtion of the General Court, and yet
Maryland was at that time in high reputation as a federal
State. The Senate, it is true, rejected the biU ; not, howev
er, because they were more federal than the House of Dele
gates, but simply because they had good sense enough to
perceive that the bUl was a very fooUsh affair ; and I have
confidence that your next Senate, whether Mr, Jefferson's
partisans or opposers, wiU manifest the same soundness of
mind and firmness of conduct. I profess I am a good deal
surprised that you at Annapolis, who are interested locaUy,
as weU as generaUy, in preserving the General Court, &c.,
should be so imprudent as to cauSe it to be understood that
you consider the whole of a great and triumphant party in
the State as hostile upon principle to these estabUshments.
For my part I would hold the opposite language, and would
industriously circulate my unalterable conviction that this
was no party question, but such a one as every honest man,
a friend to the prosperity of Maryland, and to the purity of
justice, caimot faU to oppose. By making a party question
of it, you are in greater danger of a defeat than you other
wise would be, because you may give party men inducements
to vote for it who in a diff'erent and more correct view of the
subject might vote the other way. You are on the spot,
however, and must have better means of judging on this
head than I have. No man would lament more sincerely
than I should do, the destraction of what I consider the fair
est omaments of our judicial system. Ifl was among you,
I would spare no honest effort to stem the torrent of innova
tion, which has long been threatening the superior courts,
and win finaUy overthrow them. But I should, not beUeve
that I was promoting my object by putting in array against
me, and insisting on considering and treating as adversaries,
a numerous and zealous body of men with whom I happened

42 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
to differ on some other topic, and who perhaps, if I would al
low them to take their own stations, would be found on my
side." MR. PINKNEY TO THE SAME.
"London, July 21«i, 180S.
" Dear N. : — I received your kind letter of the 31st of
May on yesterday. You had omitted to -write to me for so
great a length of time, that I had despaired of again hearing
from you during my stay in England. Your letter has, of
course, given me more than usual pleasure.
" I offer you my congratulations on your marriage, which
you have now for the first time announced to me. Mrs. P.
desires me also to offer you hers. We both wish you aU the
happiness you can yourself desire.
" It is now certain that I am not to see you this year.
Our commissiori will, however, close next winter, and in AprU
or May, if I live and do weU, I shall undoubtedly be with
you. In the mean time, such insinuations as you mention,
let them come from what quarter they will (and I can form
no conjecture whence they come), can give me no uneasiness.
I am not so inordinately fond of praise as to be disappointed
or provoked, when I am told that there are some who either
do or affect to think less of my capacity than I would have
them. What station you aUude to I am wholly unable to
judge, but I know that I have never solicited any. I am no
office-hunter. Without professing to shun pubUc employ
ment when it seeks me, I can truly say that I disdain to
seek it. My reUance, both for character and fortune, is, un
der Providence, on my profession, to which I shall imme
diately retum, and in the practice of which I do not fear to
silence those insinuators. What I am must soon be seen
and known. The bar is not a place to acquire or preserve a
false or fraudulent reputation for talents ; aud I feel what is

LIFE OF -WILLIAM PINKNEY. 43
I hope, no more than a just and honorable confidence, in
which I may indulge without vanity, that on that theatre I
shall be able to make my depredators acknowledge that they
have undervalued me.
" I shaU mingle too in the poUtics of my country on my
return (I mean as a private citizen only) ; and then I shaU
not faU to give the world an opportunity of judging both of
my head and my heart. Enough of this.
" I have constantly beUeved that America has nothing to
fear from the men now at the head of our affairs — and in
this I think you -wiU soon agree with me, notwithstanding
the interested clamor of their adversaries. Time wiU show
in what hands the pubUc power in America can be most
safety deposited. To that test you -wUl do weU to refer
yourself. In the mean time it appears to be a rational con
fidence that no party can long abuse that power with impu
nity."

MR. PINKNEY TO MB. COOKE.
"London, A^ugvxt 8th, 1803.
" My Dear Sib : — The kindness of your last letter, which
I received about a week ago, and which I shaU long bear in
mind, -wiU not allow me to forego the pleasure of writing you
once more (though but a few lines) during my stay in Eng
land. I say once more, because I trust that early in the spring
I shaU commence my voyage for America, and of course
shall have no inducement to write again. I was entirely
convinced before the receipt of your last, that your letter
of December, on the subject of the Maryland business, was
dictated, as you say, by friendship ; and I not only felt aU
the value of the motive, but thanked you sincerely for the
communication itself.
" I had not heard of your rejection of the appointment to

44 LIFE OF -WILLIAM PINKNEY.
the Court of Appeals, and I am truly sorry that you have
rejected it. Of the circumstances attending the offer, or the
views by which it was either influenced or resisted, I know
nothing ; but I know that the appointment would have been
the best that could have been made ; and I beUeve that the
.pubUc have a right to your services, now that it is no longer
necessary that you should labor for yourself, I have, however,
so much reUance on the correctness of your judgment, that
I must presume you have done right, and that I see only
half the subject,
" I am prepared on my return to find the spirit of party
as high and frenzied as the most turbulent would have it.
I am even prepared to find a bratality in that spirit which
in this country either does nOt exist, or is kept do-wn by the
predominance of a better feeling. I lament with you thait
this is so ; and I wonder that it is so — ^for the American people
are generous, and liberal, and enUghtened. We are not, I
hope, tohave this inordinate zeal, this extravagant fanaticism,
entaUed upon us — although reaUy one might almost suppose
it to be a part of our political creed that internal tranquiUity,
or rather the absence of domestic discord, and a rancorous
contention for power, was incompatible with the health of
the state, and the Uberty of the citizen. I profess to be
temperate in my opinions, and shaU put in my claim to
freedom of conscience ; but when both sides are intolerant,
what hope can 1 have that this claim wiU be respected ? At
the bar I must contrive as well as I can, for I must return
to it. I have no alternative ; and if I had, choice would
carry me back to the profession, I do not desire ofiice, al
though I have no such objections to the present adminis
tration, as, on what are caUed party principles, would induce
me to decline public employment. It is my -wish to be a mere
professional laborer — ^to cultivate my friends and my family,
and to secure an honorable independence before I am over
taken by age and infirmity. My present intention is to fix

LIFE OF -WILLIAM PINKNEY, 45
in Baltimore, where I wiU fiatter myself I shaU find some
who -will not regret my choice of residence, I had imder
stood -with unfeigned concern the severe loss you alude to,
and knew the pain it would occasion. You have, however,
the best of consolations in those whom she has left behind ;
and it is my earnest -wish that they may be long spared to
you, and you to them. In a famUy Uke yours every loss
must be deeply felt ; for none can be taken away without
diminishing the stock of worth and happiness to which each
is so weU calculated to contribute. But you have stUl about
you enough to preserve to life aU that belongs to it of inter
est and value, to which, my dear sir, yOu can add that which
many cannot, the perfect consciousness of ha-ving deserved it.
I beg you to remember me in the most friendly terms to
your sons, and to present our affectionate compliments to
Mrs. Cooke."

MB. PINKNEY TO THE SAME.
"London, Fehr'uary XZth, 1804,
" My DiAR Sir : — Your letter of the 2d of December,
which I received on the 23d of last month, is among the
most pleasing of the many proofs which my long absence
from America has procured me of your valuable friendship.
It is not in my power to manifest by words the sensibility
which such kindness excites in my heart, I must leave it
to time therefore to offer me other means.
"The application to the government of the United
States, for an outfit, was the joint appUcation of Mr, Gore
and myself; and as it was addressed whoUy to the y-wsfo'ce of
the government, and asked no favor, I did not suppose that
it would be proper to endeavor to interest my friends gener
aUy in its success. It seemed to me that this would have
argued a distrast either of the claim itself, or of those to

46 LIFE OF -WILLIAM PINKNEY.
whom it was preferred ; and as I really had the most perfect
confidence in both, I was not disposed to act as if I had none.
Accordingly, I mentioned the subject only to General Smith,
as a Senator of the United States, requesting of him, in case
the President should lay it-before Congress, such explanations
and support as it might seem to him to require, and his view
of it {as a demand of right) would justify. More than this,
I could not prevaU upon myself to do, although I began
several letters to diff erent persons whose good offices I thought
I inight venture to ask. General Smith has answered my
letter, and otherwise acted on this occasion in a way to de
serve my particular thanks. I have no doubt,_ however, that
the claim has been rejected ; and I understand that I am
not Ukely to derive much consolation for this rejection, from
the manner in which our application has been received and
treated. It would not be proper to say more upon a trans
action of which I have at present such scanty knowledge,
and the result of which may not be such as I conjecture it
to be. " General Smith mentions another matter, of which you
also take notice — I mean the desire expressed by some gen
tlemen of Baltimore, who have been benefited by my services
in England, to make me some pecuniary acknowledgment.
My answer, -written in a hurry, and therefore, perhaps, not
exactly what it ought to be, decUnes this proposal, for which,
however, I cannot but be sincerely thankful to those from
whom it proceeds. General Smith -wiU probably show you
my letter, and I should be glad that you would even ask liim
to do so.
"As to the arrangement of a loan, it is Uable, in sub
stance, to aU the objections appUcable to the other, and
consequently inadmissible. I must, therefore, do as weU as
I can -with my o-wn resources — and I have the satisfaction to
know that I shaU leave England with my credit untouched
and in no tradesman's debt. If it -wUl distress me to retum

LIFE OF -WILLIAM PINKNEY. 47
to Maryland, with my large family (as I am not ashamed to con
fess it -wUl), I shaU at least have to sustain me under it, the
consciousness that no vice has contributed to produce it —
that my honor has no stain upon it — and that although it
may be a misfortune to become poor in the public service, it
is no crime. For the rest, I rely upon Pro-vidence and my
own efforts in my profession.
" I am not ashamed, my dear sir, that almost every
word of this letter has myself for its subject ; and I should
be yet more so, if I did not recoUect that it is to you, who
have encouraged me thus to play the egotist. I am not
Ukely, however, to sin in this respect, at least for some time,
as I hope to leave this country in March, for the United
States, and shaU of course be under no temptation to -write
again, even to you.
" The affair of the Maryland stock is in train, and I have
now a fair prospect of settling it (as I hope satisfactorUy)
after much anxiety, vexation and difficulty. A week or
two more wiU, I trust, conclude it. I shaU not make any
communication on this subject to the government of the
United States, or of Maryland, untU I am enabled to say
that the stock has been transferred. Some sacrifice on our
part has been found indispensable — but if -with that sacrifice
the residue can be immediately secured, we ought, in my
opinion, to rejoice. That business closed, I shaU only wait
for a vessel sufficient to accommodate my family, bound to
Baltimore. None has yet offered — and I begin to have some
fears on that score. - I must have patience."

Mr. Pinkney was absent from the United States untU
August, 1804, when he retumed once more to the spot he
most loved on earth, to begin again at the age of forty the
struggles of the forum. He returned however with a mind
enriched with foreign travel, panting to gain fresh laurels,
and stimulated by the master minds of the Law, in the mo-

48 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
ther country, in contact -with whom he had been brought by
the business of his mission. He led a very active life
whUe abroad. He observed every thing worthy of note, and
studied every thing he saw. His society was much sought
by distinguished noblemen and commoners, and it was his
happiness to form some warm friendships, which reUeved the
period of his temporary exUe, He continued to pursue -with
unabated ardor and energy his professional studies, and kept
up his habit of extempore speaking in private. Nothing
was permitted to entice him from this severe mental disci
pUne and labor. With the eye of an intelligent and discrim
inating critic he instituted a comparison between the bar of
England and that of the United States ; — and the compari
son was far from being prejudicial to the rising character of
his countrymen, PrivUeged to sit -within the bar of the
English parUament, he was a constant frequenter of the de
bates of that body; and was therefore quaUfied to form and
express his opinion. He made the most of his circumstan
ces, and appropriated -with consummate skiUaU the benefits of
this close and critical analysis of the legal and parliamentary
mind of England.
By this course of patient appUcation, and constant prac
tice in private of the habit of speaking (kept up and per
severed in, amid the briUiant displays of a ParUament pre
eminently distinguished for oratorical abiUty), he retained
aU his freshness as an advocate, and entered on the re
newal of professional confiict, as though he had not aban
doned for a moment the courts of justice, Baltimore was
the field selected for the re-commencement of his labors. He
no sooner entered upon it than business flowed in, and he
found himself occupied with a practice extremely lucrative.
He took his stand at the head of the Maryland Bar and
won honors in every contest. His arguments enUghtened
the tribunals he addressed, and the courts acknowledged his
supremacy.

LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 49
In 1805 he was appointed Attorney-General of the State.
This office he consented to hold for the benefit of one of his
early and most revered fiiends, between whom and himself
there existed a warm personal attachment. I allude to Mr.
Johnson, who was afterwards the Chancellor of Maryland, a
gentleman of uncommon force '•of intellect and purity of
character — the father of the Hon, Eeverdy Johnson and
John Johnson, the former one of the very first lawyers of
the Union, who as Senator and Attorney-General of the
United States displayed a statesmanUke abUity and profound
legal learning which have won for him a most enviable dis
tinction ; and the latter, the present accompUshed and able
ChanceUor of the State,
III 1806 he was again sent to England to assist Mr. Mon
roe in the adjustment of our difficult and delicate negotia
tions -with that august and mighty nation. This appoint
ment he received from President Jefferson. The mode in
which it was conferred was alike honorable to each. He was
chosen for his pecuUar fitness for the work, and solicited to
accept the trust for the good of the country. In a letter
from Mr. Jefferson (now given to the public for the first
time), in his own beautiful autograph, from which I copy,
dated August 5th, 1809, I find the foUo-wing expUcit lan
guage :
" I am happy in an occasion of expressing to you my
great esteem for you personaUy, and the satisfaction with
which I noted the correctness, both as to matter and manner,
with which you discharged the public duties you were so Mnd
as to undertake at my request,
" I -witnessed too, with pleasure, the esteem -with which
you inspired my successor, then more immediately engaged
in correspondence -with you. Accept the just tribute of
mine also, and of my great respect and consideration."
It is refreshing at this day to look back to the time
when a pubUc trast so delicate and important was assumed,
4

50 LIFE OP -WILLIAM PINKNEY,
as a kind compliance -with the earnest request of the Presi
dent, with whom was lodged the appointing power. Mr.
Pinkney had been abroad. He was at this time in the fuU
flush of professional success, amassing a fortune for his large
and helpless famUy, with nothing to desire but health and
strength to reap the field that was literaUy groaning beneath
the burden of the harvest. He was exactly in the sphere he
most coveted to fill, when the eye of the President was
turned towards him — a President, too, whom he could be
scarcely said to know except by name and a large reputation.
He was called to turn aside once more from the forum, and
the scenes he most loved to contemplate, and the circle of
friends in which he most deUghted ; and embark on a mis
sion that promised nothing but toU and self-sacrifice, tt was
the caU of the country, however, and his patriot heart beat
responsi-ve to it. A kind compliance with the President's
request was the thing asked of him, and the boon was no
sooner asked than granted.
The manner in which he executed this trust, or after
wards fiUed the sole responsibiUties of Minister Plenipoten
tiary to the court of St, James, will be discussed in another
portion of this memoir.
It may be refreshing to pause a moment in our narrative,"
and turn to the correspondence of Mr. Pinkney, and see
what was the state of his mind, his views and feeUngs,' dur
ing this his second embassage to England,

MR, PINKNEY TO HIS BROTHER NINIAN,
"London, AprU 28th, 1808,
" Dear N, : — ^I received a few days ago your very short
letter on a very large sheet of paper, I expected a volume,
and was obUged to put up -with half a dozen lines. This
is not weU. After aU, it is so much clear gain to hear from

LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 61
you ; and, giving you credit for good intentions and a good
stock of affection, I thank you for your letter, which furnish
es much evidence of both, 1 should have been gratified
undoubtedly by a little intelligence about AnnapoUs, the
health of friends, and so forth ; but you will give me all
these in your next letter ; and so we will settle the account.
" I congratulate you on the growth of your daughter.
She is, I doubt not, worthy of aU. your care, and will, I sin
cerely hope and trust, give you many a delightful hour, em
ployed in watching her improvement, and cultivating and
forming her mind and manners : the purest, the most com
pletely unmixed of all our enjoyments ; for even its anxieties
are happiness !
" How does it happen that Jonathan has not written to
me ? It is odd enough that I, who seem to have a host of
fiiends, as kind as heart could wish, when I am in Maryland,
appear to have none the moment I leave it. This is poor
encouragement to travel. I think, if ever I live to get back
to the fontes et fiumina natce, this consideration wUl induce
me to make a vow to quit them no more on any errand
whatever. Even you recollect me only when some striking
event forces me, as it were, upon you ; and Jonathan of
course forgets me, because I keep no cash at the Farmers'
Bank. Notwithstanding aU this, remember me to him in
the most affectionate manner. TeU him I think of him of
ten. Mow I think of him he need not be told.
" I have been more frequently indisposed -within the last
six months, than has been usual -with me. I am, indeed,
just recovered from an attack. Too much employment and
some inquietude may have laid me open to these indisposi
tions. The cUmate does not suit me as weU as it did. I
hope to do better in future ; but these warnings are not to
be sUghted. " You have not mentioned the Govemor in any of your
letters. You must Uke him, I am sure; for he is of a lib-

52 LIFE OF -WILLIAM PINKNEY.
eral, generous temper. I do not meet with your newspapers
as often as I coiUd -wish ; but, from those I have seen, the
Govemor's conduct appears to have been active, spirited, and
judicious on every occasion that has occurred since his first
appointment. It was to have been confidently expected
that it should be so. His principles have always been those
of ardent patriotism ; and his mind, naturaUy strong and
vigorous, has been enUghtened by great experience. In my
letter to him by Mr, Eose (which, as Mr. Eose did not go
to AnnapoUs as he expected, was not perhaps delivered), I
asked to have the pleasure of hearing from him when he
should have a leisure hour which he could not otherwise em
ploy. WiU you take an opportumty of intimating this to
him.? Eemind Mr. H. and Mr. D. of me, TeU them
that they neglect me ; but that I remember them with as
much cordial esteem as ever. Where is my friend, Mr, E. ?
If you shoiUd see him, say to him for me a thousand Mnd
things. Inform Mr. M. that I wrote to him last autumn ;
but fear my letter miscarried. As to Mr. C, he has giveix
me up entirely. There are many other friends of whom I
could speak; but I have not time. There is one, however,
of whom I wUl find time to speak ; and to her I beg you to
say that she shares in aU the regard I feel for you."

MR, PINKNEY TO THE SAME.
"London, A-ugustiSth, 1808,
" Dear N. :— I have had the pleasure to receive your
letter of the 16th of July, and am happy to see that you do
not forget me.
" I should reluctantly quarrel with your domestic fehcity ;
but I might perhaps be m danger of doing so, if it appeared
to engross you so entirely as to leave no leisure for a recoUec
tion now and then of us who are absent.

LIFE OP -WILLIAM PINKNEY. 53
"The letter of which you speak (inclosing one from
Mrs. P.) came safe to hand ; and if it had not, I should
have invented half a dozen apologies for you, I know you
so weU, that, when you appear to neglect me, I am ready to
throw the blame upon fortune, upon accident (who are, I
suspect, the same personages), upon every thing, and every
body, rather than upon you,
" My health has heen rather worse than I wished it ; but
I am now convalescent, A short absence from town (my
famUy are stiU out of town), sea-air and sea-bathing, have
put me up again.
" Such a result of my labors for the public as you would
flatter me -with, would make me, I doubt not, the healthiest
man in England, There is a sort of moral health, however,
which crosses, and difficulties, and disappointments, tend
very much to promote, I must endeavor to console myself
¦with the opinion that I have laid in a good stock of that
whUe I was losing some of the other,
"After aU this phUosophizing, I am half inclined to envy
you the smooth, even tenor of your life. You are every
way happy — at home — abroad. Nothing disturbs your tran-
quilUty farther than to show you the value of it,
" Beloved by your family — ^respected and esteemed every
where — ^your official capacity acknowledged — ^your official
exertions successful — ^what have you to desire ? But I have
been so tossed about in the world, that, although I am as
happy at home as my neighbors, I can hardly be said to have
had a fair and decent share of real quiet. The time may
come, however, when I too shaU be tranquU, and when, freed
from a host of importunate cares, that now keep me com
pany whether I -wUl or not, I may look back upon the way
I have traveUed with a heart at ease, and forward with a
Christian's hope. I suspect I am growing serious when I
meant to be directly the reverse. Thus, indeed, it is with
the great mass of our purposes.

54 LIFE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY,
" I am rejoiced that AnnapoUs holds up its head. In
itself the most beautiful, to me the most interesting spot
on earth, I would fain believe that it is doomed to enjoy the
honors of old age without its decrepitude. There is not a
foot of ground in its neighborhood which my memory has
not consecrated, and which does not produce, as fancy traces
it, a thousand retrospections that go directly to the heart.
It was the scene of our youthful days. What more can be
said ? I would have it to be also the scene of my decUning
years. "TeU Jonathan that I would write to him if I could —
but that I have scarcely leisure for this scrawl. He knows
my affections, and -wiU take the 'will for the deed,' I offer
him, through you, my feUcitations upon the stabihty and
wholesome effects of the Farmers' Bank, Ask him why it
is that I do not hear from him ? AU days are not discount
days, and a man may be cashier of the Bank of England,
and yet have a moment to spare to those who love him. I
beg you to remember me to the Govemor, and to Dr, J,, and
to other fiiends,"

MB, PINKNEY TO MRS. NINIAN PINKNEY,
" London, June 24th, 1809. ,
" My Dear Madam :— If I had not found it impossible
to answer your letter by the return of the Pacific, it would
have been answered. Business occupied my time, and
anxiety my heart, to the last moment. I would have
cheated the last of these tyrants of an hour or two by con
versing with you ; but the first forbade it, and I had no
choice but to submit. Prom this double despotism Iam
now comparatively free, and the use which I make of my
Uberty is to trespass on you with a few Unes,
I shaU not condole -with you on your loss, though I am
able to conjecture how keenly it has been felt.; you have

LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 55
yourself suggested one of the consolations which best support
the good under the hea-viest of all human calamities : We
shall meet again in purity and joy the friends who are every
day faUing around us. There is nothing which more effec
tually cheers the soul in its dark mortal pilgrimage than
this noble confidence ; Ufe would, indeed, be a sad journey
-without it ; the power of death is, in this view, nothing ; it
separates us for a season merely to fit us for a more exalted
and holy communion. I have clung to this thought ever
since I was capable of thinking, and I would not part with
it for worlds ; it has assisted me in many a trial to bear up
against the evU of the horn-, and to shake off in some degree
(for who can boast of having entirely escaped from) the in
fluence of those passions that betray and degrade us. If
I may dare to say so, it gives a new value to immortality,
while it furnishes powerful incentives to virtue. You can
not, I think, have yet met with " Morehead's Discourses."
One of his sermons turns upon the loss of children ; and he
sets forth, -with that eloquence wliich comes warm from the
heart, the softenings which this bitter affliction derives from
reUgion. When you can get the sermon, read it ; in the
mean time, the foUowing short extract wiU please you. It is
exquisitely beautiful ; and the best of our modern Eeviews
has quoted it as a soothing and original suggestion :
" ' We are aU weU aware of the influence of the world. We
know how strongly it engages our thoughts, and debases the
springs of our actions : we aU know how important it is to
have the springs of our minds renewed, and the rust which
gathers over them cleared away. One of the principal ad
vantages, perhaps, which arises from the possession of
chUdren, is, that in their society the simplicity of our nature
is constantly recaUed to our -view ; and that, when we return
from the cares and thoughts of the world into our domestic
circle, we behold beings whose happiness springs from no
false estimates of worldly good, but from the benevolent

56 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
instincts of nature. The same moral advanta,ge is often
derived in a greater degree from the memory of those children
who have left us. Their simple characters dweU upon our
minds with a deeper impression ; their least actions retum
to our thoughts -with more force than if we had it stiU in
our power to witness them ; and they return to us clothed
in that saintly garb which belongs- to the possessors of a
higher existence. We feel that there is now a Unk connect
ing us with a purer and a better scene of beings ; that, a
part of ourselves has gone before us in the bosom of God ;
and that the same happy creatures which here on earth
showed us the simple sources from which happiness springs,
now hover over us, and scatter from their -wings the graces
and beatitudes of eternity.'
" Who can read this passage without feeUng his heart in
unison with it.? It cannot be read -without inspiring a
pleasing melancholy, and lifting the mind beyond the low
contamination of this probationary state, ' to scenes where
love and bUss immortal reign,' "
MB, PINKNEY TO HIS BROTHER NINIAN,
"LoKDON, September 2Sd, 1809.
" Dear N. : — I received, a few days ago, your letter of
the 26th of June. I am obUged to you for the inteUigence
given in a part of it, and stiU more for the kindness and
affection which pervade the whole. A better choice of
Govemor could not, I should think, have been made. It
must have been very agreeable to you, and I congratulate
you upon it accordingly. I have not yet received the letter
which you teU me I am to expect from the Governor and
CouncU. I shaU be happy to do aU in my power to fulfil
their wishes, whatever they may be. WUUam is most for
tunately fixed, and I have the utmost confidence that he will
do weU. If he does otherwise his condemnation wUl be great

life of WILLIAM PINKNEY. 57
indeed. The children who are with me have shpt up at a
prodigious rate, and require much care and expense, Charles,
who is a remarkably promising boy, has finished his prepar
atory course, and is now at Eton, Edward -wUl be placed,
afler Christmas, at the school which Charles has left. The
rest -wUl continue to have masters at home,
" My anxiety to return does not diminish. On the con
trary, it grows upon me, and I find it necessary to wrestle
-with it. You know that I have as many and as strong in
ducements to be contented here as any American could
have ; but England is not Maryland ; and foreign friends^
however great, or numerous, or kind, cannot interest us like
those of our native land, — ^the companions of our early days,
the witnesses and competitors of our first struggles in Ufe,
and the indidgent partakers of our sorrows and our joys ! I
trust that I have as Uttle disposition as any man to repine
at my lot, and I know that I endeavored to form my mind
to a devout and reverential submission to the wUl of God.
Yet I cannot conceal from myself that every day adds some
thing to my cares and nothing to my happiness ; that I am
growing old among strangers ; and that my heart, naturaUy
warm and open, becomes cold by discipline, contracted by
duty, and sluggish from want of exercise. These may be
caUed imaginary Uls ; but there is another, which all the
world -wiU admit to be substantial — I speak to you in confi
dence — ^my salary is found by experience to be far short of
the actual necessities of my situation. It was fixed at its
present rate many years ago, when the style of U-ving and
the prices of articles would not bear a comparison with those
of the present time. I have no right to complain, however ;
and, therefore, I -write this for your own perusal merely."

58 LIFE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY.

THOMAS JEFFERSON TO "WILLIAM PINKNEY.
"Monticello, August 6th, 1809.
"Dear Sie.— The bearer hereof, Mr. Alexander McEae,
and Major John Clarke, proposing to go to Great Britain on
their private concerns, I take the liberty of presenting them
to your notice and patronage. Mr. McEae, a la-wyer of dis
tinction, has been a member of the councU of state of YU-
ginia and Lieutenant-Governor, highly esteemed for his
talents and correctness of principle, moral and political.
Major Clarke was long also in public employ as director of
the armory of tMs State, recommended as such by Ms great
mechamcal ingenuity and personal worth. Any good offices
you may be so Mnd as to render them -wiU be deservedly i
bestowed ; and their knowledge of the present state of our
affairs may enable them to add acceptably to your informa
tion, " I am happy in an occasion of expressing to you my
great esteem for you personally, and the satisfaction with
which I noted the correctness, both as to matter and man
ner, with wMch you discharged the pubUc duties you were
so Mnd as to undertake at my request,
" I witnessed too with pleasure the esteem -with which
you inspired my successor, then more immediately engaged
in correspondence with you. Accept the just tribute of
mine also, and of my great respect and consideration."

MB. PINKNEY TO THOMAS JEFFERSON,
"London, April 30tk, 1810,
" Dear Sir : — It was only a few days ago that I had the
honor to receive your letter of the Sth of August last, by
Mr. McEae. I need not say that I shall be happy to show

LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 59
that gentleman every attention, and to do Mm every service
in my power.
" I cannot express to you how sensibly I feel the kind
ness of the last paragraph of your letter. If any thing could
give new strength to the affectionate sentiments which bind
me to you, it would be the assurance it contains, that in
your retirement you look back with approbation on my
humble endeavors to be usefiU to our country, and that you
honor me with your esteem. I lay claim to no other merit
than that of disinterested zeal in seconding your views for
the pubUc honor and prosperity ; views which I heartUy
approved, and which every day demonstrates the wisdom,
" I smcerely hope that my conduct during the remainder
of my mission (wMch, without utter ruin to my private
affairs, can scarcely be very long) wiU not deprive me of
your good opinion, I am quite sure that it wiU not shake
your confidence m the rectitude of my intentions,
" When I retum to the private situation in wMch you
were so good as to distinguish me, it wUl be in my power to
show as I wish the veneration in wMch I hold your character,
and the impression which your friendly conduct towards me
has made upon my heart,"
Amid the exciting and agitating discussions that were
going on in England, and the often clouded sky of our polit
ical horizon, it is deUghtful to trace the workings of private
friendsMp, and recaU the sentiments of respect with wMch
our Minister inspired those with whom he was brought in
contact. The aUenation of countries, so closely allied to
each other in all that can cement and bind them together,
is exceedingly painful. The aggravatmg perseverance in an
odious and oppressive policy (sanctioned by no principle of
the great international law, on the part of successive admin
istrations of public affairs in England), wMch ultimately
terminated in a disastrous war, is a subject of reflection not

60 LIFE OP -WILLIAM PINKNEY.
less painfdl in the retrospect. But there are evidences of a
Mndliness of feeling, a generosity and magnanimity, wMch
set forth the personal character of those most intimately
connected with such grave discussions in beautiful and
striking contrast, and prove that whUe each was true to
their national claims, they knew how to. adnure and appre
ciate what was personaUy winning and attractive in the
other. The foUowmg letters from WUberforce, the pure-
hearted and eloquent champion of humanity, and Lord Hol
land, the consummate statesman and refined gentleman,
though in themselves but mere expressions of personal re
gard, wiU be read with interest.

FROM LORD HOLLAND TO MB, PINKNEY,
London, June 1st, 1808.
" Dear Sib : — From fear that you might have thought
what I said to you about your boy a mere matter of form, I
-write again to you after I have talked it "over -with Lady
HoUand, to say that if we are to encounter the misfortune of
a war -with America, and upon leaving this country you
should -wish your son to pursue his education here, Lady
Holland and myself beg to assure you, that without the least
inconvenience to us, we can take care of him during the holi
days ; and between them ascertain, that he is going on pro
perly, and give you all the information you would require
upon the progress of his studies, state of his health, &c, I
only entreat you to adopt this plan, if otherwise agreeable
and convement, without scrapie, as I assure you we should
not offer it if we did not feel pleasure in the prospect of its
being accepted,
" I see in the Mormng Chronicle of yesterday the state
ment you gave me in a letter signed Veritas. Where it comes
from I know not, I was preparing to send the statement to
the papers, and it has saved me the trouble,"

LIFE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY. 61

FROM -WILBEREOBCE TO ME. PINKNEY, "March nth, 1811,
" My Dear Sir : — It has been, for above a week past,
my intention to do myself the honor of calUng on you, to
take my chance of obtaimng a conference with you ; but
having always been, and stUl being prevented, may I take the
Uberty of begging the favor of you to appoint a day, when
between 11 and 1 (if you can spare me a few moments be
tween those hours), I may have the honor of a little conver
sation -with you. Indeed, if you should stay in England
longer than I fear you design, I would hope that you might
indulge me -with your company at dinner ; but I am anxious
to secure a Uttle intercourse with you, I cannot lay down
my pen -without expressing (and with no unmeamng words)
my deep concern on the event of your quitting tMs country;
fearing that it has at least a face of declining friendsMp be
tween our two countries, wMch it is one of the fondest desires
of ray heart, as it is recommended by the 'clearest judgment
of my understanding, that they should be umted in the bonds
of close and indissoluble attachment."
Mr. Pinkney returned to the United States in the month
of June, 1811. He was not suffered to continue long in re
tirement ; for in the September foUowing he was elected a
member of the Senate of Maryland. TMs position he oc
cupied but a few months, for in December he was appointed,
by President Madison, Attorney-General of the United
States. This was an office eminently congenial to Ms tastes
and feeUngs. It gave a splendid scope to the pecuUar powers
of Ms mind, and opened up a field of usefulness and of fame
most tempting to behold, and profitable to cultivate and tiU.
There was sometMng too in the manner in wMch it was con
ferred, that was exceedingly gratifying. He had just retumed
from England. His whole pubUc career, wMle at the court

62 LIPE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
of St. James, had passed under the immediate review of Mr,
Madison ; and it was a noble tribute to his worth, to be se
lected almost immediately on his retum to fiU so important
and digmfied a position, in a relationsMp so near to that
wise and great statesman. The manner in which Ms new
duties were discharged is best illustrated by the nught and
majesty of his arguments before the Supreme Court, and the
cogency and convincing power of Ms written legal opinions.
The passage of a law, which made it necessary for the Attor
ney-General to reside at the seat of government, com
pelled Mm to resign the post witMn the short period of two
years. His practice was too lucrative to admit of so great a
sacrifice, and Madison was left to mourn Ms loss to the public
councUs of the nation. TMs necessity was just cause for re
gret. Mr. Pinkney's great industry, methodical mode of
i doing business, and high professional ambition, would have
been productive of most admirable results to the public ser-
-vice ; whUe Ms profound acquaintance with the constitution
and deep legal learning and sMU in diplomacy, would have
made Mm an invaluable aid to the administration, and an
astute defender of the rights of the government.
During the war he was as ready to serve the country in
the field, as he had been to uphold her digmty and maintain
her honor in discussion with English diplomatists. He as
sumed the command of a company, and in the disastrous en
gagement at Bladensburg (where in the judgment of im
partial Mstory our arms -wiU be found to have deserved a
better fate), he was severely wounded. The effects of that
wound he carried with him to the grave.
He wielded his pen with signal success in the defence of
the war, and in a pamphlet over the signature of Publius,
addressed to the people of Maryland, he thus expressed him-
seE

LIPE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY. 63

EXTRACTS FROM A PAMPHLET WRITTEN BY MR, PINKNEY, UN-

" But it is impossible that, in weighing the merits of a
candidate for a seat in the General Assembly, you should be
occupied by considerations which are merely local. You are
bound to give to your inquiries a wider range. You neither
can, nor ought, to shut your eyes to the urgent concerns of
the whole empire, embarked as it is in a conffict with the
determined foe of every nation upon earth sufficiently pros
perous to be envied. Maryland is at aU times an interesting
and conspicuous member of the Umon ; but her relative po
sition is infinitely more important now than in ordinary
seasons. The war is in her waters, and it is waged there
with a wantonness of brUtaUty, which wiU not suffer the
energies of her gaUant population to slumber, or the watch
fulness of her appointed guardians to be intermitted. The
rights for wMch the nation is in arms are of Mgh import to
her as a commercial section of the continent. They cannot
be surrendered or compromised without affecting every vein
and artery of her system ; and if the towering honor of uni
versal America should be made to bow before the sword, or
should be betrayed by an inglorious peace, where will the
,blow be felt -with a sensibUity more exquisite than here in
Maryland !
" It is perfectly true that our State government has not
the prerogative of peace and war ; but it is just as true, that
it can do much to invigorate or enfeeble the national arm for
attack or for defence ; that it may conspire with the legisla
tures of other States to blast the best hopes of peace, by em
barrassing or resisting the efforts by which alone a durable
peace can be achieved ; as it may forward pacific negotiation
by contributing to teach the enemy that we who, when our

64 LIFE OP -WILLIAM PINKNEY,
means were smaU, and our numbers few, rose as one man,
and maintained ourselves victorious against the mere theories
of England, with aU the terrors of EngUsh power before us,
are not now prepared to crouch to less than the same power,
however insolently displayed, and to receive from it in per
petuity an infamous yoke of permcious principles, which had
already galled us untU we could bear it no longer,
"That the war with England is irreproachably just, no
man can doubt who exercises his understanding upon the
question. It is known to the whole world, that when it was
declared, the British Govemment had not retracted or quali
fied any one of those maritime claims which threatened the
ruin of American commerce, and disparaged American sover
eignty. Every constructive blockade, by which our ordinary
commumcation with European or other marts had been in
tercepted, was either perversely maintained, or made to give
place only to a -wider and more comprehensive impediment.
The right of impressment, in its most odious form, continued
to be -vindicated in argument and enforced in practice. The
rule of the war of 1756, against which the voice of all Ame
rica was lifted up in 1805, was stiU preserved, and had only
become inactive because the colonies of France and her alUes
had fallen before the naval power of England. The Orders
in CouncU of 1807 and 1809, which in their motive, principle,
and operation, were utterly incompatible with our existence
as a commercial people, which retaliated with tremendous
effect upon a friend the impotent irregularities of an enemy;
which estabUshed upon the seas a despotic dominion, by
which power and right were confounded, and a system of
monopoly and plunder raised, with a daring contempt of
decency, upon the wreck of neutral prosperity, and pubUc
law ; which even attempted to exact a tribute, under the
name of an impost, from the merchants of this independent
land, for permission to become the slaves and instruments of
that abommable system ; had been adhered to (notwith-

LIPE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY. 65
standing the acknowledged repeal of the Berlin and Milan
decrees in regard to the United States) with an alarming ap
pearance of a fixed and permanent attachment to those very
quaUties wMch fitted them for the work of oppression, and
fiUed us with dismay. Satisfaction, and even explanation,
had been either steadily denied, or contemptuously evaded.
Our complaints had been reiterated till we ourselves blushed
to hear them, and tUl the insolence with wMch they were
received recalled us to some sense of dignity. History does
not furnish an example of such patience under such an ac
cumulation of injuries and insults.
" The Orders in CouncU were indeed provisionally revok
ed a few days after the declaration pf war ; in such a man
ner, however, as to assert their lawfulness, and to make
provision for their revival, whenever the British Govemment
should think fit to say that they ought to be revived. The
distresses of the manufacturing and other classes of British
subjects had, at last, extorted from a bigoted and reluctant
cabinet what had been obstinately refused to the demands of
justice. But the lingering repeal, inadequate and ungracious
as it was, came too late. The Rubicon had been passed.
" ' NotMng is inore to be esteemed than peace ' (I quote
the -wisdom of Polybius), ' when it leaves us in possession of
our honor and rights ; but when it is joined with loss of free
dom, or with infamy, nothing can be more detestable and
fatal.' I speak with just confidence, when I say, that no
federalist can be found who desires with more sincerity the
return of peace than the repubUcan government by which
the war was declared. But it desires such a peace as the
companion and instructor of Scipio has praised — a peace
consistent -vvith our rights and honor, and not the deadly
tranquUUty wMch may be purchased by disgrace, or taken in
barter for the dearest and most essential claims of our trade
and sovereignty. I appeal to you boldly : Are you prepared
to purchase a mere cessation of arms by unqualified submis-
5

QQ LIPE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
sion to the pretensions of England ? Are you prepared tO
sanction them by treaty and entaU them upon your posteri
ty, with the inglorious and timid hope of escaping the wrath
of those whom your fathers discomfited and vanquished ?
Are you prepared, for the sake of a present profit, which the
circumstances of Europe must render paltry and precarious,
to cripple the strong wing of American commerce for years to
come, to take from our flag its national effect and character,
and to subject our vessels on the high seas, and the brave men
who navigate them, to the municipal jurisdiction of Great
Britain ? I know very well that there are some amongst us (I
hope they are few) who are prepared for aU this, and more ; who
pule over every scratch occasioned by the war as if it were an
overwhelming calamity, and are only sorry that it is not
worse ; who would skulk out of a contest for the best interests
of their country to save a shilling or gain a cent ; who, ha-ving
inherited the wealth of their ancestors without their spirit,
would receive laws from London with as much facUity as
woollens from Yorkshire, or hardware from Sheffield. But I
write to the great body of the people, who are sound and
virtuous, and worthy of the legacy which the heroes of the
Eevolution have bequeathed them. For them, I undertake to
answer, that the only peace which they can be made to en
dure, is that which may twine itself round the honor of the
people, and with its healthy and abundant foliage give shade
and shelter to the prosperity of the empire.
" I passed rapidly in a former number over the justifying
causes of the war. But you must permit me in this place,
and for a single instant, to recur to one of them, as introduc
tory to a consideration which you will do weU to lay to your
hearts when you are assembled at the polls. The founda
tion upon which the claim of Great Britain reposes, to send
a pressgang on board of our ships upon the ocean, as if
they were the docks or the alehouses of Liverpool, is simply
the right of the crown, as it is recognized by her laws, to the

LIFE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY. 67
services of every subject in time of war. The doctrine
amounts to this, that a man born within the British do
minions is, in a qualified sense, the property of the govern
ment, in virtue of an artificial and slavish notion of perpet
ual aUegiance ; that, though he may have been forced by
poverty or persecution to emigrate, and has become the cit
izen or subject of another state, Ms allegiance cleaves to him
for life; that no time, or distance, or sanctuary, or new
obligations can save him from its mysterious and inextinguish
able power ; and that, of course, he may be seized wherever
and whenever he can be found.
" But the abominable doctrine is associated with another
which says, that although no state can be suffered to hold
British seamen in its service by naturaUzation or otherwise.
Great Britain may encourage the seamen of other states to
ent^ into her service, and may keep them there till she wants
them no longer ! And, that nothing may be wanting to the
consistency of the British doctrine on this head, it goes on to
maintain that if a foreign seaman should happen to marry
and settle (as it is phrased) in an English port, he may be
impressed as an EngUsh sailor, and may be retained as such
against Ms own remonstrance, seconded by that of Ms country.
" In the execution of the first of those rules, which the
associated rules so pointedly discountenance, our vessels were
stopped on their la-wful voyages, and their mariners taken
away by -violence upon the bare allegation, whether true or
false, that they were British subjects. Many of these per
sons were native Americans, many of them were neutral
Europeans over whom Great Britain had no lawful control,
and many more were fairly entitled to be considered as Amer
ican seamen, according to the law which Great Britain had
(as I have already stated) laid down and enforced against us
and the rest of the world. It was impossible that, with the
best disposition, such a rule should be made to act only on
the professed objects of it. But it was often exercised with

68 LIFE OF -WILLIAM PINKNEY.
wanton tyranny by proud and upstart surrogates in naval
uniform ; and the abuses grew to be enormous and intolera
ble. The approach of a British cruiser, in the bosom of
peace, strack a terror in our seamen wMch it cannot now in
spire, and almost every vessel returning from a foreign voy
age, brought affiiction to an American famUy, by reporting
the impressment of a husband, a brother, or a son. The
government of the Umted States, by whomsoever adminis
tered, has invariably protested against tMs monstrous prac
tice, as crael to the gaUant. men whom it oppressed, as it
was injurious to the navigation, the commerce, and the sov
ereignty of the Umon, Under the admimstration of Wash
ington, of Adams, of Jefferson, of Madison, it was reproba
ted and resisted as a grievance wMch could not be borne ;
and Mr. King, who was instructed upon it, supposed at one
time that the British Government were ready to abandon it,
by a convention which he had arranged -with Lord St. Vin
cent, but which finally miscarried. You have witnessed the
generous anxiety of the late and present cMef magistrates to
put an end to a usage so pestilent and debasing. You have
seen them propose to a succession of EngUsh mimsters, as
inducements to its relinquishment, expedients and equiva
lents of infinitely greater value to England than the usage,
whilst they were innocent in themselves and respectful to us.
You have seen these temperate overtures haughtUy repeUed,
untU the other noxious pretensions of Great Britain, gro-wn
in the interim to a gigantic size, ranged themselves by the
side of this, and left no altemative but war or infamy. We
are at war accordingly, and the smgle question is, whether
you -wUl fly Uke cowards from the sacred ground wMch the
government has been compelled to take, or whether you wiU
prove by your actions that you are descended from the loins
of men who reared the edifice of American Uberty, in the
midst of such a storm as you have never felt,
" As the war was forced upon us by a long series of unex-

LIPE OF -WILLIAM PINKNEY. 69
mpled aggressions, it would be absolute madness to doubt
that peace -wUl receive a cordial welcome, if she returns
without ignominy in her train, and with security in her hand.
The destinies of America are commercial, and her true poUcy
is peace ; but the substance of peace had, long before we
were roused to a tardy resistarice, been denied to us by the
ministry of England ; and the shadow which had been left
to mock our hopes and to delude our imaginations, resembled
too much the fro-wmng spectre of war to deceive any body.
Every sea had witnessed, and continued to witness, the sys
tematic persecution of our trade and the unrelenting oppres
sion of our people. The ocean had ceased to be the safe
Mghway of the neutral world ; and our citizens traversed it
-with aU the fears of a benighted traveller, who trembles
along a road beset -with banditti, or infested by the beasts of
the forest. The govemment, thus urged and goaded, drew
the sword -with a visible reluctance ; and, true to the pacific
poUcy wMch kept it so long in the scabbard, it wUl sheathe
it again when Great Britain shaU consult her own interest,
by consenting to forbear in future the wrongs of the past.
" The disposition of the govemment upon that point has
been decidedly pronounced by facts which need no commen
tary. From the moment when war was declared, peace has
been sought by it -with a steady and unwearied assiduity, at
the same time that every practicable preparation has been
made, and every nerve exerted to prosecute the war -with
vigor, if the enemy should persist in his injustice. The law
respecting seamen, the Eussian mission, the instructions sent
to our Charg^ d'affaires in London, the prompt and explicit
disavowal of every unreasonable pretension falsely ascribed
to us, and the solemn declaration of the government in the
face of the world, that it -wishes for nothing more than a fair
and honorable acqommodation, would be conclusive proofs
of tMs, if any proofs were necessary. But it does not require
to be proved, because it is self-evident. What interest, in

70 LIFE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY,
the name of common sense, can the government have (dis
tinctly from that of the whole nation) in a war with Great
Britain ? It is ob-vious to the meanest capacity that such a
war must be accompanied by privations, of wMch no govem
ment would hazard the consequences, but upon the sugges
tions of an heroic patriotism. The President and his support
ers have never been ignorant that those who suffer by a war,
however unavoidable, are apt rather to murmur against the
govemment than against the enemy, and that whUe it presses
upon us we sometimes forget the compulsion under which it,
was commenced, and regret that it was not avoided with a
pro-vident foresight of its evUs.
" It wUl, therefore, be no easy matter to persuade you
that this war was courted by an administration who depend
upon the people for their power, and are proud of that de
pendence ; or that it will be carried on with a cMldish ob
stinacy when it can be terminated -with honor and -with safety.
You have, on the contrary, a thousand pledges that the gov
ernment was averse to war, and wUl give you peace the in
stant peace is in its power. You know, moreover, that the
enemy will not grant it as a boon, and that it must be
wrung from his necessities. It comes to this, then : whom
wiU you select as your champions to extort it from Mm,? upon
whom -wUl you cast the charge of acMe-ving it against him
in the Usts.?"
In 1815 he was elected a Eepresentative in Congress
from the city of Baltimore.
In 1816 he was appointed by President Monroe, Mims
ter Plenipotentiary to the court of Eussia and special minis
ter to that of Naples. This was another gratifying tribute
of respect and confidence from one who best knew Ms quah
fications as a statesman. Of his conduct in those missions
I shaU have occasion to speak hereafter. I have it in my
power to lay before the public a letter written to Eobert

LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY 71
Goodloe Harper. It is a gem of its Mnd, a living, breathing
picture, fuU of beauty and exquisite taste. It exhibits a
power of graphic composition not easily paralleled. I am
sure it -will be read with interest. His sketch of the reign
ing empress is inimitable ; and his fine appreciation of all
that is truly beautiful and fascinating in the charm of woman
sMnes out in each and every paragraph — and what is most
rema|iable, the hues of the portraiture are so shaded and
blended, that whUe they seem to catch their coloring from
the skies, they are not unreal. It goes as near extravagance
as it could, to be just and faithful ; and never oversteps the
bounds of probabiUty and of fact, as the pen of history has
since testified. There is notMng that I remember so beau
tiful in the English language, except it be Wordsworth's
touching and exquisite picture of his wife. Mr, Pinkney was
held in peculiar estimation by the reigning Emperor Alexan
der, who opened a new page in the Mstory of Eussia, and re
deemed his court from the intrigues and excesses that had
weU-nigh disgraced it in the eye of the world, during some
of the preceding reigns.

MB. PINKNEY TO ROB. GOODLOE HARPER.
"St. PsiEtSBURG, August 10th, 1811 .
" Dear Sir : — Major General the Baron de Tevyll, who
is about to proceed to the United States as the successor of
Mr. Daschkoft, wishes me to make Mm acquainted with
some of my fiiends in Baltimore ; and you wiU, I hope, take
it in good part that I introduce to you the worthy minister
of such a monarch as Alexander.
" The Baron has seen a good deal of service as a soldier,
and has won an honorable reputation. By birth a Dutch
man, he was originally in some corps in the pay of England,
and thence passed into the staff and line of Eussia. He
has, however, been more employed as a diplomatist, and has

72 LIFE OF -WILLIAM PINKNEY.
recently retumed from a mission to Eome in wMch he con
ducted Mmself satisfactorUy and ably. In tMs department
he is said to be very skilful. But what I think of yet greater
consequence is, that he is an exceUent man and an accom
pUshed gentleman. I speak in part from my o-wn observa
tion (for I have seen him often here), and partly from what
I learn from others who have long known Mm, He carries
-with Mm a great regard for our country, in unison wi]^ the
sentunents of the Emperor ; and this feeling, combined -with
Ms characteristic good sense and discretion, wUl, I am sure,
make him an acceptable minister, not only to our govern
ment but to our people,
" As I know the interest which you take in whatever
concerns tMs govemment, you wUl not, I think, be displeased
if, now that I have begun to -write, I give you a very brief
sketch (not of its policy — ^for -with that you are well ac
quainted — ^but) of the great personages who are at the head
of it, I mean the principal members of the Imperial famUy,
of whom Uttle is known in America,
" The Emperor is a remarkably handsome man, and of
an admirable address. Every body justly ascribes to, him the
merit of good intentions, and, with equal justice, the addi
tional merit of knowing how to use the best means for the ful
filment of those intentions. He is one of the few men in the
world who, having been seen at a distance in great enterprises
and acMevements, gain by being approached and closely ex
amined. I am mistaken in him if he is not a man of great
abilities. He appears to me to have a clear, vigorous and
cultivated mind — to be steady and sagacious in the pursuit
of Ms purposes — to be weU read in men as weU as books — '
to be prompt and dexterous in the management of affairS^^to
have the wholesome habit of thinMng for himself — ^to be of
a generous, though perhaps somewhat hasty temper — and, in
a word, to be signally fitted for his high vocation,
" The Empress Mother is stUl a most charming woman

LIPE OF -WILLIAM PINKNEY. 73
and when young must have been extremely handsome ; she
may be said to do the honors of this splendid court, and it
is right that she should. Her manners are infimtely pleasing
at the same time that they are lofty ; and she is a perfect
mistress of the arts of conversation. She is, moreover, ex
emplary in aU the relations of Ufe, and is beloved for her
goodness by aU classes,
" Of the reigning Empress it is impossible to speak in
adequate terms of praise. It is necessary to see her, to be
able to comprehend how wonderfully interesting she is. It
is no exaggeration to say that, -with a sUght abatement for
the effects of time and severe affiiction (produced by the lo^
of her chUdren), she combines every charm that contributes
to female loveUness, with aU the quaUties that peculiarly be
come her exalted station. Her figure, although tMn, is ex
quisitely fine. Her countenance is a subduing picture of
feeUng and inteUigence. Her voice is of that soft and happy
tone that goes directly to the heart and awakens every senti
ment wMch a virtuous woman can be ambitious to excite.
Her manner cannot be described or imagined. It is so
graceful, so unaffectedly gentle, so winning and yet so digm
fied, that (I had almost said) an angel might copy it and im
prove Ms o-wn. Her conversation is smted to this noble ex
terior. Adapted -with a nice discrimination to those to whom
it is addressed, unostentatious and easy, sensible and Mnd,
it captivates invariably the -wise apd good, and (what is yet
more difficult) satisfies the frivolous without the slightest ap
proaches to frivolity. If universal report is to be credited,
there is no virtue for which this incomparable woman is not
distingmshed ; and I have reason to be confident, from all
that I have observed and heard, that her understanding
(naturally of the Mghest order) has been embellished and
improved to an uncommon degree by judicious and regular
and various study. It is not surprising, therefore, that she is
aUke adored by the inhabitant of the palace and the cottage.

74 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
and that every Eussian looks up to her as to a superior bemg.
She is indeed a superior being ; and would be adored although
she were not surrounded by Imperial pomp and power. It
is time, however, to have done with these sketches, and to
return to the subject of this letter, into which I did not in
tend, when I sat down to write, to introduce any other
subject. " The Baron sets out from St. Petersburgh in a few days ;
but probably wiU not arrive in the United States untU next
-winter, as he goes by the route of Vienna, Mumch, Holland,
and England."
Mr. Pinkney returned to the United States in 1818 at
his own request, and it is remarkable, that while he never
soUcited directly or indirectly a foreign appointment, he was
never recaUed but upon Ms own expressed -wish long resisted
and reluctantly entertained.
He lost no time in indolent inactivity, but immediately
resumed the practice of the law ; and soon proved that he
had lost nothing during his absence from the forum. Mary
land was too proud of his fame to allow him to continue in
private practice at the bar. She had honored him with al
most every post of distinction in her gift, and she now gave
Mm the fimsMng proof of her attachment and confidence by
electing him to the Senate of the United States. On the
4th January, 1820, he took his seat. The country was in
the deepest state of anxiety. A question of momentous in
terest was then under deliberation. The first men of the
land were participators in the discussion. On the 15th
February he deUvered his immortal speech on the Missouri
Compromise. A member of the committee of conference
on the part of the Senate, he proposed the report which was
subsequently adopted by that committee. Little more than
one month a member of that body, he delivered a speech that
electrified the country, was placed upon the committee that

LIFE OP -WILLIAM PINKNEY. 75
settled the difficulty and proposed the report that W9,s made.
Such pre-eminence in so short a time is not often paraUeled
in the history of legislation.
During the brief period of his Senatorial career he was
incessantly occupied in the conflicts of the forum ; discussing
questions of the greatest magnitude with competitors from
aU quarters of the country, who were rarely if ever equaUed,
and never excelled in any other period of the Mstory of the
American Bar, He was preparing a great speech on the
constitution at the time he died ; and from the zest with
which he entered on its preparation and the interest he felt,
it may be affirmed, that, had he lived, he would have doubled
his claim to the lastmg gratitude of Ms countrymen and
recalled the early days of the Eepublic when constitutional
discussions were rich in -wisdom and pre-eminently patriotic in
purpose. But it pleased Divine Pro-vidence t(} forbid that
the topmost stone should be placed by his o-wn hands upon
the vast pyramid of Ms fame. Death palsied the tongue,
ere its trumpet tones were heard in that discussion ; and
none were privUeged to share in the noble thoughts that
were ffitting tMough Ms brain and panting for utterance.
I now draw near the close of his Ufe. It will be seen
that from the early age of 24 to the day of his death, he
was constantly occupied m the public ser-vice at home or
abroad, a service he neither sought nor shunned ; that he
contrived aU the wMle to pursue with unabated zeal his pro
fessional studies, and retained a practice at the bar -vrithout a
paraUel in the history of the past or the present. The few
last years of Ms Ufe were marked -with exertions weU-nigh
incredible, and rewarded with an income that it would be
deemed exaggeration to name. His inteUectual labors ex
ceeded his physical strength. In the very pride of Ms power,
in the fifty-eighth year of his age, .with a robust constitution,
upon wMch time seemed scarcely to have left its impress,
" Ms eye not dimmed nor his natural force abated," he feU

76 LIFE OF -WILLIAM PINKNEY.
before the stroke of the destroyer. He had exerted hunself
in the discussion of a great cause before the court orily a
few days before. On the night of the I7th Febraary, 1822,
he sat up very late, amusing Mmself with the perasal ofthe
Pirates ; and poured forth into the ear of private friendsMp
Ms beautifiU strictures upon the characters introduced. His
mind was powerfuUy excited. I remember to have heard a
gentleman, who sat -with him for a short time during that
eventful evemng, say that he playfully exhibited the most
astonishing feat of a powerful and retentive memory he had
ever -witnessed. That night he was strack down by disease.
He Imgered on untU the night of the 25th, in severe bodily
suffering, wandering at times and then again in the fuU pos
session of Ms powers, when he breathed Ms last. His phy
sician, Dr, TheopMlus Parsons, thought him at first quite
out of danger, and so wrote to Ms affiicted lady. But he
was mistaken in Ms opinion, as the event sadly proved. His
iUness, so sudden and unexpected, produced a profound sen
sation in the country. His feUow-citizens, who had so re
cently witnessed his wondrous eloquence and still more won
derful legal logic, and were Mgh in expectancy, as he was
just beginning his preparation for Ms argument with Taze
well of Virginia, were Uly prepared to foUow in the funeral
train that bore Mm to Ms resting-place, near the banks of
the beautiful Potomac, He disappeared -with starthng sud
denness from the sphere of glory he had so long fiUed ; and
grave Senators and learned judges paid a befitting tribute to
Ms memory. There was no gradual breaking down of his giant intel
lect, no progressive, slowly developed decay in Ms splendid
faculties. He fell in Ms might before the tribunal he de
Ughted to address and on the arena he most loved to tread.
He feU where the patriot and the hero would ever desire to
fall, with Ms eyes on the floating stars and Ms armor on.
Conscious that he would not survive the shock, he prepared

LIFE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY, 77
to meet the summons and gently fell asleep. There was a
grandeur in the close of Ms brUUant career. He could never
brook the idea of rusting out. He preferred the higher des
tiny of the candle that consumes itself in burning. He
toUed to the last and spurned the idea of intermitted exer
tion. His body now rests in the same grave-yard where Ue
so many of his Ulustrious compeers. A simple stone monu
ment indicates the spot. Eesting my hand upon it, with my
eye on the few letters inscribed thereon, I then and there
reaUzed the emptiness of earth, and asked myself the ques
tion, what is life -with aU of eartMy renown it has to give,
but a vapor that soon passeth away ? There is a sweet and
toucMng simphcity in tMs the chosen sepulchre of our distin
gmshed countrymen. There is a cahn, qmet beauty about
it, that speaks directly to the heart. The green grass has
grown up around it, and the birds sing in the leafy boughs
that overshade it.
Crowds throng the capitol and gaze with delight upon
the lofty dome and ornamented grounds. They hang with
pride and pleasure on the tongue of eloquence wMch stUl
finds within its waUs an echo. But its burial-ground is to
me a stUl more attractive object, I love to go and stand
amid the monuments of our past greatness ; and in the. sad
and pensive soUtudes that are scarce broken by a sound, I
love to muse and meditate on the memories of men lona
since dead, as fresh and fragrant as the day they died. There
is the school of patriotism — there, the nursery of thoughts,
great and pure and noble,
I come now to discuss the inteUectual and moral charac
ter of Mr, Pinkney ; and I am free to confess that I have
chosen a task most difficult to execute, I am impeUed to
the undertaMng by natural affection, and the conviction that
the exMbition of such a character, in all the hues of its
blended beauty and strength, would be an acceptable offer
ing to the young men of the profession, and serve to stim-

78 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY,
ulate and cheer them on in their earnest endeavor to emulate
and if possible excel him of whom I -write.
Mr. Pinkney's character (those pecuUar and striMng
moral and intellectual elements, which were its very warp
and woof) has been pronounced, by Story, a study worthy of
the young men of the land ; one of the grandest themes the
tongue of eloquence can touch or the mind of genius ana
lyze. And while I feel, and, feeling, deplore my inabiUty to
do any thing like justice to the theme, I hope that the end
wiU more than justify the effort. The portrait, which I
shall endeavor to draw, is for the most part inteUectual, a
daguerreotype of the soul. His life, as has been already
proved, was not without incident. A large portion of it was
spent in the most stirring events of the most eventful period
of modern history. But alas ! many of those incidents, which
constitute so important a portion of the attractiveness and
usefulness of biography, have beenunhappilylost in the ever
shifting tide of time, or else only survive in a dim oral tra
dition. His habits and mode of private life are to be seen,
when seen at all, in mere floating report, good as far as it
goes, but necessarily defective in minute and copious detail.
For many of the incidents which ordinarily make up history
and biography I possess no very high regard, because they
do not serve to iUustrate the subject. There are a thousand
facts, the recital of which may amuse the superficial and
unreflecting ; but which, as they do not set forth in stronger
light the philosophy and moral of the subject, overload the
memory and are nothing worth. There are other incidents,
however, of the very last importance. Every thing, for ex
ample, connected -with the personal history of a man on
whom the eyes of an admiring world are fixed, is of interest.
AU are eager to know his inner Ufe — how he inured his soul
to the stern discipline of study, and sacrificed ease and
pleasure to patient, secluded labor — what were his habits of
reflection and the pastimes to which he resorted for amuse-

LIPE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY, 79
ment — ^who were the favorite authors that cheered his hours
of solitude, and what the peculiar tastes that adorned Ms
private walk among men. There is a sort of mystery in the
inner life of the great, which aU are eager to explore. The
biographer, who can, out of his abundant materials, gratify
this natural and yearning desire, possesses a powerful hold
upon the sympathies of his readers and exercises a most po
tent influence for good. It is to be regretted, that so many of
the toucMng and beautiful incidents, which characterized the
Ufe and Ulustrated the individuality of WUliam Pinkney,
are lost beyond the hope of recovery. It is to be deeply re
gretted, that his observations on men and things, made in
the exciting scenes of Ms foreign service, were not registered
to be preserved and handed down to the ages foUowing ; for
he was a close and discriminating observer of both men and
tMngs. Often was his intercourse with his more confidential
and intimate friends seasoned with minute and graphic criti
cisms of what passed under his notice. Some of the most
briUiant specimens of his rare eloquence and profound thought
were poured forth in those unreserved critiques. He wrote
much, and pubUshed a good deal wMle in England, which is
now lost. A number of documents were left in charge of
my father, contaimng powerful discussions on a vast variety
of the leading topics of the day, which were returned to
Mm ; all of which have-perished.
It has been often the topic of remark and a matter of
surprise, that a mirid so active and prolific, exercised in con
stant contact with so much to thrill and excite it, should
have left so Uttle written behind. But the wonder is solved
by the fact, that there was no effort made to preserve and
hand it down. Could the observations that feU from Ms lips
in tonents of the richest eloquence extending to an almost
infimte variety of topics be now recaUed, they would supply
a sad chasm in his eventful Ufe and constitute one of the
most attractive pages of biography. For it is in the unre-

80 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
served communion of heart -with heart, that the character
shines out and the man is most fiiUy developed. But alas !
there was no Boswell equaUy competent and eager to retain
those splendid passages of a life that nowhere shone so re-
splendently as in the endearments of a friendship he fiUly
trusted. It was this constant contact and faithful transcript,
wMch enabled the -writer of the life of Johnson to give to the
world the most beautiful and accurate idea of what a biogra
phy should be, and which lent the most bewitcMng attrac
tion to its pages.
I possess no such advantages. The time was when like
diligence would have been rewarded by Uke results. But
that time has passed. And in the dearth of tMs pleasing
and instructive material, I must do the best, I can, and let
the moral and inteUectual devlopment make up as best it
may for the sad deficiency. .,
It is as an orator, la-wyer, statesman and man, that I
propose to consider him. In the analysis, while I am free
to confess I write under the influence of long cherished and
ardent admiration, and lay no claim to exemption fix)m the
ordinary infirmities of our nature, I hope I shall not be found
to sacrifice the great principles of trath and justice to my
inordinate attachment to the memory of the dead.

LIFE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY. 81

WILLIAM PINKNEY AN ORATOR,
William Pinkney was an orator. But what is oratory,
and who is worthy of this august title ? TMs is a most in
teresting inquiry, interesting in itself and more so still in
the Ught it casts upon the iUustrious subject of this me
moir. If we take Cicero's definition, who most admirably
iUustrated the thing he defined, " composite, ornate, copiose
eloqui " — or the stUl more comprehensive " quam ob rem, si
quis umversam et propriam oratoris vim definire complecti-
que vult, is orator erit, mea sententia, hoc tam gravi dignus
nomine, qui, qusecumque res inciderit, quse sit dictione, ex-
pUcanda, prudenter, et composite, et ornate et memoriter
dicat, cum quadam etiam actionis dignitate." I repeat, if
we take Cicero's definition, there are few among the U-ving
or the dead, who can be found equaUy entitled to the term.
Not to dweU upon his physical advantages, Ms fine com
manding person, Ms voice of singular sweetness, variety, com
pass and flexibUity of tone, and Ms impressive and emphatic
action ; he possessed a most vigorous and briUiant imagina
tion, and a depth of keen, discriminating analysis in union
with the most Uvely and acute sensibUities. His command
of language was marvellous in the extreme. For beauty,
force and splendor of diction, he was unrivaUed. It flowed
forth in a continuous stream of surprising accuracy and rich
ness ; no word misapplied, no word misapprehended. True it
is, he had some few natural defects of manner and some few
artificial. But stUl -with aU, and despite of aU, he was an
orator of the very first class and among the very foremost of
that class. If by oratory we mean the power to mould and

82 life of WILLIAM PINKNEY,
melt the heart at pleasure, captivate and thriU the under
standing and sway the judgment— if by oratory we mean
not only the magic tone, and emphatic look, and commanding
gesture, but the capacity to express in words best suited to
the theme the vivid and grand conceptions of the brain, and
the imagmation to combine and weave them together, and
then the power to breathe into them Ufe and energy — if aU
this be meant by oratory, then WiUiam Pinkney was an
orator. There are different Mnds of oratory as there are different
degrees in its perfection. There is the soft and persuasive,
wMch faUs on the heart like dew and lingers on the enchanted
ear like dulcet notes of music ; and there is the impetuous
and overpowering, which bears down aU before it, Uke the
onward rush of the foaming cataract. Mr. Pinkney's oratory
was impetuous and overpowering. He could touch the ten
der chords with the hand of a master, and call forth, when
he willed, the softest tones to melt and subdue the listener ;
but most commonly he spoke to command and bear down,
and such was the might and majesty of Ms eloquence that it
took captive every hearer at its will. It was masterful and
victorious. The elements of power were blended in it so ex
quisitely, that you could scarce discover where the one began
or the other ended. Matter and manner alike conspired to
make Mm an orator. He was as deep as he was brUUant.
His rhetoric was thus convincing and his oratory thus mas
terful, because they were the lustre and the soUdity of the
diamond combined. Full of the most magnificent iUustra
tions, the birth of an imagination naturaUy strong, and
cultivated -with the most studious care and exquisite taste,
and enriched with the latest stores of an ever accumulating
learning ; he threw all over the dry discussions of the law
a bewitching fascination, and set forth its august principles
-with a fulness and a power seldom evoked.
The testimony wMch is borne to the marveUous imprea-

LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 83
siveness of Mr. Pinkney's speaMng upon any subject on any
forum, at the bar or in the Senate chamber, or before the
populace, cannot be mistaken. It comes up from too many
sources to falsify itself Eeport speaks of verdicts forced
from juries by Ms eloquent tongue j and learned judges, who
were compelled to bring around them, and summon to their
aid, aU the sterner attributes of their office in their endeavor
to dissipate the spell of the charmer ; not once, but again
and again. The writer of this memoir has often heard the
late John Stephen (one of the judges of the old court of
Appeals, one of the purest and most upright of judges, an
ornament of the bench where he dispensed law and justice,
not more respected for his ripe learning than his rare modesty,
mce sense of judicial propriety and love of genuine forensic
eloquence) say, that he had heard Mr. Pinkney indulge in
such strains of lofty eloquence in so many pleadings before
the court, that he whoUy despaired of ever hearing any thing
like it again ; and that too, when returning from the capitol
of the country and the presence of the American Senate
"chamber in the day of its proudest fame. Judge Story, an
other of the bright lights of American jurisprudence (I
might say one of the brightest), tells us in Ms exquisite sketch,
that " no one could listen to Mm for many minutes without
forgetting all the defects of art or taste in the overpowering
sensations of deUght ! " And in Story's Ufe just issued from
the press, there are many additional proofs of the power
wielded by Pinkney over that consummate judge. In letter
after letter. Story pours forth expressions of wonder and as
tonishment at the surpassing splendor of his mind, and the
depth of his ratiocination, and copiousness and compass of his
legal learning. Amid the living forms of Dexter and Emmet,
orators of whom any land might be proud, Pinkney stood
forth the confessed favorite of Story. That I may not be
supposed to overestimate his opinion of Mr. Pinkney, I will
insert one or two extracts from letters recently pubhshed.

84 LIFE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY.
" Every time I hear Pmkney he rises Mgher and higher in my
estimation. His clear and forcible manner of putting Ms
case before the court, Ms powerful and commanding eloquence,
occasionally illuminated with sparkUng lights, but always
logical and appropriate, and above aU, Ms accurate and dis
criminating law knowledge, which he pours out with wonder
ful precision — give him in my opimon a great superiority
over every man whom I have known. I have seen in a single
man each of those quaUties separate, but never before com
bined in so extraordinary a degree," Again; " His genius
and eloquence were so lofty, I might almost say, so unrivaUed,
Ms learmng so extensive, Ms ambition so elevated, his polit
ical and constitutional principles so truly just and pure, Ms
weight in the pubUc councils so decisive, his character at the
bar so peerless and commanding, that there seems now left a
dismal and perplexing vacancy, I -write to you whUe sitting
in court, and as the argmnent is now taMng an interesting
turn, I must now stop and listen ; but never do I expect to
hear a man Uke Pinkney. He was a man who appears
scarcely once a century." Speaking of Dexter he adds: "!•
always considered him second only to our inimitable friend
Pinkney. In the phrase of a painter, I would say Pinkney's
character and mind would be a great study," — Story's Life,
Vol. I.
And who was Story ? Himself one of the first men the
country has produced, in whom the very soul of eloquence
glowed ; a stern judge called upon to weigh arguments and
resist eloquence, save where they were the faithful echoes of
law and justice, with no spirit of rivalry to bias his judg
ment, and aU Ms enthusiastic love of the North to excite
Ms sectional pride — ^is speU-bound, thrUled, transported by
the wonderful powers of Pinkney's oratory. A mixed audience
might have been deceived, and juries hurried on beyond dis
cretion, by the melodious tone, the look, or gesture ; but
Story could only have been so moved and excited by the trae

LIFE OF -WILLIAM PINKNEY. 85
genius of oratory. I know nothing which affords a more
demonstrative evidence of the power of an orator, than the
abUity to move and sway so consummate a judge, Mmself pre
eminently skUled in aU the mysteries of the moving art.
Marshall, a more severe judge of oratory, because not him
self of the imaginative cast, paid a no less marked and
splendid tribute in the memorable opinion in the Nereide.
"With a pencU dipped in the most vivid colors, and
guided by the hand of a master, a splendid portrait has been
drawn, exMbiting tMs vessel and her freighter as forming a
single figure, composed of the most discordant materials of
peace and war. So exquisite was the sMU of the artist, so
dazzhng the garb in wMch the figure was painted, that it
required the exercise of that cold investigatmg faculty which
ought always to belong to those who sit on this bench, to
discover its only imperfection — its want of resemblance."
— Marshall's Opinion in the Nereide.
I dweU upon these frank and ingenuous attestations, be
cause it has been sometimes demed that Mr. Pinkney was an
orator. The distmguished biographer of Mr. Wirt, whose tran
scendent talents I am neither slow to acknowledge nor re
luctant to praise, has done injustice — I will do Mm the jus
tice to beUeve, unintentional — ^to the memory of Mr. Pink
ney. That accomplished scholar says (page 400, Vol. I.) that
"impartial and judicious estimate of Mr. Pinkney's powers
and acquirements seems rarely to have been accorded to him "
— and then again he speaks " of exaggerated praise." Now
the leamed and Hon. Ex-Secretary of the Navy wOl, I think,
find it difficult to sustain his judgment, when he remembers,
that a Story professes himself the delighted captive of an
eloquence as rare as it was briUiant, " embellished, when the
occasion caUed for it, with aU the gorgeous amplitude and
magnificence of a BoUngbroke and Burke ; " and Ustens to
the warnings of a Marshall, declaring that it required aU the

86 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
sterner quaUities of the judge to resist the power of the ad
vocate. If tMs be exaggerated praise— if impartial and ju
dicious estimate of power and acquirement be not here ac
corded, we must adopt the opinion that MarshaU and Story
were not competent to judge, or else given to sycophantic
and servile praise. The tropMes of Mr. Pinkney's powers
are too numerous and exalted to admit of depreciation with
impunity, now that the -winding-sheet and sMoud are the
only covering of the mighty dead ; and surely on no soU less
appropriate, and by no pen less befitting, could the wrong be
perpetrated, which would dim in the least the fame of Pink
ney, than on the soU of Ms birth, and by the pen of one,
whom his feUow-citizens have deUghted to honor as another
of her distinguished sons.
The title of Mr. Pinkney to the character of an orator de
pends not then on the breath of mere popular applause. It
is based ou a rock impervious to the assaults of envy^ — the
possession of the Mghest intellectual endowments and the
acMevement of the rarest inteUectual victories, not obtained
over ignorance and foUy, but over the noblest and most com
manding inteUect ; not once, but again and again, amid com
petitors -with whom it would be a signal honor to dispute the
palm for ascendency.
That Mr. Pinkney was the butt of much Uliberal and
envious depreciation, I am ready to admit. But the names
of his depredators will perish, whUe his o-wn endures. Who
need be reminded that a member of Congress held up his
speech on the Missouri compromise to pubUc scorn and ridi
cule ; and is ignorant that the anonymous calumny has out-
Uved every other deed of the author. Defamation is easy.
Fault-finding is the work of Uttle minds. If the fact that
Mr. Pinkney was " hawked at by such mousing owls, birds
of the night," who could not endure the bright shining of
the sun, be proof that judicious and impartial estimate has
been rarely accorded to him ; — why then, indeed, the biograr

LIPE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY. 87
pher of Mr. Wirt has proved his point. But if the facts
above enumerated — the power wielded by Mr, Pinkney over
such minds as Story's and MarshaU's ; his holding, time and
again, large promiscuous audiences speU-bound through the
long discussions of dry questions of law — be not proof of
oratorical power and profound acquirement, why, then, there
can be no proof adduced which is conclusive of the point.
There -wiU be always envious detractions, jealous out-
breakings. Some minds are proof against proof I do not
mean to intimate that so distinguished a scholar as Mr.
Kennedy, can be classified with such. I only regret that he
should have permitted Mmself to lend even a seeming sanc
tion to their crude criticisms, and recorded, as his dehberate
judgment, the opinion "that judicious and impartial esti
mate of Mr. Pinkney's power and acquirements was rarely
accorded to him." I regret it, because the severity of his
censure must faU upon the best judges of forensic ability in
the land, and place Mm among the critics of one, whom, to
use the language of Johnson, if we are correct in our facts,
" it is vain to blame and useless to praise."
Had I undertaken to indulge in a mere indiscriminate
praise and immoderate eulogy, Mr. Kennedy would be safe
from impeachment ; for Ms competency to judge would be
deemed greater than my o-wn. But facts are stubborn things,
and no man can overturn them. It is to facts I appeal. The
claim to oratory is one tMng ; the achievements of oratory
are another. The claim I predicate on the acMevements,
and I feel a strong confidence, that the judgment of Mr.
Kennedy cannot stand so long as those acMevements exist.
My appeal is from Mr, Kennedy to the Storys and Marshalls
of the land,
John Eandolph knew and felt the power of Mr, Pinkney ;
and on the floor of Congress, after full opportunities of judg
ing, he pronounced the following eulogy :
" We have been talMng of General Jackson, and a greater

88 LIFE OF -WILLIAM PINKNEY,
man than he is not here, but gone for ever ! I aUude, sir, to
the boast of Maryland and the pride ofthe United States, —
the pride of us aU, and particulariy the pride and ornament
of that profession of which you, Mr. Speaker (Stephenson),
are a member, and an eminent one. He was a man with
whom I U-s'ed when a member of this house, and a new one
too ; and ever since he left it for the other — 1 speak it with
pride — ^in habits not merely negatively fiiendly, but of Mnd-
ness and cordiality. The last time I saw him was on Sat
urday, the last Saturday but one, in the pride of Ufe, and
fuU possession and vigor of aU Ms faculties, in that lobby.
He is now gone to his account (for as the tree faUs so must
it Ue) where we must aU go — ^where I must soon go, and by
the same road too — the course of nature ; and where all of
us, put off the evil day as we may, must also go. For what
is the past but a span ; and wMch of us can look forward
to as many years as we have lived ? The last act of inter
course between us vvas an act, the recoUection of wMch I
would not be without for aU the offices that aU the men of
the United States have filled, or ever shaU fiU. He had, in
deed, his faults, Ms foibles ; I should rather say his sins.
Who is without them ? Let such, such only, cast the first
stone. And these foibles, if you wiU, wMch every body
could see, because every body is clear-sighted -with regard to
the faults and foibles of others, he, I have no doubt, would
have been the first to acknowledge on a proper representation
of them. Every tMng now is Mdden from us, — not, God
forbid, that utter darkness rests upon the grave, which, hid
eous as it is, is Ughted, cheered, and warmed -with Ught fixim
heaven ; not the impious fire fabled to be stolen from heaven
by the heathen, but by the Spirit of the living God, whom
we profess to worship, and whom I hope we shall spend the
remainder of the day in worsMpping ; not -with mouth honor,
but in our hearts, in spirit and in truth ; that it may not be
said of us also, ' this people draweth nigh to me with their

LIPE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY, 89
Ups, but their heart is far from me,' Yes, it is just so ; he is
gone, I wfll not say that our loss is irreparable, because such
a man as has existed, may exist again. There has been a
Homer, there has been a Shakspeare, there has been a
Milton, there has been a Newton, There may be another
Pinkney, but there is none now. And it was to announce
this event that I have risen. I am almost inclined to beUeve
in presentiments. I have been, aU along, as weU assured of
the fatal termination of that disease -with which he was af-
fficted, as I am now ; and I have dragged my weary limbs
before sunrise to the door of his sick chamber (for I -would
not intrude on the sacred grief of the famUy), almost every
moming since. From the first, I had almost no hope."
" In those early and pious visitations to the sick chamber
of virtue and genius (says Mr. Garland, the accompUshed
biographer of Eandolph), he was frequently accompanied by
the CMef Justice. What a beautiful and touching tribute
to the memory of Pinkney, that the greatest orator and
statesman, and the greatest jurist of his age, should watch
-with so much interest and tenderness the last expiring breath
of Mm, who in Ufe had rivalled the one in eloquence and the
other in profound leavjiiag." —Eandolph' s Life, vol. U. 169, 170.
No man was more sparing of his praise, — and yet he
bowed in willing homage before the oratory of Pinkney, be
cause it was genuine and pure ; thought and feeling com
bined, dressed in the most exquisite garb ; words of beauty
and images of fire.
I make on this head no comparisons. I desire to make
none. In a country that has given birth to a Patrick Henry,
an Ames, a Dexter, a Wirt, a Clay, a Calhoun, and a Web
ster, orators who may well vie with those of Greece, and
Eome ; it is not my purpose to institute invidious compari
sons. But stUl among them, in the foremost rank, stood
William Pinkney; and that as I have shown, not in my too
partial estimate, but upon the authority of those who were

90 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. .¦
farthest removed from the bias of prejudice, and otherwise most
competent to decide.
A contributor to the North American, vol, xxiv, page 68,
thus writes :
" To the time of Ms last appearance in pubUc in Wash
ington, the court room was always thronged with the -wise,
the learned and the fasMonable, when it was known that he
was to speak ; and he uniformly riveted the attention of Ms
auditors through the techmcal detaU of Ms longest and dryest
arguments." And the same might be said, with equal truth,
of Ms repeated efforts in other tribunals in other portions of
the Union. This one fact is worth a thousand assertions, in
proof of his power as an orator.
The discussions of the Senate chamber are of deep and
absorbing interest to the crowds that are accustomed to at
tend upon them. The orator has in his subject a strong
and powerful chord of sympathy between himself and his
audience. Not so, except in a few particular cases, in the
discussions before the court. And yet Mr. Pinkney kept his
fascinating spell upon the large and promiscuous crowd, at
the same time he poured into the ear of judicial wisdom the
wonderful stream of his concise and profound legal logic.
The wise and the learned would sit for hours dehghted and
thrilled, whUe such masters of the law, as the judges of the
supreme court, were time and again greeted with a chain of
legal argument as massive and solid in its structure, as though
each Unk was of diamond solidity and the whole a cable of
impregnable strength.
I give to the maUcious and envious the fuU weight of the
defects they are able to discover, — I listen unmoved to theh
fastidious criticisms, so long as tMs one fact (exceUed in none
of the features of mental and moral grandeur by the present
or the past) remains undisputed and indisputable. The
eloquence of Pericles is known chiefly by its effects, and it
has been said of Mm by one competent to judge, " that he

LIFE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY, 91
was strong in the weakness of his audience." Not so, the
subject of tMs memoir, Mr, Gilmer of Virgima furnishes
me, in Ms masterly sketches, with a happy conclusion to tMs
portion of my portraiture ! " The powers of Mr, Pinkney's
mind seemed to strengthen with Ms years and expand -with
his subject. Of aU the exMbitions of Ms eloquence, Ms reply
to Mr, King in the Senate on the Missouri restriction " (of
whichi shaU have occasion to speak hereafter), "was, perhaps,
that in which the force of Ms genius was the most conspicu
ous and overwhelming, and enough of itself to entitle him to
the first place among living orators. He not only sustained
Ms reputation, but surpassed the most exaggerated ideas
wMch had been entertained of his abiUties, Seldom in either
hemisphere has the English language been the medium of
sublimer eloquence. He shed lustre upon letters, renown
upon Congress, glory on the country! The United States
owe lastmg obUgations to Mr, Pinkney for having scattered
the forces of poUtical crusaders before they began their devas
tations," — Gilmer's Sketches, p, 53,
Eloquentia aut sequavit preestantissimorum gloriam aut
excessit, Qms sententiis aut acutior aut crebrior ? Quis
verbis aut omatior aut elegantior ? Audax orator, cumula-
tus omni laude.

92 LIFE OF -WILLIAM PINKNEY.

PINKNEY A LAWYER.
Me. Pinkney was more than an orator. He was a consum
mate la-wyer. The bar was Ms own chosen and favorite
arena. If he left it for a season, it was only to serve his
country and recruit Ms exhausted strength, after labors
that would have crushed a less -vigorous constitution ; and
to retum to it with increased ardor and intensity, and
-with additional stores of vast and varied learning. He
studied law, as before stated, intently amid the blandishments
and gUtter of foreign courts, and never for a moment lost
sight of this, the calling in life most suited to his tastes and
congenial to his habits. Not more remarkable for depth and
accuracy than extent and variety of legal learning, he stood
by universal suffrage in the very foremost rank of advocates.
Every inch of his fame in this department was won by giant
struggles and herculean labors. He relied not on the singu
lar quickness of his perceptions. He depended not on force
of gemus. Not satisfied with having mastered all the great
principles of the legal science, he sought in each case he
argued, to enlarge his own professional attainments. His
hard-earned fame he kept constantly before Mm ; and each
succeeding effort was but a struggle to surpass himself
It was his great ambition to toil night and day in the
investigation and elucidation of the merits of a cause, so that
he might hope to enlighten each tribunal he addressed. By
turning to the law reports of the day, meagre and insufficient
as most of them are, we shaU find not a few acknowledgments
from sources whose names are praise, that he did not labor
in vam. Those records teem with the matured fruits of his
large experience and profound leaming. The philosophy of

LIPE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY. 93
the Law was Ms study and deUght ; and ever animated by
the most exalted sense of the dignity- and grandeur of Ms
profession, he always addressed himself to the Mgher feelings
and principles of our nature.
Mr. Pinkney possessed two very rare quaUties, rare at
least in their combination, viz., the power of concentration,
and the power of amplification. And each he possessed in
marveUous perfection. He could go down to the very kernel,
and contract the Unes of his argument, until at the very
heart of his subject you could see it through and through ; or
he coiUd sow M| argmqents broadcast, and expand and amplify
them, untu you were completely overpowered by the surpassing
luxuriance of thought and fertUity of inteUectual resources.
He particularly exceUed in the statement of a cause.
Judge Story says of Mm, that Ms very statement was an
argument. And I know not that a more striMng proof
could be afforded of the power of condensation. There was
one thing that marked the character of Mr, Pinkney's mind,
as I have already intimated, and striMngly distinguished it
from that of most other men, ancient and modern, I aUude
to the umon of depth and briUiancy, He was the most
argumentative of speakers ; and when he chose, he could be
dazzUngly gorgeous. Judge MarshaU bore honorable witness
to his argumentative powers, of which he possessed a rare
opportunity of judging, when he pronounced Mm, as Story
teUs us, the closest reasoner he had ever heard. Of the
scope and vigor of his imagination it would be idle to speak.
The opinion has been entertained, and not unfrequently
advanced, that brilhancy and depth are, as it were, antago
nistic to each other ; dissociahiles res, wMch are incapable of
combmation in a single mind. Profundity has been associated
with dryness. Tropes and figures of rhetoric, simUes and
metaphors, have been deemed beneath the use of a logical
reasoner. That they are, in point of fact, oftentimes dis
sociahiles res, no one wUl or can dispute, who has witnessed

94 LIFE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY.
the mental developments of the age, and seen how one wUl
excel in splendid declamation who is totally disquaUfied to
unravel the intricate thread of an argument, and pursue a
close logical discussion ; and another exMbit great powers of
reasoning, who is incapable of soaring, on strong -wing,
among tMngs grand and beautiful. But that there is any
antagonism between the two I totaUy deny. The imagination
is not opposed to the reasoning faculty, or inconsistent with
it. On the contrary it is, when possessed in perfection, one
of its most valuable and powerful auxUiaries, It groups and
combines, and then all over the dry field of argumentation
it diffuses the energy of an ever active life. Johnson main
tained " that metaphorical expression is of great exceUence
in style, where it is used with propriety, because it gives us
two ideas for one, and conveys the meaning more luxuriously,
and generally with a perception of deUght." It is a gross
and unwarrantable disparagement of the imagination, to con
sider its chief office to be embeUishment. The imagination
is eminently practical. It sees things in their strongest light
and sets them forth with uncommon vigor. When combined
with a faculty nughty to reason, it is eminently argumenta
tive. By maMng the discussion more grand, and imparting
sometMng of its own magmficence to the mere deductions
of reason, it does not diminish the strength or abate the
-vigor. It throws Ught and heat all around it. It iUustrates,
enforces, deepens the impression. It is the soul of argument,
and in its sublimest and mightiest soarings, it is vehement
argumentation. Of course, I am speaMng of imagination
when in combination with logical precision and mental force
— ^imagination in its Mghest form and noblest development ;
the imagination of a well-balanced and thoroughly disci
pUned mind. Where the reasonmg faculty is weak, the im
agination cannot supply the deficiency. It may dazzle and
corruscate, but it cannot enlighten. It may inflame and ex
cite the feehngs, but it wiU not assist or inform the judgment.

LIPE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY. 95
But where the reasoning power exists and exerts itself, the
imagination, seizmg hold of the deductions of reason, and fol
lowing it pari passu in its most elaborate processes ; or else
anticipating it in its somewhat prophetic spirit, gives them
Ufe, and clothes them with increased might and power. I
am not combating a shadow' — endeavoring to refute a mere
figment of my own fancy. For what is more common than
the expression, that a speech or argument is beautiful and
splendid, but that it wants depth and force — or that a speech
is soUd and con-vincing, but dry and argumentative. The
expression has its foundation in the popular misapprehension
of the subject. What is dry, is oftentimes deemed profound,
because it is dry ; and what is splendid is deemed unsub
stantial, because it is splendid. Men forget that there is a
diamond in the mind, a diamond brUliancy and a diamond
soUdity, — that the imagination is the handmaid of reason,
— ^that where the power to explore the depths of a subject
exists, the imagination is an efficient helper in the explora
tion. The union of the imaginative with the reasoning
faculty, is as rare as the possession of first-rate inteUect. But
it Js not a thing impossible. It has existed, — ^it does exist ;
and where it exists, there can be no reasonable doubt that
the one strengthens and enriches the other, — that the two
are more powerful in union. " It was not a chain of reason
ing, though close and cogent as if delivered in the Areopa
gus ; it was not only a display of imagination, however chas
tened from Asiatic luxuriance ; nor an appeal to the passions,
however moving and vehement ; it was a combination of aU
that in the language of a distinguished Greek scholar gave
to the eloquence of Pericles its power and charm, and secured
for him the title of the Prince of eloquence in his genera
tion." It was a Uke combination that gave to Mr. Pinkney
his vast celebrity as an orator and lawyer, during a life spent
in the constant struggles of the forum. His imagination
never degenerated into mere vapid declamation. It burned

96 LIFE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY.
and glowed aU along the path of his argument, and enriched
it occasionally with what Judge Story caUs "sparkling
Ughts," never alien to the strict Ime of the argument or held
up in the wrong place. His ima.gination was but the poetic
form of his ratiocination — ^the dazzling garb now and then
tMown over the cooler deductions of his reasoning. Indeed,
the imagination and the reasomng faculty were the workshop,
in wMch Ms massive argument was woven, and it would have
been impossible to separate the golden and sUver threads of
the woof, -without whoUy marring the texture. Burke was
the profoundest of phUosophers, and yet he possessed a huge
imagination, which poured a flood of light over the pathway
of Ms argumentation ; and he must be pitied, who cannot
see that the profound was rendered more profound by the vast
compass and gorgeous magnificence of the imagination, wMch
enUghtened whUe it deUghted. Barrow was a profound the
ological reasoner, and yet he was a man of marveUous scope
of imagmation. Hooker was the most masterful of them aU,
and who doubts that Ms immortal work was made the more
immortal by the gorgeousness of the imagination that glows
and bums through aU its pages.
Mr. Pinkney was accustomed to sound aU the depths of
the subjects he investigated ancj discussed, Superficiahty he
detested, — a false and spurious pretence to learnmg he ab-
honed, — and yet he could indulge at times in passages of
such inimitable beauty and power, so natural and artisticaUy
woven into the thread of Ms argument, that you could scarce
discover where they began or ended. They seemed, as indeed
they did, to grow out of the subject, to be an essential ele
ment in it, the outbursting flower from the parent stem, the
livmg germ on the thrifty and vigorous plant. No one held
in greater abhorrence or more severely reprobated, as wiU be
seen in his own rich criticism on poUtical sketches, what
might be called a sicMy sentimentaUsm of style, or an ex
travagant and irregular indulgence of fancy. Perspicuity

LIPE OF -WILLIAM PINKNEY. ' 97
Was the thing of primary importance in his estimation. He
aUowed nothing to darken or obscure his meaning. His fig
ures were never crowded together, or jumbled up in motley
confusion. They were never far-fetched or unnatural. Ex-
qmsite taste guided the heMi, and the imagination in its
richest glow was ever obedient to the pilot. He never used
it for mere ornament. He used it as the handmaid of reason.
Force and appropriateness of diction and simplicity of iUus
tration were the chosen vehicles of his thoughts. Strength
made beautiful, when the occasion called for it, gave a pecu
Uar fascination and nerve to his style. Thought, however,
always predominated over expression. Imagination in its
Mghest and purest form occupied in all his discussions the
place of an uncurbed, unrestrained, artificial fancy. To con
vince, not dazzle, was Ms Mgh object ; and yet from the native
splendor of Ms mind, he insensibly dazzled in the very act
of convincing. His style of argument on legal questions was pecuUar to
himself, founded on no particular model. It was original
and striMng. In many discussions before the Supreme Court,
those pecuUar powers were conspicuously displayed. I will
mention but two, the Bank case and the Nereide ; and I
cite these two, because while iu themselves of deepest mag
nitude, I am enabled to review a criticism of Mr. Legar^ of
South Carolina on the former, and an animadversion of Mr.
PhiUips, the Irish barrister, in Ms Ufe of Curran, on an inci
dent connected -with the latter. The array of counsel in the
Bank case was truly splendid. By the side of Pinkney stood
Webster and Wirt, "the Gothic and Corinthian" pillar;
opposed to them were Martin, HopMnson and Walter Jones
— the last named, the connecting Unk that binds the past to
us, a man of the rarest powers of eloquence, and the pro
foundest powers of reasomng. It was not possible for six
such minds to be brought into such stirring proximity, with
out the keenest intellectual rivalry. The theme was worthy
7

98 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY,
of the men, and the scene of the conffict worthy of both.
It was in this bright array of talent, that Mr. Pinkney rose
to conclude the argument ; and although he was three days
in the discussion, Judge Story tells us that it was " worth
a journey from Salem to hear it."
Mr. Legar^ pronounces a rather dogmatic opinion on the
merits of the argument. He jeers Mr, Pinkney for not go
ing beyond the EngUsh text-books, and taunts him for not
going more deeply into the subject than Dr Blackstone, It
almost excites a smile to hear such a charge brought against
one who stood, in his day, the very embodiment of legal
learning and patient research. Our surprise is increased,
because of this very speech Justice Story thus writes (vol. I,
page 325) : " I never in my whole life heard a greater speech.
He spoke like a great statesman and patriot, and sound con
stitutional lawyer — all the cobwebs of sophistry and meta
physics about State rights and State sovereignty he brushed
away with a mighty besom."
Mr, Legar^ does not do Mr, Pinkney's argument in that
cause full and ample justice. He says that Mr, Pinkney
" began his argument by declaring that he did not: consider
the constitutionality of the Bank as an open question, because
it had been assumed by Congress and acquiesced in for thirty
years." Let us now look into the report in Mr. Wheaton,
and see how the case reaUy stands. After a moat admirable
and masterly discussiou of the powers of the State and
General Govemments, Mr. Pinkney contended, that the ques
tion of the constitutionality of the Bank was to be settled on
authority and principle. " The constitution acts on the peo
ple by means of powers communicated directly from the peo
ple. No State in its corporate capacity ratified it, but it
was proposed for adoption to popular conventions. It springs
from the people precisely as the State constitutions spring
from the people, and acts on them in a simUar manner. The
federal powers are just as sovereign as those of the States,

LIFE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY. 99
The constitutionaUty of the establishment of the Bank, as one
of the necessary means to carry into effect the authority vested
in the General Govemment, is no longer an open question. It
has been long since settled by decisions of the most revered
authority, legislative, executive, and judicial. A legislative
construction in a doubtful case, persevered in for a course of
years, ought to be binding on the court. TMs however is
not a question of construction merely, but of political neces
sity, on which Congress must decide. The members of the
convention, who framed the constitution, passed into the
first Congress by which the new government was organized.
They must have understood their own work. They declared
that the constitution gave to Congress the power of incorpo
rating a bank. It is an historical fact of great importance
in this discussion, that amendments to the constitution were
actually proposed, in order to guard against the establishment
of commercial monopolies. The legislative precedent estab
Ushed in 1791 has been followed up by a series of acts of
Congress, aU conferring the authority."
It was not the mere assumption by Congress of the power,
but the settlement of the question by the most revered
authorities, legislative, executive, and judicial, upon wMch
Mr. Pinkney relied in the discussion of that great cause ; and
that, too, in a doubtful case of construction. The report of
the cause may be found in Wheaton's reports, vol. 4, Febru
ary term, 1819. And whoever desires to test the value of
Mr. Legar^'s strictures need only turn to Mr. Pinkney's ar
gument, where he will find, even in the skeleton gleanings
of the accomplished reporter, one of the ablest and most
unanswerable expositions of the great constitutional question,
wMch has since been exhumed by the refined metaphysicians
of South Carolina to agitate and disturb the peace of the
Umon, but with no other result than their own chagrin and
disappointment. It is sufficient to remind the reader of
Mr. Legar6's critique, that the reasonings of this speech

100 LIFE OF -WILLIAM PINKNEY,
upon the principles of constitutional law involved, were en
dorsed by the Storys and Marshalls of tMs land; and in
grafted on the statute books'of the court, though not deeper
than Dr. Blackstone. Judge MarshaU's opinion'gives a judi
cial clothing to many points of Pirikney's argument.
I regret the necessity of being compelled to notice the
review in question, because Mr. Legar^ is not now alive ;
but at the time he wrote it the voice of Pinkney had been
hushed in death, and his name was inscribed on the cold
marble. The speech on the Nereide, though not so successful with
the court, was a splendid specimen of forensic power. It
has been long before the public, though in mutilated form
and garbled extracts, and they can judge of it for them
selves. I will be excused for pausing a moment, while I examine
a statement made by Mr. PhUlips in his life of Cunan, of a
collision between Mr. Emmet and Mr. Pinkney in the cause
of the Mary and that of the Nereide, which is wide of the
truth. Speaking of Mr. Pinkney's assault he says, " Em
met's demeanor was such in noticing it, that shame extorted
next day from his defeated adversary a eulogium which he
doubtless estimated at what it was worth," and then he puts
into Mr. Emmet's mouth the foUowing language : "I know
not by what name arrogance and presumption may be caUed
on this side of the water, but I am sure he never could have ac
quired^ those manners in the polite circles of Europe which
he had long frequented as a public minister." He refers for
authority to Madden's Uves of United Irishmen. By parti
cular examination, I find the affair thus stated by Mm;
"The latter (Mr, Pinkney) closed Ms argument in a very
important cause, and with his characteristic arrogance alluded
to the fact of Mr, Emmet's emigration to the United States,
When he had concluded Ms argument, Mr, Emmet rose and
took up the mode and manner in wMch his opponent had

LIFE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY, 101
treated him. He said he was Mr. Pinkney's equal in birth,
rank, and connections, and he was not his enemy. He knew
not by what name arrogance and presumption might be called
on this side of the ocean, but sure he was that Mr. Pinkney
never acquired those maimers in the polite circles of Europe,
which he had frequented as a pubUc minister. Mr. Pink
ney was not ready at retort, and made no reply. But a
few days afterwards, it so happened that Mr. Emmet and
Mr. Pinkney were again opposed to each other in a cause of
magmtude, and it fell to Mr. Emmet's part to close the
argument, who was determined that his antagonist should be
put in mind of his former deportment and expressions. Pink
ney was aware of the thunderbolt in store, and took the op
portumty of paying to Mr. Emmet's genius, fame, and pri
vate worth, the highest tribute of respect. This respect was
never again -violated." — Madden's Life of Thomas A. Emmet.
He added further — " When Mr. Emmet rose out of Ms place
as before stated. Chief Justice Marshall indicated great un
easiness, tMnMng that soinething unpleasant might be the re
sult. Mr. Justice Livingston remarked in a whisper, ' Let him
go on ; I will answer that he says nothing rude or improper.'
With this, as weU as the result, the Chief Justice was satis
fied." Mr. PMUips gives Madden as his authority, and Mad
den makes his statement, supported by not so much as a
shadow of authority. Mr. PhUlips improves upon his author
ity, and speaks of Mr. Pinkney as a defeated adversary.
Justice Story -witnessed the first competition of those two
illustrious men in the highest court of the Union : and so
did Mr. Wheaton. We have their evidence in the case. In
the first cause, that of the Mary, in which Mr. Pinkney in
dulged in some warmth of expression, justified as he at the
time thought by the too free strictures of Mr. Emmet on one
of his clients, so far from being the routed champion Mr.
PhiUips would represent. Justice Story, who sat in the cause,
teUs us in his pubUshed sketch of Mr. Emmet, that Mr,

102 LIFE OP -WILLIAM PINKNEY.
Pinkney " won an easy -victory, and pressed Ms advantages
-with vast dexterity, and, as Mr. Emmet thought, with some
what the display of triumph." So much for one of the as
sertions of Mr. PhUlips made professedly on authority, and
yet unsustained by Ms own authority, and disproved by an
other. In the case of the Nereide, in which Mr. Emmet
deUvered a most masterly speech. Justice Story informs us
that Mr. Emmet began by paying a generous tribute to the
talents and acquirements of his opponent, whom, fame and
fortune had foUowed both in Europe and America. It is
impossible, at tMs late day, to state what Mr, Emmet in
reality said. But one thing is certain, the representations
of excited partisans must be received with great distrust ;
especiaUy where the recorded statement of so distinguished
a witness as Justice Story or Mr. Wheaton gives it no man
ner of countenance. Mr. Pinkney made the amende honor
able, and avowed his regret that he should have indulged in
a seemingly unkind criticism upon his iUustrious opponent,,
which was " deepened by the forbearance and urbanity of his
reply." Is it credible that Mr. Pinkney would publicly, in
the presence of the court, where language so grossly insulting
as that put into Mr. Emmet's lips must have been used, if
used at all, have spoken of the forbearance and urbanity of
a reply wMch had just branded him with insolence and pre
sumption and ill-breeding ? Will any one (who was at aU
acquamted -with Mr. Pinkney, or the court of which Judge
MarshaU was the honored head) believe that such common
biUingsgate abuse was either endured by him or the court.
I have far too much respect for Mr. Emmet to beUeve that
his lips were so employed. I think the statement sufficiently
disproved by Mr. Emmet's high praise of Mr. Pinkney as re
corded by Story ; and the terms of Pinkney's own apology,
an apology which does Mm infinite credit, whose eloquence
is only equaUed by its magnanimity; as weU as the inherent
probabUities of the case. As to the insinuations of Mr. Mad-

LIPE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 103
den, that Mr, Pinkney was induced, by fear to disarm Mr.
Emmet of the thunderbolt of vengeance by an unfelt and
hypocritical profession of admiration, or that he was not
ready at retort, it may pass current among foreigners, though
a mere unproved assertion ; but where Mr. Pinkney was
known, it wUl be read -with a smile; for he was afraid, phy
sically or inteUectually, of no man. To use his own expres
sion to Lord WeUesley, which an Englishman should be the
last to forget, he neither sought nor shunned discussions, of
wMch the tendency is merely to irritate. In the discussion
on the Mary he had met with nothing to excite Ms fears, for
Story represents him ^s a victor; and in the Nereide,
although he faUed to carry convi<jtion to the court, he carried
one of the brightest Ughts of that court with him, and based
his argument upon principles, that were almost simultane
ously sanctioned by the highest judicial wisdom of England,
and delivered a speech which, even in its present mutUated
form, wiU ever rank among the finest specimens of forensic
eloquence and power.
Since writing the above, my attention was drawn to a
passage in the life of the late Jeremiah Smith, a distinguished
judge of New Hampshire. It is in these words : " Judge
Spencer related to me the anecdote of Mr. Pinkney's attack
on Emmet in the Supreme Court of the United States.
They were on opposite sides in an important cause, and one
which Mr. Pinkney had much at heart, and was desirous of
winning by fair or unfair means. In the course of the argu
ment, he travelled out of the cause to make observations
personal and extremely offensive on Mr. Emmet, -vrith a view
probably of irritating and weakening his reply. When the
argument was through, Mr. Emmet said perhaps he ought
not to notice the remarks of the opposite counsel. Then fol
lows pretty much the above version, save these words: " He
woidd only say that he had been informed that the leamed
gentleman had filled the highest office his country could be-

104 LIFE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY,
stow at the court of St. James. He was sure he had never
learned Ms breeding in that school. The court, the bar, and
audience were delighted."
This, it wiU be remembered, was not pubUshed untU after
Mr. Pinkney's death. In the first place, there is a gratuitous
and unproved charge, that Mr. Pinkney was bent upon gain
ing the cause of the Mary by fair or unfair means — a charge
made by a warm personal friend of Mr, Emmet without one
tittle of evidence, and as I shall presently show, in the face
of evidence to the contrary, and in violation of the facts in
the case. In the second place, there is the imputation of a
low and vulgar motive, at which every right-minded man re-
coUs, upon hare probability, "with a yiew probably of irritat
ing and weakening the reply." The animus of this anecdote
is its own best and surest condemnation. The charge of
unfairness, and the imputation of such a motive upon mere
probabUity, when brought against one whom Justice Story
represents as of the most peerless character at the bar, are
strange deeds in one, whose office it was to judge righteous
judgment and base assertions, touching the Ulustrious dead,
upon solid and substantial facts. The motive attributed to
Mr. Pinkney is not only untrae, but impossible to be trae.
Mr Emmet's argument was concluded, and could not there
fore be weakened by irritation. Mr. Wheaton, who was pre
sent, gives us the true motive ; and Justice Story conclusively
proves, that there was no necessity for a resort to any thing
like trick, if indeed Mr. Pinkney were capable of it, as he
won by argument an easy victory. It is strange that Judge
Story teUs us nothing of the pleasure with which he listened
to language far too coarse to have ever greeted the ear of such
a tribunal as the Supreme Court ofthe Union,
I am not to defend Mr. Pinkney in what he, upon re
flection, thought proper to acknowledge was not wholly de
fensible ; and for which he offered a full and gratuitous pubUc
atonement. But when reports, extremely prejudicial to the

LIFE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY, 105
character of another, are circulated after his death, and ac
companied by gross abuse ; it is surely within the province
of a biographer to sift the assertion, and, as far as the
evidence -wUl admit, disabuse the public mind, and set the
matter right, A breath may tarmsh the mirror of a peerless
character, if suffered to remain upon it — and no one has a
right to complain, if others are wounded in the mere sheer
justice of rubbmg it off.
The name of Thomas A, Emmet recaUs many thrUling
reminiscences. The misfortunes of Ms early life, which
was overhimg -with clouds, imparted a melancholy inter
est to his subsequent illustrious career. A man of rare
eloquence and most commanding abiUties, he lived to shed
an additional lustre upon old Ireland ; for although his soft
and persuasive oratory, and the breathings of his pure and
enUghtened patriotism were hushed on the banks of Killar-
ney, and he was compeUed to fly the Ireland he loved, and
seek and find a shelter beneath the outspread wmgs of the
American eagle ; he enjoyed the enviable pleasure of know
ing that the echoes of Ms fame became famUiar sounds in
every Irish homestead. Casting his eye over the names of
her Ulustrious sons, her Goldsmiths, Burkes, Sheridans,
Grattans, Currans, and his o-wn most gifted brother (the
man whose epitaph -wUl yet be written); he could, with
sometMng of the exultation of patriotic pride, console him
self with the beUef that he was not unmindful of their glory.
If in the excitement of debate, there was a momentary jar
between Ireland's favored son and Maryland's most admired,
it was a jar in wMch neither was wholly blameless, and each
triumphed by sacrificing obstinate self-pride in a cordial and
rautual recognition and acknowledgment of all that was
truly great in the other. I leave to malevolence on either
side the waters, the gratification of parading forth infirmities
that are common to us all, and overlooking virtues that but
few possess ; wMle the more pleasing and grateful task is

106 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY,
left me, of showing how the incidental misunderstanding be
tween them was adjusted without dishonor to either.
Mr. Pinkney possessed an eminently legal mind ; quick,
keen 'discriminating, incredibly patient in investigation, and
endowed with extraordinary powers of analysis. He studied
Law as a science, and mastered it in aU its departments.
The whole domain of the common law was as familiar to Ms
mind and thought, as tbe soU of his birth ; whUe the great
principles of international law, and the ngt less imposing
principles of our own august constitution, were thoroughly
explored and comprehended by him. He was accustomed to
refresh himself at the well springs, and drew his legal know
ledge from the great original sources, the masters whose ex
positions are decisions. Nothing of importance escaped his
notice. Thoroughness and comprehensiveness combined to
make him singularly learned in the Law. He never engaged
in a cause without looking carefully and calmly into its
merits, and sifting them through all their intricacies, and
adjusting with the utmost precision the law to the facts.
Once in the cause, he was perfect master of the ground. No
error committed by those with whom he was caUed to grap
ple, escaped Ms eager and eagle-eyed observation. Cool and
cautious, he surveyed the whole field, and discovered at a
glance where were the weak and where were the strpng points
of the assault and the defence. His own line of argument was
most skUfuUy laid, and his authorities marshalled with con
summate judgment. Story says he never pressed weak points
upon the court, and therein he showed his good sterling com
mon sense and high regard for professional propriety. He ex
pended his whole strength upon the reaUy strong points in the
case, and warred with the weapons of a giant. Investigation,
deep, searchmg, laborious investigation, preceded and accom
panied all his discussions before the court. His habit of careful
and dUigent preparation (from which he never departed, and
which in reaUty constituted one of the marvels of his hfe),

LIPE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY. 107
gave rise to the idea that his mind was slow in its operation, and
that Ms speeches were written out before they were delivered,
and that he was deficient in what are caUed the powers of ex
temporaneous debate — an idea the farthest possible removed
from the fact. Those who were accustomed to listen to his
legal arguments, most elaborately prepared, were not un
frequently astonished at Ms prompt responses, when consult
ed as an amicus curice, upon points suddenly sprung upon
the court, which resembled the gusMngs forth from an over
flowing fountain, and were not more characterized by lofty
eloquence, than wonderful precision and exactness. He who
never presumed to present himself before a court,' but after
the most patient and profound examination of the case, in
aU its bearings, coidd, when the occasion called for it, pour
forth Ms accurate and methodized legal leaming witha force
and precision truly wonderful. Those who were privUeged
to Usten to Ms arguments continued hour after hour, have
testified to the fact, that the scintiUations of his genius,
emitted in the heat and excitement of debate, whether before
the court or the Senate, possessed a beauty and a briUiancy
that were never afterwards gathered up. So far from being
carefuUy -written out beforehand, they could not have been
written at aU. They were, to use the poetic language of
another, like dew-drops that hang on the petals of flowers,
wMch cannot be gathered. Mr. Pinkney possessed all the
pecuUar quaUties of a powerful extemporaneous debater, viz.,
unUmited command of language, inexhaustible fund of know
ledge, a powerful and retentive memory, and admirable self-
possession. But he valued his reputation too highly; he
too much respected the court and the audience, to go forth
to the discussion without the last finish of the most exact
and minute investigation. The -writer of this memoir has
heard several anecdotes of an authentic character, illustra
tive of his wonderful quickness of comprehension; — oneof
wMch he begs permission to mention, as it came to Mm

108 LIFE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY.
direct. It does honor to another of the distinguished sons of
Maryland, who was himself a most eloquent and powerful
advocate. Mr. * "•¦•¦ * had a case to argue, and Mr. Pinkney
was employed as associate counsel in the upper court. Dur
ing the consultation, in giving a Mstory of the cause, one
point was mentioned as of secondary importance. As soon
as Mr. ¦-¦•- * * concluded, Mr. Pinkney said, " Do you take
the points you prefer, and I wUl see what I can do with the
one you reject." This excited curiosity, and when the argu
ment of Mr. Pinkney opened, his professional coUeague re
mained to see what could be made of it ; and very soon dis
covered that it was the very gist of the cause.
And yet, as I have shown, his quickness of comprehen
sion never betrayed him into indolence. His perfect com
mand of the most appropriate, beautiful, and forcible diction,
never surprised him into carelessness of preparation. His
intimate familiarity with the legal lore of the past, and the
enUghtened decisions of the present, never tempted Mm
into a confident presumption of authorities. His quickness
of perception, compass of information, and briUiancy of
genius, all disciplined by the severest and most constantly
sustained study, gave him the pre-eminence he maintained
at the bar, and made him the wonderful legal logician the
North American Eeview pronounced him to be.
Mr. Pinkney entertained the most exalted idea of pro
fessional honor. There is a trifling circumstance mentioned
in a letter, addressed by Mm to Mr. Eidgely of Maryland,
now in my possession, which, as it sets forth this trait of
character in a very striMng light, I beg leave to copy :
" October 22, 1821.
" Sir : — Since the -writing of my letter of the 20th, in
answer to yours of the 16th, Mr. Purviance and Mr. Wil
Uams have, in your_name and behalf, offered me a compen
sation (a check of one thousand dollars), in consequence of

LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 109
my known determination to be neutral on your demand in
the case of the Umon Bank against you. But I could not,
consistently with my notions of what I owe to my own cha
racter and the honor of the Bar, accept your fee, and there
fore I refused it (as doubtless they have informed you), the
moment it was tendered to me.
" I am the general counsel of the Union Bank, and had,
moreover, undertaken for it tMs cause in particular, ha-ving
no idea that after the retm-n of your retainer, with your
own previous assent, there was, or could be any objection to
my doing so ; or that I was expected, -without any recom
pense, to decline the duties of my profession altogether in
your cause, and in every other that should involve- the
same questions ; and if, from considerations of delicacy, I
retire from the fulfflment of my engagement with the Union
Bank, I wUl not consent to be paid for it in any shape or
manner by their opponent, or by any body else. My conduct
on tMs occasion would cease to be worthy of the approbation
of my brethren and the public if I suffered my neutrality to
be purchased, or to appear to be purchased, or in any way
to be compensated to the prejudice of those who have hon
ored me with their confidence, and who, -with their accus
tomed UberaUty, wUl, I am sure, excuse me for abandoning
their cause upon disinterested motives under the circum
stances in which I am unexpectedly placed.
" Your obedient servant,
"William Pinkney."
This letter speaks volumes. It exhibits a refinement of
delicacy, and a mce sense of honor and propriety, that must
receive universal commendation. It is the more beautiful,
because it was a deed done in secret, and now only meets
the pubhc eye through the kind consideration of those who
survive him, thirty years and more after he has passed from
the sight of men.

110 LIPE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY,
Four years after Mr Pinkney's death, WiUiam Wirt
thus wrote of him : " If he shaU have a biographer of ge-
,nius, he wiU, by preserving the real echoes of his fame, do
more for his immortality than Pinkney could have done for
Mmself" — Vol. II, page 197. Those echoes' of his fame (the
oraciUar decisions of a MarshaU, a Story, and a Wheaton),
can never die away ; and, as long as they Uve, Pinkney's
name will live with them. But stUl we must ever regret
(Mr. Wirt's judgment to the contrary notwithstanding),
that his speeches could not have been preserved as they
were delivered ; since Wheaton and Story, both accom
pUshed scholars and fastidious judges of style and matter,
have told us that they lost in every effort to report them.
May we not justly say of him, — " Qui consulta patrum,
qui leges juraque servat ? "

LIFE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY, 111

WIRT AND PINKNEY.
Justice to the character and memory of Mr. Pinkney makes
it my duty to devote a few pages to the consideration of a
portion of the memoir of Mr. Wirt, written by the Hon. J.
P. Kennedy, a gentleman of literary distinction, weU kno-wn
to the American people. Holding Mr. Wirt's reputation,
as a profound lawyer and brUliant orator, m very high es
teem, and recognizing in him a gentleman of varied accom
phshments, an ornament of the State of his birth and the
country at large, I cannot but regret that his biographer
has forced upon me this necessity. Fault-finding is always
irksome and distasteful, but especially so where there is
much to commend, as both weU and wisely written ; and,
if it were not for the fact that another distinguished name
in Maryland might suffer, I should pass it by in silence.
I do not animadvert upon this work merely because of
the free expression of Mr, Kennedy's own opinion respecting
the talents and acquirements of Mr, Pinkney ; or the inser
tion of the stiU freer criticisms of the illustrious subject of
his biography. They both had a right to form their esti
mate of Mr. Pinkney, and then publish it to the world.
True it is, as I think I shall be able to show conclusively,
the exercise of that right was singularly unfortunate ; as
the tone and temper of the criticisms wiU be found, upon
examination, to reflect but little credit upon either the
judgment or UberaUty of their authors. They mar the
work, and are a spot on the disk of one of Maryland's bright
orbs. The insertion of those criticisms was exceedingly in-

112 LIFE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY.
discreet. But indiscretion is no breach of the biographer's
privilege ; nor is it aU of which I feel myself entitled to
complain on the part of Mr. Kennedy in this portion of Ms
biography. He has thought proper to pubUsh to the world
letters, in which aUusion is made to conversations that pur
port to have passed between Mr. Pinkney and Mr. Wirt
alone (detrimental to the reputation of the former), upon
Mr. Wirt's sole authority, long after the death of Mr. Pink
ney, and at a time when it is impossible to offer either ex
planation or a demal of their correctness. He has done
more. He has woven a portion of those letters (the most
offensive) into the very typography of the text, and thus
given them Ms most solemn and deliberate endorsement.
What man would be -wUling to have Ms occasional re
marks (they might have been playfuUy made) thirty years
after his decease, when he is totally incapable of defending
Mmself, chronicled to the world by Ms own personal rival ?
Who would be wilUng to be thus personaUy judged ? With
out intentional misrepresentation (wMch I would be the
last to impute to Mr. Wirt), we all know how easily a thing
may be changed by a change in the tone and look, and how
easily our own peculiar temperament at the time may give
a coloring and bias to things in themselves perfectly trivial
and unimportant. Trifles are not unfrequently magnified
into some grave offence against the rules of good taste and
Mgh-toned bearing by a morbid and diseased sensitiveness,
in moments of temporary excitement, when the power' of a
rival is felt. Impressions made at such a time, especiaUy
where we ourselves are the party directly concemed, are not
to be trusted. If there be any principle of justice or pro
priety clearly estabUshed, it is this : that all repetition of
conversations which occur in the privacy of personal inter
course, reflecting in the slightest degree on another, be pub
lished in his hfetime, or else be consigned to the tomb of
oblivion. In the publication of those letters of Mr. Wirt

LIFE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY. 113
which contain a mere inteUectual critique on Mr, Pinkney,
Mr, Kennedy has been singularly unfortunate ; while in the
publication of those which are morally condemnatory, he
has been unjust. The one is a fair subject of friendly criti
cism in return ; the other, a clear ground of impeachment.
I have said, that a careful inspection of Mr, Wirt's criti
cisms of Pinkney, -will not enhance his discrimination as a
judge, nor his magnammity as a rival. Let me test the
soundness of tMs assertion. And be it remembered that the
biographer has opened this page of Mr. Wirt's Ufe, and must
therefore bear the consequences of its analysis. On page
402 of Vol, I, in a letter to Mr. Francis W, Gilmer, dated
April 1st., 1816, we have a scathing dissection of Mr. Pink
ney's mental caUbre.
" Teach these boys, — as Pinkney said he would do, — ' a
new style of speaMng.' But let it be a better one than
his ; I mean Ms solemn style, to which, in Irish phrase, I give
the back of my hand. If that be a good style, then all the
models, both ancient and modem, which we have been ac
customed to contemplate as truly great, — such as Crassus,
Anthony, Cicero, the prolocutors of the Dialogue ' De causis
corraptae eloquentiae,' Chatham, Henry, and others, — not
forgetting ' Paul Jones and old Charon,' — are all pretenders.
I know that tMs is not your opinion. But I was near him
five or six weeks, and watched Mm narrowly. He has noth
ing of the rapid and unerring analysis of Marshall,— but he
has in Ueu of it, a dogmatizing absoluteness of manner which
passes -vrith the miUion, — which, by-the-by, includes many
more than we should at first suspect, — for an evidence of
power ; and he has acquired -with those around him a sort of
papal infaUibiUty. That manner is a piece of acting ; it is
artificial, as you may see by the wandering of his eye, and is
as far removed from the composed confidence of enlightened
certainty, as it is from natural modesty, Socrates confessed
that all the knowledge he had been able to acquire seemed
8

114 LIFE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY.
only to convince him that he knew nothing. This frankness
is one of the most characteristic traits of a great mind. Pink
ney would make you beUeve that he knows every thing.
" — At the bar he is despotic, and cares as little for Ms
colleagues or adversaries as if they were men of wood. He
has certainly much the advantage of any of them in forensic
show. Give him time — and he requires not much — and he
wiU deliver a speech which any man might be proud to claim.
You wiU have good materials, very well put together, and
clothed in a costume as magnificent as that of Louis XIV, ;
but you will have a vast quantity of false fire, besides a ve
hemence of intonation, for which you see nothing to account
in the character of the thought. His arguments, when I
heard him, were such as would have occurred to any good
mind of the profession. It was his mode of introducing,
dressing and incorporating them, which constituted their
chief value — ' materiem superabit opus. ' "
This was not a hastily formed opinion. It was the result
of mature reflection and close personal observation. Consist
ency may be said to be the very jewel of criticism. Not
that I would intimate that our views may not be altered or
modified by time and circumstances, without a forfeiture of
our title to respect and confidence. But the criticism of to
day must be perfectly consistent with itself, to make it in
any degree valuable. Where iS the consistency of this crit
icism ? " Dogmatizing absoluteness of manner" not power;
"forensic show" is all that inthe first part of this letter heis
wiUing to concede to Mr. Pinkney, after five or six weeks' close
and narrow watching. And yet, upon short notice he will
deliver a speech which any man would be proud to claiiri ;
and stdl after all, the arguments he used, when Mr. Wirt
heard him, were only such as would have occurred to any
good mind of the profession, with a vast deal of false fire.
Such is the character of the first criticism that Wirt passed
upon Pinkney ; and Mr, Kennedy has deemed it wise to hand

LIFE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY. llS
it down to the gerieration following. How any man, who
has in Ueu of unerring and rapid analysis, a dogmatizing ab
soluteness of mauner, which is not power,! but passes with
the weak-minded million for an evidence of power, should be
able, upon short preparation, to deliver a speech which any
man would be proud to claim ; — and yet only stumble upon
such arguments as would occur to any good mind of the pro
fession, characterized with a vast deal of false fire, is a re
finement of distinction, that I candidly avow I cannot pene
trate. TMs criticism destroys itself . It was, as I have
shown, not hastily formed, and cannot therefore plead negli
gence or haste in its extenuation ; and although essentiaUy
modified in after years, the feeling that dictated it will serve
as a key to help me to discover the true source of Mr. Wirt's
strictures upon his rival. In a letter to Judge Carr, dated
AprU 7th, 1816, he thus writes (Vol. I. p. 405) :
" In tMs hopeless situation I went to court, to try the
tug of war with the renowned Pinkney. When I thought
of my situation, — of the theatre on which I was now to ap
pear for the first time, — the expectation which I was told
was excited, and saw the assembled multitude of ladies and
gentlemen from every quarter of the Union, you may guess
my feeUngs. Had I been prepared, how should I have gloried
in that theatre, that concourse, and that adversary ! As it
was, my dear wife and children, and your features, look, and
sympathetic voice and friendly inquietude, came over me
like evU spirits. To be sure, these considerations gave me a
sort of desperate, ferocious, bandit-like resolution ; but what
is mere brute resolution with a totally denuded intellect ? I
gave, mdeed, some Mts which produced a visible and ani
mating effect ; but my courage sank, and I suppose my man
ner feU under the conscious imbecility of my argument. I
was comforted, however, by finding that Pinkney mended the
matter very little, if at all.
" Had the cause been to argue over again on the next

116 LIFE OF -WILLIAM PINKNEY.
day, I could have shivered him ; for his discussion revived
all my forgotten topics, and, as I lay in my bed on the fol
lowing morning, arguments poured themselves out before me
as from a cornucopia, I should have wept at the considera
tion of what I had lost, if I had not prevented it by leaping
out of bed, and beginning to sing and dance like a maniac,"
It is a cnrious fact, that this letter was penned but six
days after the one just commented on. It is not a Uttle sur
prising that dogmatizing absoluteness of manner and foren
sic show should have produced such a state of feeUng at the
prospect of actual colUsion, Unfortunately for Mr. Wirt,
but most fortunately for Ms antagonist, the bed, not the forum,
was the scene of this hopeless rout ; and Wirt himself, the
graphic narrator of the shivering effects that would have
foUowed the renewal of the contest. It was a wonderful
transition from the imbecile argument to the teeming cornu
copia; and most fortunate for Pinkney was it, that the
bed, being a non-conductor, saved him from the shivering
bolt of legal eloquence and logic, before it laid him low in
the dust of the dishonored forum. In a letter to Mrs. Wirt,
dated April 7th, 1821 (Vol. II. p, 119), Mr. Wirt thus
wrote :
" This is the fourteenth day since this argument was
opened. Pinkney, before he began, promised to speak only
two hours and a half He has now spoken two days, and is,
at this moment, at it agairi for the third day. You wiU be
gratified to hear, that although there are four counsel on the
same side with me, and the veteran General Harper, —
hitherto the only Maryland rival of Pinkney, — among them,
yet here the Attorney-General is regarded as Ms chief an
tagonist, and the comparison made by the court, the bar and
the bystanders, far from being to my prejudice."
AU this may have been so in pouit of fact (but there are
those alive who have heard other testimony from the court,
to say nothing of the bar); but did it not occur to Mr,

LIPE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY. 117
Kennedy, that other less interested witnesses would more
gracefuUy and properly have attested the fact, and that the
-wise words of Solomon are stUl, as they ever have been, the
safest and best to foUow? Wirt may have eclipsed the
veteran Harper, a man as great as he was leamed, and as
lofty in spirit as he was ambitious to excel. He may have
eclipsed Pinkney in this cause. But the leamed biographer
-will pity, if he does not excuse our mcredulity, until he has
explained to us how the opinion of the court, the bar and the
bystanders, was gauged. Wirt doubtless thought as he
wrote, and his friends may have told him so ; but friends
are not always impartial, neither are they infaUible. Our
own opinions under such circumstances are surely as little to
be trusted. Mr. Kennedy seems to have had a sort of pre
sentiment, that the insertion of such a letter might be open
to criticism ; and bespeaks for it exemption, on the score of
the pecuUar circumstances under which it was written. He
adds, " Trifles such as these, which on other occasions might
be Uable to disparaging comment, acquire value in a bio
graphical sketch, as exponents of characters. They are to
be regarded as Ulustrative anecdotes, which often serve to
cast a better light upon personal qualities or the features of
the mind, than more earnest and acute dissertation. They
are cMefly valuable in the present case, for the evidence they
furnish us of that eager, sensitive, and stimulating desire in
the breast of Wirt, to contend with and excel, if possible,
the most renowned and sMUul competitors in the theatre of
Ms own art."— Vol. II. p. 119.
These trifles consist, it wOl be borne in mind, of tMee
letters (one of which alone I have commented on), April 2d,
Sth, and 7th ; in two of wMch Mr. Pinkney is held up to
posterity in any thing but an amiable light, and in the 3d
exMbited as comparing unfavorably with Wirt in the estima
tion of the court, bar, and bystanders. If they be, as Mr Ken
nedy affirms, exponents of character, I am greatly in error

118 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
if the friends of Mr. Wirt do not join me in the expression
of opinion, that they have been most unfortunately inserted
into his biography. Would any one, who takes time for
reflection, wish to wound the feelmgs of the friends of Mr
Pinkney, who survive Mm, (at a time too, when it is impos
sible for them to open the secrets of the past for his justifi
cation,) for the sake of inserting mere trifles and retainmg
the echo of a trumpet blast of victory sounded by Mr Wirt's
own lips ? As private letters, restricted to the private circles,
I should have never ventured to criticise them. But Mr
Kennedy has made them public and endeavored to defend
them as " exponents of character," although two of them
bear unkmdly upon the memory of one not living at the time
of their publication ; and the other is a self-appropriated
claim to victory. In another letter to Judge Carr, May 14th,
1821 (Vol. II. p. 121), I read :
" Why, Sir, have not I been to Bel Air, in the midst of
it all, and beatded that ' * * * * * * magician Glen-
dower,' without suffering the thousandth part that the earth
did, at the birth of the Welshman ; nay, without suffering
by the struggle or in the comparison ?"
This reference to Glendower, the Welshman, seems to
have been particularly pleasing to Mr. Wirt, as he introduces
it ori more than one occasion, when speaking of Mr. Pinkney.
Judging from the tone and spirit of his letters, one might
fancy that Wirt like Lancaster could " illy brook the men
tion of Glendower." I will not insinuate that the words of
the Welshman could have been adopted by Mr. Pinkney.
" Three times hath Henry Bolingbroke made head
Against my power — thrice from the banks of Wye,
And sandy-bottomed Severn, have I sent him
Bootless home, and -sreather-beaten back."
But surely tMs much I may do. I may well express my
regret, that Wirt had not with Mortimer's magnanimity
have divided the disputed realm.

LIFE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY, 119
" England, from Trent and Severn hitherto,
By South and Bast is to my part assigned : •
All westward, Wales, beyond the Severn shore,
And all the fertile land within that bound,
To Owen Glendower," —
It may not be that Wirt's Glendower, like Shakspeare's,
" gave the tongue a helpful ornament that was never seen
before" — but stiU comparisons are sometimes stronger and
more striking than we at first imagined.
Again in a letter to Francis W. Gilmer, May 9th, 1822,
p. 138, Vol. II.
" Poor Pinkney ! he died opportunely for his fame. It
could not have risen higher ¦••' '••- * *.
" He was a great man. On a set occasion, the greatest,
I tMnk, at our bar. I never heard Emmet nor WeUs, and,
therefore, I do not say the American bar. He was an ex
ceUent lawyer ; had very great force of mind, great compass,
nice discrimination, strong and accurate judgment : and for
copiousness and beauty of diction was unrivaUed, He is a
real loss to the bar. No man dared to grapple with Mm
without the most perfect preparation and the full possession
of all his strength. Thus he kept. the bar on the alert and
every horse with his traces tight. It wUl be useful to re
member him, and in every case to imagine him the adversary
with whom we have to cope. But, I assure you, I do not
enjoy more rest because that comet has set. There was a
pleasurable excitement in wrestling with Mm on full pre
paration. In my two last encounters with him 1 was well
satisfied, ¦ and should never have been otherwise when en
tirely ready. To draw his supremacy into question, any
where, was honor enough for ambition as moderate as mine."
These words were penned in an hour of solemn interest,
over the closed coffin and grave of Ms contemporary — and
yet even here we have the rising of the same restless influ
ence, that the name and fame of Pinkney always produced

120 LIFE OF -WILLIAM PINKNEY.
on Wirt, Pmkney did die, in one sense, opportunely for his
fame. He died in the fuU flush of honor, -with Ms face front
ing duty; not ingloriously reposing upon Ms laurels, but in
the act of maMng a desperate struggle for stiU higher fame
and vaster renown. But he had not reached the acme of
either Ms aspirations or his hopes. Had he Uved, and Ms
powers continued unimpaired by disease, his countrymen
would have heard of him yet again on the floor of the Senate,
and the forum.
Mr. Wirt in tMs letter concedes, it is true, " that he was
a great man ; on a set occasion the greatest at the Mary-'
land bar. He had not heard Emmet or Wells, and therefore
he did not say the American bar. " He had heard Web
ster and Tazewell. TMs is Mgh praise, and although not
uttered until the orb that seemed to culminate so painfuUy
on Mr. Wirt's vision had set, stUl I was disposed to say
that it was praise gracefuUy spoken, when my eye rested
upon the foUowing passage: " In my two last encounters
with him I was well satisfied, and should never have . been
otherwise, when entirely ready." No mention is made of
him but in self-comparison. The fame of Pinkney (if these
letters be a true index of the feelings of their author) was
Wirt's disturbing ghost. Even when the great Lawyer and
orator lay in the shroud, and criticism herself stood disarmed
by his bier, that ghost could not be laid. Long after
death had claimed its victim, it continued to haunt the
memory and awaken unpleasant associations. In a letter to
Judge Carr, February 9th, 1824 (Vol. II. p. 179), he thus
wrote: " There was Pinkney, who was certainly a great advocate.
He was never heard to complain of a failure. He has made
some speeches which would have half kUled me. On a great
occasion in Annapolis I heard Mm speak for three days. Of
the first day, two or three hours were in his best manner ;
the rest of that day, and the whole of the foUowing two,

LIPE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY. 121
were fiUed up with interminable prolixity of petty commen
tary upon one or two hundred cases. The court, bar and
every one were tired to death. He went home and told —
that he had made the greatest speech he had ever made in
Ms Ufe." From this judgment thus sweepirigly made, with a sort
of oracular infaUibUity, if the occasion had been mentioned,
I apprehend an appeal might be safely made to those who
Ustened for tMee days to Mr. Pmkney, For, strange to say,
he never spoke m AnnapoUs without admirmg audiences,
and the judges were always prompt to record their highest
appreciation of Ms power. In a letter to Francis W, Gil
mer, AprU 2d, 1825, he writes further :
" His fame had a magnitude by refraction, which would
have been impaired by the publication of Ms speeches."
The letters, to wMch I take exception on the score of
propriety, because they are calculated to leave on the mind
of the reader the idea that Pinkney was disgustingly over
bearing and jealous, wMle Wirt, Ms contemporary, was the
very impersonation of modesty and retirement, are to be
found on pages 80 Vol, II ; 119, do. ; 176, do. I again re
peat, that I would most gladly have omitted tMs whole crit
icism on the work of Mr. Kennedy, if justice to the memory
of WUliam Pinkney would have allowed. But that was not
possible. TMrty years had passed, since Mr. Pinkney was
laid in the grave, when, needlessly and without benefit to the
character of Wirt, Ms biographer gives pubhcity, not merely
to Wirt's depreciation of Ms rival, but to grave reflections
on his character. It wUl not do to say that these criticisms
(both severe in their tone and unMnd) were subsequently
modified and changed. They were never so modified, as not
to be tinctured by the most transparent self-exaltation ; and
in their more objectionable features they were not modified
at all. The very name of Wirt gives importance to his opin
ions and statements ; and the superadded name of Kennedy

122 LIFE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY,
clothes them with additional authority. And surely, as the
biographer has not hesitated to give aU the perpetuity he
can to the strictures on Mr, Pinkney and mere ex parte rep
etitions of conversations — no friend of Mr. Pinkney, in an
attempt to write his life and vindicate his character, can be
blamed for subjecting the criticism to the touchstone of a
calm and impartial review, and entering a protest against
those ex parte statements.
We must not be misunderstood, Mr. Kennedy and Mr,
Wirt had a right to speak of Mr. Pinkney as they thought
fit. I concede that right to the fullest extent. They were
at Uberty to dissect his mental caUbre at pleasure. I com
plain not of the exercise of that right. But, having exer
cised it, and thereby submitted their own criticism to the
world, they become in turn fair subjects of critical investi
gation, and no one has a right to complain if the result prove
imsatisfactory or painful.
But I deny that Mr. Kennedy had a right to publish
one-sided statements, that were never published in the life
time of the person assailed.
Nil de mortuis nisi bonum, is a most admirable senti
ment. The world may deny our claim to greatness or se
verely dissect our inteUectual powers, if it please. But no
man has a right to touch the character, unless upon charges
made in the lifetime, and confronted with the accused, or on
statements that have been submitted to the touchstone of
fuU and fair investigation. A deeper wrong could not well
have been infficted on the memory of the lamented Wirt,
than tMs indiscreet and improper pubUcation. I can only
once more regret, that it did not occur to the discriminating
judgment of the biographer, that the supremacy of either
of those Ulustrious men could never be satisfactorily settled
by the assertions of either ; and that he did not leave those
letters in the privacy they were permitted to enjoy -wMle
Pinkney lived. They exMbit Mr. Wirt's character, which

LIFE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY, 123
was in many respects worthy of the highest admiration, in a
most unen-viable Ught ; and evince a weakness of jealousy
upon which it is truly painful to animadvert,
N. B. — Some of the points in this portion of my memoir
were introduced into an article I forwarded to the Literary
World, wMch was pubUshed some tiine ago.

124 LIFE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY.

PINKNEY, A STATESMAN.
Mr. Pinkney's character in tMs aspect of it isnot generaUy
understood, and is not therefore properly appreciated. Be
fore I enter upon a re-view of his conduct in the different
embassages he filled, I propose to inquire what it was, which
entitled Mm to the appellation of a statesman ; in what
school he was trained ; and what were the mental and moral
elements wMch combined to qualify him for the difficult and
delicate functions that are always involved in the manage
ment and control of pubUc affairs. He was a true-hearted
American patriot, a sincere and ardent lover of his country,
deeply versed m the grand principles of our glorious consti
tution, and a thorough master of every portion of its intri
cate and beautiful mechanism. He had studied the system
in the writings of its august founders. Accustomed from
infancy to the war-cry of the Eevolution, Ms youthful imagi^
nation was fired with the thrilling associations of that giant
straggle for freedpm. He grew up in the meridian blaze of
the period of '76. His profound knowledge of constitutional
law enabled him, at a glance, to see how far any given meas
ure comported with the dignity and trae glory of the coun
try, or put in jeopardy its substantial prosperity and success.
He had the nicest conception of the powers of the General
Govemment, and the separate jurisdiction and sovereignty of
the States, and never for a moment lost sight of the boundary
that divided the one from the other. No man was a truer,
firmer, faster friend of the rights of the States, or -viewed
with a more jealous eye the least infrmgement of their clear
constitutional prerogatives ; and yet no man possessed a more

LIFE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY, . 125
admirable nationality of soul. He was out and out an
American in aU his -views and prmciples. His spirit was as
large as Ms country, and wherever the stars and stripes
floated, tMough the whole extent of the national domain, he
could exultingly say, with a fuU consciousness of the glory
of the sentiment, " This is my country all." He was above
the influence and dominion of sectional prejudices. Though
a Southerner by birth, his noble heart beat high with the
broadest nationaUty. The Union he prized as the proud
paUadium of our Uberties, the fruitful source of all our past
mercies, and the only hope of the stiU more glorious future.
He saw in it the " seminal principle " of an unprecedented
national exaltation, the more than germ of the most stupen
dous system of government the sun ever before shone upon.
The union of mdependent and separate States — united in aU
that could give efficiency to the whole, while separate and
sovereign in aU that was essential to the largest desirable
freedom of each — this union of equals for the purposes of
mutual defence and glory, enUsted the purest sympathies of
Ms soul, and caUed forth the mightiest strains of his elo
quence. In his whole political career, he aspired to be the
friend of the States in umon ; and notMng less than this
broad nationaUty satisfied Ms ideas of what a true devotion
to State rights required at Ms hands. He saw nothing but
advancement, unparalleled success and far-reacMng, iUimita-
ble prosperity, for the States, so long as they continued in a
whole-souled fealty and devotion to the Union ; while in the
severance of that Union he saw notMng but the darkness
and blackness of despotism, the most dismal and frightful
chaos of anarchy and confusion. The foUowiug letter, writ
ten by Mr, Clay but a short time before his death, corrobo
rates aU that I have here stated, and beautifuUy expresses
the - confidence and admiration of one, who remembered to
applaud the day that -witnessed Mr. Pinkney's triumphant

126 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY,
vindication of the constitution in the discussion of the Mis
souri question, "Havana, March 29th, 1851.
" My Dear Sir : — I request your acceptance of my
thanks for the Chart and History of Hayti, which you have
done me the favor to present to me. They relate to an
island, distinguished by great vicissitudes of prosperity and
adversity,' and I shall take much pleasure in tracmg them.
It is greatly to be regretted that an island so fuU of rich
resources could not be made more conducive to the supply
of the commerce and the consumption of our species.
" I beg your acceptance also of my acknowledgments
for your friendly consideration of me, and for your Mnd es
timate (quite too high and flattering) of my pubUc services.
On the recent perilous occasions in our councils, it was a
matter of great gratification and encouragement to have
been perfectly assured that the navy, as well as the army,
and the great mass of the people of the United States, were
true and faithful to that Union, wMch is at once the bond,
the security, and the glory of aU,
" Had William Pinkney been alive, your Ulustrious rela
tion, his eloquent voice would have been conspicuously and
effectively heard in the defence and support of that Union,
" With my best respects for your health, happmess, and
prosperity, " I am, respectfully,
" Your obedient servant,
" Dr, Ninian Pinkney, H. Clay."
" U. S. Navy."
It was Mr. Pinkney's constant aim to be eminently just.
He scorned the questionable expedients so often resorted to
by petty politicians. Deeming honesty the crowning orna
ment of a diplomatist, and his couritry's honor the only safe
gmdmg star of public policy, he pursued Ms object with

LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 127
bold independence and manly directness. Extrrordinary
quickness in coriiprehending the merits of a subject — exw."-
ordinary labor and patience of research in threading aU its
perplexing labyrinths, and extricating it from every thing
extraneous or irrelevant — commanding and ready eloquence
in enforcing Ms own dehberate and weU-weighed conclusions
— superiority to low and contemptible artifice — remarkable
prudenpe- and self-control in brusMng away the " cobweb
conceits "' of shallow pohtieians — moral courage, the bravery
of the heart, which is unappaUed by difficulties and unawed
in danger, and which always 'dares to assume responsibility
and meet it — these aU combined to make Mm a consummate
statesman. "^
I speak now of his powers in the abstract — powers which
a WasMngton was the first to discover/, and a Jefferson,
Madison, and Moproe were as prompt to appreciate and
reward. If Mr. Pinkney had never been tried in the active
duties of statesmansMp, we might have confideritly argued
his pre-eminent fitness for the work from those well-known
attributes of his character. Having been tried, let us .now
inqm're how they were developed and exMbited. Was the
fruit worthy of the tree ?
It will be remembered that Ms first appearance abroad
was under the appointment of WasMngton, as commis
sioner on the part of the United States, under the 7th
article of Jay's Treaty. The duties rendered under that
appointment are recorded in history ; and it is uot necessary
to say more of them now, than that the result of his labors
•. -as the maMng award by the Board on the principles con
tended ibr by the Amci-;?an commissioners.
Pi-.'^sident Jefferson invited Mm to assist Mr. Monroe in
the pena ing negotiations with Great Britain. His accept
ance of thit; appointment subjected him to severe censure ;
his motives were impugned, ^nd Ms fidelity to Ms old polit
ical principles was caUed in question. I have shown, upon

128 LIFE OF WILLIAM IINKNEY.
the authority of Mr. Jefferson's o-wn letter, that the ap
pointment came to Mm without solicitation, direct or indi
rect. The interests of the country seemed to caU loudly
for an extraordinary embassage, and tlie high character of
Mr, Pinkney in England' (which was the result of Ms former
sojourn in that country) seemed to con cm-, with hit; kno-wn
abiUty and prudence, in pointing him out as the veiy man
for the position. Mr. Pinkney did not waver in devoiion to
Ms country's cause. In a spirit of upble self-sacrificv; he
stepped forth and laid on the altar of his country Ms largi
experience and the reputation he had already won. He was
not the man to skulk from duty in such a crisis f .ir a mere
personal and selfish consideration, where principle and honor
were to be neither compromised nor offered up in sacrifice.
In his letter to Mr. Cooke, of Baltimore, cf the 5th 5fttober,
1806, he thus eloquently and feeUngly vindicates himself
from those ungenerous imputations :
MR. PINKNEY TO MR. COOKE,
"London, 5th October, 1806.
" My Dear Sir : — I am very much indebted to you for
your truly Mnd letter of the 4th of August, which has just
reached me. It contauis the best prPof in the world of youv
gdod opimon and regard. It speaks to me -with candor,
and, at the same thne that it betrays the partiality of a long-
tried friendsMp, guards me against the disappointment to
which a sanguine and credulous temper might expose me,
and enables me to anticipate in season the misconceptions
and calumnies which are preparing for me. This anticipa
tion is certainly wholesome ; but it is unpleasant notwith
standing. The language of reproach is new to me, and I
fear I shaU not learn to bear i',. with a good grace from a
country which I have arden^ loved and faithfully served
with the best years of my Ufe, The consciousness that I do

LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 129
not, and cannot deserve it, consoles me in one view, while it
mortifies me in another. I am proud of the unqualified con-
-viction of my heart and understanding, that I am incapable
of any thing that an honest man should blush to avow ; but
it gives me pain to find that no purity of motive or integrity
of conduct can afford shelter in this world from the vilest
and most disgusting imputations. Our country is young,
and ought to be generous and charitable, and I beUeve that
the great bulk of our people are so. But I do not need to
have my actions charitably interpreted. I ask only a just
construction of them ; I care not how rigorous, if it be not
mahgnant. It seemed natural to suppose, that putting
former character out of the question, the circumstances under
wMch I last came abroad would at least secure me from the
suspicion of selfish views and time-serving policy; and I am,
of course, surprised that a man can be found to infer, from
my acceptance of the arduous trust in which I am now en
gaged, 'that I have deserted my principles and my friends,
and pledged myself to support the party in power and their
measures to every extent ?' What principles, in God's name,
and what friends have I deserted ? The plain matter of
fact is thus : A great national crisis occurs, which requires,
or is supposed to require, an extraordinary foreign mission.
The President, whom I may be said to know only by char
acter, offers tMs important charge to me, I give up my
profession, I surrender all my hopes of future fortune. I
forego a second time, and /or ever, the expectation of placing
my numerous and helpless family in a state of independence,
and accept tMs anxious trast, wMch, instead of promising
pecuniary emolument, is likely to bring with it a heavy
pecuniary loss, and wMch, so far from promising to do me
honor, puts in hazard the stock of reputation I have before
acquired. Now, what abandonment of principle is there in
aU this ? I am willing to ajlmit that I may have acted, im-
prpvidently, as regards ;Baf self and my chUdren, and that I
9

130 LIFE OP -WILLIAM PINKNEY.
may have overrated my capacity, and undertaken a task to
which I am not competent. But I am quite sure that I
have not deviated from the path of honor in which, with an
approving conscience, I have walked from my boyish days.
My appointment is known to have been as completely un-
sohcited as ever appointment was from the beginning of the
world. It came to me wholly unsought. It is to the credit
of the government that it did so. It came to me unclogged
by any terins or conditions. They who talk of a pledge on
my part, as the consideration of it, know that they insinuate
a base and detestable falsehood. No such pledge, no pledge
of any Mnd, was ever proposed to me. I was treated with
honor, and delicacy, and confidence ; and I have a firm re
liance that I shaU continue to be so treated. An attempt
to treat me otherwise would drive me in a moment from
office, as it would have prevented me from accepting it. As
to this pledge, the slander is too gross to be believed. I
have an intimate persuasion, founded upon a consciousness
which I cannot mistake, of integrity without blemish, that
no man would undertake to suggest to me so -vile and infa
mous a compact as the price of public station. The accept
ance of my appointment may, indeed, imply a pledge ; and
I am content that it shall be taken to be as large as honor
wUl permit. In its utmost size, whatever that may be^ I
wUl faithfully redeem it, and should be ashamed to have it
supposed that I could shrink from a duty so pressing and
obvious. The foolish, and often hypocritical cant about
apostacy and desertion of principles, shaU not frighten me
from the steady and manly course to which this duty directs
me, I have never professed any principles with which my
present situation, connected as it unquestionably is -with the
great interests of my country, is in the sUghtest degree in
consistent. I find nothing in the objects of it, in the means
by wMch I am instructed to accompUsh those objects, or in
the measures of the government preparatory to the mission",

LIFE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY. 131
wMch I do not entirely approve, and have not uniformly ap
proved. " As to the friends I have deserted, who are they.'' I
accepted my appointment, as far as I could ascertain, with
the entire concurrence of my friends of both parties ; and I
rejoice that I have friends of aU parties. It was that flat
tering concurrence wMch encouraged me to hope that the
anxiety inseparable from my undertaMng would not be ag
gravated by unjust and unfeeling prejudices, and that I
should have no difficulties to straggle with, but such as I
should find here. The affection of many of my friends in
duced them to express their fears that, as an individual, I
should suffer by the mission. But they did not conceal
their approbation of my appointment, and did not intimate
that any but prudential considerations ought to restrain me
from accepting it. I have since been frequently consoled by
the recoUection of this, the most interesting period of my
Ufe." It -wiU thus appear that Mr. Pinkney embarked in tMs
great national mission, strong in his own integrity and with
a bosom glowing with patriotic fervor and zeal. Let us now
see what he did or attempted to do, in what spirit and with
what abihty he conducted his part of the negotiation — and
in all that is here said, let it be understood, that so long as
Ms iUustrious colleague Mr, Monroe remained, he bore a most
distinguished part. They moved in the matter like men
above the influence of petty and blinding prejudices, with
the broad feehngs of American citizens in charge of Ameri
can rights. With what care he watched the progress of
events, and with what solicitude he guarded the national
honor, and vindicated the rights ofthe country, may be seen
through the whole period of the negotiation ; but nowhere
more conspicuously than in the letter he addressed to Pre
sident Madison as early as the 31st December, 1807.
" The attitude which our government is now to take.

132 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY,
wiU fix our destiny for ever ; and my trust is strong and con
fident that both wiU be worthy of the Mgh name of our
country, " In my public letters I have ventured to intimate my
opinions as to the conduct which the crisis demands from
us. You wOl excuse me, if in a private letter I speak with
more freedom.
" It wiU, I sincerely hope, be the solemn conviction of
every man in America (as it is mine) that it has become im
possible, without the entire loss of our honor, and the sacrifice
of every thing which it. is our duty to protect, to submit in
the smaUest degree to that extravagant system of maritime
oppression (proceeding more from jealousy of our rising
greatness than from naotives actually avowed) by which Great
Britain every day exemplifies in various modes the favorite
doctrine of her infatuated advisers, that Power and Rightful
Dominion are equivalent terms,
"No man can deprecate war upon light and frivolous
grounds more sincerely than I should do. But if war arises
out of our resistance to this pernicious career of arrogance
and selfishness, which, while it threatens our best interests
with ruin, is even more insulting than it is injurious, and
more humUiating than it is destructive, can it be doubted
that our cause is a just one, or that we shaU be able and
-wUling to maintain it as a great and gaUant nation ought
to do ?
" Our government has shown a laudable soUcitude, for
peace with all the world, and has acted wisely in its efforts
to preserve it. But the time has arrived when it seems to
be certain that we must yield up all that we prize of repu
tation, of fortune, and of power, to the naval despotism of
this country, or : meet it with spirit and resolution ; if not
by war, at least by some act of a strong and decisive char
acter. " The argument against resistance to British aggression,

LIPE OF -WILLIAM PINKNEY, 133
founded upon supposed danger from France, if Great Britain
should be greatly weakened by that resistance, proves too
much, and is otherwise false in fact and reasoning,
"It may be admitted, however, that France is a subject
of apprehension to America as well as to Europe ; but are
we on that account to suffer with patience every wrong
which Great Britain, stimulated by the jealousy of her mer
chants, or the avarice of her Navy, or the pride of con
scious power, may inflict upon us ? Such a state of abject
slavery to our peers, such a tame surrender of our rights, as
the price of British protection against possible and contingent
peril, would be a thousand times more degrading than if we
were now in the riiaturity of our years to return openly to the
dependence of our colomal infancy upon the guardianship of
the parent country. If we once listen to tMs base and pu-
sfllanimous suggestion, we have passed under the yoke and
are no longer a nation of freemen ; we shall not only be de
spised and trampled upon by aU the world, but, what is of -.
infimtely more importance, we shall despise ourselves —
France wiU justly become our irreconcilable enemy, and
Great Britain wUl only be encouraged and enabled to stab
to the heart the prosperity which she envies, and the power
which she begins to dread. -By a different course, that
which suits with the manly character and the great resources
of the American people, we shall show that we rely on our
selves for protection. We shall maintain, with the gallantry
and firmness which have heretofore characterized us, our
station among the powers of the earth. We shall check,
wMle there is yet time, the usurpation of Great Britain,
-without destroying her salutary strength,"
TMs noble letter breathes a lofty confidence in the integ
rity of his country's cause. It repudiates indignantly the
idea of any compromise of her rights, and points out and
severely rebukes the arrogance and presumption of England's
claims upon the high seas, and sounds the tocsin of war

134 LIFE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY.
sooner than submit to a surrender of our rights, by a tunid
faltering poUoy, or a base compromise. Mark the date of
tMs letter, at the same time you analyze its tone and temper,
and you wUl see that none saw more clearly or resented more
eloquently the odiousness of the decrees in councU than Mr.
Pinkney, or avaUed themselves of an earlier opportunity in
giving fuU and free expression to their views and feeUngs.
Speaking to the constitutional head of tMs government, he
spoke with the bold independence of an American citizen in
charge of American rights.
In this mission he was unsuccessful. Why? Not be
cause he had failed to exhaust both argument and appeal m
Ms efforts to awaken a sense of justice and trae enUghtened
policy in the bosom of those, whose counsels guided Eng
land in that eventful day. Not because he had waxed neg
ligent in maMng prompt and manly protest against her mon
strous aggressions, and tardy and insulting slowness to make
amends for the wrongs perpetrated.
True it is, he was under injunction not to jeopard the
peace of the countries, by precipitate action or the too free
expression of Ms own excited and wounded pride. Not less
true it is that he did restrain, with admirable self-control,
his indignation, while compelied to witness aggressions re
peated without redress, and diplomatic finesse pushed almost
to the verge of open indignity. He did it because it was
the wUl of Ms government it should be done, not because
the peace of the world made it desirable that endurance
should be canied to the farthest possible point.
The conduct pursued by our mimsters during that criti
cal and most difficult negotiation, beautifuUy contrasts with
that pursued by the English ministry and their deputed
agents. The English journahsts of that era were compelled,
in the hour of cahn review and cool investigation, to de
nounce in tones of indignant rebuke the unmanly and disin
genuous pohcy of a Canning and a WeUesley ; and seemed to

LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 135
9,muse themselves at our cost, for what they supposed was
the weak credulity and want of penetration exhibited by
those, who were then in charge of American rights at the
court of St. Janies. A dispassionate examination of the
subjoined correspondence wiU show that they were as correct
in the former opinion, as they were egregiously mistaken in
the latter. Mr. Pinkney before he embarked on the mission
had dissected England's policy with the sMU of a master, and
exposed her rapacious and grasping ambition and wanton
infraction of the law of nations in her aggressions on the free
dom of tlie seas, with resistless eloquence and power of ar
gument. He entered on the mission -with open eyes and
judgment thoroughly informed. He needed no one to ad-
momsh Mm or put him on his guard. In Mr. Monroe, he
found a clear-headed, enlightened, experienced American
statesman, in every respect equal to the Mgh trast confided to
him. And in aU the conferences they had with the British
negotiators did he and Mr. Monroe set forth the claims of
the United States, and repel the \iews and pretensions of
England. In their frequent mterviews with Lords Holland
and AucMand, they displayed not less abihty than they did
zeal and moderation in the assertion of our national honor
and rights, and did aU that human eloquence could do to se
cure a full and satisfactory adjustment of all the points in
controversy. On 31st Dec, 1806, they concluded a treaty.
As that treaty has been the subject of much abuse, I beg
leave to insert a few passages from a letter of Mr. Monroe,
dated February 28th, 1808, -written in its defence.
" The idea (says Mr, Monroe) entertained by the pub
Uc is, that the rights of the United States were abandoned
by the American commissioners in the late negotiation, and
that their seamen were left by tacit acquiescence, if not by
formal renunciation, to depend for their safety on the mercy
of the British cruisers, I have on the contrary always be
lieved and stUl do beUeve that the ground on which that in-

136 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
terest was placed by the paper of the British commissioners,
of Nov. Sth, 1806, and the explanations which accompanied
it, was both honorable and advantageous to the United States ;
that it contained a concession in their favor on the part of
Great Britain on the great principle in contestation never be
fore made by a formal and obligatory act of the govemment,
which was MgMy favorable to their interest; and that it
also imposed on her the obUgation to conform her practice
under it, tiU a more complete arrangement should be con
cluded, to the just claims of the United States."
Again. " It is evident that the rights of the United
States were expressly to be reserved and not abandoned, as
has been most erroneously supposed ; that the negotiation
on the subject of impressment was to be postponed for a
Umited time, and for a special object only, and to be revived
as soon as that object was accomplished ; and in the interim
that the practice of impressment was to correspond essen
tiaUy -with the views and interests of the United States."
— State Paper, vol. 6, page 421.
,The whole of this long letter is worthy of a perasal, and
less than the whole cannot well exMbit the ground upon which
the defence of that treaty is based. TMs treaty Mr. Jeffer
son refused to ratify. He did not so much as consult the
Senate upon it ; but took upon himself the sole responsibihty
of its rejection. In HUdreth's History of the United States,
Vol. v., p. 656, &c., its wisdom, sound policy and propriety
the most triumphantly vindicated. " The British negotia
tors declared that although, the ministry could not venture to
give up by formal treaty the right of impressment on the
high seas, yet that special instructions should be given and
enforced for the observance of the greatest caution against
subjecting any American born citizen to molestation or in
jury, and that in case of any such injury, upon representa
tion of it, the promptest redress should be afforded. These
assurances were reduced to writing, suggesting at the same

LIPE OF -WILLIAM PINKNEY. 137
time, that while hoth parties thus reserved these, rights, this
stipulation might answer temporarily. *" * * Having
obtained every concession on the subject of impressment
short of a renunciation by the British government of the
claim of right to take British subjects out of American
vessels — a claim going back to an indefinite antiquity,
strongly supported by the national feeUng, and thought at
the present crisis of European affairs essential to the na
tional safety — and having thus placed the United States as
to this question on ground, short indeed of what justice de
manded and perhaps of their rights, but the best, which at
present there was the slightest prospect of obtaining ; under
these circumstances, irmtating the example of Jay and of
the commission to France in 1799, Monroe and Pinkney did
riot deem it consistent either with common prudence or com
mon sense to reUnquish the advantage thus secured, and along
with it other advantages in prospect, and from a too strict
adherence to mstructions to leave the country, by breaking
up the negotiation, exposed to vast maritime losses, to the con
tinuance and aggravation of present misunderstandings, and
to imminent risk of war." This is the verdict passed by
faithful and impartial history upon that important transac
tion. And after the letter of Monroe, and the satisfactory
exposition of HUdreth, I feel that I can safely intrust it to
the judgment of posterity. True it is, it did leave the ques
tion of impressment unsettled. But what became of that
question, and how does it stand at the present moment ? It
did not surrender the right. It yielded up nothing. It only
postponed to future negotiation the adjustment, securing in
the meanwhUe the most important and desirable modification
of its use, in its oppressive bearing upon our interests. Mr.
Pinkney and Mr. Monroe were as deeply sensible that, the
treaty did not secure aU that could be desired or reasonably
or equitably asked, as Mr. Jefferson or its bitterest assailant.
They were called upon to decide between two things, neither

138 LIFE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY.
of which were to be desired. They would have spurned, as
indignantly as any, a dishonorable adjustment of our diffi
culties with England. They felt the injustice of the im
pressment as practised by her, and would never have con
sented to a tame surrender of our earnest and decisive pro
test against that right, as a violation of the law of nations
too flagrant to be justified by any supposed exigencies of na
tional defence, that could be pleaded in its extenuation. They
were wUhng, upon the positive assurance of the British gov
ernment pre-viously given, that it should be used in essential
correspondence with the views of the United States, to leave
it among the questions not settled ; not because they were
disposed to submit to the practice, but solely, because they
thought the permitting it to pass by for the present prefera
ble to war, at a time when we were so little prepared to en
counter it. War came at last, when negotiation failed, and
it was haUed -with both pride and pleasure by Mr. Pinkney,
because the national honor required it, and the patience and
forbearance of negotiation had proved inoperative to -wring
from England fhe proper redress for wrongs perpetrated: It
was a war that covered our gallant little Na-vy with deathless
glory, and proved to the world that England was no longer
mistress of the seas. A new power was upon that mighty
element, capable of maintaining its flag untarnished, whose
motto was " Don't give up the ship."
What became of Mr. Jefferson's sine qua non ? without
which he refused to ratify this treaty. Was the right of
impressment abandoned or surrendered by the treaty that
actually foUowed the war ? It is as yet among the tMngs
not given up. It is a right, unexercised I grant, and one
that -wiU never again be exercised, as far as our flag is con
cerned. But the only treaty that reduced it to a mere
barren abstract claim of right was the thunder of our little
navy on the seas. Neither Mr. Monroe nor Mr. Pinkney
were fully convinced that it would be otherwise settled,

LIFE OF -WILLIAM PINKNEY. 139
however much they may have hoped and wished that justice
and a sense of right would ultimately prevail in the British
councils ; and, without its settlement, neither of them would
or could have rested satisfied. They did the best they could
in the then state of public affairs, and, in no proper sense
of the word, did they forget what was due to the American
fiag, or the brave tars that bore it so gaUantly on the seas.
They were not wilhng to tMow away the chances of an
honorable peace by rashness or inconsideration. The post
ponement for a wMle of the right of impressment, they
thought, would result in no serious injury to the United
States, after the explicit acknowledgment that, until settled,
it would be used in accordance with our views of interest.
I tMnk, -with no impeachment of Mr. Jefferson, that Pink
ney and Monroe acted the wiser part.
It is deUghtful, in recalling, for the vindication of Mr.
Pinkney's character, the odious policy that was pursued by
Great Britain towards the United States prior to the war
of 1812, to reflect that these two great countries are now
bound to each other by the strongest ties of interest and of
amity, wMch, it is to be hoped, for the sake of the world,
neither of them may be ever tempted to forget or snap
asunder. Speaking the same language, avowedly attached
to the same great principles of political freedom, eminently
commercial in their spirit and destiny, and thereby qualified
to become leaders in the diffusion of Ught and knowledge
the world over, they may, with exulting pride, forget that
old feuds ever existed, and henceforth Uve to honor and
respect each other, and work in concert for the welfare of
the nations. We have an interest and a home in the land
of Shakspeare and of MUton. We love the old cathedrals
and good old church of England. We study the decisions
of her noble and enlightened courts, and claim a copartner
ship in her splendid literature and stupendous national
glory. And we flatter ourselves that the day has come

140 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
when the mother may justly pride herself on the daughter,"
and feel that we are more than the recipients of her light
and lustre. An Englishman may now look upon the land
of Washington, and bless God that the name and fame of
England are renewed in the name and fame of the United
States. The glory of the past of either will not compare
with their future, if peace prevaU in their mutual councils,
and their flags wave over seas covered by their mutual com
merce in beauteous harmony. May their towering strength
know of no competition but that of friendly rivalry. May
their race of glory be henceforth and for ever in parallel
Unes, whose interests and true national exaltation manifestly
Ue in one and the same direction.
It becomes now my painful duty in this connection to
examine the statements of a work, wMch was widely circu
lated at the time it was issued, entitled " The Memoirs of
Jefferson." This work was published in 1809, Its author
ship was never, that I know of, avowed. It contains very
severe and acrimonious animadversions upon the character
and conduct of Mr. Pinkney. It charges him with gross
dupUcity and falsehood. The -writer does not mince his
words. Destitute of the caution that is usually observed
by those who deUg-ht in detraction, he is prodigal of Ms
facts in proof, and deals with astounding freedom with dates,
those honest tell-tales agamst such as use them carelessly,
I propose to inquire into the nature of the charges made,
and the proofs adduced, reaffirming that noble sentiment
wMch this writer had the rashness to indorse, " that if a
history wants truth, it wants every thing that can recom
mend it ; " a sentiment which is more beautifuUy expressed
by Cicero : " Historia est testis temporum, lux veritatis,
-vita memorise, magistra -vitte, nuntia vetustatis." I shaU
permit Mm to speak for himself, judge him by Ms own words,
and then submit his so-caUed statements to the, touchstone
of stubborn facts. The author thus writes :

LIPE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY, 141
" With this view, Mr. Pinkney was sent to the Court of
St. James, armed, one hand with a falsehood, and the other
with an impudent absurdity." — Vol. II., p. 392.
Again : " On the 10th of October, Mr. Pinkney sent an
answer to Mr. Canmng's letter, in which an amount of more
than twenty pages of very large sized octavo, in print, was
occupied in a vam effort to justify the negotiation from the
charge of having faUed from his neglecting to make an offer
from govemment to repeal the embargo ; but in wMch,
when connected and compared with other parts of the cor
respondence respecting the negotiation, he appeared mani
festly guUty of mistakes or misrepresentations.
" On our first conference (said he to Mr. Canmng) I told
you explicitly, that the substance of what I suggested (viz.
that the British orders being repealed, we would suspend
the embargo) was from my government ; but the manner
of conducting and iUustrating it was aU my o-wn. I even
repeated to you the words of my instructions, as they were
upon my memory. After tMs, however doubtful a person
riiight be as to the assertion of Mr. Pinkney that he had
told Mr. Canning explicitly, that the substance of his sug
gestion was from Ms government, he would have a right, at
least, to conclude, that the written authority on which Mr.
Pmkney so confidentiaUy rehed, and the words of which he
said he had repeated to Mr. Canning, did at least contain the
words to bear Mm out. When those very instractions, how
ever, come to be inspected, they are found not to contain one
smgle word of that import ; but, on the contrary, directions to
the contrary. For his instructions on tMs head, Mr, Pink
ney, it seems, was referred by the Secretary of State (Mr,
Madison) to Ms (Mr. Madison's) answer to Mr. ErsMne, on
the subject of the British orders in council ; and the words
there are as foUows : ' The United States are weU warranted
in lookirig-for a speedy revocation of a system which is every
day augmentmg the mass of injury for which the United

142 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY,
States have the best claims to redress ? And then, contin
ues Mr. Madison to Mr. Pinkney himself, 'still it is to he
understood, that while the insidt offered in the attach on the
Chesapeake remains unexpiated, you are not to pledge or
commit your government, to consider a recall of the orders in
council as a ground on which a. removal of the existing re
strictions on the commerce of the United States with Great
Britain may be justly expected.' Here, then, is a positive
order not to give the British government reason so much as
to expect that the embargo should be repealed, even though
the orders in council should be rescinded.
" Thus, Mr. Pinkney stands convicted of riiisrepresenta-
tion by the very instructions from which he pretended to have
repeated the words to substantiate the truth of Ms assertion.
No such words were in it; but words directly the reverse 5
so that if he had, as he asserted he did, explicitly told Mr,
Canning that the substance of his suggestions, respecting
the repeal of the embargo, came from his government, he
was guilty of misrepresentation ; and if he did make such a
proposal, he was no less guilty of a breach of the orders of
his government, which forbade him to give any such expecta
tion. What makes the matter worse was that Mr. Pinkney
himself, in Ms letters to Mr, Madison, recognized the policy;
— in one of the month of May, he teUs him that he had
taken care to make no proposal. There is stUl stronger evi
dence of Mr. Pinkney's con-viction, that he was not author
ized by his govemment to offer the repeal of the embargo ;
for on the 5th of June he wrote another letter, in which he
informed Mr. Madison that he was to have an interview with
Mr. Canning in a few days, that he would then press the
suggestion of repealing the embargo law. ' But,' adds this
worthy representative of his honest and honorable cabinet, 'I
shall, for ohvious reasons, do this informally, as my own
act.' And further on in the same letter, he says, ' You may

LIPE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY. 14b
ie assured thai I will not comm,it our government hy any
thing I may do or say.'
" From the whole of this, it is evident that Mr Pinkney
not only entered into the views of his employers to cajole
the British minister, but even debased Mmself by palpable
falsehood, to cover them from the effects of that indignation
which their country must necessarily feel, on finding that,
whUe they affected to negotiate, they only meant to insult
and betray,"
Let us now look at the charge and the proof Is it true,
or is it false ? It is charged that Mr, Pinkney exceeded his
instructions, and endeavored to deceive Mr, Canmng by falsely
quoting from them. To substantiate the charge and convict
Mr. Pinkney of a palpable disobedience of the orders of Ms
government and the perpetration of a gross fraud on Mr.
Canning, this -writer affirms that Mr. Pinkney's instructions
were contained in the answer of Mr. Madison to Mr. Erskine,
which made the atonement for the insult offered in the at
tack on the Chesapeake a sine qua noii, without which no
expectation of the suspensipn of the embargo was to be en
couraged, even though the decrees in council should be re
scinded. By a reference to the 7th vol. of State Papers,
p. 28, it wiU be seen, that the letter of Mr Madison to
Mr. Pinkney, dated AprU 4th, 1808, contained those in
structions. The atonement for the insult offered in the at
tack on the Chesapeake was made in that letter the sine
qua non. Thus far the writer states the truth. The letter
of Mr,, Pinkney to Mr Canning, dated October 10th, 1808,
is adduced in evidence. In it he affirms, that in their first
interview he had notified Mr. Canmng of the intention of
our government to suspend the embargo in case the orders
in council were repealed, without any reference to the affair
of the Chesapeake, And that this notification was made in
obedience to the instractions he had received from gov
emment. This also is truly stated. These instructions,

144 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
tMs author maintains, do not bear Mr. Pinkney out. They
neither sustain him in the assurance given to Mr. Canmng,
nor the assertion that in giving that assurance he quoted
from them correctly. " No such words as Mr. Pinkney pre
tended to have repeated, were in Ms letter of instructions,
but words directly the reverse," So that " if he had, as
he asserted he did, expressly told Mr Canning that the
substance of his suggestions respecting the suspension of
the embargo came from his government, he was gwilty of
misrepresentation ; and .if he did make the proposal, he
was not less guUty of a breach of the orders of Ms govern
ment, which forbade Mm to give any such expectation,"
This seems to be a very formidable impeachment. It
looks very Uke the trath. Such a minute and scathing
analysis of facts and dates, would seem to indicate a con
scious rectitude of purpose and a deep con-viction of exact
ness. Before I proceed farther in the investigation, I beg
leave to caU attention to another fact contained in this letter
of October 10 (concerning which this author is unaccounta
bly silent), because it is material to the issue between us;
and that is, that this first interview was held on the 29th of
June.
Now I deny that the letter of the 4th of April or the
instructions contained in it, wMch tMs author quotes with
so much seenung exultation, constituted the authority on
which Mr. Pinkney made his overture in the interview of
June 2^th ; and I have the proof to sustain the denial. In
a letter, dated Aprfl 30th, which may be found iri" Vol.
VII. State Papers, p. 32, Mr. Madison thus wrote to Mr.
Pinkney :
" In order to entitle the British government to a discon-
tmuance of the embargo, as it applies to Great Britain, it
is evident that aU its decrees as well those of January,
1807, as of November, 1807, ought to be rescinded as they
apply to the United States, &c. Should the British govem-

LIFE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY. 145
ment take this course you may authorise an expectation, that
the President will within a reasonable time give effect to the
authority vested in him on the subj'ect of the embargo laivs."
TMs letter was received anterior to the interview of the 29th
of June, and subsequent' to the letter of AprU the 4th. It
was intended to control the overture made by Mr Pinkney,
and it did control it. For in the letter of Mr. Pinkney to
Mr. Madison, dated August 4th, he speaks of this very let
ter of instructions of Aprfl 30th, as ha-ving been received by
Mm previously to that interview, and used on that occasion.
Mr Pinkney teUs Mr. Madison, from whom his instructions
were received, and to whom he reported Ms official conduct,
that he made his proposal, which is so summarily condemned
by tMs writer as exceeding his instractions, on the express
authority of tMs letter of the 30th of AprU. See State
Papers, Vol. VII. p. 43.
What now becomes of the assertion that no such words
as Mr. Pinkney stated were contained in his instructions,
were to be found in them ? And what must be said of an
author, who confounds instructions contained in a letter of
one date with those of another, and in his eager partisan
zeal to find topics of bitter accusation never chances to stum
ble upon letters, that are in almost immediate juxtaposition,
in wMch the party accused states what he had done, and
why he had done it. There was a -violation of orders of
govemment in the interview of June 29th, says this author ;
and a contemptible attempt at fraud, inasmuch as the in
structions of AprU 4th expUcitly required the settlement of
the affair of the Chesapeake as the sine qua non-. There
was no -violation of the orders of govemment and no attempt
at the perpetration of a fraud, says truthful history, inas
much as the instructions which Mr. Pinkney expressly de
clared he foUowed in that interview are contained in the
letter of AprU the 30th, though not in that of April the 4th,
and are rightly quoted.
10

146 LIFE OP -WILLIAM PINKNEY.
The proof upon wMch this author rested Ms grave aUe-
gation, is supposed by him to be strengthened by the fact,
that in two letters (one of May, the other of the 5th of June)
Mr Pinkney professes his intention to act in accordance with
the instructions of AprU the 4th. But tMs, so far from af
fording proof that Mr Pinkney exceeded his instructions,
proves the very reverse. It shows conclusively that he ad
hered most rigidly to them, for up to June Sth there is de
monstrative evidence that the letter of the 30th of April
had not been received. In that very letter of June 5th,
which this author had the audacity to quote, Mr. Pinkney
acknowledges the receipt of the letter of Aprfl 4th. Of
course that of April the 30th could not have been received.
This letter of AprU 4th was the only one acted upon up to
the 5th of June, and for the best of all reasons, because it
was the only one received at that time. The letter of April
the 30th, wMch totally changed the ground and nature of
the instructions, was received however before the interview
of June the 29th, as Mr. Pinkney declares in his letter of
August the 4th.
AU these letters were accessible to this anonymous author,
and exammed by Mm, It is therefore difficult to conceive
of the disingenuousness and want of candor, that pervade his
work. When a man so far forgets himself and Ms own sense
of honor and of right, as to hurl accusations of the most of
fensive Mnd against the official conduct of another ; and
stands convicted, by the very authorities he adduces, of the
grossest ignorance or the most glaring misrepresentations, he
entitles himself to but Uttle mercy. His ignorance may
shield him from the severer condemnation, but it cannot save
his book from the mfamy assigned to it by his own indorse
ment of the sentence, " that if a history wants truth it wants
every thing that can recommend it." How emphatic are
the words of Johnson, " There is such a thing as mistaking
the venom of the shaft for the vigor of the bow. It is not

LIFE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY. 147
hard to be sarcastic in a mask. If we leave such a writer
only his nierits, where -will be Ms praise ?"
Mr. Pinkney was not insensible to the fetters that re
strained him in his correspondence -with Canning. He was
hampered by the exceeding difficulties of his position. Had
he been free to address Mr. Canmng, as at a subsequent
period he did Lord Wellesley, in the strain his own feelings
dictated, he would have shown that in sarcasm he was not
inferior to that eminent statesman, as he had proved himself
to be more than Ms equal in power of argument and frank
ness of disposition. If ever honor and a scrupulous conscien
tiousness adorned the diplomatic conduct of any minister, they
did that of the gentleman thus bitterly assailed. I exult
ingly point to the correspondence hereunto annexed, and
am satisfied that it wiU be found upon examination to be
not less conspicuous for high, honorable, manly feeling, than
pre-eminent abiUty. It wUl bear a favorable comparison
with that of any other period of the republic marked by
equal hazard, deUcacy and difficulty. He uniformly main
tained that the embargo was "a measure of wise and
peaceful precaution, adopted under the view of reasonably
anticipated perU." He was a profound admirer and consist
ent supporter of the embargo and the non-importation act ;
and without entering upon the discussion of its merits or de
mands, I beg leave to introduce to the pubUc for the first
time an article of singular force and ability found among the
few surviving papers of Mr. Pinkney. It was his habit to
throw off hastUy his views of such important measures, and
then throw them aside. Those who are accustomed to re
view our past history, wUl remember that those measures
produced at the time a profound sensation in the country.
The embargo excited the Eastem States to a most fearful
degree, and the non-importation act was not less bitterly op
posed. The embargo was the policy of Jefferson's adminis
tration, and was laid on the 23d of December, 1807. Its

148 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
character to respect and its title to support, as the wisest
measure that could at that time be adopted, it is not my
province to discuss. Suffice it to say, that it was repealed
on the 1st of March, 1809, arid that a sort of substitute for
it was found in the non-intercourse act. Mr. Pinkney thus
wrote :
"WUl that miserable shadow of a system, caUed the
non-intercourse act, sink even below its own mherent weak
ness, as we know it wiU, by the disUke of many and the in
difference of aU, be such an instrument as our government
ought to -wield against the most alarming and permcious of
aU the pretensions of a jealous and encroaching power — pre
tensions which, if once aUowed to gain the sanction of pre
cedent, can only be beaten do-wn by force .?
" The embargo was a noble and magnificent effort, suited
to the extraordinary occasion by wMch it was suggested,
and adequate if persevered in to all its purposes. That great
measure being abandoned, no half-way scheme, of the same
family, can ever hope to stand in its place, and be ef
fectual. " The non-intercourse act may furnish incentives to com
mercial frauds and fuel to faction — it may render govern
ment odious by its penalties, and its cause contemptible by
its feebleness — it may display anger -without spirit, and a
more than Christian patience under -wrongs wMch it is^for-
ward to proclaim — it may combine a practical submission to
injury and insult, with that show and bustle of resentment
which produces nearly all the losses and more than the pos
sible disgraces of war without its glory or its graces. It may
do all this — but the United States can never stand behind
so mean a contrivance and affect to call it resistance, where
a single power is engaged in systematic attempts to push
others from the seas and to cover them with dishonor.
" NotMng seems to me to be more clear, than that such a
measure does just enough to demonstrate that we ought to do

LIFE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY. 149
inore. It is at once a Manifesto — and a Capitulation. It
struts at the same time that it truckles, and it is so contrived
that what it says is the severest censure upon the notMng
which it does.
. " Every reproach wMch was falsely cast upon the embargo
belongs by mdisputable title to this, its crippled and bastard
progeny. While France and England, agreeing in notMng
else, were in conspiracy to persecute our commerce and vio
late our neutral rights, the embargo was not only our natural,
but our only resource. It promised to be successful when
war promised nothing but rmn — and it would have been
successful, but that time and prosperity had aUoyed our -vir
tue and unfitted us for such a trial. If we had elected war,
we must have thrown down the gauntlet m a paroxysm of
romantic courage to both England and France ; but it was
our business to perceive, and our government did perceive, that
the combination of those two gigantic powers in the w^ork
of our oppression, made any experiment for reconcfling peace
with resistance not only prudent but honorable. Any
other measure than the embargo would, in such circum
stances, have been madness or cowardice. For no others were
in our choice but war -with both aggressors, or submission to
both ; -with the certamty too, that that submission would in
its progress either lead to war, or to a state of abject de
gradation." The letter of President Jefferson, dated August 5th, 1809,
expressive of Ms satisfaction in noting both the matter and
manner with which Mr. Pinkney discharged his pubUc duties;
and the unwiffingness of Mr. Madison to allow him to returri
to the Umted States, at his own urgent request, are Ms
highest vindication.
Success does not always prove the measure of abiUty and
skiU employed in negotiation, or the merit of the claims to
be adjudicated. England was at that time the proud mis
tress of the seas. Her sway on that mighty element was

150 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
undisputed. She was battUng with the powers of France in
a death struggle. She was pusMng forward her enterprising
commerce -with jealous activity on every sea ; and she looked
with evident suspicion and displeasure on our rising maritime
power. It was with England thus circumstanced in the full
flush of her nautical skUl and prowess, "whose drum beat
was echoed " wherever the waU of ocean was heard, that Mr
Pinkney had to treat ; and the question was one wMch
touched at once her pride and vaunted supremacy. His
faUure does Mm no discredit as a statesman. He pursued
Ms work -with a steadiness, industry, firmness and abihty,
always equal to the occasion, and never allowed Mmself to
be seduced into chicanery or dupUcity by the hopes of ulterior
ends. He was above intrigue, and in the firm beUef that
honesty is the only becoming national poUcy, he stood forth
the plain honest Eepublican, in the midst of the intrigues
of courts, and the hollow professions of those who repre
sented them.
None knew better than he how to scathe and rebuke op
pression and wrong, or could see more thorougMy through
the craftiness, that sometimes disfigures the diplomatic con
duct of a Canning and Wellesley. He bore much for. his
country's sake, and the love of peace ; for he was emphatic
ally a man of peace. He took no pleasure in sounding the
tocsin of war. But stUl the letter of December 31st, 1807,
and the whole of his diplomatic correspondence show,ithat
he loved not peace, when it called for the sacrifice of national
honor and consistency. He no sooner saw that negotiation
must prove fruitless, and that EngUsh pride and arrogance
must be humbled before justice could be secured, than he
returned, and aroused his countrymen to war.
There was a beautiful combination of urbamty and firm
ness, courtesy and independence, a patient spirit of endur
ance, and keen instinctive repugnance to what was -wrong,
in the political character of Mr Pinkney. So far as I know,

LIFE OF -WILLIAM PINKNEY. 151
there is not one expression which need cause the most fas
tidious of his countrymen to blush, or give occasion to the
most unrelenting of Ms opponents to afford even a momen
tary exultation.
Mr. Pinkney's great abiUties, and unparaUeled patience
of investigation, and keen discrimination of character, and
thorough comprehension of aU the great questions that at
that time agitated and disturbed the world, are not in my
opimon to be put in comparison -with Ms love of truth and
justice. If intrigue, the abiUty to prosecute ends in them
selves doubtflU or manifestly wrong by means not less doubtful
and immoral, be constituents in the character of a states
man ; then Mr. Pinkney was no statesman. He scorned to
gain an end by tortuous means ; and would have retired in
stantly, in disgust, from a pubhc service, whose policy he
did not believe to be just and upright. His moral percep
tions were most deUcately attuned, and there pervades his
whole foreign correspondence, Uke a thread of silver hue, a
most admirable love of justice and abhonence of wrong.
Let the conespondence speak for itself, and I am silent.
Were a witness, above and beyond his correspondence, neces
sary to enforce tMs impression of his character upon the
heart of his countrymen, we have it. It was a British states
man of distinction who said of him in Parliament, " that he
was a man of sound sense and judgment, of an able and
astute mind, and of Mghest reputation ; — that he had con
ducted himself during Ms residence in the country in a man
ner most honorable to himself and likely to benefit both
nations — at aU times taking the most impartial views of the
different interests concemed, Ms conduct, though firm, had
been most conciUatory. Firm to his purpose, and able to
elucidate the subjects under discussion, he had never failed
in time, punctuality, or mode of procedure in his mission." —
OUve Branch, p. 356.
This, voluntary and noble tribute from a distinguished

152 LIFE OF -WILLIAM PINKNEY.
Stranger, expressed with a nervous comprehensiveness of
style and a boldness of panegyric, that cannot but be ad
mired, found an eloquent echo in the foUo-wing beautiful tri
bute from the pen of Judge Story. The accompUshed
American jurist speaks of Mm as " one who, whUe abroad,
honored his country by an unparaUeled display of diplo
matic science; and on his return iUuminated thehaUs of jus
tice -with an eloquence of argument and depth of leamed
research that have not been exceeded in our daj."— Story
(Vol. I. 276).
A single glance into the NeapoUtan mission — Mr. Pink
ney's management of affairs on that occasion has been the topic
of severe criticism in a high quarter. A writer in the North
American (Vol. XXI. p. 272), in a quite elaborate review,
seems to think that he was caught Uke a lion in the toUs of
a wily Neapolitan functionary; and is disposed to condemn
him for the exhibition of a weak creduUty, that was but too
easily snared by the crafty and designing. But what are
the facts in the case, and how do they sustain this criticism.?
I greatly mistake the force of the evidence, if it does not
prove, not want of capacity or deficiency of shrewdness in the
minister, but want of discernment in the reviewer.
The object of Mr. Pinkney's mission to Naples was, to
obtain indemnity for losses sustained by the illegal seizure
and confiscation of property belonging to our citizens by the
Neapolitan government.
He was instructed to manifest a spirit of conciUation
towards the government of Naples.
That Mr. Pinkney acted with great promptitude, se
cured an early audience, and followed it up with marked
decision and firmness, the correspondence conclusively proves.
He set forth at once, in a letter of signal abUity, pubhshed
in this memoir, the demands and expectations of our gov
ernment. The discussion, though temperate and respectful,
is perfectly conclusive. It leaves no ground for cavU ;' no

LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 153
room for dispute. It must rank, in the estimation of all
disinterested and impartial judges, as one of the most lucid
and masterly expositions of the subject in controversy that
ever emanated from a representative of our glorious Union
abroad. His presence in the Mngdom, he very weU knew,
had caused great uneasiness and perplexity. The smallness
of the resources of the NeapoUtan government, and the
extent of oUr claim, were weU calculated to agitate and em
banass the Mng and Ms advisers. Mr Pinkney determined
to deepen tMs impression, and, instead of useless confer
ences with a mimster, who could adjust notMng in dispute,
he sent in his letter, setting forth in language not to be mis
understood, and -with an anay of arguments not to be an
swered, the justice and equity of our claim.
To this letter Mr. Pmkney received no reply. He
"pressed the marquis for an answer, and insisted that if he
could not reply to it immediately he would name the time
-within wMch it was probable he could do so." Here was
no slumbering over duty, no tame submission, no weak ir
resolution. What was the answer of the Neapolitan min
ister to the strong and earnest language of Mr. Pinkney ?
How did he justify the conduct of his government ? He
said "that an immediate answer was really impossible, and
that he could not, without running the risk of misleading
Mr. Pinkney, fix any precise time for the giving of such an
answer as should be categorical." When asked the reason
of tMs, " he observed that the papers had been scattered
about in such a way that, with aU the diligence they could
use, they had not been able to coUect them ; that all proper
steps had been taken by the kinges government for obtaining
the papers, &c."
What was the course that propriety, delicacy, and na
tional decorum demanded of our minister under such cir
cumstances.? Doubt of the word, impeachment of the
motive, or censure of the conduct pursued by his Majesty's

154 LIFE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY.
government .? Let Mr. Pinkney be heard, and we rest his
vindication upon the answer, without fear of the result.
" Avoiding extremes of every Mnd, I have sought to write
and speak -with poUteness, but, at the same time, explicitly
and firmly. Without being studiously conciUatory, I have
forborne aU menaces. I might have contrived to display a
more active and zealous importunity than my letters de
scribe ; but it could only have been that teazing importu-
mty wMch, wanting dignity, and unauthorized by usage, has
nothing to recommend its introduction Mto transactions like
this. No proper opportunity has been missed to urge this
government to a favorable decision. The reasons suggested
for a short postponement of its decision are such as, I sup
pose, I could not quarrel with without putting myself in
the wrong. They are perfectly respectful to the Umted
States, and of real weight in themselves."
What American will impeach the logic or morale of this
reasomng ? We had an unsettled claim against a weaker
power That power solicited, in a spirit of seeming fairness,
time for coUecting the papers in evidence, after having used
as they averred, all proper dUigence, to get possession of
them. The plea is admitted by our agent. Who wiU con
demn the deed ? and what, though the plea turned out to
be deceptive and false, a mere trick of diplomatic finesse
is it admissible to seize hold of a subsequent disclosure, and
urge it to the prejudice of the party negotiating ?
If, as the reviewer intimates, Mr Pinkney was politely
bowed out of Naples, and a trick resorted to, to rid the
government of the presence of one whom they had good
cause to dread, it is to Ms lasting honor that he scorned the
imputation of an unworthy motive to the government of
Naples, upon vague suspicion, and dealt with her with a
moderation and tender poUcy worthy of a better cause. His
letter of August 24th, was a triumphant vindication of our
rights, and his decUmng to proceed in extremis, and lending

LIFE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY. 155
a favorable ear to what appeared to be reasonable in itself,
just, and fair, and could be constraed into no want of re
spect for the United States ; so far from dimimsMng his
reputation as a statesman, and exposing him to censure, is
a beautiful iUustration of Ms characteristic fairness and
honesty of deportment.
The reviewer -wrote under the influence of light tMo-wn
upon the transaction by subsequent events. He saw the
end from the beginnmg. The treachery and dupUcity of
the Court of Naples were, at the time he wrote, things de
monstrated. But it is due to Mr. Pinlmey to remember,
that dupUcity proved is quite a different thing from dupUc
ity assumed. Mr. Pinkney was compelled to act upon the
aUeged reasons of the govemment of Naples, the distinct
and positive assurances of the marqms ; and it would have
been rude m the extreme to have caUed the candor and fair
deaUng of the NeapoUtan government in question upon
mere suspicion. In fornUng our judgment upon the true
merits of the case, and decidmg upon the -wisdom and pro
priety of the course pursued by Mr. Pinlmey, we must place
ourselves m his position, and banish from our mmds facts
that were subsequently revealed.
Mr. Pinkney's abiUty in discussing great constitutional
questions, was often tested in the Supreme Court of the
Union and on the floor of Congress ; and he always spoke
to command admiration. There was a loftiness of principle,
a broad nationaUty, a dignity and gravity, that indicated a
beautiful and abiding appreciation on his part of the vast
importance of every constitutional discussion. He never
opened Ms lips in the examination of that august instrument
but he seemed to behold his country's honor and true glory
involved in the issue. He always merged the advocate in
the comprehensive, enlarged, august American statesman.
And perhaps on no occasion did he display Ms profound
acquaintance -with the great principles of the constitution.

156 LIFE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY.
or Ms keen analytic logic, or pure American feelmg more
conspicuously, than in the discussion on the floor of the
Senate, of the great Missouri question.
Mr Pinkney, it has been shown, was but a short time in
Congress. WMle a member of the lower House he em
barked in the discussion of the treaty-maMng power Some
of the first men in the country figured in that Congress,
and participated in that debate. John Eandolph, the
pride and boast of Virginia, followed in reply. He paid the
highest compUment to the eloquence and power of Mr
Pinkney, but wholly discarded his view of the question.
The whole force of the opposition was turned against this
speech, with what degree of correctness we leave posterity
to decide. This was the first time that Eandolph and
Pinkney encountered each other ; and it is gratifying to
know, that the conflict was characterized in the beginning
with the most cordial expressions of mutual admiration and
respect, and ended in the most unlimited homage of the
former to the powers of the latter ; who, after the delivery
of the speech on the Missouri Compronuse, it has been said
to me, did not hesitate to accord to Mr. Pmkney the rank
of the first constitutional la-wyer and statesman in the
land. It may be thought that I have consumed too much time,
and put myself to needless trouble, in vindicating Mr. Pink
ney's title to the name and character of a statesman. But
when it is remembered, that so many years have passed
since he served the country in that capacity, and that in
the only biography written of Mm there is scarce any men
tion made of tMs feature of his character, — when it is re
membered that the country was distracted at the time by
the most rancorous party dissensions, and that the bitterness
of partisan fury was let loose upon Mm ; it wUl be conceded
that Ms Ufe could not properly be written, or his character
drawn, without a calm review of the services rendered, and

LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 157
the accusations hurled against him. The most eloquent of
New England's sons and the first of her U-ving lawyers, Eufus
Choate, in an eulogy upon recent departed worth, undertook
to Umit Mr. Pinkney's pre-eminence to the Bar, and to
throw a veil over his quahties as a statesman. He either
had not looked into tMs chapter of Mr. Pinkney's life, or
else was disposed to overlook its inq^ntestable claims to a
nation's gratitude and praise. The time was, when New
England thought and spoke differently upon this subject.
Her own Story declared, that Mr. Pinkney " honored the
country whUe abroad by an unparalleled display of diplo
matic science, and on his return, Uluminated the haUs of
justice -with an eloquence of argument and depth of learned
research, that has not been exceeded in our day." The North
American Eeview, speakmg the convictions of another of New
England's distinguished sons, declared that he was second to
none of the great names opposed to him in aU the qualities
that make up the august character of a statesman. Hundreds
who might read and receive as oracular, the burning elo
quence of Eufus Choate, if the biography of WiUiam Pink
ney were wanting m fideUty to Ms memory, may be induced
to pause and consider ere they give too easy credence to the
belief that Pinkney's cMef exceUence was that of a lawyer,
when they peruse these pages, and listen, not only to what
Story has said, but recaU to muid a fact in the history of the
past, known at this day to but few, that as early as 1819
he aimed the first decisive blow at the mad spirit of nullifi
cation, and brushed away, " as with a mighty besom, the
cobweb conceits about State rights and State sovereignty," at
a time, too, when their own mcomparable Webster was by
his side ; and, in 1820, stood forth the defender of the
States against the infringement of national usurpation ; thus
entitUng Mmself to the lasting gratitude of his country, for
so poising the shield of the constitution, as to protect each of
these associate powers in its o-wn peculiar and appropriate

158 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
jurisdiction. I may close this portion of the biography -with
the expression of surprise, that such distinguished testimony
and trumpet-tongued facts should be so soon forgotten, or
strangely overlooked in her present eloquent musings of
the past.
Vir clarissimus, amantissimus EeipubUcae benefacere
ampUssimis affeotuS,- iummis ornamentis honoris, fortune,
virtutis ingenii prseditus.
The annexed memorial was written by Mr. Pinkney, and
pronounced at the time by a distinguished judge to " be a
' most masterly composition, a complete and unanswerable
defence of neutral rights against the belUgerent pretensions
and encroachments, whose maxiins were worthy of being
committed to memory by every statesman in all countries."

MEMOKIAL ON THE RULE OE THE "WAR OE 1756.
To the President of the United States, and the Senate and
House of Bepresentatives of the United States of America,
in Congress assembled.
THE MEMORIAL OF THE MERCHANTS AND TRADERS OP THB
CITY OP BALTIMORE,
Your memoriaUsts beg leave respectfully to submit to
your consideration the foUowing statements and reflections,
produced by the situation of our pubhc affairs, in a Mgh de
gree critical and perilous, and peculiarly affecting the com
merce of their country.
In the early part of the late war between Great Britain
and France, the former undertook to proMbit neutral na
tions from aU trade whatsoever with the colonies of the lat
ter. TMs exorbitant pretension was not long persisted in,
It was soon quaUfied in favor of a direct trade between the
Umted States and these colonies, arid some years afterwards was

LIFE OF -\WLLIAM PINKNEY, 159
further relaxed m favor of European neutrals. The United
States bemg thus admitted, by the express acknowledgment
of Great Britain, to a direct trade, without Umit, between
their own ports and the colonies of the opposite belligerents,
another trade naturaUy and necessarily grew out of it, or ra
ther formed one of its principal objects and inducements.
The surplus colomal produce, beyond our own consumption,
imported here, was to be carried elsewhere for a market ; and
it was accordingly carried to Europe, sometimes by the ori
ginal importer, sometimes by other American merchants,
either in the vessels in which the importation was made, or
m others. In the course of tMs traffic, it was understood to
be the sense of Great Britain, and was explicitly declared
by her courts of prize, that although she had not expressly
aUowed to the merchants of the United States, by the letter
of her relaxations, an immediate trade between the colonies
of her enemies and the markets of Europe, a circuitous trade
to Europe, in the production of these colonies, was unexcep
tionable ; and nothing more was necessary to make it so,
than that the continuity of the voyage should be broken by
an entry, and payment of duties, and the landing of the co
lonial cargo in the Umted*States, During the greater part
of the late war, and the first years of the present, this trade
was securely prosecuted by our merchants, in the form which
Great Britain had thus thought fit to give it.
The modification of a traffic, in itself entitled to be free,
was submitted to, on our part, without repining, because it
presented a clear and definite rule of conduct, which, al
though unauthorized in the light of a restriction, was not
greatly inconvenient in its practical operation ; and your me
moriaUsts entertained a confident hope, that, wMle on the
one hand, they sought no change of system by which the as
sumption of Great Britain to impose terms, however mild in
their character and effect, upon their lawful commerce,
should be repelled ; on the other hand, it would be desired,

IQQ LIFE OP -WILLIAM PINKNEY.
that the state of things wMch Great Britain had herself pre
scribed, and which use and habit had rendered famUiar, and
inteUigible to afl, should be disturbed by oppressive innova
tions ; far less that these innovations should, by a tyrannical
retrospection, be made to justify the seizure and confiscation
of their property, committed to the high seas, under the pro
tection of the existing rule, and without warning of the m-
tended change.
In this their just hope, your memorialists have been fa
taUy disappointed. Their vessels and effects, to a large
amount, have lately been captured by the commissioned
cruisers of Great Britain, upon the foundation of new prin
ciples, suddenly invented, and applied to this habitual traf
fic, and suggested, and promulgated, for the first time, by
sentences of condemnation ; by which, unavoidable ignorance
has been considered as criminal, and an honorable confidence
in the justice of a friendly nation, pursued with penalty and
forfeiture. Your memorialists are in no situation to state the pre
cise nature of the rules to which their most important in
terests have thus been sacrificed : and it is not the least of
their complaints against them, thS,t they are undefined, and
undefinable, equivocal in their form, and the fit instraments
of oppression by reason of their ambiguity.
Your memorialists know that the circumstances wMch
have heretofore been admitted to give legaUty to their trade,
in colonial productions, -with their European friends, protect
it no longer. But they have not yet been told, and are not
soon Ukely to learn, what other circumstances wiU be suf
fered to produce that consequence. It is supposed to have
been judicially declared, in general, that a voyage under
taken for the purpose of bringing into the Umted States the
produce of the beUigerent colomes, purchased by American
citizens, shall, if it appears to be intended that tMs produce
shall ultimately go on to Europe, and an attempt is actually

LIFE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY, 161
made to re-export arid serid it thither, be considered, on ac
count of that intention, as a direct voyage to Europe, and
therefore iUegal, notwithstanding any temporary interruption
or terrmnation of it in the United States.
Your memoriaUsts will not here stop to inquire upon
what grounds of law or reason the same act is held to be
legal when commenced with one intention, and iUegal when
undertaken -with another But they object, in the strongest
terms, against this new criterion of legality, because of its
ine-vitable tendency to injustice ; because of its peculiar
capacity to embarrass with seizure, and to ruin with
confiscation, the whole of our trade -with Europe in the sur
plus of our colonial importations.
The inqmry wMch the late system indicated was short
and simple, and precluded error on aU sides ; but the new re
finement substitutes in its place a vast field of speculation.
overshadowed with doubt and uncertainty, and of which the
faint and shifting boundaries can never be distinctly known.
Intention, as to the object of our colonial voyages, may
be inferred from numerous circumstances, more or less con
clusive. To anticipate them aU is obviously impracticable ;
and of course to guard against the inference, in this respect,
.which British captors and British courts may be disposed to
draw, -wUl be impossible. Our property is therefore men
aced by a great and formidable danger, wMch there are no
means of eludmg ; for even if it should chance to escape the
condemnation wMch this pernicious novelty prepares for it,
the wound inflicted upon our commerce by arrestations on
suspicion, and detentions for adjudication, will be deep and
fatal The efforts of our merchants will be checked and dis
couraged by more than ordinary inquisitions ; our best con
certed enterprises broken up, without the hope of retribu
tion, or even reimbursement for actual costs, upon the footing
of an intention arbitrarily imputed ; and the only alterna
tive which wiU be presented to our choice wUl be, either to
11

2g2 LIFE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY.
refrain at once from a traffic which enriches our country
while it benefits ourselves, or to see it wasted, and in- the
end destroyed, by a noxious system of maritime depredation.
Your memoriaUsts are the more alarmed by tMs depart
ure from a plain and settled rule, in favor of a pUant and
mysterious doctrine, so eminently suited to the accompUsh
ment of the worst purposes of commercial jealousy, because
the injurious and vexatious qualities of the substituted rule
must have been known to those who introduced it, and be
cause, if these qualities did not recommend it to adoption, it
is difficult to conceive why it was adopted at all. If it is
meant that our trade to Europe shaU, notwithstanding this
rule, be aUowed to continue without being subjected to ex
traordinary difficulties, operating as actual reductions and
mischievous restraints ; if it is meant that a few facts, known
and comprehended, shall, as heretofore, form a standard by '
which the la-wfulness of our European voyages may be une
quivocally ascertained ; if a wide range has not been designed
for the inquiry after intention, and a real effect expected from
that inquiry ; if, in a word, the late regulation has not been
supposed to be capable of bearing on our trade in a manner
new and important, we should hardly have now been caUed
upon to remonstrate against a change. It is not pretended
that the rale now enforced against us, is levelled against any
practice to which we may be supposed to have lent ourselves,
of disguising as our own the property of the enemies of Great
Britain. That is riot its object ; and if it were, we are ena
bled to assert, solemnly and confidently, that our conduct has
afforded no ground for the injurious suspicion which such an
object would imply. The view is professedly to regulate and
effect our traffic in articles fairly purchased by us from others;
and if the consequences to that traffic were not intended to
be serious, and extensive, and permanent, your memorialists'
search in vain for the motive by which a state, in amity -with
our own, and moreover connected with it by the ties of com-'

LIFE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY. 163
mon interest, to which many considerations seem to give pe
culiar strength, has been induced to indulge in a paroxysm
of capricious aggression upon our rights, by which it dishon
ors itself -without promoting ainy of those great interests foij
which an enUghtened nation may fairly be solicitous, and
which only a steady regard for justice can ultimately secure.
When we see a powerful state, in possession of a commerce
of which the world affords no examples, endeavoring 'to in
terpolate into the laws of nations casuistical niceties and way
ward distinctions, which forbid a citizen of another inde
pendent commercial country, to export from that country
what unquestionably belongs to him, only because he im
ported it himself, and yet allow him to sell a right of export
ing it to another ; which prohibit an end because it arises
out of 0K€ intention, but permit it when it arises out oftwo;
wMch, dividing an act into stages, search into the mind for
a correspondent di-vision of it in the contemplation of its au
thor, and determine its innocence or criminality accordingly;
which, not denying that the property acquired in an author
ized traffic, by neutral nations from belUgerents, may become
incorporated mto the national stock, and under the shelter of
its neutral character, thus superinduced, and still preserved,
be afterwards transported to eveiy quarter of the globe, re
ject the only epoch which can distinctly mark that incorpo
ration, and point out none other in its place ; which, pro
posing to fix with accuracy and precision the Une of demar
cation, beyond which neutrals are trespassers upon the wide
domain of beUigerent rights, involves eveiy tMng in darkness
and confusion : there can be but one opinion as to the purpose
which aU this is to accomplish.
Your memoriaUsts have endeavored, -with all that at
tention wMch their natural anxiety was calculated to produce,
to ascertain the various shapes which the doctrine in question
is likely to assume in practice, but they have found it impossi
ble to conjecture in what way, consistently with tMs doctrine.

164 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY,
the excess of our imports from the beUigerent colonies can
find its way to foreign markets. The landing of the cargo,
and a compliance with aU the forms and sanctions, upon
wMch our revenue depends, wiU not so terminate the voy
age from the colonies, as that the articles may be imme
diately re-exported to Europe by the original importer. But
if they cannot be exported immediately, what lapse of time
-wUl give them a title to be sent abroad, and if not by the
original importer, how is he to devolve upon another a power
which he has not himself ? And if by a sale, he can com
municate the power, by what evidence is the transfer to be
manifested, so as to furnish an answer to the ready accusa
tion of fraud and evasion ? In proportion as this doctrine
has developed itself, it has been found necessary to invent
plausible qualifications, tending to conceal its real character
from observation. It has accordingly been surmised, that,
notwithstanding the obstacles which it provides against the
re-exportation of a colonial cargo by the importerj such a
re-exportation may, perhaps, be lawful. Attempts on his
part to seU m the United States, without effect, (which
must often happen), may, it is supposed, be sufficient to save
him from the perU of the rule. But, admitting it to be cer
tain, instead of being barely possible, that these attempts
would form any tMng like security aganst final condemna
tion, it is stiU most material to ask, how they are to afford
protection against seizure ? By what documents they can
be proved to the satisfaction of those to whom interest sug
gests doubts, and whom impunity encourages to act upon
them ? The formal transactions of the custom-house' once
deserted as a criterion, the cargo must be foUowed, through
private transfers, into the warehouses of individual mer
chants ; and when proofs have been prepard, with the utmost
regularity, to establish these transfers, or the other facts
which may be deemed to be eqmvalent, they are still haUe
to be suspected, and will be suspected, as fictitious and color-

LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 165
able, and capture -wUl be the consequence. For the loss and
damage which capture brings along -with it, British courts of
prize grant no adequate indemnity. Eedress to any extent
is difficult ; to a competent extent, impossible. And even
the costs which an iniquitous seizure compels a neutral mer
chant to incur, in the defence of his violated rights, before
their own tribunals, are seldom decreed, and never paid.
Your niemoriaUsts have thus far complained only of the
recent abandonnlfent, by Great Britain, of a known rule, by
which the oppressive character of an important principle of
her maritime code, has heretofore been greatly mitigated.
But they now beg leave to enter their solemn protest against
the principle itself, as an arbitrary and unfounded pretension,
by which the just Uberty of neutral commerce is impaired
and abridged, and may be wholly destroyed.
The reasons upon which Great Britain assumes to her
self a right to interdict to the independent nations of the
earth, a commercial intercourse with the colonies of her ene
mies (out of the relaxation of wMch pretended right has
arisen the distmetion in her courts between an American
trade from the colonies to the United States, and from the
same colonies to Europe) wUl, we are confidently persuaded,
be repeUed with firmness and effect by our government.
It is said by the advocates of this high beUigerent claim,
that neutral nations have no right to carry on with either
of the parties at war, any other trade than they have actually
enjoyed in time of peace. This position forms the basis
upon wMch Great Britain has, heretofore, rested her sup
posed title to prevent altogether, or to modify at her discre
tion, the interposition of neutrals in the colony trade of her
adversaries. I But, if we are caUed upon to admit the truth of this
position, it seems reasonable that the converse of it should
also be admitted. That war should not be allowed to dis
turb the customary trade of neutrals in peace ; that the

166 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
peace-traffic should, in every view, be held to be the measure
of the war-traffic ; and that, as on the one hand there can
be no enlargement, on the other there shaU be no restriction.
What, however, is the fact ? The first moment of hostfli-
ties annihUates the commerce of the nations at peace, m
articles deemed contraband of war ; the property of the bfl-
ligerents can no longer be carried in neutral sMps ; they are
subject to visitation on the high seas ; to harassing and vex
atious search ; to detention for judicial inquiry ; and to the
peril of unjust confiscation : they are shut out from their
usual markets, not only by mUitary enterprises against par
ticular places, carried on with a view to their reduction, but
by a vast system of blockade, affecting and closing up the
entire ports of a whole nation: such have been the- recent
effects of an European war upon the trade of this neutral
country ; and the prospect of the future affords no consola
tion for the past. The triumphant fieets of one of the con
tending powers cover the ocean ; the na-vy of her enemies
has faUen before her ; the communication by sea with France,
and Spain, and Holland, seems to depend upon her -wifl, and
she asserts a right to destroy it at her pleasure : she forbids
us from transporting, in our vessels, as in peace we could,
the property of her ' enemies ; enforces against us a rigorous
list of contraband ; dams up the great channels of our ordi
nary trade ; abridges, trammels, and obstructs what she per
mits us prosecute, and then refers us to our accustomed
traffic in time qf peace, for the criterion of our commerdiai
rights, in order to justify the consummation of that ruin
with which our lawful commerce is menaced by her maxims
and her conduct.
This principle, therefore, cannot be a sound one ; it wants
uniformity and consistency; is partial, unequal, and delusive:
it makes every thing bend to the rights of war, while it af
fects to look back to, and to recognize, the state of tMngs an
peace, as the foundation and the measure of the rights of

LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 167
•neutrals. Professing to respect the estabUshed and habitual
trade of the nations at peace, it affords no shadow of security
for any part of it : professing to be an equitable standard for
the ascertainment of neutral rights, it deprives them of all
body and substance, and leaves them only a plausible and
unreal appearance of magnitude and importance ; it delivers
them over, in a word, to the mercy of the states at war, as
objects of legitimate hostiUty; and whfle it seems to define,
does, in fact, extingmsh them. Such is the faithful picture
of the theory, and practical operation of this doctrine.
But, independent of the considerations thus arising out
of the immediate interference of beUigerent rights and bellig
erent conduct with the freedom of neutral trade, by which
the faUacy of the appeal to the precise state of our peace-
trade, as limitmg the nature and extent of our trade in war,
is sufficiently manifested, there are other considerations
which satisfactorily prove the inadmissibflity of this principle.
It is impossible that war among the primary powers of
Europe should not, in an endless variety of shapes, mate
riaUy affect the whole civUized world. Its operation upon
the prices of labor and commodities ; upon the value of
money; upon exchange ; upon the rates of freight and insur
ance, is great and important, feut it does much more than
all this. It imposes upon commerce in the gross, and in its
detafls, a new character ; gives to it a new direction, and
places it upon new foundations. It abolishes one class of
demands ; creates, or revives others ; and diminishes, or aug
ments the rest. And, while the wants of mankind are in
finitely varied by its powerful agency, both in object and
degree, the modes and sources of supply, and the means of
payment are infinitely varied also.
To prescribe to neutral trade thus irresistibly influenced,
and changed, and moulded by this imperious agent, a fixed
and unalterable station, would be to say that it shaU remain
the same, when not to vary is impossible ; and to require.

168 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
since change is unavoidable, that it shaU submit to the
rmnous retrenchments and modifications which war produces,
and yet refrain from indemnifying itself by the fair advan
tages which war offers to it as an equivalent, cannot be war
ranted by any rule of reason or equity, or by any law to which
the great community of nations owes respect and obe
dience. When we examine the conduct of the maritime powers
of Europe, in all the wars in which they have been engaged
for upwards of a century, we find that each of them has, oc
casionaUy, departed from its scheme of colonial monopoly ;
relaxed its navigation laws, and otherwise admitted neutrals
for a longer or shorter space, as circumstances required, to
modes of trade from which they were generally excluded.
This universal practice, this constant and invariable
usage, for a long series of years, would seem to have estab
Ushed among the European states a sort of customary law
upon the subject of it, from which no single power could be
at liberty to depart, in search of a questionable theory at
variance with it. Great Britain is known to suspend, in war
and on account of war, her famous act of navigation, to which
she is supposed to owe her maritime greatness, and which,
as the palladium of her power, she holds inviolable in peace;
and her colonies are frequently thrown open, and neutrals in
vited to supply them, when she cannot supply them herself
She makes treaties in the midst of war (she made such a
treaty with us), by which neutrals are received into a partici
pation of an extensive traffic, to wMch before they had no
title. And can she be suffered to object, that the same, or
analogous acts are unlawful in her enemies ; or that, when
neutrals avafl themselves of simflar concessions made by her
opponents, they are liable to punishment, as for a criminal
intrusion into an irregular and prohibited commerce ?
The weight of tMs consideration has been felt by the
advocates of this doctrine, and it has, accordingly, been at-

LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 169
tempted to evade it by a distinction, which admits the
legality of all such relaxations in war, of the general, com
mercial or colomal systems of the belligerents, as do not arise
out of the predominance of the enemy's force, or out of any
necessity resulting from it.
It is apparent, however, that such relaxations, whether
dictated by the actual ascertained predominance of the
enemy's force, or not, do arise out of the state of war, and
are almost universaUy compeUed, and produced by it ; that
they are intended as reliefs against evils which war has
brought along with it, and the opposite belligerent has just
as much right to insist, that these evUs shall not be removed
by neutral aid, or interposition, as if they were produced by
the general preponderance of her own power, upon the land
or upon the sea, or by the general success of her arms. In
the one case, as completely as in the other, the interference
of the neutral Ughtens the pressure of war ; increases the
capacity to bear its calamities, or the power to inflict them ;
and suppUes the means of comfort and of strength. In both
cases, the practical effect is the same, and the legal conse
quences should be the same also.
But whence are we to derive the conclusion of the fact
upon wMch tins extraordinary distinction is made to turn ?
How are we to determine with precision and certainty, the
exact cause wMch opens to us the ports of a nation at war —
to analyze the various circumstances, of which, perhaps, the
concession may be the combmed effect ; and to assign to each
the just portion of influence to wMch it has a claim ? How
easy it is to deceive ourselves on a subject of tMs Mnd, Great
Britain will herself instruct us, by a recent example. Her
courts of prize have insisted that, during the war which ended
in the peace of Amiens, France was compelled to open the
ports of her colonies, by a necessity created and imposed by
the naval prowess of her enemies. And yet these ports were
opened in February, 1793, when France and her maritime

170 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
adversaries had not measured their strength in a single con
ffict ; when no naval enterprise had been undertaken by the
latter, far less crowned with success ; when the Usts were
not even entered, and when the superiority afterwards ac
quired, by Great Britain in particular, was yet a problem ;
when the spirit of the French nation and government was
lifted up to an unexampled height, by the enthusiasm of the
day, and by the splendid achievements by wMch their armies
had recently conquered Savoy, the county of Nice, Worms,
and other places on the EMne, the Austrian Low Countries,
and Liege. It would seem to be next to impossible to con
tend that a concession made by France to neutrals, on the
subject of her colony trade, at such a period of exultation
and triurnph, was " compelled by the prevalence of British
arms," that it was " the fruit of British victories," or the re
sult of " British conquest," that it arose out of the pre
dominance of the enemy's force, that it was produced by
" that sort of riecessity wMch springs frpm the impossibUity
of otherwise providing against the urgency of distress inflicted
by the hand of a superior enemy," and that " it was a signal
of defeat and depression." It would seem to be impossible
to say of a traffic so derived, " that it could obtain or did
obtain, by no other title than the success of the one beUig
erent against the other, and at the expense of that very bel
ligerent under whose success the neutral sets up his title."
Yet aU these things have been said, and solemnly maintained,
and have even been made the foundation of acts, by which
the property of our citizens has been wrested from their hands.
It cannot be believed that the laws of nations have mtrusted to
a belUgerent the power of harassing the trade, and confiscating
the ships and merchandise of peaceable and friendly nations,
upon grounds so vague, so indefinite, and equivocal. Of all
law, certainty is the best feature ; and no rule can be otherwise
than unjust and despotic, of wMch the sense and the appli
cation are and must be ambiguous. A siege or hlochade..-^xe-

LIFE OF -WILLIAM PINKNEY. 171
sents an intelligible standard, by which it may always be
known, that no lawful trade can be carried on with the
places against wMch either has been instituted. But the
suggestions upon which this new beUigerent encroachment,
having aU the effect of a siege or blockade, is founded, are
absolutely incapable of a distinct form, either for the pur
pose of warning to neutrals or as the basis of a judicial sen
tence. The neutral merchant finds that, in fact, the colo
mal ports of the parties to the war are tMown open to Mm
by the powers to wMch they belong ; and he sees no hos
tUe squadrons to shut them against him. Is he to pause,
before he ventures to exercise his natural right to trade
with those who are wilUng to trade with him, until he
has inquired and determined why these ports have been
thus made free to receive Mm? To such a compUcated
and deUcate discussion, no nation has a right to call Mm. It
is enough that an actual blockade can be set on foot to close
these ports, and that they may be made the objects of direct
efforts, for conquest or occlusion, if the enemy's force is, in
truth, so decidedly predominant as is pretended to be. And
if it is not predominant to that point, and to that extent,
there can be no cause for ascribing to it an 'effect to which it
is physically incompetent, or for aUo-wing it to do that con
structively, which it cannot do, and has not done, actually.
The permcious quaUties of tMs doctrine are enhanced and
aggravated, as from its nature might be expected, by the
fact, that Great Britain gives no notice of the time when,
or the circumstances in which she means to apply and enforce
it. Her orders of the 6th of November, 1793, by which the
seas were swept of our vessels and effects, were, for the first
time, announced by the ships of war and privateers by which
they were carried into execution. The late decisions of her
courts, wMch are in the true spirit of this doctrine, and are
calculated to restore it, in practice, to that high tone of se
verity which mUder decisions had almost concealed from the

172 LIFE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY,
world, came upon us by surprise; and the captures of which'
the Dutch complained in the seven years' war, were preceded
by no warning. Thus is tMs principle most rapacious and
oppressive in all its bearings. Harsh and mysterious in itself,
it has always been and ever must be used to betray neutral
merchants into a trade supposed to be lawful, and then to
give them up to pfllage and to ruin. Compared with tMs
principle, which violence and artifice may equaUy claim for
their own, the exploded doctrine of constructive blockade, by
which beUigerents for a time insulted and plundered the
states at peace, is innocent and harmless. That doctrine
had something of certainty belonging to it, arid made safety
at least possible. But there can be no security while a ma
Ugnant and deceitful principle like this hangs over us. It
is just what a beUigerent chooses to make it — ^lurking, un
seen, and unfelt — or visible, active, and noxious. It may
come abroad when least expected ; and the moment of con
fidence may be the moment of destruction. It may sleep
for a time, but no man knows when it is to awake, to shed its
baleful influence upon the commerce of the world. It clothes
itself from season to season, in what are called relaxations,
but again, without any previous intimation to the deluded
citizens of the neutral powers, these relaxations are suddenly
laid aside either in the whole or in part, and the work of
confiscation commences. Nearly ten months of the late war
had elapsed before it announced itself at aU, and when it
did so, it was in its most formidable shape, and in its fullest
power and expansion. In a few weeks it was seen to lose
more than half its substance and character, and before the
conclusion of the war, was scarcely perceptible. With the
opening of the present war it reappeared in its mildest form,
which it is again abandomng for another, m6re consonant
to its spirit. Such are its capricious fluctuations, that no
commercial undertaking which it can in any way effect, can
be considered as otherwise than precarious, whatever may

LIPE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY, 173
be the avowed state of the principle at the time of its com
mencement. It has been said that, by embarMng in the colony trade
of either of the beUigerents, neutral nations in some sort in
terpose in the war, since they assist and serve the belliger
ent, in whose trade they so embark. It is a sufficient an
swer to tMs observation, that the same course of reasoning
would prove that neutrals ought to discontinue aU trade
whatsoever with the parties at war. A continuance of their
accustomed peace trade assists and serves the belligerent -with
whom it is continued ; and U" tMs effect were sufficient to
make a trade unneutral and iUegal, the best estabUshed and
most usual traffic would of course become so. But Great
Britam suppUes us with another answer to this notion, that
our interference m the trade of the colonies of her enemies
is unla-wful, hecause ihey are benefited hy it. It is known
that the same trade is, and long has been, carried on by
British subjects; and your memorialists feel themselves
bound to state that, according to authentic information
lately received, the govemment of Great Britain does at tMs
moment grant licenses to neutral vessels, taMng in a propor
tion of their cargoes there, to proceed on trading voyages to
the colonies of Spain, from which she would exclude us, upon
the condition that the retum cargoes shall be carried to
Great BritaUi, to sweU the gains of her merchants, and to
give her a monopoly of the commerce of the world. TMs
great beUigerent right then, upon wMch so much has been
supposed to depend, sinks into an article of barter. It is
used, not as a hostile instrument wielded by a warUke state,
by which her enemies are to be wounded, or their colonies
subdued, but as the selfish means of commercial aggrandize
ment, to the impoverishment and ruin of her friends ; as an
engine by which Great Britain is to be Ufted up to a vast
height of prosperity, and the trade of neutrals crippled, and
crushed, -and destroyed. Such acts are a most inteUigible

174 LIFE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY,
commentary upon the principle in question. They show that
it is a hollow and faUacious principle, susceptible of the
worst abuse, and incapable of a just and honorable apphca
tion. They show that in the hands of a great maritime
state, it is not in its ostensible character of a weapon of hos*
lility that it is prized, but rather as one of the means of
estabUshing an unbounded monopoly, by wMch every' enter
prise, calculated to promote national wealth and power, shall
be made to begin and end in Great Britain alone. Such
acts may well be considered as pronouncUig the condemna
tion of the principle against which we contend, as with
drawing from it the only pretext upon which it is possible'
to rest it.
Great Britain does not pretend that tMs principle has any
warrant in the opinions of writers on public law. She does
not pretend, and cannot pretend, that it derives any counte
nance from the conduct of other nations. She is confessedly
solitary in the use of this invention, by which rapacity is sys
tematized, and a state of neutrality and war are made sub
stantiaUy the same. In this absence of aU other authority,
her courts have made an appeal to her own early example,
for the justification of her own recent practice. Your memo
rialists join in that appeal, as affording the most conclusive
and authoritative reprobation of the practice which it is in
tended to support by it.
It would be easy to show, by an examination of the dif
ferent treaties to which Great Britain has been a party from
times long past, that this doctrine is a modern usurpation.
It would be equaUy easy to show, that during the greater
part of the last century, her statesmen and lawyers uniformly
disavowed it, either expressly or tacitly. But it is to a re
view oi judicial examples, of all others the most weighty and
solemn, that your memoriaUsts propose to confine them
selves. In the war of 1744, in which Great Britain had the pow-

LIPE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY, 175
er, if she had thought fit to exert it, to exclude the neutral
states from the colony trade of France and Spain, her high
court of appeals decided that the trade was lawful, and re
leased such vessels as had been found engaged in it.
In the war which soon followed the peace of Aix la
Chapelle, Great Britain is supposed to have first acted upon
the pretension that such a trade was unlawful, as being shut
against neutrals in peace. And it is certain that, during the
whole of that war, her courts of prize did condemn aU neu
tral vessels taken in the prosecution of that trade, together
with their cargoes, whether French or neutral. These con
demnations, however, proceeded upon peculiar grounds. In
the seven years' war France did not throw open to neutrals
the traffic of her colonies. She established no free ports in
the east, or in the west, with which foreign vessels could be
permitted to trade, either generally or occasionaUy as such.
Her first practice was simply to grant special licenses to par
ticular neutral vessels, principaUy Dutch, and commonly
chartered by Frenchmen, to make, under the usual restric
tions, particular trading voyages to the colonies. These U-
censes furnished the British courts with a peculiar reason for
condemning vessels saiUng under them, viz., " that they be
came in virtue of them the adopted or naturalized vessels of
France." As soon as it was kno-wn that this effect was imputed to
these licenses they were discontinued, or pretended to be so ;
but the discontinuance, whether real or supposed, produced
no change in the conduct of Great Britain ; for neutral ves
sels, employed in this trade, were captured and condemned'
as before. The grounds upon which they continued to be
so captured and condemned, may best be collected from the
reasons subjoined to the printed cases in the prize causes de
cided by the high court of admiralty (in which Sir Thomas
SaUsbury at that time presided), and by the lords commision-
ers of appealsj between 1757 and 1760,

176 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
In the case of the America (which was a Dutch sMp,
bound from St. Domingo to HoUand, with the produce of that
island belonging to French subjects, by whom the vessel had
been chartered), the reason stated in the printed case is, "that
the ship must be looked upon as a French ship (coming from
St. Domingo), for by the laws of France no foreign sMp can
trade in the French West Indies."
In the case of the Snip, the reason (assigned by Sir
George Hays and Mr Pratt, afterwards Lord Camden) is,
" for that the Snip (though once the property of Dutchmen)
being employed in carrying provisions to, and goods from a
French colony, thereby became a French ship, and as such
was justly condemned."
It is obvious that the reason, in the case of the America,
proceeds upon a presumption, that as the trade was, by the
standing laws of France, even up to that moment, confined
to French ships, any ship found employed in it must be a
French sMp. The reason in the other case does not rest
upon this idle presumption, but takes another ground ; for it
states, that by the reason of the trade in which the vessel
was employed, she became a French vessel.
It is manifest that tMs is no other than the first idea of
adoption or naturaUzation, accommodated to the change at
tempted to be introduced into the state of things by the ac
tual or pretended discontinuance of the special Ucenses.
What then is the amount of the doctrine of the seven years'
war, in the utmost extent wMch it is possible to ascribe to
it ? It is in substance no more than tMs, that as France did
not, at any period of that war, abandon, or in any degree
suspend, the principle of colonial monopoly, or the system
arising out of it, a neutral vessel found in the prosecution of
the trade, wMch, accordmg to that principle and that system
stiU continuing in force, could only be a French trade and
open to French vessels, either became, or was legally to be
presumed to be a French vessel. It cannot be necessary to

LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 177
show that tMs doctrine differs essentially from the principle
of the present day ; but even if it were otherwise, the prac
tice of that war, whatever it might be, was undoubtedly con
trary to that of the war of 1744, and as contrasted with it,
wUl not be considered by those who have at all attended to
the history of these two periods, as entitled to any peculiar
veneration. The effects of that practice were almost wholly
confined to the Dutch, who had rendered themselves extreme
ly obnoxious to Great Britam, by the selfish andpusiUanimous
poUcy, as it was falsely caUed, which enabled them durmg
the seven years' war to profit of the troubles of the rest of
Europe. In the war of 1744, the neutrahty of the Dutch, while
it contmued, had in it notMng of complaisance to France ;
they furmshed . from the commencement pf- hostUities, on
account of the pragmatic sanction, succors to the confede-
rajtes ; declared openly, after a time, in favor of the Queen
of Hungary ; and finaUy determined upon and prepared for
war, by sea and land. Great Britain, of course, had no in
ducement in that war to hunt after any hostile principle, by
the operations of wMch the trade of the Dutch might be ha
rassed, or the advantage of their neutral positiori, while it
lasted, defeated. In the war of 1756 she had this induce
ment in its utmost strength. Independent of the commer
cial rivalry existing between the two nations, the Dutch had
excited the undisguised resentment of Great Britain, by de--
cUmng to furnish against France the succors stipulated by
treaty ; by constantly supplying France with naval and
warlike stores, tMough the medium of a trade systemat
ically pursued by the people, and countenanced by the gov
ernment ; by granting to France, early in 1757, a free pas
sage through Namur and Maestricht, for the provisions, am
munition, and artiUery, belonging to the army destined to act
against the territories of Prussia, in the neighborhood of
the Low Countries ; and by the indifference with which they
12

178 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
saw Nieuport and Ostend surrendered into the hands of
France, by the court of Vienna, wMch Great Britain repre
sented to be contrary to the Barrier treaty and the treaty of
Utrecht. Without entering into the sufficiency of these
grounds of dissatisfaction, wMch undoubtedly had a great
influence on the conduct of Great Britain towards the
Dutch, from 1757 untU the peace of 1763, it is manifest
that this very dissatisfaction, little short of a disposition to
open war, and frequently on the eve of producing it, takes
away, in a considerable degree, from the authority of any
practice to which it may be supposed to have led, as tending
to establish a rale of the public law of Europe. It may not
be improper to observe too, that the station occupied by
Great Britain in the seven years' war (as proud a one as
any country ever did occupy), compared with that of the
other European powers, was not exactly calculated to make
the measures which her resentments against HoUand or her
views against France might dictate, peculiarly respectful to
the general rights of neutrals. In the north, Eussia and
Sweden were engaged in the confederacy against Prussia,
and were, of course, entitled to no consideration in this re
spect. The government of Sweden was, besides, weak and
impotent. Denmark, it is, true, took no part in the war,
but she did not suffer by the practice in question. Besides,
all these powers combined would have been as notMng
against the naval strength of Great Britain in 1758. As to
Spain, she could have no concern in the question, and at
length became involved in the war on the side of France.
Upon the whole, in the war of 1756, Great Britain had the
power to be unjust, and irresistible temptations to abuse it.
In that of 1744, her power was, perhaps, equally great, but
every tMng was favorable to equity and moderation. The
example afforded on this subject, therefore, by the first war,
has far better titles to respect than that furnished by
the last.

LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 179
In the American war the practice and decisions on this
point, followed those of the war of 1744.
The question first came before the lords of appeal in Ja
nuary, 1782, in the Danish cases of the Tiger, Copenhagen,
and others, captured in October, 1783, and condemned at
St. Kitts, in December foUowing. The grounds on which
the captors reUed for condemnation, in the Tiger, as set
forth at the end of the respondent's printed case, were,
" for that the sMp, having been trading to Cape Francois,
where none but French ships are allowed to carry on any
traffic, and having been laden at the same time of the
capture, -vrith the produce of the French part of the island
of St. Domingo, put on board at Cape Francois, and both
sMp and cargo taken confessedly coming from hence,
must (pursuant to precedents in the Uke cases in the last
war), to aU intents and purposes, be deemed a ship and goods
belonging to the French, or at least adopted, and natur
alized as such."
In the Copenhagen, the captor's reasons are thus given :
" 1st. Because it is aUowed that the ship was destined,
with her cargo, to the island of Guadaloupe, and no other
place." " 2dly. Because it is contrary to the established rule of
general law, to admit any neutral ship to go to, and trade
at, a port belonging to a colony of the enemy, to tvhich such
neutrcd ship could not have freely traded in time qf peace."
On the 22d of January, 1782, these causes came on for
hearing before the lords of appeal, who decreed restitution
in all of them : thus in the most solemn and explicit man
ner disavowing and rejecting the pretended rales of the law
of nations, upon wMch the captors relied ; the first of which
was UteraUy bonowed from the doctrine of the war of 1756,
and the last of which is that very rule on which Great Bri
tain now relies.
It is true, that in these cases the judgment of the lords

180 LIFE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY.
was pronounced upon one shape only of the colony trade of
France, as carried on by neutrals ; that is to say, a trade
between the colony of France and that of the country of
the "neutral shipper. But, as no distinction was supposed
to exist, in point of principle, between the different modifi
cations of the trade, and as the judgment went upon gene
ral grounds applicable to the entire subject, we shaU notbe
thought to overrate its effect and extent, when we represent
it ,as a complete rejection both of the doctrine of the seven
years' war, and of that modern principle by wMch it has
been attempted to replace it. But at any rate, the subs^r
quent decrees of the same high tribunal did go that length.
Without enumerating the cases of various descriptions, iur
volving the legaUty of the trade in aU its modes, which were
favorably adjudged by the lords of appeal after the Ameri
can peace, it wfll be sufficient to mention the case of the
Vervagfing,, decided by them in 1785 and 1786. TMs was
the case of a Danish ship laden with a cargo of drygoods
and provisions, with wMch she was bound on a voyage from
Marseilles to Martinique and Cape Francois, where she was
to take in for Europe a return cargo of West India produce.
The ship was not proceeded against, but the cargo, which
was claimed for merchants of Ostend, was condemned as
enemy's property (as in trath it was) by the vioe-admhalty
of Antigua, subject to the payment of freight, pro rata
itineris, or rather for the whole of the outward voyage. On
appeal, as to the cargo, the lords of appeal, on the Sth of
March, 1785, reversed the condemnation, and ordered fur
ther proof of the property to be produced witMn three
months. On the 28th of March, 1786, no further proof
having been exhibited, and the proctor for the claunants
daclaring that he should exhibit none, the lords condemned
the cargo, and on the same day reversed the decree below,
giving freight, pro rata itineris (from which the neutral

LIFE OF -WILLIAM PINKNEY. 181
fliaster had appealed), and decreed freight generaUy, and the
costs of the appeal.
It is impossible that a judicial opinion could go more
conclusively to the whole question on the colony trade than
this ; for it not only disavows the pretended UlegaUty of
neutral interpositions m that trade, even directly between
Prance and her colonies (the most exceptionable form, it is
said, in -^Mch that interposition could present itself), it not
only demes that property engaged in such a trade is, on that
account, Uable to confiscation (masmuch as, after ha-ving
reversed the condemnation of the cargo, pronounced below,
it proceeds afterwards to condemn it merely for want of
further proof as to the property), but it holds that the trade
is so unquestionably lawful to neutrals, as not even to put
in jeopardy the claim to freight for that part of the voyage
wMch had not yet begun, and which the party had not yet
put himself in a situation to begin. The force of tMs, and
the other British decisions produced by the American war,
wUI riot be avoided, by suggesting that there was any thing
pecuUarly favorable in the time when, or the manner in which,
France opened her colony trade to neutrals on that occasion.
Something of that sort, however, has been said. We find
the foUowmg language in a very leamed opimon on this
point : " It is certainly trae, that in the last war (the Ame
rican war), many decisions took place which then pronounced,
that such a trade between France and her colonies was not
considered as an unneutral commerce ; but under what cir
cumstances ? It was understood that France, in opening
her colonies during the war, declared, that this was not done
with a temporary view relative to the war, but on a general
permanent purpose of altering her colonial system, and of
admitting foreign vessels, universaUy, and at aU times to a
participation of that commerce ; taking that to be the fact
(however suspicious its commencement might be, during the
actual existence of a war), there was no groimd to say, that

182 LIFE OP -WILLIAM PINKNEY.
neutrals were not carrying on a commerce as ordinary as any
other in which they could be engaged ; and therefore in the
case of the Vervagting, and in many other succeeding cases,
the lords decreed payment of freight to the neutral sMp-
owner. It is fit to be remembered on this occasion, that the
conduct of France evinced how Uttle dependence can be
placed upon explanations of measures adopted during the
pressure of war ; for, hardly was the ratification of the peace
assigned, when she returned to her ancient system of colonial
monopoly." We answer to aU this, that, to refer the decision of the
lords, in the Vervagting, and other succeeding cases, to the
reason here assigned, is to accuse that high tribunal of act
ing upon a confidence which has no example, in a singularly
incredible declaration (if, indeed, such a declaration was
ever made), after the utter falsehood of it had been, as this
learned opinion does itself inform us, unequivocaUy and no
toriously ascertained.
We have seen that the Vervagting was decided by the
lords in 1785 and 1786, at least two years after France had,
as we are told, " returned to her ancient system of colonial
monopoly," and when of course the supposed assertion, of an
intended permanent abandonment of that system, could not
be permitted to produce any legal consequence.
We answer further, that if this alleged declaration was
in fact made (and we must be allowed to say, that we have
found no trace of it out of the opinion above recited), it
never was put into such a formal and authentic shape as to
be the fafr subject of judicial notice.
It is not contained in the French arrits of that day,
where only it would be proper to look for it, and we are not
referred to any other document proceedmg from the govern
ment of France, in which it is said to appear There does
not, in a word, seem to have been any thing wMch an en
Ughtened tribunal could be supposed capable of considering

LIFE OP -WILLIAM PINKNEY, 183
as a pledge on the part of France, that she had resolved
upon or even meditated the extravagant change in her colo
nial system which she is said, in this opinion, to have been
understood to announce to the world. But even if the dec
laration in question was actually made, and that too with
aU possible solemnity, stUl it would be difficult to persuade
any thinkmg man that the sincerity of such a declaration
was in any degree confided in, or that any person in any
country could regard it in any other Ught than as a mere ar
tifice, that could give no right which would not equally well
exist without it. Upon the whole, it is manifestly impracti
cable to rest the decisions of the lords of appeal, in and af
ter the American war, upon any dependence placed in this
declaration, of wMch there is no evidence that it ever was
made, which it is certam was not authentically or formally
made ; wMch, however made, was not, and could not be be
Ueved at any time, far less in 1785 and 1786, when its false
hood had been unquestionably proved by the pubUc and un
disguised conduct of its supposed authors, in direct opposi
tion to it. That Sir James Marriot, who sat in the high
court of admiralty of Great Britain during the greater part
of the late war, did not consider these doctrines as standing
upon this ground is e-vident ; for, notwithstanding that in
the year 1756 he was the most zealous and perhaps able ad
vocate for the condemnation of the Dutch ships engaged in
the colony trade of France, yet, upon the breaMng out of
the late war, he relied upon the decisions in the American
war as authoritatively settUng the legaUty of that trade, and
decreed accordingly.
If, as a more plausible answer to these decisions, consid
ered m the light of authorities, than that which we have
just examined, it should be said that they ought rather to
be -viewed as reluctant sacrifices to policy, or even to neces
sity, under circumstances of particular difficulty and peril,
than as an expression of the deliberate opinion of the lords

184 LIFE OP -WILLIAM PINKNEY.
of appeal, or of the govemment of Great Britain ; on the
matter of right, it might perhaps be sufficient to reply, that
if the armed neutrahty coupled with the situation of Great
Britain as a party to the war did in any degree compel these
decisions, we might also expect to find at the same era some
relaxation on the part of that country relative to the doc
trine of contraband, upon wMch the convention of the armed
neutraUty contained the most direct stiprdations which the
northern powers were particularly interested to enforce. Yet
such was not the fact. But in addition to tMs, and other
considerations of a similar description, it is natural to inquire
why it happened that, if the lords of appeal were satisfied
that Great Britain possessed the right in question, they re
corded and gave to the world a series of decisions against it,
founded not upon British orders of council, gratuitously re
laxing what was still asserted to be the strict right (as in the
late war), but upon general principles of public law. How
ever prudence might have required (although there is no
reason to beUeve it did require) an abstmence on the part of
Great Britain, from the extreme exercise of the right she
had been supposed to claim, stiU it could not be necessary
to give to the mere forbearance of a claim, the stamp and
character of a formal admission that the claim itself was fl-
legal and unjust. In the late war, as often as the British
govemment wished to concede and relax, from whatever mo
tive, on the subject of the colony trade of her opponents, an
order of councfl was resorted to, setting forth the nature of
the concession or relaxation upon which the courts of prize
were afterwards to found their sentences ; and, undoubtedly,
sentences so passed, cannot, in any fair reasoning, be consid
ered as deciding more than that the order of council is obhg-
atory on the courts, whose sentences they are. But the de
crees of the lords of appeal, in and after the American war,
are not of tMs description ; since there existed no order of
council on the subject of them ; and of course they are, and

LIPE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 185
ought to be, of the Mghest weight and authority against
Great Britain, on the questions involved in and adjudged by
them. • This solemn reunciation of the principle in question, in
the face of the whole world, by her Mghest tribunal in mat
ters of prize, reiterated m. a succession of decrees, down to
the year 1786, and afterwards, is powerfuUy confirmed by
the acquiescence of Great Britain, during the first most im
portant and active period of the late war, in the free and
unlimited prosecution by neutrals df the whole colony trade
of France ; she did, indeed, at last prohibit that trade by
an instruction unprecedented in the annals of maritime dep
redation ; but the revival of her discarded rule was charac
terized by such circumstances of miquity and violence, as
rather to heighten, by the effect of contrast, the veneration
of mankmd for the past justice of her tribunals.
The world has not forgotten the instruction to which we
aUude, or the enormities by which its true character was de
veloped. Produced in mystery, at a moment wh^n universal
confidence in the mtegrity of her government had brought
upon the ocean a prey of vast value and importance ; sent
abroad to the different naval stations, with such studied se
crecy that it would almost seem to have been intended to
make an experiment how far law and honor could be outraged
by a nation proverbial for respecting both ; the heralds, by
whom it was first announced, were the commanders of her
commissioned craisers, who at the same instant carried it
into effect -with every circumstance of aggravation, if of such
an act there can be an aggravation. Upon such conduct
there was but one sentiment. It was condemned by reason
and justice. It was condemned by that law wMch flows
from and is founded upon them ; it was condemned, and -wiU
for ever contmue to be condemned, by the universal voice of
the civilized world. Great Britain has made amends, -with
the good faith wMch belongs to her councfls, for that act of

186 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
injustice and oppression ; and your memoriaUsts have a strong
confidence that the late departure from the usual course of
her poUcy -wiU be foUowed by a Uke disposition to atonement
and reparation. The relations which subsist between Great
Britain and the United States rest upon the basis of recipro
cal interests, and your memorialists see in those interests, as
weU as in the justice ofthe British govemment and the firm
ness of our own, the best reasons to expect a satisfactoiy
answer to their complamts, and a speedy abandonment of
that system by wMch they have been lately harassed and
alarmed. Your memorialists wUl not trespass upon your time with
a recital of the various acts by which our coasts, and even
our ports and harbors, have been converted mto scenes of
violence and depradation ; by which the security of our trade
and property has been impaired ; the rights of our territory
invaded ; the honor of our country humiliated and insulted ;
and our gallant countrymen oppressed and persecuted. They
feel it to be. unnecessary to ask that the force of the nation
should be employed in repelling and chastizing the law
less freebooters who have dared to spread their ravages even
beyond the seas wMch form the principal theatre of their
piractical exertions, and to infest our shores -with their irre
gular and ferocious hostiUty.
These are outrages which have pressed themselves in a
peculiar manner upon the notice of our government, and
cannot have faUed to excite its indignation, and a correspond
ent disposition to prevent and redress them.
Such is the view which your memorialists have taken, in
this anxious crisis of our pubUc affairs, of subjects wMch ap
pear to them, in an alarming degree, to affect their country
and its commerce, and to involve Mgh questions of national
honor and interest, of public law and individual rights, which
imperiously demand discussion and adjustment. They do
not presume to point out the measures which these great

LIFE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY. 187
subjects may be supposed to caU for. The means of redress
for the past and security for the future are respectfuUy, con
fidently submitted to your -wisdom ; but your memoriaUsts
cannot forbear to mdulge a hope, wMch they would aban
don vrith deep reluctance, that they may yet be found in
amicable explanations -with those who have ventured to in-
ffict wrongs upon us, and to advance unjust pretensions to
our prejudice.
Baltimore, Jan, 21s^, 1806.

188 LIFE OP "WILLIAM PINKNEY.

FOREIGN CORRESPONDENCE.

PROM MR. PINKNEY TO MR, MADISON,
[pritatk] "London, October, Wth 180Y.
" Dear Sir : — -Mr. Monroe wfll doubtless sufficiently ex
plain the subject of tMs letter ; but it seems, notwithstand
ing, to be proper that I should trouble you -with a very brief
explanation of it myself
" This govemment havmg determmed to send a special
envoy to the United States upon the subject of Mr. Monroe's
late instructions, audit bemg probable (although not avowed)
that this envoy would have ulterior powers to treat upon aU
the topics which affect the relations of the two countries,
Mr. Monroe expressed a wish to return without delay to the
United States, and to leave with me the affairs of our coun
try in quaUty of Minister Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary.
So far as respected the business of the ordinary legation,
there was undoubtedly, a difficulty of form, if not of sub
stance, in the way of its coming into my hands in any other
than the inadmissible character of a mere Gharg'e d' Affaires.
My credentials as Mr. Monroe's successor, expired with the
session of the Senate next foUowing their date, and had not
been renewed ; and my commission as Minister Extraordinary
gave only Umited powers for specified objects. It appeared
to be my duty, however, in case it should not be unaccepta
ble to the British government to communicate with me in
the event of Mr Monroe's departure, as if I were regularly
accredited as the Mimster Plenipotentiary of the Umted
States, to consent on my part to such an arrangement, as

LIFE OP "WILLIAM PINKNEY. 189
being more eUgible in the present conjuncture than the ap
pomtment of a Oharg^ d' Affaires. Mr. Monroe accordingly
wrote, -with my approbation, a note to Mr. Canning to that
effect, to which some personal explanations were added, and
received a reply, of which a copy is inclosed, adopting the
arrangement proposed.
" You wiU perceive that, in lendmg myself to this step,
I have ventured to infer the approbation of the Presiderit
from what certainly does riot express it. It would have
been much more agreeable to me that a Ohargi, d' Affaires
should be left, and that I should remain in my character of
Commissioner Extraordinary untU the government of the
United States should have an opportunity of taMng its own
course. In that mode I should have been reUeved from aU
embarrassment ; but tMnMng that the public interest re
quired the course actuaUy adopted, and that it was, moreover,
that which was Ukely to fuMl the expectations of the Presi
dent, I did not consider myself at Uberty to consult my own
mcUnations. " The concludmg expressions of Mr. Canning's note af
ford me an opportumty of saying that, in awaiting here the
orders of the President, I am ready to return or to remain,
as he shaU think the interest of our country requires. I beg
you to be assured that as I accepted the trust which caUed
me abroad with no selfish motive (although I felt how much
I was honored by it), I should •regret that any indulgent
feehng" towards me should in any degree restrain the Presi
dent from promoting, m the way he thinks best, that which
I know is the constant object of his care — the general good.
Neither the unfeigned veneration m wMch I hold his charac
ter, northe grateful recollection which I have not for a mo
ment ceased to cherish of the manner in which he has been
so good as to distinguish me, wUl suffer any abatement,
although he should think fit to place some other than myself
in the station which he once destined for me. I am quite

190 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
sure that whatever shaU be done, the manner of it wUl be
Uberal and kind ; and trusting, as I do most confidently,
that I shaU carry out of the public service, leave it when I
may, the pure name -with which I entered it, and the un
abated good opinion of the government I have been proud to
serve — the rest is of little importance."
In a letter, dated the 21st December, 1807, he says :
" I ought not, perhaps, to have been quite so scrupulous
of writing to you on pubUc affairs during the existence of the
joint mission ; but you will do me the justice to believe that
the scruple was sincerely felt, and yielded to frequently -with
great reluctance. You will now have reason, perhaps, to
complain of me for -writing rather too much than too Uttle.
I shall, however, continue in general to mark my letters
"private," by which their freedom and frequency wfll be
rendered innocent at least, if they shall not be useful.
" You wiU find that I have been careful to send you by
every opportunity, newspapers, pamphlets, &c., since Mr
Monroe's departure ; as indeed I sometimes ventured to do
before. May I beg that those from the United States may
be sent with more regularity ? I ought to remark, that a
pamphlet, favorable to British pretensions, and decrying our
o-wn, is no sooner pubUshed in America than it finds its way
across the Atlantic, gets into general circulation here, and is
quoted, praised, and sometimes republished ; whereas those
of an opposite description either do not arrive at aU, or come
too late. Some pampUets, of a most pernicious Mnd, having
a British character strongly stamped upon them, have lately
been imported from the United States, and advertised for
republication by EngUsh bookseUers. I should have been
glad to see the antidote accompanying the poison. I am a
sincere friend to peace with all the world, whUe it can be
preserved with honor : but the strange productions to which
I allude not only dishonor or betray the cause of our country.

LIFE OF -WILLIAM PINKNEY, 191
but tend, if read in Great Britain, to produce a temper un
friendly to accommodation ; and thus, whUe they inveigh
agamst war, contribute to produce it. The effect of these
works is greatly assisted by the wonderful ignorance which
has prevaUed, and stiU prevails, among all ranks of people
in Great Britain, relative to the reciprocal conduct of France
and the United States towards each other. The President's
message has, for that reason only, been almost universally
misapprehended. Even our best friends have mistaken and
complained of it. In the course of my private intercourse
(as weU with the opposition as with the friends of ministers)
I have done aU that was consistent -with discretion, to give
more correct notions on the subject ; but the press only can
remove completely the prevaUing error, and to that expedient
it would be improper that I should have recourse. Some of
the most distinguished men in England, however, have been
referred to General Armstrong's letter to the French Minis
ter of Marine, and the answer of that Minister, as pubUshed
in the American newspapers during the last winter, and to
our convention with France, and may, perhaps, do what I
cannot. Their own newspapers prove in part the practice
(even now) under the French decree of November, 1806 ;
and it is weU known to many persons here (notwithstanding
the general ignorance), that France has never acted, and
does not at tMs time act, upon the parts of the decree
which might seem intended for external operation, as mari
time rules.
" There are rumors of a schism in the cabinet (relative
to the Catholics) ; but I am told by a member of the late
admmistration that it wUl come to nothing."

192 LIFE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY.

MR. PINKNEY TO MR, MADISON,
(Pktvaie.) "London, January 1-ih^ 18QS., [
" Dear Sir : — I inclose a dupUcate of my public lett®f of
the 29th, and my private letter of the 31st, of last, month,
to wMch I am npw able to add a copy of the French decree
of the 23d (not, as I had supposed, the 25th) of Novem*
ber. This was sent to rne by a Mr. Mitchell, wbo was pro
ceeding to the Umted States (as he writes me) in an Amerr
ican vessel (the Ocean), with dispatches for you, frpm Genr
eral Armstrong, when the vessel was captured by t^ Narcis
sus frigate, and sent mto Plymouth, upon the gtJ)und tbat
she took in a part of her cargo iri France (salt for ballast)
after the day limited in the last British orders in councfl. I
have thought it proper to mterest myself informally in, the
case of this vessel, and I have assurance that it shall receive
the promptest attention. I have advised Mr, MitcheU to
wait a few days before he determines upon taMng Ms passage
in another vessel for America, by wMch he would be likely
to lose time.
" I sent you some days ago a newspaper containing the
French retaliating decree, dated at MUan, , the 25th of Dct
cember. Those which are now fojwarded contain the same
decree ; and you wiU find by the papers of this morning th^J;
it has been foUowed up by another. TMs country has venturers
upon an extraordinary struggle with France, by which she
has every thing to lose and nothing to- gain. The gross im
policy of the late orders of council (to say notMng of their
insulting tone, and their injustice to neutral states), begins
to develope itself, and -wUl soon be manifest to all. I am
greatly deceived if it wUl not in a few weeks be matter of
surprise among all descriptions of people here, that a manu
facturing and commercial nation hke Great Britain, could

LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY, 193
have expected any thing but disaster and ruin from such a
measure, " Hopes are entertamed in England, that our non-im
portation act wiU have been repealed upon the arrival of
inteUigence of an intended extraordinary mission from this
country ! That law passed upon unquestionable grounds of
policy and justice; and, although it has been heretofore
properly suspended, I *do not see how our honor could fail to
become a mei-e shadow, if it should now be abandoned, even
for a time. The mission of Mr. Eose would not seem to
justify even the suspension of it, until the nature and ex
tent of Ms powers were kno-wn ; and after they were known,
it could justify notMng. He has no power to arrange on the
topic of impressment, the great foundation of the non-im
portation act ; and Ms government has not only reasserted
its obnoxious pretension on that subject in a public procla
mation, but has even gone the length of declaring that it
cannot consent to impair it. The unredressed outrages of
Love, Whitby, &c., afford no inducement to repeal a law
deliberately passed, with the clear approbation of the Amer
ican people, when all the motives to its passage have received
augmented force. But the late orders of council would
make the repeal, or even the suspension, of the non-impor
tation act, particularly unfortunate. The time when they
were issued — the anogant claim of maritime dominion, which
they suppose and execute — and the contempt which they
manifest, in the face of the world, for the rights and the
power of our country, make them altogether the most offen
sive act that can be laid to the charge of any government.
The least appearance of a disposition to submit to such an
attempt vriU encourage to further aggressions, until our na
tional spirit -wiU be lost in an habitual sense of humUiation,
our character known only to be despised, and our rights con
sidered, like those of the petty states of Europe, the sport
and the prey of the strongest. There is an opinion here,
13

194 LIFE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY,
that we are likely to become a divided people, when a rap
ture with Great Britain is in question ; but this opinion is
founded upon such American publications as those in a Bos
ton paper, signed " Pacificus," and upon some pampMets
and private letters of a shnUar character, and -will, undoubt
edly, be gloriously falsified, if there should be occasion,
by the patriotism of our people in every quarter of the
Union."

MR, PINKNEY TO MR. MADISON,
("Peitate.") "JjOTfTDoif, AprU 26th, 1808.
" Dear Sir : — Mr, Eose has sent me your private letter
of the 21st of March ; for which I am greatly indebted to
you. I know and sincerely regret, the state of your health ;
and therefore beg you not to make any effort (beyond what
may be absolutely necessary for the public service) to write
to me. I will take for granted your good will ; and, if you
-wfll suffer me to do so, wiU presume upon your esteem. Of
course, I shaU not be ready to think myself neglected if I
hear from you but seldom ; and shall not relax in my com
munications because indisposition, a press of business, or
some other reason, prevents you from giving much attention
to me or my letters, I -wiU only stipulate for an occasional
acknowledgment of them, so that I may know what have
been received and what have been miscanied. I need not
say that as much more as may be consistent with your con
venience, -will be in the highest degree acceptable to me. My
commissions and credentials, have not yet come to hand,
They are perhaps in the Packet, or in the Osage, or in both,
" I feel very sensibly the delicacy and kindness of tbe
assurances which you are so good as to give me, that the pur
pose of nominating me to the permanent Legation here was
never for a moment suspended in the mind of the President.

LIPE OP -WILLIAM PINKNEY, 195
I am the more gratified by this evidence of the continuing
confidence of the President, because I have a firm persua
sion that he will never have cause to repent it, I beg you
to say for me, to him, that I am truly grateful for this dis
tinction., "I inclose another copy of the instruction to British
cruisers, mentioned and inclosed in my last. Having been
confined by indisposition for some days, I cannot yet vouch
that it has actually been issued ; but all information concurs
to make it sufficiently certain. There is something ex
tremely injudicious in this measure, to say no worse of it. I
do not suppose that we ought to consider it (or rather to ap
pear to consider it) as offensive to us ; but, undoubtedly, an
attempt, in the face of the world, thus to set the people
against the government and its laws, is an ungracious act,
and rests upon a bad principle. The effect of this wise con
trivance in America, can only be, to add to the vigilance of
the government in guardmg the law, and to render more
conspicuous the just pride and the public spirit of our citi
zens, by an open disdain of aU foreign allurements to break
it. Such an instruction manifestly reposes upon a foul
Ubel on our patriotism, and is such a sneer upon our honor,
national and indi-vidual, as should give us virtue, if we had
it not before, to resist the temptation which it offers to the
worst of our passions.
" P. S. — I have just received my credentials and your
letter of the 8th of March, by the Packet, and have sent
the customary note to Mr. Canning, requesting an interview
for the purpose of presenting them.
" The incident you mention was not the most fortunate
that could have happened, but I hope it -will produce no bad
effect here. I wiU endeavor to set it to rights without haz
arding any thing. The freedom with which I hold it to be
my indisputable duty to write to you, renders the deUcate
caution which the President uses on such occasions, peculiarly

196 LIFE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY,
proper in my case. But if he should at any time tMnk that
the interests of the state require that publicity shoifld be
given to any of my dispatches, I do not (because I ought
not to) ask to be spared ; although certainly the pubUcation
of some of them, during my stay in tMs country, would
cause me most serious embarrassment,
" My course wUl continue to be, to write -with candor,
frequency and fideUty, and to throw myself upon the Mndness
and wisdom of those to whom my correspondence belongs,
I shaU do so without doubt or fear of any kmd,"

MR. PINKNEY TO MR, MADISON,
"London, April 2lth, 1808,
" Sir : — I have the honor to inform you, that I have this
day had an audience of the King and presented my creden-.
tials. " My reception was particularly Mnd and gracious ; and
it is my duty to say, that every evidence, which such an oc
casion could admit, was afforded, of a desire on the part of
the King to contmue in friendship -with us."

MR. PINKNEY TO THE PRESIDENT OP THE UNITED STATES.
"London, April 28th, 1808.
" Sir : — I wUl trespass on you for a few moments only ;
for I have very little to say, and that Uttle might have been
said, with at least equal propriety, through another.
" I thank you, sir, for the feeUng attention which, with
your accustomed goodness, you have uniformly shown to the
interests of my character, under circumstances wMch give
to that attention even more than its usual value. I thank
you, especially, for the recent proof which you have thought

LIPE OP -WILLIAM PINKNEY. 19Y
fit to afford me of undimmished confidence, in a season when
that confidence, at aU times flattering, does me peculiar
"honor. " Your conduct towards me has been every thing that is
deUcate and generous and Mnd, and I should blush for my
self if I did not feel that it had made an impression upon
my heart wMch neither time nor accident can efface. I en
treat you to be assured, sir, that it has made such an im
pression ; and that the veneration in which I have always
held your -virtues and your talents wfll hereafter be accom-
pamed and enUvened by gratitude and attachment.
" Wfll you suffer me to avaU myself of this opportunity
to jom to the demonstrations of affectionate regret, which
you have received from the different quarters of the Union,
the feeble expression of my own, that your country is about
to lose the benefit of your services in a station, upon which,
although in itself the most exalted to which the virtuous
hopes of a citizen can aspire, your patriotism and -wisdom
have reflected lustre. You wUl indeed, carry with you from
that station aU that can give a charm to retirement, the love
and veneration of your feUow-citizens, and an approving con
science ; but it is natural that he who can so retire, should
be given up -with reluctance by the world to the claims of
age or even of constitutional principle."

MR. PINKNEY TO MR. MADISON,
• ("Private.") "London, jlfay IOiJA, 1808.
" Dear Sir : — I received yesterday, after I had finished
my public dispatch, a letter from Mr Otto, who went lately
to HoUand, and promised wMle there to give me such intel
hgence of passing events as might be in his power. I inclose
a copy of that letter. It leaves little room to doubt that an
obnoxious decree has been recently issued at Bayonne by the

198 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
French government, reinforcing its former anti-commercial
edicts, and superadding a provision of increased rigor. The
decree itself (of which we had an ambiguous and discredit
ed rumor some days ago), has not yet found its way to
England. " I have hardly any tMng else worth saying to you. A
desire to be fiiends with us seems now to be almost universal
here, and it may I tMnk be safely assumed that it pervades
the Cabinet. I beUeve that the King is so disposed. What
wfll be the practical result of that disposition, with reference
to particular measures and pretensions which touch most
nearly our honor and prosperity, is far more doubtful. The
hostile spirit against France is at its height. Animosity is
exasperated by well-founded alarm ; and whatever promises
annoyance on the one hand, or security on the other, may
not easUy be yielded to the wish, however strong, to concili
ate us. The nation is with the government in that respect ;
at least such is the appearance.
" There has been sufficient, time for sober reflection, to
enable the most intemperate advocate for war with America
to discover the rashness of his early opinions. The ffi'm at
titude taken with such provident foresight by the govern
ment of the United States — ^the combined operation of our
embargo, of the other measures of our legislature and execu
tive, of their own orders in council, and the French decrees
— the discussions (through the Liverpool papers and others)
by which the vital importance of American connection and
intercourse (and even of that American trade which their
late orders would injudiciously crush) has been demonstrated
to all — ^the still progressive march of the power of France,
and the new difficulties and perils which, with a persevering
fertiUty, it produces or threatens — would have created, if it
did not exist before, an anxiety to avoid a rupture with us.
But if we continue at peace with France (as, if it be possi
ble without dishonor, I trust we shall), they will recede here

LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY, 199
on certain points with infinite difficulty and reluctance, if
they recede at aU. They wifl not go to war if they can help
it ; but it is to be doubted whether they are prepared to do
what may be indispensable to the re-establishment of inter
rupted friendship. They will be content to leave things as
they are, and to trust to the influence of events ; and a hope
-wifl perhaps be indulged that we cannot persevere in the
embargo — that, weary of our system of self-denial, pressed by
French aggression, and alarmed by the wide-spread domina
tion and restless ambition of France, we shaU at length be
induced to acqmesce in the prmciples and practices of Great
Britain (wMch must necessarily produce a contest -with her
enemy), or at once to make common cause with her against
that enemy. What is to be the system of France, with re
gard to us, I know not ; but it is sufficiently obvious that in
the angry struggles of these rival powers, our rights are for
gotten by both, and that it requires all the tried wisdom
and firmness of our government, and all the virtue of our
people, to conduct us in safety and with honor through the
tempests that agitate and afflict the world.
" My health has suffered a little since my return to Eng
land, and I am disposed to ascribe it to a continued confine
ment to London, from which I have not been absent a single
day for almost two years. I have some thoughts, therefore
(but am by no means determined upon it), of going to Chel
tenham, for a short time, after the birthday. I shall in that
case leave a person in my house to attend to all ordinary
busmess, to forward to me letters, &c.; and shall come to
town myself as occasion may require. My son, who has
hitherto acted as my secretary, I send home in the Osage to
take Ms station in a counting-house."

200 LIFE OF -WILLIAM PINKNEY.

MR. PINKNEY TO MR. MADISON. "London, June 5th, 1808.
« giK :_I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of
your letter of the 4th of April, by Mr. Bethune, together
with the printed, and other copies of Papers mentioned
in it. " I am to have an interview with Mr Canning in a few
days (which he wiU agree to consider extra-official), in the
course of which I intend to press, by every argument in
my power, the propriety of their abandoning immediately
their orders in council, and of proposing by a minister in
America (the only becoming course, as you very properiy
suggest), reparation for the outrage on the Chesapeake. I
shall, for obvious reasons, do this informaUy as my own act.
" Your unanswerable reply to Mr. Erskine's letter ofthe
23d of February, has left notMng to be urged against the
orders in council upon the score of right, and there may be
room to hope that the effect, which that reply can hardly
have failed to produce upon ministers, as weU by its tone
as by its reasoning, will, if followed up, become, under ac
tual circumstances, decisive.
" The discussion, which Mr. Eose's preliminary in the af
fair of the Chesapeake has undergone, gives encouragement
to an expectation, that this government will not now be
backward to relinquish it, and to renew their overture of sat
isfaction in a way, more consistent -with reason, and more
likely to produce a just and honorable result.
" You may be assured that I will not commit our gov
ernment by any thing I shall do or say, and that if I cannot
make tMngs better than they are, I wUl not make them
worse. My view of the course which our honor and interests
have required, and still require, is, as you know, in precise

M

LIPE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY. 201
conformity with that of the President ; but, if it were oth
erwise, I should make Ms view, and not my own, the rale of
my conduct."

MR. PINKNEY TO ME. MADISON. "London, August ith, 1808.
" Sir : — The St. Michael arrived at Falmouth, on Thurs
day the 14th of last month, after a passage of 8 days from
L'Orient. Captain Kenyon deUvered me on Wednesday, the
20th (upon my arrival from Brighton, where I had been for
a short time, on account of my health), your letters of the
30th of AprU, and your private letter of the 1st of May,
together with newspapers, printed copies of the embargo
act and its supplements, and of papers laid before Congress
at their last session. Mr. HaU brought me a letter from
General Armstrong of the 26th of June (of which I send
an extract), and Mr. Upson brought me a private letter
jfrom Mm, with the foUowmg postscript of the 1st of July.
'An order has been received from Bayonne to condemn
eight other of our sMps, &c.'
" On Friday the 22d of July I had an interview with
Mr. Canning, and renewed my efforts to obtain a revocation
of the British orders of January and November, 1807, and of
the other orders dependent upon them. I have already in
formed you in my private letter of the 29th of June that
on the moming of its date I had a long conversation with
Mr. Canning, which had rendered it somewhat probable that
the object mentioned in your letter of the 30th of April (of
wMch I had received a duplicate by the packet) would be
accomplished if I should authorize the expectation which that
letter suggests ; but that some days must elapse before I
could speak with any tMng Uke certainty on the subject :
and I have mentioned in another private letter (of the 10th

202 LIFE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY.
of July) that it was understood between Mr. Canning and
myself that another mterview should take place soon after
the prorogation of Parliament. In effect, however, Mr. Can
ning was not prepared to see me again untfl the 22d of Julj',
after I had been recalled to London by the arr>al of the St.
Michael, and had, in consequence, reminded Mm of our ar
rangement by a private note.
" In the interview of the 29th of June I soon found it neces
sary to throw out an intimation, that the power, vested in
the President by Congress, to suspend the embargo act Snd
its supplements, would be exercised as regarded Great Bri
tain, if their orders were repealed as regarded the United
States. " To have urged the revocation upon the mere ground
of strict right, or of general policy, and there to have left
the subject, when I was authorized to place it upon grounds
infinitely stronger, would have been, as it appeared to me, to
stop short of my duty. Your letters to Mr. Erskme (which
Mr. Canning has read and considered) had exhausted the
first of these grounds, and endless discussions here, in every\
variety of form, in and out of Parliament, had exhausted the
second. There was, besides, no objection of any force to my
availing myself without delay of the powerful inducements
which the intimation in question was Ukely to furnish to
Great Britain to abandon her late system ; and it seemed to
be certain that, by delaying to present these inducements to
Mr. Canning's consideration, I should not only lose much
time, but finally give to my conduct a disingenuous air,
which, while it would be foreign to the views and sentiments
of the President, could hardly fail to make a very unfavor
able impression upon the mind of Mr. Canning and his col
leagues. I thought, moreover, that, if I should reserve the
suggestion for a late state of our discussions, it would be
made to wear the appearance of a concession reluctantly ex
torted, rather than of what it was, the spontaneous result of

LIPE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY. 203
the characteristic frankness and honorable poUcy of our gov
ernment, " The intimation once made, a complete development
of its natural consequences, if properly acted upon, foUowed
of course ; and, taking advantage of the latitude afforded by
the informal nature of a mere conversation, I endeavored to
make that development as strong an appeal as, consistently
with truth and honor, I could (and there was no necessity
to do more) to the justice and the prudence of this govern
ment. It was not possible, however, that Mr, Canning could
reqmre to be assisted by my explanations. It was plain,
upon their own principles, that they could not equitably
persevere in their orders in council upon the foundation of
an imputed acquiescence on our part in French invasions of
our neutral rights, when it was become (if it was not always)
apparent, that this imputation was completely and in aU
respects an error — when it was manifest that these orders,
by letting loose upon our right a more destructive and offen
sive persecution than it was in the power of France to main
tain, interposed between us and France, furnished answers
to our remonstrances agamst her decrees and pretexts for
those decrees, and stood in the way of that very resistance
to these wMch Great Britain affected to inculcate as a duty
at the moment when she was taMng the most eff'ectual steps
to embarrass and confound it ; and when it was also manifest
that a revocation of those orders would, if not attended or
followed by a revocation of the decrees of France, place us
at issue with that power, and result in a precise opposition
by the United States to such parts of her anti-commercial
edicts as it became us to repel.
" In a prudential view any explanations seemed stiU less
to be required. Nothmg could be more clear than that if
Great Britain revoked her orders, and entitled herself to a
suspension of the embargo, her object (if it were any thing
short of the estabUshment and practical support of an ex-

204 LIFE OF -WILLIAM PINKNEY.
cMsive dominion over the seas) must, in some mode or otheV,
be accompUshed ; whether France foUowed her example or
not. In the first case the avowed purpose of the British
orders would be fulfiUed, and commerce would resume its ac
customed prosperity and expansion. In the last, the just
resistance of the United States (more efficacious than that of
the British orders) to Fr^ch irregularities and aggressions,
would be left to its fair operation (of which it was impos
sible to mistake the consequences), and in the mean time
the commercial intercourse between the United States and
Great Britain, being revived, would open the way for a
retum to good understanding, and in the end for an adjust
ment of all their differences.
" These, and many other reflections of a simiUar tendency
(wMch I forbear to repeat), could not have escaped the pene
tration of Mr. Canning, if they had not been suggested to
him in considerable detaU. But, whatever might be their
influence upon his mind, he certainly did not pronounce any
opinion ; and what he said consisted principally of inquiries
with a -view to a more accurate comprehension of my purpose.
He asked if I thought of taking a more formal course than
I was now pursuing ; but immediately remarked that he pre
sumed I did not ; for that the course I had adopted was un
doubtedly well suited to the occasion. I told him that I
was so entirely persuaded that the freedom of conversation
was so much better adapted to the nature of our subject and
so much more Ukely to conduct us to a beneflcial result than
the constraint and formality of written communication,
which usually grew into protracted discussion and always
produced embarrassment when there was any tMng of deli
cacy in the topics, that I had not intended to present my note,
" The interview (in the progress of which some other
points were incidentaUy touched upon, as mentioned in my
private letter of the 29th of June) did not authorize any very
confident opimon that Mr, Canning approved of what had

LIPE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY. 205
now for the first time been suggested to him ; and stiU less
could it warrant any anticipation of the final opinion of his
government. But the manner in which my communication
was received, and the readmess shown by Mr. Canning to
proceed in the mode wMch was pecuUarly favorable to my
object, connected with the reasonableness of the object itself,
induced me to tMnk it rather probable that the issue would
be satisfactory. " The interview of the 22d of July was far from producing
any tMng of an unpromising complexion. I urged again
much of what had been said at the last conference, and sug
gested such further considerations as had since occurred to
me in support of my demand. Mr. Canning was still much
more reserved than I had hoped to find him after so much
time had been taken for dehberation; but from aU that
passed I was more than ever inclined to beUeve that the
orders would be reUnquished. He seemed now to be ex
tremely desirous of ascertaming whether I was authorized
and disposed, with a view to a final arrangement, to present
what I had suggested, as to the suspension of the embargo,
in a more precise shape. I told him, after some conversation
upon tMs point, that, although I would prefer that course
which was the least, formal, yet, if everytMng should be first
matured, I might be able to combine -with a written demand,
that their orders would be repealed, such an assurance as I
had aheady mentioned, that the embargo would be suspend
ed, but that I would consider of this with reference to the
manner and terms. He then observed that I would perhaps
aUow him a Uttle time to reflect ' whether he would put me
to the necessity of presenting such a paper, and, upon my
assenting to tMs, he said that he would give me another ap
pointment towards the end of the following week. As I was
on the point of leaving him, he asked me if I would endeavor
to prepare, before the next interview such a note as we had
talked of ; but he had scarcely made tMs request before he

206 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
added 'but you wfll doubtless desire first to know what are
our ideas and intentions upon the whole subject.'
"On the 29th of July I met Mr. Canning again ; and
was soon apprised that our discussions, if continued, must
^ake a new form. He began by inquiring if I had received
any inteUigence of a late aff'air upon the Lakes which had
caused great alarm and anxiety among the British traders,
and of which an account had just been put into his hands.
He then read very rapidly, from a letter apparently written
in Canada, a complaint of an attack upon some British boats
m violation of the 3d article of the Treaty of 1794, and ob
served that this was the more to be regretted, as it followed
some recent misunderstanding in the Bay of Passamaquoddy.
I told him that I had no intelligence, official or private, of
these transactions, which he would perceive took place upon
our borders at a great distance from the seat of government,
and that of course, I could only express my con-viction that
the government of the United States would disavow whatever
was improper in the conduct of its agents, and would in other
respects act as good faith and honor required. This affair
being disposed of, Mr Canning said that he had thought long
and anxiously upon what I had suggested to him at our late
conferences — ^that the subject at first struck him as much
more simple and free from difficulty than upon careful ex
amination it was found to be — that in the actual state of the
world it behooved both Mm and me to move in this affair with
every possible degree of circumspection (an intimation which
he did not explain) — that without some expUcit proposal on
my part in writing upon wMch the British government could
deUberat.e and act, notMng could be done ; and, finaUy, that
he must leave me to consult my own discretion whether I
would make such a proposal. I answered that, with such a
previous understanding between us as I had counted upon, I
should feel no objection to take occasion to say in an official
note requiring the revocation of their orders in council, that,

LIFE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY. 207
the orders being rescinded as to us, it was the intention of
the President to suspend the embargo as to Great Britain ;
but that I expected to be told, before my note was presented,
what would be the reply to it, and what its consequences in
every direction ; and that I could not conjecture, if it was
really meant* to acquiesce in my demand (the exact nature
of it being m point of fact understood by this government
just as weU as if it had been made in writing), or if more
time than had already been afforded was required for deli
beration, why it was necessary that I should, in the last case
take the step in question at aU, or, in the first case, without
bemg frankly apprised of the effect it would produce. Mr,
Canning replied that my wish in this particular could not be
acceded to ; that, if I presented a note, they must be left at
perfect Uberty to decide upon what it proposed ; that he
could not give me an intimation of the probable consequences
of it ; and in a word, that he would neither invite nor dis
courage such a proceeding. He observed, too, that there
were some points belonging to the subject which it was neces
sary to discuss in -writing ; that my suggestion implied that
the embargo was produced by the British orders in councfl — •
that this could not be admitted — and that there were other
questions necessarily incident to these two measures with the
examination of which it was proper to begm upon an occasion
hke the present. I remarked in answer that, with an actual
result in view, and with a wish to arrive at that result with
out delay, nothing could be worse imagined than to entangle
ourselves in a written correspondence, undefined as to its
scope and duration, upon topics on which we were not likely
to agree ; that if I were compelled to frame my note with a
knowledge that it was only to provoke argument, instead of
leading at tMs momentous crisis to a salutary change in the
state of the world, he must be conscious that I too must
argue, and that I could not justify it to my govemment to
abstain from a complete assertion of aU its pretensions and a

208 LIFE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY,
fuU exposure of the true character of those acts of which it
complained as Ulegal and unjust. And where would tMs
end ? To what wholesome consequence could it lead ?
" I ought to mention that I give you in this letter the
substance only of the conversations which it states, and that
there was notMng in any degree unfriendly in the language
or manner of Mr. Canning at either of our conferences. I
need not say that I thought it my duty to adopt the same
tone and manner."

MR. PINKNEY TO MR, MADISON, "London, Sept. 6th, 1808.
" Sir : — I have an opportumty of writing by Mr, Bethrine,
who leaves town to-morrow for Falmouth, to embark for the
Umted States in the British packet ; and I cannot omit to
take advantage of it, although I have stUl notMng conclusive
to communicate, " My public letter of the 4th of August wfll have ap
prised you of the footing on which my different interviews
with Mr, Cannmg left the subject of the British orders in
councU ; and my private letter of the 2d of that month wiU
have made you acquainted with my intention to present,
in an official note, what I had ineffectuaUy suggested in
conference, " To such a course there could not, even in the first in
stance, have been any other objection than that it was cal
culated to lead to discussion rather than to adjustment ; but,
whatever might be its tendency, it is certain that I could
have no inducement to resort to it untU it was indicated by
Mr. Canning as indispensable, nor any motive to dechne it
afterwards. " At our last interview, and not before, it was unexpect
edly found that it was in that mode only that I could obtain

LIFE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY. 209
a knowledge of the light in which this government thought
fit to view the overture I had been directed to make to it ;
and I determmed, in consequence, to lay before it in writing
the intentions of the President, with the same frankness
which had characterized my verbal communications.
" I have now the honor to transmit a copy of the note,
wMeh, m conformity -with that determination, I deUvered in
person to Mr. Canning, on the 26th of last month, a few days
after its date. To this note no answer has yet been returned;
but it is to be presumed that it caimot be much longer with
held. " You wiU perceive that some time had elapsed, after I
had sent off my dispatches by the St. Michael (the 8th of
August), before my note was presented. The truth is, that
I had employed a part of that time in framing a note of
great length, wMch, when it was nearly completed, I thought
it prudent to abandon, in favor of one that held out fewer
mvitations to unprofitable discussions, which, although 1
would not shun them if pressed upon me, I did not suppose
it proper that I should seek.
" I believed, too, that a Uttle delay on my part would be
far from being disadvantageous. There would stUl be sufficient
time for obtaining a final answer to my proposal, in season for
the meeting of Congress ; and, as the temper of the govern
ment, so far as it had been tried, had not appeared to be fa
vorable to my purpose, I b^eved that I should act in the
spirit of my instructions, and consult the honor of my gov
ernment, by avoidmg, under such circumstances, the appear
ance of urgency and precipitation.
" Upon the terms, or general plan of my note it is not,
I hope, necessary to remark. You wiU discover that it was
prepared under a persuasion that, whatever might be its ef
fect, it was infinitely better to make it as conciUatory as,
without a sacrifice of principle or national dignity, was pos
sible, 14

210 LIFE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY,
" The topics to be embraced by it, were such as did not
demand, but rather forbade, minute exposition. WhUe it
was difficult to urge in their full force without seeming to
aim at exciting a disposition unfriendly to the object of my
instructions, aU the considerations which justified, the United
States in remonstrating against the British orders, it was yet
more difficult, without a degree of harshness scarcely suited
to the occasion, and without also the hazard of indiscretion,
to display in detail the signal injustice and impolicy of per
severing in them, after what I had proposed. This coifld be
done, and had been done, in conversation ; but it did not,
upon trial, appear to be equaUy practicable in the more for
mal and measured proceeding which I was now caUed upon
to adopt. " I considered, besides, that an overture so advantageous
to Great Britain, wMch the United States were not bound to
make to any obligations of equity, although it was wise to
make it, did not require, with any -view to the character of
my country, or even to the success of the overture itself, to
be again recommended by an anxious repetition of arguments
already fully understood,
" As soon as my note was prepared, I called at the For
eign office to arrange an inter-view with Mr. Canning, forthe
purpose of enabling me to accompany the delivery of it -with
a communication which I deemed important, as well as of
affordmg him an opportunity of making and receiving . such
explanations as he might desire. The interview took place
on the 26th of August,
" It had occurred to me that it would be proper ( and
could not be injurious) to read to Mr. Canning, ;from your
letter to me of the 18th of July, a brief summary of the in
structions under which I was acting. This had not been re
quested; but it could not be unacceptable ; and it was, be
sides, well calculated to do justice to, the Uberal sentiment»

LIPE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 211
by which my instructions had been dictated, as well as to give
Weight to my efforts in the execution of them,
" I was led by the reading of these passages (without
having originaUy intended it), into a more extensive
explanation than I had before attempted, of the influ
ence which the proposal of my government would have, in
truth as weU as in the judgment of the world, upon the sup
posed justice of their new system as it affected the United
States. To that explanation, -with the particulars of which
I wfll not, and indeed for want of time cannot, at present,
trouble you, I added a concise recapitulation of some of the
practical considerations which had been so often pressed be
fore ; and there I left the subject.
" Mr. Canmng paid great attention to what I said. He
spoke, however, of the attack on the Chesapeake aind of the
President's proclamation, and asked what was to be done
with them ? I stated that these two subjects were wholly
distmct from the present, but that it was not to be doubted
that if the atonement which the United States were authorized
to expect, for that admitted outrage upon their sovereignty,
were offered in a suitable manner (which I ventured to sug
gest would be a special mission), it would not be difficult to
bring the two govemments to a proper understanding on these
points — ^that, as it was fit that the British overture of satis
faction should be renewed in America, and not through me,
I could not hope to be the immediate agent in receiving it ;
but that I should be happy to contribute informaUy every as
sistance in my power to facilitate an adjustment, so much to
be desired, upon such terms as it became them to offer and us
to accept. Mr Canning observed, 'that there was a diffi
culty in seating about the adjustment,' and he repeated what
he said in our conference of the 29th of June (as mentioned
in my private letter on that date), that there would be no
objection to restoring the men- taken from the Chesapeake;
but he did not say what other reparation they were willing

212 LIFE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY,
to propose, I considered myself at liberty to encourge a dis
position, wMch I thought I perceived m him, to move in that
mteresting affair, in such a manner as to promise a satisfac
tory conclusion of it, and I acted accordingly ; but nothmg
passed wMch could justify me m undertaMng to anticipate
the result. '
" At the close of the interview I toM Mr, Camiing that
although I would not be understood to urge an answer to my
note sooner than was consistent -with Ms convenience, I could
not help asMng that it might be as prompt as possible. He
assured me that there should be no unnecessary delay ; and I
took my leave.
" As I have no sufficient grounds, upon wMch to form an
opinion as to the final course of the British government on
this occasion, I wUl not fatigue you with mere conjectures.
I have seen Mr. Canning but once (at dinner at Ms own
house), smce the interview of the 26th of August ; and such
an occasion was not suited to official approaches on my part.
A few days, however, will decide what is now perhaps doubt
ful. In the mean time the Hope wiU probably have arrived,
on her return from France ; and I -wUl take care that by her,
and by other opportunities, you shaU receive the speediest
information. " I beg leave to refer to the newspapers herewith sent for
an account of the important events wMch have lately occur
red in Europe."

MR. PINKNEY TO MR. MADISON,
("Pkivate.) Londoit, Sept. 1th, 1808,
" Dear Sir : — As Mr, Bethune leaves town in a few hours,
I have only time to -write a short private letter in addition
to my public one of yesterday,
" Mr Atwater deUvered your private letter of the 2l8t
of July, and a duplicate of that of the 15th, and I received

LIPE OP -WILLIAM PINKNEY. 213
by Mr. Nicolson, on the 24th of last month, your private
letters of the 3d and 15th of July.
" I cannot subdue my opinion that the overture on the
subject of the orders m council wiU be either rejected or
evaded. What infatuation, if it be so !
" That the embargo pinches here is certain. There is
imdoubtedly room for alarm on the score of provisions ; and
it is confessed that they feel severely the want of our trade.
The effect, however, is less than it ought to have been, on
account of the numerous evasions of the embargo, and the
behef (encouraged in America) that we had not virtue to
persist in it. Should it be continued it must be rigorously
executed, and our vessels in Europe recalled.
" I send you Marriott's book, entitled " Hints to both Par
ties." Towards the end you wiU find a pretty open avowal
that even if France should retract her decrees. Great Britain
ought to hold on upon the substance of her orders, making
them only more palatable to us in some of their subordinate
provisions. This gentleman is a West India merchant, and
a member of Parliament ; and was consulted by ministers
when the orders of November were in contemplation.
" It is stiU beUeved here that the late events in Spain
and Portugal, connected with the British explanations (al
ready forwarded in my private letter of the I7th of August,
and now again transmitted) relative to a direct trade be
tween the United States and those countries, will have an
irresistible effect on our embargo. They are so misled in
this country as to suppose that the embargo has already
produced very formidable discontent in America, and I am
mistaken if the government has not been inclined to cal
culate upon that discontent in various ways, and at
least to give it a trial. But, at any rate, the Spanish and
Portuguese trade wUl, it is imagined, be too great a temp
tation to be withstood. I know not what we may think of
tMs tempta,tion in America, — ^but it wifl be well to reflect

214 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
that, if we trade under the British orders and go to war
with France (as this speculation supposes) whUe the British
orders continue, we not only retreat from the honorable
ground we have taken, and admit the right of Great Britain
to act at aU times upon her new system, to the utter ex
tinction of our commerce, but deliver ourselves up to her
mercy in all respects. What would be her course in that
respect I know not ; but is there any reason to believe it
would be generous or even just ? We should, I inclme to
think, be in danger of faUing into a dependence upon tMs
country fatal to our character, to our institutions, to our
navigation, to our strength — and what could we hope to
gain ? I profess I am not able to imagine.
" Since the change in Spain and Portugal tMs nation is
not exactly what it was ; and it may be presumed that the
government partakes of the universal exaltation. Their
dreams of future prosperity are bright and romantic. A
Chateau en Espagne has become quite common. I ,have
heard it suggested (as a course of reasoning not unusual
here among merchants and others) that South America,
whether dependent or independent, must be thrown com-
merciaUy into the arms of Great Britain, — that, encouraged
to exertion and roused to activity by a new order of things, she
will hereafter rival us in all the great agricultural produc
tions of our country — that, under a system friendly to the
development of their, resources, our southern neighbors
will even surpass us as cultivators — that Great Britain wfll
thus become wholly independent of the Umted States for ar
ticles which she has heretofore been obliged to take from
them, and in a great degree too, for the consumption of her
manufactures — that in other views our importance wfll be
greatly diminished, if not absolutely annihilated, by this
new competition — ^that this result, almost inevitable in any
view, is more especially to be counted upon if Great Britain,
compeUed by the poUcy of our govemment, or following the

LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 215
impulse of the jealousy which is imputed to her, should
foster (by her capital and her trade), to the fuU extent of her
capacity, the prosperity of the south, in contradistinction to
that of the north — ^that the change in Spain is otherwise
Ukely to enable Great Britain to hold towards the United
States a Mgher tone than formerly — that the Spanish depu
ties here (I doubt tMs fact), and those who are in the new
Spanish interest (tMs I believe true), begin to talk already
of our Lomsiana purchase as unfit to be submitted to —
that regenerated Spam will certainly question the validity of
the cession that preceded our purchase, and reclaim the territo
ry ahenated by it — ^that this and other causes of dissatisfaction
(aided by the sentiment*of gratitude and the considerations
of interest wMch bind the Spaniards to Great Britain) may
be easfly fomented into a quarrel with the United States, of
which the consequences (Great Britain bemg a party also)
may be most destructive.
" These rhapsodies (which may, however, be worthy of
some attention) show how enthusiasm and prejudice can cal
culate ! Spain, assaUed by the whole power of France, has
already leisure for an American quarrel, and can even spare
troops to recover a superfluous territory on the Mississippi !
The inveterate habits and pursuits of a whole people, in
another hemisphere, are, against the repulsion of still exist
ing causes, to pass to opposite extremes in consequence of a
revolution in Europe yet in its earhest infancy, and of which
the transatlantic effect (even if m Europe the revolution were
established) would be a problem ! Great Britain, with a
vast increase of debt, is to find her account in casting from
her our market for her manufactures, in rejecting our com
modities essential to her colonies and convenient to herself,
for the purpose of patronizing a country, on the permanency
of whose connection she cannot rely, many of whose produc
tions come in competition with those of her own colonies, and
in which the passage from the actual state of things to that

216 LIFE OF -WILLIAM PINKNEY.
wMch is contemplated, must be reluctant and slow, and Ua
ble to endless interruptions and relapses ! It is forgotten,
too, that tMs interesting section of the globe during all tMs
tedious and doubtful process, may and must contribute to
nourish our gro-wth, while it can scarcely rival us in any
thing. It is forgotten that, if it continues to lean upon the
parent state, it is not likely, under the pressure of colonial
restrictions, to flourish to our prejudice or even to flourish at
aU, but may serve to strengthen and enrich us ; and that, if
it becomes independent, after our example, it wiU be far
more natural that we should benefit and reflect lustre and
power upon each other, than that Great Britain should find
m the south the means of humbUng *he other branches of the
great famfly of the west.
"From the newspapers it would seem that France and
Austria are on the eve of war. Yet I have been told that it
is not so. It is, I believe, certain that France has changed her
tone (from haughtiness and menace to conciliation) towards
Austria, since the discomfitures in Spain. This is not con
clusive proof, however.
" The report that Lucien Bonaparte has requested of a
British mimster a passport to go to America is, I understand
from a very respectable quarter, true.
" The result of our elections will now soon be known, I
trust they will be favorable to the measures of our govern
ment. I need not say how sincerely and anxiously I wish
that, with reference to yourself personally, they may give
you all the honor wMch the suffrages of our people can
bestow." MR. PINKNEY TO ME. MADISON.
("Pkitatk.) London, Sept. lOth, 1808.
" Dear Sir : — I intended to have inclosed in my private
letter of the 7th by Mr. Bethune, who left town onthe even-
mg of that day fdr Falmouth, to embark in the British

LIPE OF -WILLIAM PINKNEY. 217
packet, a tripUcate of my public letter of the 4th of August,
but in my hurry I omitted it. I transmit it now by Mr.
Young, our consul at Madrid, who is about to sail from
Gravesend for New- York, and I beg to renew my request
that the slight variations from the original and duplicate,
wMch you -wUl find in the Une marked in the margin with a
pencU, may be adopted. The only one of these corrections,
however, about wMch I am m the least anxious, is in the
fourth paragraph from the end, which in my rough draft
reads thus, " at the close of the interview, I observed, that,
as the footmg upon wMch this interview has, &c." This
awkward iteration of the word intervieio (if not actually
avoided in the original and duplicate, as perhaps it is) I
reaUy msh corrected.
" Mr. Cannmg's reply to my note not maMng its appear
ance, I went tMs mormng to Downing-street to inquire about
it ; but both Mr. Canmng and Mr. Hammond were in the
country. I shaU not omit to press for the answer (-without,
however, giving unnecessary offence) until I obtain it, or
have the delay explamed. It is possible that, when received,
it may be found to adopt our proposal, and that they are
merely taMng time to connect with their compliance a long
vindication of their orders. TMs is one way of accountmg
for the delay.
"It is also possible that they are actually undecided,
and that they wish to procrastinate and keep back their an
swer untU they can understand by the British packet (ex
pected very soon) the worMngs of the embargo, and of the
Spamsh views in America ; untfl they can take measure of
our elections ; untU they can ascertain what is to be the
course of France towards us ; untfl the state of Europe, so
flattering to their hopes, shaU improve yet more, or at any
rate be past the danger of a relapse, &c., &c. AU tMs is
possible ; but I continue to tMnk that they wUl reject what
I have proposed. Their present elevation is exactly calcu-

218 LIFE OP -WILLIAM PINKNEY.
lated (aided by false estimates of America) to mislead them
to such a conclusion. They are hardly in a temper of mind
to appreciate the motives of the President's conduct. The
chances are that they will ascribe the assurances I have been
authorized to give them, as to the embargo law, to a mere
anxiety to get rid of that law ; and that they wUl only see
m those assurances a pledge that we are heartily tired of our
actual position, and are ready to abandon it at any rate
They -wifl be apt, in a word, to presume (believing, as I am
sure they do, that we wiU not venture upon extremities with
them) that, by holding off, they wiU compel us to retract
our late measures (the most wise and honorable ever adopted
by a government), and to fall at their feet. You must not
be surprised if they should be found to expect even more
than this from the pressure of the embargo. I allude to the
influence which many hope it wiU have upon our elections,
in bringing about a change of men as well as of measures.
In tMs I trust they will be signally disappointed.
" If (party spirit out of the question) the conduct of our
government towards the two powers that keep the world in
an uproar with their quarrel, has been really disapproved in
the United States, the overture just made to both cannot
fail to subdue it. I anticipate from it a perfect union of
sentiment in favor of any attitude which it may be necessary
to take. It puts us so unequivocaUy in the right, that,
although we were not, I think, bound to make it, it is im
possible not to rejoice that it has been made. In any event
it must be salutary and must do us honor. The overture,
however, would seem to be more advantageous to Great
Britain than France. For if you should take off the embargo
as to France and continue it as to Great Britain, your pro
ceeding would have Uttle substance in it, considered as a
benefit to France, unless and until you went to war against
Great Britain. But the converse of this would have a vast

LIFE OF -WILLIAM PINKNEY. 219
effect in favor of Great Britain, whether you went to war
with France or not.
" It does not foUow, and certainly is not trae, that the
overture is for that reason unjust to France ; although I
think it the clearest case in the world that Great Britain is
(at least) in pari delicto with France on the subject of that
code of -violence wMch drives neutrals from the seas and
justice from the world.
" It is said here, by those who affect to know, that a con
ciUatory conduct by France toward the United States -will
not be acceptable to this govemment ; and certamly Mar
riott's book affords some reason for suspicion that a repeal
of the French decrees would not be foUowed by that of the
British orders. Such infatuation is scarcely credible, yet it
would not be much worse than their present backwardness
to avaU themselves of what has lately been said to them.
"After all, it wfll be safest (for a time longer) to keep
opmion as much as possible in suspense — and I need not re--
peat my assurances that the moment I receive the infoufia-
tion I am expecting, no effort shaU be spared to put you in
possession of it." MR. PINKNEY TO MR. MADISON.
("Peivate.) London, ,Sepf. 21s«, 1808.
" Dear Sir : — The Hope arrived at Cowes from France
the 13th.
"Not havmg heard from Mr. Canning, although he
retumed to London the 16th, I caUed again yesterday at
Downing-street, and was assured that the answer to my note
would be sent to night or early to-morrow moming. Mr.
Atwater wUl of course be able to leave to-wn on Friday, and
embark on Saturday with a copy of it.
" I have been told since the arrival of the last British
packet (but do not beUeve it), that there is more probabiUty
than I had anticipated, that the late events in Spam and

220 LIFE OF -WILLIAM PINKNEY.
Portugal (wMch ought not to be considered as deciding ori
any thing) wUl have an effect on pubhc opinion in America
against the continuance of the embargo, and favorable to aU
the purposes of Great Britain. If this were true, I should
think it was deeply to be lamented. I may misunderstand
the subject ; but I cannot persuade myself that any tMng
that has happened on tMs side of the Atlantic, ought to in
duce us in any degree to retreat from our present system.
" If we should resolve to trade with Spain and Portugal
(Great Britain and France persisting in their orders and de
crees) in any way to which Great Britain would not object,
we must suspend the embargo as to those countries only or
as to those countries and Great Britain, or we must repeal
it altogether. " The temptation to the first of these courses, is, even
in a commercial sense, inconsiderable ; the objection to it
endless. The object to be gained (if no more was gained
than ought to be gained) would be triffing. There could
indfcd be no gain. An inadequate market redundantly sup
pUed would be more injurious than no market at aU ; it would
be a lure to destruction, and notMng more. A suspension of
the embargo, so limited in its nature as this would be (sup
posing it to be in fact what it would be in form), would have
a most unequal and invidious operation in the different quar
ters of the Union, of which the various commodities would
not in the ports of Portugal and Spain be in equal demand.
" A war vrith France would be mevitable ; and such a
war (so produced), from wMch we could not hope to derive
either honor or advantage, would place us at the mercy of
Great Britain, and, on that account, would m the end do
more to cripple and humble us than any disaster that could
otherwise befall us.
" The actual state of Spain and Portugal is moreover not
to be reUed upon. My first opmion on that subject remains;
but even the most sanguine -wiU adnut that there is great

LIPE OF -WILLIAM PINKNEY. 221
room for doubt. The Emperor of France is evidently col
lecting a mighty force for the reduction of Spain ; and Por
tugal must share its fate. And even if that force should be
destined (as some suppose) first to contend with Austria, the
speedy subjugation of Spain is not the less certain. If
France should succeed, Spain and Portugal would again faU
under the British orders of November, as weU as under the
operation of the French decrees. Our cargoes would scarcely
have found tbeir way to the ocean in search of the boasted
market, before they would be once more in a state of prohi
bition, and we should, in the mean time, have incurred the
scandal of suffermg an improvident tMrst of gain to seduce
us from our prmciples into a dUemma presenting no altema
tive but loss in aU the senses of the word.
" But it is not event certain what Great Britam would
herself finaUy say to such a partial suspension of the embargo.
She would doubtless at first approve of it. But her ultimate
course (especially if war between France and the United
States were not trie-immediate consequence, or if the mea
sure were eventuaUy less beneficial to herself than might be
supposed at the outset), ought not to be trusted. That she
should approve at first, is hardly to be questioned, and the
considerations upon which she would do so, are precisely
those which should dissuade us from it. Some of these are^ —
the aid it would afford to her alUes, as weU as to her own
troops co-operating with them, and its consequent tendency
to destroy every tMng like system in our conduct — its ten
dency to embroU us with France, its tendency to induce us,
by overstocMng a Umited market, to make our commodities
of no value — to dissipate our capital — to rmn our merchants
without benefitmg our agriculture — to destroy our infant
manufactures without benefiting our commerce — its tendency
to habituate us to a trammeUed trade, and to fit us for ac
quiescence in maritime despotism. But there are other
reasons — our trade vrith Spain and Portugal, while it lasted.

222 LIFE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY,
would be a circmtous one -with Great Britain and her colo
nies, for their benefit. Our productions would be canied in
the first instance to Spain and Portugal, would be bought
there for British account, and would find their way to the
West Indies or centre here, as British convenience might re
quire, and thus in effect the embargo be removed as to Great
Britain, wMle it continued as to Fi-ance, and we professed to
continue it as to both. And if any profits should arise from
this sordid traffic, they would become a fund, to enable us to
import into the United States directly or indirectly the
manufactures of Great Britain, and thus relieve her in an
other way, while her orders would prevent us from receiving
the commodities of her enemy. It would be far better openly
to take off the embargo as to Great Britain, than while
affecting to continue it as to that power, to do what must
rescue her completely (and that too -vrithout advantage to
ourselves) from the pressure of it, at the same time that it
would promote her views against France in Portugal and
Spain. " As to the withdrawing the embargo as to Great Britain,
as weU as Spain and Portugal, while the British orders are
unrepealed, the objections to that course are just as strong now
as they were four months ago. The change in Spain and
Portugal (if it were even Ukely to last) cannot touch the
principle of the embargo, as regards Great Britain, who re
asserts her orders of November, in the very explanations of
the;- 4th of July, under which we must trade -with those
countries, if we trade with them at all. If we include Great
Britain m the suspension, and exclude France, we do now
what we have declined to do before, for the sake of a delu
sive commerce, which may perish before it can be enjoyed,
and cannot in any event be enjoyed -with credit, with advan
tage, or even with safety. We take part at once with Great
Britain against France, at a time the least smted that could
be imagined to such a determmation ; at a time when it

LIPE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 223
might be said we were emboldened by French reverses, to do
what before we could noi;, resolve upon, or even tempted by
a prospect of scanty profit, exaggerated by our cupidity and
impatience to forget what was due to consistency, to charac
ter, and permanent prosperity. W§ sanction too the mari
time pretensions which insult and injure us ; we throw our
selves, bound hand and foot, upon the generosity of a gov
ernment that has hitherto refused us justice ; and all this
when the affair of the Chesapeake, and a host of other
-wrongs, are unredressed, and when Great Britain has just
rejected an overture which she must have accepted -with
eagerness if her -views were not such as it became us to sus
pect and guard agamst.
" To repeal the embargo altogether would be preferable
to either of the other courses, but would notwithstanding be
so fatal to us in all respects, that we should long feel the
wound it would inflict, unless indeed so^e other expedient,
as strong at least and as efficacious in all it bearings, can (as
I fear it cannot) be substituted in its place.
" War would seem to be the unavoidable result of such
a step. If our commerce should not flourish in consequence
of tMs measure, notMng would be gained by it but dishonor ;
and how it could be earned on to any valuable purpose, it
would be difficult to show. If our commerce should flourish
in spite of French and British edicts, and the miserable
state of the world ; in spite of war with France, if that
should happen, it would, I doubt not, be assafled in some
other form. The spirit of monopoly has seized the people
and government of tMs country. We shall not under any
circumstances be tolerated as rivals in navigation and trade
— ^it is in vain to hope that Great ¦ Britain wUl voluntarily
foster the naval means of the United States. AU her prej
udices— -all her calculations are against it. Even as aflies
we should be subjects of jealousy. It would be endless to
enumerate in detaU the evils which would cling to us in this

224 LIFE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY,
new career of vassalage and meanness, and tedious to pursue
our backward course to the extinction of that very trade to
wMch we had sacrificed every thing else,
" On the other hand, if we persevere we must gain our
purpose at last. By complying with the little policy of the
moment, we shaU be lost. By a great and systematic adhe
rence to principle we shall find the end to our difficulties.
The embargo and the loss of our trade are deeply felt here,
and wfll be felt with more severity every day. The wheat
harvest is Uke to be alarmingly short, and the state of the
continent wiU augment the evU, The discontents among
their manufactures are only quieted for the moment by tem
porary causes. Cotton is rismg, and soon wiU be scarce.
Unfavorable events on the continent will subdue the temper
unfriendly to -wisdom and justice wMch now prevaUs here.
But above all, the world wiU, I trust, be convinced that our
flrmness is not to ^e shaken — our measures have not been
without effect. They have not been decisive, because we
have not been thought capable of persevering in self-denial,
if that can be called self-denial which is no more than pru
dent abstinence from destruction and dishonor.
" I ought to mention that I have been told by a most
respectable American merchant here, that large quantities
of such wooUen cloths as are prohibited by our non-importa
tion act, have been and continue . to be sent to Canada, vrith
the -view of being smuggled into the United States.
" I beg you to excuse the frequency and length of my
private letters.
" I need not teU you that I am mduced to trouble you
with my hasty reflections, because I tMnk you stand in need
of them. I give them merely because I beUeve that you
are entitled to know the impressions wMch a pubhc servant
on tMs side of the water receives from a view of our situa
tion."

LIPE OF -WILLIAM PINKNEY. 225

MR. PINKNEY TO MR. MADISON.
"London, September 2iih, 1808.
" Sir : — I am now enabled to transmit to you a copy of
Mr. Canmng's answer, received only last night, to my note
of the 23d of August.
" TMs answer was accompamed by a letter, of which also
a copy is inclosed, recapitulating what Mr. Canning sup
poses to be ' the substance of what has passed between us
at our several interviews, previous to the presentation of my
official letter.'
" To the accompanying paper I think it indispensable
that I should reply -vrithout delay, supporting, with polite
ness, but with firmness, the statements which I have already
had the honor to make to you of the conversations in question,
and correctmg some errors upon points which Mr. Canning
has thought fit to introduce into his letter, but wMch I had
not supposed it necessary to mention in detafl in my dis
patches. " I shall not detam Mr. Atwater with a view to this re
ply ; but -wUl take care to forward a copy of it by an early
conveyance. My official note and the answer to it being
perfectly intelligible, Mr. Canning's misapprehensions (for
such they are) of previous verbal communications, can
scarcely be very important in a pubUc view ; but it is, ne-
yertheless, of some consequence that whatever may be the
object of his statement, I should not make myself a party to
its maccuracies, by even a tacit admission of them.
"I do not perceive that a formal reply to the more
official paper, can now be of any advantage ; but I shaU
probably take occasion to combme with my reply to the one
paper some observations upon the other.
" I regret extremely, that the views wMch I have been
instructed to lay before tMs govemment have not been met
by it as I had at first been led to expect. The overture can-
15

226 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY,
not fail, however, to place in a strong light the just and Ube
ral sentiments by which our government is animated, and in
other respects to be useful and honorable to our country,"

MR, PINKNEY TO MB, MADISON,
"London, November 25th, 1808,
" Sir : — I have the lienor to send inclosed a copy of a let
ter, received last mght, from Mr, Canning, in answer to my
letter to him of the 10th of last month,
" The tone of tMs letter renders it impossible to reply to
it vrith a -riew to a discussion of what it contains, although
it is not without further inadvertencies as to facts, and ma
ny of the observations are open to exception, I intend, how
ever, to combine -with an acknowledgment of the receipt of it
two short explanations. The first vriU relate to the new and
extraordinary conjecture, wMch it mtimates, that my au
thority was contingent ; and the second wiU rermnd Mr,
Canning that my letter of the 10th of October does not, as
he imagmes, leave unexplained .the remark that, " the pro
visional nature of my offer, to make my proposal in writing,
arose out of circumstances; " but, on the contrary, that " the
explanation immediately foUows the remark,"

MR, pinkney to MR, MADISON,
"London, December 2ith, 1808,
Sir : — ^I have had the honor to receive, by the British
packet, your letters of the 9th and 10th of last month.
The assurance contained in the first of these letters, of
the President's approbation of the manner in which my late
instructions were executed, affords me the most Uvely satis-

LIFE OF -WILLLA.M PINKNEY, 227
faction ; and I beg you to accept my sincere thanks for the
kmd and flattering terms in wMch you have been so good as
to communicate it,"

; MR. PINKNEY TO MR. MADISON.
("Pkitate.) London, January 2Zd, 1809,
" Dear Sir : — I dmed at Mr. Canning's with the Gorps
Diplomatique, on the 18th, the day appointed for the cele
bration of the Queen's birth-day. Before dinner he came
up to me, and, entering into conversation, adverted to a re
port which he said had reached Mm, that the American
mimsters (here and in France) were about to be recaUed.
I repUed that I was not aware that such a step had already
been resolved upon. He then took me aside, and observed
that, accordmg to Ms view of the late proceedings of Con
gress, the resolutions of the House of Eepresentatives in
committee of the whole, appeared to be calculated, if passed
into a law, to remove the impediments to an arrangement
with the Umted States upon the two subjects of the orders
in councU and the Chesapeake-^that the President's procla
mation had in fact fonned the great obstacle to the adoption
of what we had lately proposed, and that every body knew
that it had formed the sole obstacle to adjustment m the
other affair — that the renewal of commercial intercourse
with America, whfle that proclamation remained in force,
would have been attended -with this embarrassment, that
British merchant vessels, going into our ports, would have
found there the commissioned cruisers of the enemy in a ca
pacity to assaU them as soon as they should put to sea ;
wMle British armed vessels, having no asylum in those
ports, would not have been equaUy in a situation to afford
them protection — that if this was not insisted upon at large
in his reply to my official letter of the 23d of August, it was

228 LIFE OF -WILLIAM PINKNEY,
because it was difficult to do so vrithout giving to that paper
somewhat of an unfriendly appearance — ^that as the above
mentioned embarrassment, produced by the proclamation of
the President, and the right wMch Great Britain supposed
she had to complain of the continuance of that proclama
tion, proceeded, not from the exclusion of British sMps of
war from American ports, but from the discrimination in
that respect between Great Britain and her adversaries ;
and as the resolutions of the House of Eepresentatives took
away that discrimination, although not perhaps in the man
ner which Great Britain could have -vrished, they were wiU-
mg to consider the law to which the resolutions were pre
paratory, as putting an end to the difficulties wMch pre
vented satisfactory adjustments with us. He then said that
they were, of course, desirous of being satisfied by us, that
the -riew which they thus took of the resolutions m question
was correct ; and he intimated a wish that we should say
that the intention of the American government was in con
formity vrith that riew. He added, that it was another
favorable circumstance that the non-importation system was
about to be appUed to all the beUigerents,
" As this occurred rather unexpectedly (although my re
ception at court, and other circumstances of much more con
sequence, had seemed to give notice of some change), and as
I did not think it advisable to say much, even mformally,
upon topics of such deUcacy at so short a warning, I pro
posed to Mr, Cannmg that I should call on him in the course
of a day or two, for the purpose of a more free conversation
upon what he had mentioned, than was then practicable. To
tMs he readily assented ; and it was settled that I should
see him on the Sunday foUovring (yesterday), at 12 o'clock,
at Ms own house. I thought it prudent, however, to suggest
at once, that the resolutions of the House of Eepresenta
tives struck me as they did Mr. Canning ; and (supposing
myself to be warranted by your private letter of the 25th

LIFE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY, 229
of November, in going so far), I added, that although it was
erident that if Great Britain and France adhered to their
present systems, the resolutions had a necessary tendency to
hasten a disagreeable crisis, I was sure that my govemment,
retaimng the spirit of moderation wMch had always charac
terized it, would be most wiUing that Great Britain should
consider them as calculated to furnish an opportunity for ad
vances to renewed intercourse and honorable explanations,
" The interriew yesterday was of some length. An ar
rangement with me was out of the question. An assurance
from me as to the intention of the American government
in passing (if mdeed it had passed), an Exclusion and Non-
intercourse law, appUcable to aU the powers at war, was
equaUy out of the question. I had no authority to take any
official step in the business ; and I should not have taken any
vrithout further instractions from you, founded upon the new
state of things, even if my former authority had not been at
an end. My object, therefore, was merely to encourage suit
able approaches on the part of the government by such un
official representations as I might be justified in making.
" I wiU not persecute you with a detail of my suggestions
to Mr. Canning, intended to place the conduct of our govern
ment in its true light, and to second the effect which its firm
ness and vrisdom had manifestly produced. It -wiU be suffi
cient to state that, wMle I decUned (indeed it was not
pressed), giring or allowing Mr. Canning to expect any such
assurances as I had understood Mm to aUude to in our last
conversation, I said every thing which I thought consistent
with discretion, to confirm Mm in his disposition to seek the
re-establishment of good understanding with us, and espe
ciaUy to see in the expected act of Congress, if it should pass,
an opening to which the most scrupulous could not object, as
weU as the strongest motives of prudence for such advances,
before it should be too late, on the side of tMs country, as
could scarcely fail to produce the best results.

230 LIFE QF -WILLIAM PINKNEY.
" It was of some importance to turn their attention here
without loss of time, to the manner of any proceeding which
might be in contemplation. . It seemed that the resolutions
of the House of Eepresentatives, if enacted intp a law, might
render it proper, if not indispensable, that the affair 0/ the
Chesapeake should be settled at the same time -with the af
fair of the orders and embargo ; and tMs was stated by Mr
Cannmg to be Ms opinion and his vrish. It foUowed that
the whole matter ought to be settled at Washington ; and
as tMs was, moreover, desirable on various other grounds, I
suggested that it would be well (in case a special mission
did not meet their approbation), that the necessary powers
should be sent to Mr. Erskme ; but I offered my interven
tion for the purpose of guarding them against deficiencies in
those powers, and of smootMng the way to a successful issue.
Mr. Canning gave no opinion on tMs point.
"Althpugh I forbear to trouble you in detail with what
I said to Mr. Canmng, it is fit that you should know what
was said by Mm on every point of importance.
" In the course of conversation he proposed several ques
tions for reflection, relative to our late proposal, wMch, when
that proposal was made, were not even glanced at. The
principal were the two foUowmg :
" 1. In case they should now wish, either through me or
through Mr. Erskine, to meet us upon the ground of the late
overture, in what way was the effectual operation of our em
bargo as to France, after it should be taken off as to Great
Britain, to be secured .? It was erident, he said, that if we
should do no more than refuse clearances for the ports of
France,, (fee, or proMbit, under penalties, voyages to such ports,
the effect wMch my letter of the 21st of August, and, my
pubUshed instractions professed to have in riew, would not
be produced; for that vessels, although cleared for Brit
ish ports, might, when once out, go to France mstead of com
ing here. That this would in fact be so (whatever the pen-

LIFE OF "WILLIAM PINKNEY, 231
alties wMch the American law might denounce against of
fenders), could not, he imagined, be doubted ; and he pre
sumed, therefore, as he could see no possible objection to it
(on our part), that the government of the Umted States
would not, after it had itself declared a commerce vrith France
iUegal, and its citizens who should engage in it deUnquents,
complain if the naval force of tMs country should assist in
preventing such a commerce,
" 2. He asked whether there would be any objection to
asMng the repeal of the British orders and of the American
embargo contemporaneous ? He seemed to consider tMs as
indispensable, NotMng could be less admissible, he said,
than that Great Britain, after rescinding her orders, should,
for any time, however short, be left subject to the embargo
in common -with France, whose decrees were subsisting, with
a -riew to an experiment upon France, or with any other view.
The Umted States could not upon their own principles apply
the embargo to tMs country one moment after the orders
were removed, or decUne after that event to apply it exclusive
ly to France and the powers connected -with her. Great
Britain would dishonor herself by any arrangement which
should have such an effect, &c.
" You wfll recoUect that my instructions (particularly
your letter of the 30th of Aprfl), had rather appeared to pro
ceed upon the idea that the British orders were to be repealed
before the embago was removed as to England ; and it is
probable that a perasal of these instructions led to Mr. Can
mng's mquiry.
" Upon the whole, I thought I might presume that this
government had at last determined to sacrifice to us their
orders in councfl m the way we had before proposed (although
Mr Canning once, and only once, talked of amendment and
modification, wMch I immediately discouraged, as wefl as of
'•tpeal), and to offer the amende honorable, in the case of the
i.. esapeake, prorided Congress should be found to have passed

232 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
a law in conformity with the resolutions of the House of
Eepresentatives. I ought to say, however, that Mr. Can
ning did not precisely pledge .himself to that effect ; and
that the past justifies distrust. The result of the elections
in America — the unexpected firmness displayed by Congress
and the nation — the disappointments in Spain and elsewhere
— a perceptible alteration in public opinion here since the
last inteUigence from the United States — an apprehension
of losmg our market, of having us for enemies, &c., have
apparently made a deep impression upon ministers ; but
nothing can inspire perfect confidence in their intentions but
an impossible forgetfulness of the past, or the actual con
clusion of an arrangement with us. In a few days I may
calculate upon hearing from you. If Congress shall have
passed the expected act, the case to which Mr. Canning looks
wUl have been made, and he may be brought to a test from
which it wUl be difficult to escape. Whatever may be my
instructions I shall obey them with fideUty and zeal ; but I
sincerely hope they will not make it my duty to prefer ad
justment here to adjustment in WasMngton. I am firmly
pursuaded that it vriU be infinitely better that the business
should be transacted immediately with our government ; and,
if I shall be at liberty to do so, I shaU continue to urge that
course. " You wfll not fail to perceive that the ground upon
which it is now pretended that our proposition of last sum
mer was rejected, is utterly inconsistent with Mr. Canning's
note, in which that proposition is distinctly rejected upon
other grounds, although in the conclusion of the note, the
President's proclamation is introduced by-the-by. Besides,
what can be more shallow than the pretext of the supposed
embarrassment !
" I took occasion to mention at the close of our conversa
tion, the recent appointment of Admiral Berkely to the Lis
bon station. Mr. Canning said that, with every inclination

LIFE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY. 233
to consult the feelings of tho American government on that
subject, it was impossible for the admiralty to resist the claim
of that officer to bo employed, after such a lapse of time since
his recall from Halifax, without bringing him to a court-
martial. The usage of tho navy was in that respect different
from that of the army. He might, however, stfll be brought
to a court-martial, and in what he had done, he had acted
whoUy without authority, &c., &c. I did not propose to
enter into any discussion upon the subject, and contented
myself with lamenting the appointment as unfortunate.
" The documents laid before Congress and published have
had a good eftect here. Your letter to Mr, Erskine I have
caused to be printed in a pamphlet, with my letter to Mr.
Canning of tho 23d of August, and his reply. The report
of the committee ofthe House of Eepresentatives is admitted
to be a most able paper, and has been published in the Morn
ing Chronicle. The Times newspaper (notwithstanding its
former violence against us), agrees that our overture should
havo been accepted.
" The opposition in ParUament is unammous on this sub
ject, although dirided on others. Many of the friends of
government speak well of our ovei-turo, and almost every
body disapproves of Mr Canning's note. The tone has
changed, too, in the city. In short, I have a strong hope
that tho eminent -wisdom of the late American measures
vrill soon bo priictically proved to tho confusion of their op
ponents. " I rofer you to the newspapers for news (in the Mghest
degree interesting) and for the debates. See particularly Mr.
Canning's speech in the House of Commons, on the 19th, as
reported in the Morning Chromcle.
" P. S. — ^As it was possible that the resolutions of the
House of Eepresentatives might not pass into a law, I en
deavored to accommodate my conversation of yesterday to

234 LIFE OF -WILLIAM PINKNEY.
that possibihty, at the same time that I did not refuse to let
Mr, Cannmg see that I supposed the law would pass.
"I have onutted to mention that we spoke of Mr.
Sawyer's letter in our ffist conversation, and that durmg the
whole of the evemng, Mr. Canmng seemed desirous of show
ing, by more than usual Mndness and respect, that it had
made no unfavorable impression. I incUne to think that it
has rather done good than harm.
"I have marked tMs letter private, because I under
stood Mr. Canmng as rather speaking confidentiaUy than of
ficiaUy, and I certainly meant so to speak myself ; but you
will nevertheless make use of it as you. think fit : of course it
wiU not m any event be pubUshed,
" A third embargo breaker has arrived at Kmsale, in Ire
land, on her way to Liverpool, She is caUed the SaUy, and
is of Virginia, with more than three hundred hogsheads of
tobacco,"

MR. PINKNEY TO MR. MADISON.
( "Peivate.) London, May %d, 1809.
" Dear Sir : — I have had the honor to receive your letter
of the 17th of March, and thank you sincerely for your good
-vrishes. Permit me to offer my cordial congratulations upon
the manner in whieh you have been called to the Presidency,
Such a majority at such a time is most honorable to our
country and to you. My trust is that with the progress of
your administration, your friends wifl grow m strength and
numberSj and that the people wfll see in your future labors
new titles to praise and confidence. You have my cordial
wishes for your fame and happiness, and for the success of
aU your riews for the pubhc good,
" The pubUcation of my letter of the 21st of September,
has not had the effect wMch mahce expected and intended ;
and it is not improbable that it has contributed to produce a

LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 235
result directly the reverse of its obrious purpose. Such an
incident, however, is injurious to the character of our coun
try, but it wfll, doubtless, inspire at home such a distrust of
the honor of members of Congress, who could condescend to
so low and maUgnant a fraud, as to prevent a repeti
tion of it,
" My letter to the Secretary of State wiU announce to
you the change which has taken place here on the subject of
the orders in councU, I venture to hope that this measure
vriU open the way to reconcUement between tMs country
and America vrithout any disparagement of our interests or
our honor, I have not time (as the messenger leaves town
m the moming, and it is now late at night) to trouble you
with a detaUed statement of my notions on this subject —
but I -wiU presume upon your indulgence for a few words
upon it,
" The change does undo-ubtedly produce a great effect in
a commercial view, and removes many of the most disgust-
mg features of that system of riolence and monopoly against
wMch our efforts have been justly directed. The orders of
November were m ^execution of a sordid scheme of com
mercial and fiscal advantage, to which America was to be
sacrificed. They were not more atrocious than mean. The
trade of the world was to be forced through British ports,
and to pay British imposts. As a beUigerent instrument,
the orders were notMng. They were a trick of trade' — a
huckstering contrivance to enrich Great Britam, and drive
other nations from the seas. The new system has a better
air. Commerce is no longer to be forced through this coun
try. We may go direct to Eussia, and to aU other coun
tries, except t6 France and HoUand, and the Mngdom of
Italy and thefr colomes. The duty system is at an end.
We may carry, as heretofore, eneriiy productions. The pro
rision about certfficates of origin is repealed. That about
prize sMps is repealed also. What remains of the old mea-.

236 LIFE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY,
sure is of a belligerent character, and is to be strictly ex
ecuted as such. No Ucenses are to be granted even to Brit
ish merchants to trade to HoUand or France.
" There can be no question that this change gives us aU
the immediate benefits which could have arisen out of the
acceptance of our overture of last year. It does not, in
deed, give us the same claim to demand from France the re
caU of her edicts : but, in every other respect, it may be
doubted whether it is not more convenient. If that over
ture had been received, a difficulty would have occurred as
to the mode of maMng it effectual, as mentioned in my pri
vate letter of the 23d of January. And if we had agreed,
either formaUy or by mere understanding, to Mr. Canning's
suggestion, mentioned in the same letter, the substance of
the tMng would have approached very nearly to what has
since been done. But, at any rate, the manner of the trans
action is open to negotiation, and the mtimation to that ef
fect wMch has been made to me, may be an inducement to
resume a friendly attitude towards Great Britain, and to
put the sincerity of that intimation to the test.
" For the gain actuaUy obtained, we may pay no price.
We give no pledge of any sort, and are not bound to take
any step whatever. The embargo is already repealed after
the end of the approaching session of Congress. The non-
intercourse law -wfll expire at the same time. If neither
should be continued at the approaching session, negotiation
may be tried for obtaining what is yet to be desired, and,
that faiUng, our future measures are in our own power,
" I am not sure that we have not got rid of the most
obnoxious portion of the British orders in the most acceptable
way. To what is left, it is impossible that either the gov
ernment or the people of this country can be much attached,
Haring obtained. gratuitously the present concessions, we are
warranted in hoping that the rest, diminished in value, flat
tering no prejudices, addressing itself to no pecuUar interests.

LIPE OF -WILLIAM PINKNEY. 237
and viewed with indiff'erence by all, wiU be easfly abandoned.
In the mean time our peace is preserved, and our industry
revived. France can have no cause of quanel, nor we any
inducement to seek a quarrel -with her. The United States are
no parties to the recent British measure as a measure of pres
sure and coercion upon France. We may trade in consequence
of it, and Aideavor to obtain further concessions, without the
hazard of war with either party; whfle what has already been
conceded saves our honor and greatly improves our situation.
Our overture of last summer, if accepted, must have produced
war vrith France, unless France had retracted her decrees,
which was greatly to be doubted. The recent British mea
sure, not being the result of an arrangement vrith America,
wfll not have that tendency. For my own part, I have
always beUeved that a war vrith France, if it could be avoided,
was the idlest tMng we could do. We may talk of " un-
furUng the repubUcan banner against France " — but, when
we had unfurled our banner, there would be an end of our
exploits. TMs is precisely such a flourish as might be ex
pected from a heavy inteUect wandering from its ordinary
track. It is not remembered that fl" we go to war with
France, we shaU be shut out from the continent of Europe,
-without knowing where it would cease to repel us. It is not
remembered that in a war with France we might suffer, but
could not acf — that we should be an humble ally without
hope of honor, and a feeble enemy without a chance of victory.
It appears to me that the world would stand amazed if we,
a commercial nation, whose interests are incompatible vrith
war, should, upon the instigation of our passions, strut into
the Usts vrith gigantic France, -with a metaphor in our mouths,
but vrith no means of annoyance in our hands, and professing
to be the champions of commerce, do just enough to provoke
its destraction and make ourselves ridiculous.
" Our fiiends in tMs country are aU of opinion that we
should take in good part the new order in council, and, suf-

238 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY,
fering our restrictive laws to expire, rely upon friendly nego
tiation and a change of policy in tMs govemment, for the
further success of our wishes. I can assure you vrith confi
dence, that they would be greatly disappointed and grieved
^f we should be found to take any other course. Our triumph
is already considered as a signal one by every body. The
pretexts with wMch ministers would conceal thSir motives
for a reUnquishment of aU wMch they prized in their system,
are seen tMough ; and it is universally riewed as a concession
to America. Our honor is now safe, and by managment we
may probably gain every thing we have in riew. A change
of ministers is not nnlikely, and if a change happens, it
wiU be favorable to us. Every thing conspires to recommend
moderation. " I need not, I am sure, make any apology for myself,
even although you should tMnk that less has been obtained
here than ought to have been obtained. I have endeavored
to do the best with the means put at my disposal, a,nd I have
avoided committmg my government. I am persuaded that
all that was practicable has been accomphshed, and I have
a strong confidence that, used and foUowed up as your wisdom
and that of the legislature wiU direct, the result wiU be
good,"

MR. PINKNEY TO MR, MADISON.
("PfitvAiit) London, August 19th, 1809,
"Dear Sir :• — I have had the honor to receive your Mnd
letter of the 21st of April, and now send the last edition of
War in Disguise as you request, . As we are turning our at
tention" to wool, I have added a tract lately pubUshed here on
the merino and Anglo-merino sheep, which may be of use,
I trust that we shaU continue to cultivate such manirfactures

LIFE OF "WILLIAM PINKNEY, 239
as suit our circumstances. Cottons now and woollens here
after must flourish ampng us.
" American newspapers have been received here, sho-wing
that the disavowal of Mr. ErsMne's arrangement has excited
much ferment in the Umted States. I cannot subdue my
first regret that it was found to be necessary,' at the last
regular session of Congress, to falter in the course we were
pursuing, and to give signs of inabflity to persevere in a sys
tem which was on the point of accompUshing aU its purposes.
That it was found to be necessary, I have no doubt ; but I
have great doubts whether, if it had fortunately been other
wise, we should have had any disavowals. It is to be hoped,
however, that every thmg -wfll yet tum out well. That you
wifl do afl that can be done at tMs perflous moment for the
honor and advantage of our country, I am sure.
" I congratulate you heartfly on the abundant proofs of
pubhc confidence wMch have marked the commencement of
your admimstration, I venture to prophesy that they wfll
multiply as you advance, and that your administration wfll,
in its maturity, be identffied. in the opimons of afl men,
with the strength and character and prosperity of the
state, " You wUl see from the EngUsh Journals that the British
army m Spam has fought gaUantly, They make more of
tMs affafr here than perhaps it deserves,
"The French account vriU not exactly agree with the
exulting inferences drawn by the people of England from
Sir Arthur Wellesley's dispatch, wMch mdeed leaves a great
deal to inference,
" It is clear that the alhed army greatly outnumbered
the French — ^that it was advantageously posted— 'that if the
Spaniards (forming the right vring to the amount of upwards
of 40,000 men) were not actively engaged, they must have oc
cupied or kept in check an adequate niimber of the French,
or have been in a situation to turn the left flank of the

240 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY,
French — ^that on the first of these suppositions the British
(on the left) could not have been attacked (as is here uni
versally supposed) by the whole French force — ^that on the
second supposition, it is quite unaccountable that the French
were not turned, taken in rear, and utterly exterminated,
" TMs splendid rictory, after all, amounts to no more
than a repulse by nearly 70,000 men, enjoying every advan
tage of position, of between 40 and 50,000, The loss of the
British is understood to have been tremendous. What the
Spanish loss was is not known, but it was no doubt consider
able. Sir Arthur WeUesley admits that the French retired
in the most regular order, and it is not pretended that they
were pursued or molested in their retreat,
" We have no data to enable us to judge of the probable
result of the further projected operations of the British ex
pedition. It wfll depend of course on the relative strength
of its opponents, wMch cannot be othervrise than great.
"I shaU be greatly deceived if France relaxes at this
time from her decree against neutral rights, I should rather
have expected additional rigor if General Armstreng had not
given me reason to hope better tMngs. The maritime arron-
dissement, now so near its completion, wfll furmsh new induce
ments to perseverance in the anti-commercial system.
" It appears from the newspapers, that Mr. Adams has
been appointed Mimster Plenipotentiary to St. Petersburgh.
I rejoice at ibis appointment, for many reasons."

MR. PINKNEY TO MR. MADISON.
(" Peivate.) London, Dec. Wth, 1809.
" Dear Sir : — I see vrith great pleasure the ground taken
by the Secretary of State in his conespondence with Mr.
Jackson, connected -with the probabffity that our people are
recovering from recent delusion, and wfll hereafter be disposed

LIPE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY. 241
to support with %eal and steadiness the efforts of their
government to mamtain their honor and character. Jack
son's course is an extraordinary one, and his manner is little
better, " The British government has acted for some time upon
an opinion, that its partisans m America were too numerous
and strong to admit of our persevering in any system of re
pulsion to British injustice ; and it cannot be denied that
appearances countenanced this humfliating and pernicious
opinion, which has been entertamed by our friends. My
own confidence in the American people was great ; but it
was shaken, nevertheless, I am reassured, however, by pre
sent symptoms, and give myself up once more to hope.
The prospect of returmng rirtue is cheering ; and I trast it
is not in danger of being obscured and deformed by the re-
cunence of those detestable scenes which only reduced our
patriotism to a problem.
" The new mmistry (if the late changes entitle it to be
so caUed) is at least as Ukely as the last to presume upon
our dirisions., I have heard it said that it was impossible to
form a cabinet more unfriendly to us, more effectually steeped
and dyed in afl those bad principles which have harassed and
insulted us. I continue to believe that, as it is now consti
tuted, or even vrith any modifications of which it is suscep
tible, it cannot last ; and that it -vriU not choose to hazard
much in maintainmg agamst the United States the late
maritime mnovations.
" The people of England are rather better disposed than
heretofore to accommodate vrith us. They seem to have
awaked from the flattering dreams by which their understand
ings have been so long abused. Disappointment and disas
ter have dissipated the brifliant expectations of undefined
prosperity which had dazzled them into moral blindness, and
had cheated them of their discretion as weU as of their sense
of justice. In fhis state of tMngs America naturally resumes
16

242 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
her importance, and her rights become again intelligible.
Lost as we were to the riew of Englishmen during an over
powering blaze of imaginary glory and commercial grandeur,
we are once more risible in the sober Ught to which facts
have tempered and reduced the glare of fiction. The use of
this opportunity depends upon ourselves, and doubtless we
shaU use it as we ought.
" It is, after all, perhaps to be doubted whether any thing
but a general peace (which if we may judge from the past,
it is not unlikely France will soon propose) can remove afl
dilemma from our situation. More wisdpm and virtue than
it would be quite reasonable to expect, must be found in the
councUs of the two great belligerent parties, before the war
in which they are now engaged can become harmless to our
rights. Even if England should recaU (and I am conrinced
she could have been, and yet can be, compelled to recaU)
her fooUsh orders in council, her maritime pretensions wifl
still be exuberant, and many of her practices most oppres
sive. From France we have only to look for what hostility
to England may suggest. Justice and enUghtened policy
are out of the question on both sides. Upon France, I fear,
we have no means of acting with effect. Her ruler sets our
ordinary means at defiance. We cannot alarm him for his
colonies, his trade, Ms manufactures, Ms revenue. He would
not probably be moved by our attempts to do so, even if
they were dfrected exclusively agamst himself He is less
Ukely to be so moved whfle they comprehend Ms enemy. A
war with France, I shafl always contend, would not help our
case. It would aggravate our embanassments in all respects.
Our interests would be struck to the heart by it. For our
honor it could do notMng. The territory of this mighty
power is absolutely invulnerable ; and there is no mode in
wMcli we could make her feel either physical or moral coer
cion. We might as weU declare war against the inhabitants
of the moon or of the Georgium Sidus. When we had pro-

LIFE OP -WILLIAM PINKNEY. 243
duced the entire exclusion of our trade from the whole of
continental Europe, and increased its hazards every where,
what else could we hope to achieve by gallantry, or win by
stratagem ? Great Britain would go smuggling on as usual;
but we could neither fight nor smuggle. We should tire of
so absurd a contest long before it would end (who shaU say
when it should end ?) and we should come out of it, after
wondering how we got into it, vrith our manufactures anni
hUated by British competition, our commerce crippled by an
enemy and smothered by a friend, our spirit debased into
hstlessness, and our character deeply injured. I beg your
pardon for recurring to tMs topic, upon which I will not
fatigue you vrith another word, lest I should persecute you
vrith many.
" The ministry are certainly endeavoring to gain strength
by some changes. It is said that Lord Wellesley is trying
to brmg Mr. Cannmg back to the cabinet ; and if so, I see
no reason why he should not succeed. One statement is that
Mr. Cannmg is to go to the Admiralty — another, that he is
to return to the Foreign Department, that Lord Wellesley
is to take the Treasury, and Mr. Percival to relapse into a
mere ChanceUor of the Exchequer. It is added that Lord
Cambden (President of the Councfl), and Lord Westmore
land (Privy Seal), are to go out.
" If Mr. Canning should not join his old coUeagues before
the meeting of Parliament, he wUl probably soon faU into
the ranks of opposition, where he wiU be formidable. There
wiU scarcely be any scrapie in receiring him. If he should
join Ms old colleagues, they wiU not gain much by him.
As a debater in the House of Commons, he would be useful
to them ; but Ms reputation is not at this moment in the
best possible pUght, and his weight and connections are al
most nothing. I am not sure that they would not lose by
Mm more than they could gain.
" If Lord Gren-vUle and Lord Grey should be recaUed to

244 LIFE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY.
power, Lord Holland would be likely to have the station
of Foreign Secretary (Lord Grey preferring, as is said, the
Admiralty). " I believe that I have not mentioned to you that Mr.
G. H. Eose was to have been the special envoy to our coun
try, if Mr. Erskine's arrangement had not been disavowed.
I am bound to say, that a worse choice could not have been
made. Since Ms return to England, he has, I know, mis
represented and traduced us with an mdustry that is abso
lutely astonishing, notwithstanding the cant of friendship
and respect with which he overwhelms the few Americans
who see him."

MR. PINKNEY TO MR. MADISON.
(" Private.) London, Aug-ust ISth, 1810.
" Dear Sir : — I return you my sincere thanks for your
letter of the 23d of May. Nothing could have been more
acceptable than the approbation which you are so good as
to express of my note to Lord WeUesley on Jackson's af
fairs. I wish I had been more successful in my endeavors
to obtain an unexceptionable answer to it. You need not
be told that the actual reply was, as to plan and terms, wide
of the expectations which I had formed of it. It was, un
fortunately, delayed until first riews and feelings became
weak of themselves. The support which Jackson received
in America was admirably calculated to produce other views
and feelings, not only by its direct influence on Lord Wel
lesley and his coUeagues, but by the influence wMch they
could not but know it had on the British nation and the
Parliament. The extravagant conduct of France had the
same pernicious tendency ; and the appearances in Congress,
with reference to our future attitude on the subject of the
atrocious wrongs inflicted upon us by France and England,
could scarcely be without their effect. It is not to be

LIFE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY. 245
doubted that, with a strong desire in the outset to act a
very conciliatory part, the British government was thus
graduaUy prepared to introduce into the proceeding what
would not otherwise have found a place in it, and to omit
what it ought to have contained. The subject appeared to
it every day in a new light, shed upon it from France and
the United States ; and a corresponding change naturally
enough took place in the scarcely remembered estimates
which had at first been made of the proper mode of manag
ing it. The change in Lord WeUesley's notion upon it,
between our first interriew and the date of his answer, had,
without doubt, Ms fuU approbation. For, the account of
tMs interriew, as given in my private letter to Mr. Smith,
of the 4th of January, is so far from exaggerating Lord
Wellesley's reception of what I said of him, that it is much
below it. It is to be observed that he had hardly read the
correspondence, and had evidently thought very little upon
it. For wMch reason, and because he spoke for himself
only, and -with less care than he would, perhaps, have used
if he had considered that he was speaMng officially, I am
glad that you declined laymg my private letter before Con
gress. The publication of it, wMch must necessarily have
followed, would have produced serious embarrassment.
" Do you not think that, in some respects, Lord Wel
lesley's answer to my note had not been exactly appreciated
in America P I confess to you that this is my opinion.
That the paper is a very bad one is perfectly clear ; but it
is not so bad in intention as it is in reality, nor quite so bad
in reaUty as it is commonly supposed to be.
"It is the production of an indolent man, maMng a great
effort to reconcile tMngs almost incongruous, and just show
mg his vrish without executmg it. Lord Wellesley wished
to be extremely ciril to the American government ; but he
was, at the same time, to be very stately — to manage Jack
son's situation — and to intimate disapprobation of the sus-

246 LIFE OF -WILLIAM PINKNEY.
pension of Ms functions. He was stately, not so much from
design as because he cannot be otherwise. In managing
Jackson's situation he must have gone beyond his original
intention, and certamly beyond any of which I was aware
before I received his answer. If the answer had been
promptly written, I have no beUef that he would have af
fected to praise Jackson's ' abiUty, zeal, and integrity,' or
that he would have said any tMng about his Majesty not
having ' marked his conduct vrith any expression of his dis
pleasure.' He would have been content to forbear to cen
sure him, and that I always took for granted he would do.
" For Jackson, personaUy, Lord WeUesley cares nothing.
In his several conferences with me, he never vindicated Mm,
and he certainly did not mean in Ms letter to undertake
his defence. It is impossible that he should not have (J am
indeed sure that he has) a mean opinion of that most clumsy
and fll-conditioned minister. His idea always appeared to
be that he was wrong in pressing at aU the topic which gave
offence ; but that he acted upon good motives, and that Ms
govemment could not vrith honor, or without injury to the
diplomatic service generally, disgrace him. TMs is expU
citly stated in my private letter of the 4th of January to
Mr. Smith. There is great difference, undoubtedly, between
that idea and the one upon which Lord WeUesley appears
finally to have acted. It must be admitted, however, that-
the praise betowed upon Jackson is very meagre, and that it
ascribes to Mm no qualities in any degree inconsistent with
the charge of gross indecency and mtolerable petulance pre
ferred against him in my note. He might be honest, zealous,
able, and yet be indiscreet, iU-tempered, suspicious, anogant
and ifl-mannered. It is to be observed, too, tMs has no ref
erence whatever to the actual case, and that, when the an
swer speaks of the offence imputed to Jackson by the Ame
rican government, it does not say that he gave no such cause

LIFE OP WILLIAM PIJSfKNEY. 247
of offence, but simply reUes on his repeated asseverations
that he did not mean to offend.
" If the answer had been promptly written, I am per
suaded that another feature which now distinguishes it would
have been otherwise. It would not have contained any com
plaint against the course adopted by the American govern
ment in putting an end to official communication with Jack
son. That Lord WeUesley thought that course objectionable
from the first appears in my private letter above-mentioned
to Mr. Smith. But he did not urge his objections to it in
such a way, at our first interview or afterwards, as to induce
me to suppose that he would except to that course in his
written answer. He said in the outset that he considered it
a damnum to the British government, and I know that he
was not disposed to acknowledge the regularity of it. There
was eridently no necessity, if he did not approve the course,
to say any thing about it ; and in our conversations I always
assumed that it was not only unnecessary but wholly inad
missible to mention it officiaUy for any other purpose than
that of approring it.
" After aU, however, what he has said upon this point
(idle and iU-judged as it is) is the mere statement of the
opmion of the British govemment, that another course would
have been more in rale than ours. It amounts to this, then,
that we have opinion agamst opinion and practice ; and that
our practice has been acqmesced in.
"As to that part of the answer which speaks of a charg^
d'affaires, it must now be repented of here, especially by
Lord WeUesley, if it was really intended as a threat of
future inequality in the diplomatic establishments of the two
countries, or even to wear that appearance. Lord WeUesley's
letter to me of the 22d uit. abandons that threat, and makes
it consequently much worse than nothing. His explanations
to me on that head {not official) have lately been, that, when
he -wrote his answer, he thought there was some person m

248 LIFE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY.
America to whom Jackson could have immediately deUvered
Ms charge, and if he had not been under that impression, he
should not probably have spoken in Ms answer of a charge
d'affaires, and should have sent out a minister plenipoten
tiary in the first mstance. I know not what stress ought to
be laid upon those private and ex post facto suggestions ; but
I am entirely conrinced that there was no thought of con-
tinmng a charge d'affaires at WasMngton for more than a
short time. Neither their pride nor their interests, nor the
scantiness of their present diplomatic patronage would per
mit it. That Lord Wellesley has long been looMng out m
his dilatory way for a suitable character (a man of ranli)
to send as minister plenipotentiary to the Umted States, I
have the best reason to be assured. That the appointment
has not yet taken place, is no proof at all that it has not
been intended. Those who think they understand Lord
WeUesley best, represent Mm as disinclined to business — and
it is certain that I have found Mm upon every occasion
given to procrastmation beyond aU example. The business
of the Chesapeake is a striMng instance. NotMng could be
fairer than Ms various conversations on that case. He set
tles it vrith me verbaUy over and over again. He promises
Ms written overture in a few days — and I hear no more of
the matter. There may be cunning in aU this, but it is not
such cunning as I should expect from Lord Wellesley.
" In the affair of the blockades, it is evident that the
delay arises from the cabinet, alarmed at every thing wMch
touches the subject of blockades, and that abominable scheme
of monopoly caUed the Orders in CouncU. Yet it is an un
questionable fact that they have suffered, and are suffering
severely under the miquitous restrictions which they and
France have imposed upon the world.
" I mean to wait a little longer for Lord WeUesley's reply
to my note of the 30th of AprU. If it is not soon received,
I hope I shall not be thought indiscreet if I present a strong

LIFE OP -WILLIAM PINKNEY,

249

remonstrance upon it, and if I take occasion in it to advert
to the affair of the Chesapeake, and to expose what has oc
curred in that affair between Lord WeUesley and me.
" I have a letter from General Armstrong of the 24th of
last month. He expects no change in the measures of the
French government with regard to the United States. I
cannot, however, refrain from hoping that we shaU have no
war with that government. We have a sufficient cause for
war agamst both France and England — an equal cause
agamst both m point of justice, even if we take into the ac
count the recent riolences of the former. But looking to
expediency, which should never be lost sight of, I am not
aware of any considerations that should induce us in actual
circumstances to embark in a war with France. I have so
often troubled you on tMs topic, that I wUl not venture to
stir it again."

MR, PINKNEY TO LORD WELLESLEY.
"Great Cdmeeeland Place, Nov. Zd, 1810.
" My Lord : — ^In my note of the 25th of August, I had
the honor to state to your lordsMp, that I had received from
the minister plempotentiary of the United States, at Paris,
a letter dated the 6th of that month, in which he informed
me, that he had received from the French government a
written and official notice, that it had revoked the decrees
of BerUn and Milan, and that after the first of November,
those decrees would cease to have any effect ; and I ex
pressed my confidence, that the revocation of the British
orders in council, of January and November, 1807, and
Aprfl, 1809, and of aU other orders dependent upon, analo
gous to, or in execution of them, would foUow of course.
" Your lordship's reply, of the 31st of August, to that
note, repeated a declaration of the British minister in Ame-

250 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
rica, made, as it appears, to the government of the United^
States in February, 1808, of ' his Majesty's earnest desire to
see the commerce of the world restored to that freedom which
is necessary for its prosperity, and Ms readiness to abandon
the system which had been forced upon Mm, whenever the
enemy should retract the principles wMch had rendered it
necessary ;' and added an official assurance, that, ' whenever
the repeal of the French decrees should have actually taken
effect, and the commerce of neutral nations should have been
restored to the condition in which it stood preriously to the
promulgation of those decrees, Ms Majesty would feel the
Mghest satisfaction in relinquishing a system which the .con
duct of the enemy compelled Mm to adopt.'
" Without departing, in any degree, from my first opin
ion, that the United States had a- right to expect, upon
every principle of justice, that the prospective revocation of
the French decrees would be immediately foUowed by at
least a like revocation of the orders of England, I must re
mind your lordship, that the day has now passed when the
repeal of the Berlin and MUan edicts, as communicated, to
your lordship in the note above-mentioned, and published
to the whole world by the government of France, in the
Moniteur of the 9th of September, was, by the terms of it,
to take effect. That it has taken effect, cannot be doubted ;
and it can as Uttle be questioned, that, according to the re
peated pledges' given by the British government on tMs
point (to say notMng of various other powerful considera
tions), the prompt reUnquishment of the system, to which
your lordsMp's reply to my note of the 25th of August
aUudes, is indispensable,
"I need scarcely mention how important it is to the
trade of the United States, that the government of Great
Britain should lose no time in disclosmg with frankness and
precision its intentions on tMs head, InteUigence of the
French repeal has reached America, and commercial expe-

LIFE OF "WILLIAM PINKNEY. 251
ditions have doubtless been founded upon it. It wiU have
been taken for granted that the British obstructions to those
expeditions, having thus lost the support, wMch, however in
sufficient in, itself, was the only one that could ever be
claimed for them, have been withdrawn ; and that the seas
are once more restored to the dominion of law and justice,
" I persuade myself that this confidence wiU be substan
tiaUy justified by the event, and that to the speedy recaU
of such orders m councU as were subsequent in date to the
decrees of France, wUl be added the annulment of the ante
cedent order to wMch my late letter respecting blockades
particularly relates. But if, notvrithstanding the circum
stances which inrite to such a course, the British govern
ment shafl have determined not to remove those obstructions
vrith aU practicable promptitude, I trust that my government
wUl be apprised, with as Uttle delay as possible, of a deter
mmation so unexpected, and of such rital concern tp its
rights and mterests ; and that the reasons upon which, that
determination may have been formed, vriU not be vrithheld
from it,"

MR. PINKNEY TO MR. SMITH.
"London, Nov. Uth, 1810.
" Sir : — ^I have finaUy determined not to mention again
to Lord WeUesley (as I thought of doing) the subject of a
plenipotentiary successor to Mr. Jackson. I think, upon re
flection (and shafl act accordingly), that I ought, after what
has passed, to leaye him, without further inquiry or notice
on my part, to shape his course upon it ; and that, if an ap
pointment should not be made as soon as the Mng's health
(wMch would seem to be improring) wfll permit, I ought at
once to send in an official note, announcing my resolution to
return to America, and to leave some suitable person as a
charge d'affaires.

252 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
" My letter of the 23d of July mformed you that after
Lord Wellesley's written assurance of the 22d of that month
(which was in conforriaity, as far as it went, vrith Ms as
surances in conversation), ' that it was Ms mtention imme
diately to recommend the appointment of an envoy extra
ordinary and minister plenipotentiary from the king to the
Umted- States,' I did not thmk myself authorized to take the
step which the instructions contained in your letter of the
23d of May, in certain circumstances, prescribed.
" My opinion was, that whether the prospect which then
existed of bringmg to a conclusion the affair of the Chesa
peake, were taken into the account or not, it was my obrious
duty to remain at my post, most irksome as it was every day
becoming, untU it should incontestably appear that those
assurances were not to be rehed upon.
" Before a sufficient time had elapsed to warrant so harsh
a conclusion, I received from Lord WeUesley, on the 28th
of August, a farther casual intimation (reported to you in
my letter of the 29th of the same month) that his recom
mendation of a mimster would, as he beUeved, be made m
the course of that week or the next.
" In the mean time the repeal, by the government of
France, of the BerUn and MUan decrees, had produced a
posture of affairs wMch, whatever might be Lord WeUesley's
forgetfiflness of Ms own declarations, or the inattention of Ms
government to what he might advise in consequence of them,
rendered my stay m England for two or three months longer,
indispensable. " In fine, the effect of that consideration had not ceased
when the UMess of the Mng made it impossible that I
should depart.
" Upon the kmg's recovery, I shafl have every motive for
bringmg tMs matter to an issue, and none for the least hesi
tation or reserve upon it. Several months have been aUowed

LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY, 253
for the performance of an act which might have been com
pleted in as many weeks,
" I shafl have done every tMng in my power on the sub
jects connected vrith the revocation of the French edicts.
And the British govemment -wifl be in a situation to admit
of such proceedings on its own part and on mine as the occa
sion -wUl require,
" From Lord Wellesley's intimation to me on the 28th
of August (mentioned above), it is perfectly clear, that he
had not then executed the mtention so positively announced
m his note of the 22d of July, Five or six weeks had
passed, and that wMch he had both said and written he
meant to do immediately, he was not yet sure that he meant
to do witMn another fortmght. The presumption seems,
nevertheless, to be qmte unnatural, that Lord WeUesley con
tinued, up to the commencement of the Mng's malady, to be
negUgent of a pledge, wMch he those to rest not merely on
Ms official but his personal character — a pledge, of which he
knew I could neither question the sufficiency nor doubt the
sincerity, and by wMch, as he also knew, my conduct on an
extremely deUcate pomt of duty was wholly determined.
" On the other hand, if Lord Wellesley has been mind-
fifl of Ms pledge, and has recommended a mimster in com-
phance vrith it, how has it happened (how can it have
happened) that tMs recommendation has not been followed
by an appointment.
" In the midst of aU this doubt, which Lord WeUesley
might dissipate if he pleased by an explanation apparently
necessaiy for Ms own sake, there is, as I beUeve, no uncer-
tamty as to the course which, m the actual state of my in-
structipns (or on the score of general propriety), I ought to
pursue ; especially as I must infer, from your silence since the
arrival of Mr. Morier at Washington (if I had no other
reason for that inference), that no such communication was

254 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY,
made, either by or through that gentleman to you, as ought
in the judgment of the President to have any influence upon
my conduct on tMs occasion."
MR. PINKNEY TO LORD WELLESLEY.
" Great Cumberland Place, December Wth, 18lO, '
" My Lord: — ^In compliance with the request contamed
m your note of the 6th instant, I proceed to recapitulate in
this letter (vrith some variations however) the statements
and remarks which I had the honor to make in our confeir-
ence of the 5th, respectmg the revocation of the French de-
crises, as connected with a change of system here on the sub
ject of rieutral rights.
" Your lordship need not be told that I should have been
happy to offer, at a much earUer moment, every explanation
¦in my power on matters of such Mgh concern to the rights
and commerce of my country, and the future character of its
foreigri relations, if I had been made to understand that ex
planation was desired,
" My written communications of August and November
were concise, but they were not intended to be msufficient.
They furmshed eridence wMch I thought conclusive, and ab
stained from labored commentary, because I deemed it su-
petfluous. I had taken up an opmion, wMch I aba,ndoned
reluctantly and late, that the British goveriiment would be
eager to foUow the example of France in recalling, as it had
professed to do m promulgating, that extraordinary system
of maritime annoyance, which, in 1807, presented to neutral
trade,- in ahnost afl its directions, the hopeless alternative of
inactivity or confiscation ; wMch considered it as a i^ubject to
be regulated, Uke the trade of the United Kingdoms, by the
statutes of the British Parliament; and undertook to bend
and fasMon it by every variety of expedient to aU the pur
poses and even the caprices of Great Britain, I had no idea

LIPE OP -WIlIiAM PINKNEY, 255
that the remnant of that system, productive of no conceiva
ble advantage to England, and deservedly odious for its the
ory and destructive effects, to others, could survive the pub
lic declaration of France that the edicts of BerUn and Milan
were revoked. Instructed at length, however, by your lord
ship's continued sflence, and alarmed for the property of my
fellow citizens, now more than ever exposed by an enoneous
confidence, to the ruinous operation of the British orders, I
was preparing to support my general representations by de
tailed remonstrance, when I received the honor of your note
of the 4th mstant. In the conference which ensued, I trou
bled your lordship with a verbal commumcation, of wMch
the foflowmg is nearly the substance,
" The doubts wMch appear to stand in the way of the
recafl of the British orders m councfl ( under which denomi
nation I include certam orders of blockade of a Mndred prin
ciple and spirit), must refer to the manner, or the terms, or
the practical effect of the aUeged repeal of the decrees of
France, " That the manner of the proceedmg is satisfactory to
the British government cannot be questioned ; since it is
precisely that m wMch its own numerous orders for estabUsh-
mg, modifying, or removing blockades and other maritime
obstructions, are usuaUy proclaimed to neutral states and
merchants. " The French repeal was officiaUy notified on the 5th of
August, to the Minister Plenipotentiary of the Umted
States at Paris, by the French minister for foreign affairs ;
as I had the honor to inform your lordsMp in my letter of the
25th of the same month, wMch not only gave the import,
but (as the inclosed copy wUl show), adopted the words of
General Armstrong's statement to me of the tenor and effect
of that notice,
" On the 9th of August the notification to General Arm
strong was pubUshed m the Monitew, the official joumal of

256 LIFE OP -williSm pinkney.
the French govemment, as the act of that govemment ; and
thus became a formal declaration, and a public pledge tp aU
who had an interest m the matter of it,
" It would be a waste of time to particularize the numer
ous instances of analogous practice in England, by which
this course is countenanced ; but a recent example happens
to be before me, and may therefore be mentioned. The par
tial recaU or modification of the English blockade of the
ports and places of Spain, from Gijon to the French terri
tory (itself known to my government only through a circular
notification to me recited afterwards in the London Gazette),
was declared to the American and other governments in ex
actly the same mode, »
" I tMnk it demonstrable that the terms in wMch the
French revocation was announced, are just as free from well
founded objection as the manner.
" Your lordship's riew of them is entirely unknown to
me ; but 1 am not ignorant that there are those in this coun
try who, professing to have examined them with care, and
haring certainly examined them with yeatoMS?/, maintain that
the revocation on the 1st of November, was made to depend
by the obvious meaning of those terms, upon a condition
precedent whiph has not been fiflfiUed, namely — ^the revoca
tion by Great Britain of her orders in councfl, mcluding such
blockading orders as France complams of as being iUegal,
"If this were even admitted to be so, I am yet to learn
upon what grounds of justice the British government could
decline to meet, by a similar act on its part, an advance thus
made to it by its adversary, m the face of the world, towards
a co-operation in the great work of restoring the Uberty of
the ocean ; so far, at least, as respects the orders in councfl of
1807 and 1809, and such blockades as resemble them. It
is not necessary, however, to take tMs riew of the question ;
for the French revocation turns on no condition precedent, is
absolute, 'precise and unequivocal!

LIFE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY. 257
" What construction of the document which declares that
revocation might be made by determined suspicion and dis
trust, I have no vrish, and am not bound to inquire. Such
interpreters would not be satisfied by any form of words, and
would be likely to draw the same conclusion from perfect ex
plicitness and studied obscurity. It is enough for me that
the fair and natural and necessary import of the paper af
fords no color for the interpretation I am about to examine.
" The French declaration ' that the decrees of BerUn and
MUan Are Bevoked, and that from the first of November
they wiU cease to have any effect,' is precision itself But
they are foUowed by these words : 'bien entendu qu'en
consequence de cette declaration les Anglois revoqueront
leur&i arrets du conseU, et renonceront aux nouveaux prin-
cipes de blocus qu'Us ont voulu etablir, ou bien que les Etats
Urns, conformement a I'acte que vous venez communique, feront
respecter leur droits par les Anglois.'
" If these words state any condition, they state ttvo, the
first depending upon Great Britain, the last upon the United
States : and as they are put in the disjunctive, it would, be
extravagant to hold that the non-performance of one of them
is equivalent to the non-performance of both. I shall take
for granted, therefore, that the argument against my con
struction of the Duke of Cadore's letter must be moulded
mto a new form. It must deal vrith two conditions instead
of one, and considering them equally as conditions precedent
to be performed (disjunctively) before the day limited for the
operative commencement of the French repeal, must main
tam that if neither of them should be performed before that
day, the decrees were not to be revoked, and, consequently,
that as neither of them has been so performed, the decrees
are stiU m force,
" If tMs hypothesis of prerious conditions, thus reduced
to the only shape it can assume, be proved to be unsound,
my. construction is- at once estabUshed ; smce it is only upon
17

258 LIFE OP "WILLIAM PINKNEY,
that hypothesis that any doubt can be raised against the ex
act and perspicuous assurance that the decrees were actually
repealed, and that the repeal would become effectual on the
1st of November, TMs hypothesis 4s proved to be unsound,
by the foUowing consideration.
" It has clearly no foundation in the phraseology of the
paper, which does not contain a syUable to put any condition
before the repeal. The repeal is represented as a step al
ready taken, to have effect on a day specified. Certain con
sequences are, indeed, declared to be expected from this pro
ceeding ; but no day is given, either expressly or by implica
tion, within wMch they are to happen. It is not said, ' bien
entendu que les Anglois auront revoque,' &c., but ' que les
Anglois revoqueront,' &c., indefinitely as to time.
" The notion of conditions precedent is, therefore, to say
the least of it, perfectly gratuitous. But it is also absurd.
It drives us to the conclusion, that a palpable and notorious
impossibility was intended to be prescribed as a condition,
in a paper which they who think it was meant to deceive,
must admit was meant to be plausible.
" It was a palpable and notorious impossibility, that the
United States should, before the 1st of November, execute
any condition, no matter what the nature of it, the per-
tormance of which was to follow the ascertained failure of a
condition to be executed by Great Britain at any time be
fore the same 1st of November. That the act expected from
the United States was to be consequent upon the failure of
the other, is apparent. It is also apparent, that upon any
interpretation which would make the act of Great Britain a
condition, precedent to the French repeal, and consequently
precedent to the 1st of November (when the repeal was, if
ever, to take effect), that condition could not be said to have
failed before the whole period, from the 5th of August to the
1st of November, had elapsed. But if Great Britain had
had the whole time, witMn which to elect the course wMch

LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNER. 259
she would pursue, what opportunity would be left to the
United States (equaUy bound, upon this idea of conditions
precedent, to act their part within the same period), to be
come acquainted with that election, and to decide upon and
take their own course in consequence ; to say nothing of the
transmission of such inteUigence of it to Europe as would be
indispensable to the efficacy of the conditional revocation.
TMs general view would be sufficient to discredit the ar
bitrary constraction under consideration. But it wiU be
more completely exposed by an explanation of the nature of
the act, wMch the latter professes to expect from the United
States, in case Great Britain should omit to revoke. This
act is the revival of the non-intercourse law against Eng
land, France remaming exempt from it, as well as from the
prorisions of the subsequent law, commonly called the non-
intercourse act. Now, if it is too plain, upon the face of the
last mentioned law (to which the letter expressly refers) to
escape the most negligent and unskilful observer, that this
revival could not, by any industry or chance, be accom
plished before the time fixed for the cessation of the French
decrees, or even for a considerable time afterwards, it cer
tainly cannot be aUowable to assume, that the revival was
required by the letter (whatever was the olject of the writer
or his govemment) to precede the cessation. And if this
was not required, it is mcontrovertible that the cessation
would, by the terms of the letter, take place on the ap
pointed day, whether any of the events disjunctively speci
fied had intervened or not.
" The first step towards a revival of the non-intercourse
agamst England would be the proclamation of the Pre
sident, that France had so revoked or modified her edicts, as
that they ceased to violate the neutral commerce of the
United States. But the letter of Monsieur Champagny left
the decrees, as it found them, up to the first of November,
and, consequently, up to that day it could not, for any tMng

260 LIFE OF "VriLLIAM PINKNEY,
contained in that letter, be said that the rights of American
commerce were no longer infringed by them. A prospective
proclamation, that they would cease to riolate those rights,
might, perhaps, be issued ; but it could scarcely have any
substantial operation, either in favor of France or to the
prejudice of England, untfl the epoch to wMch it looked had
arrived. " Let it be admitted, however, that all physical and
legal obstacles to the issuing, before the first of November, of
a proclamation, to take effect immediately, were out of the
way — how would such a proceedmg fulfil, of itself, the ex
pectation that the United States would, before the first of
November, " cause their rights to be respected by the Eng
Ush," in the mode pomted out in the letter, namely, by the
enforcement of the non-intercourse law ? The proclamation
would work no direct or immediate consequence against
England. Three months from its date must pass away be
fore the non-intercourse law could revive against her ; and
when it did so, the revival would not be the effect of the
proclamation, but of the continued adherence of England to
her obnoxious system. Thus,, even if a proclamation, effec
tual from its date, had been issued by the President on the
day when the French declaration of repeal came to the hands
of the American minister at Paris, the intercourse between
the United States and Great Britain would, on the first of
November, have remained in the same condition in wMch it
was found in August. As all this was well understood by
the government of France, the conclusion is, that its minis
ter, professing too to have the American law before him, and
to expect only what was conformable with that law, did not
intend to require the revival of the non-intercourse against
England as a condition to be performed before the first of
November. " It is worthy of remark, as introductory to another
riew of this subject, that even they who conclude that the

LIPE OF "WILLIAM PINKNEY, 261
repeal of the French decrees has failed are not backward to
ascribe to the French declaration a purpose utterly incon
sistent with that conclusion. They suppose the purpose to
have been to affect the existing relations between America
and England, by the only means which the declaration
states, the act of non-intercourse. And it is certain that
unless England should abandon particular parts of her sys
tem, this was the result avowedly m riew, and meant to be
accompUshed. But there could be no hope of such a result
without a prerious effectual relinquishment of the French
decrees. A case could not otherwise be made to exist (as
the Duke of Cadore was aware) for such an operation of the
American law. To put the law before the revocation ofthe
edicts was impossible. With the law in his hand it would
have been miraculous ignorance not to know that it was the
exact reverse of tMs wMch his paper must propose. He
would derive tMs knowledge, not from that particular law
only, but from the whole tenor and spirit of American pro
ceedings, in that painful and anomalous dilemma, in which
Great Britain and France, agreeing in nothing else, had re
cently combined to place the maritime interests of America,
He would collect from those proceedings that, while those
conflicting powers contmued to rival each other in their ag
gressions upon neutral rights, the government of the United
States would oppose itself impartially to both. The French
declaration, then, had either no meaning at aU, or it meant
to announce to General Armstrong a positive revocation of
the French edicts,
" I should only fatigue your lordship by pursuing farther
a point so plain and simple. I will, therefore, merely add
to what I have afready said on this branch of the subject,
that the strong and unqualified communication from Gene
ral Armstrong to me, mentioned in the comriiencement of
tMs letter, and corroborated by subsequent communications
(one of wMch I now lay before you), may, perhaps, without

262 LIFE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY.
any great effort of courtesy, be aUowed to contain that
" authentic inteUigence " which your lordsMp is in search of.
He could scarcely have been free from doubt if the occasion
was calculated to suggest > it, and if he had reaUy doubted,
would hardly have spoken to me -with the confidence of
conviction, " It only remains to speak of the practical effect of the
French repeal. And here your lordship must suffer me to
remmd you that the orders of England in 1807, didnot
wait for the practical effect of the Berlin decree, nor hnger
till the obscurity, in which the meamng of that decree was
supposed to be involved, should be cleared away by time
or explanation. They came promptly after the decree it
self, whUe it was not only ambiguous but inoperative, and
raised upon an idle proMbition, and a yet more idle declara
tion, which France had not attempted to enforce, and was
notoriously incapable of enforcing a vast scheme of oppres
sion upon the seas, more destructive of all the acknow
ledged rights of peaceful states than history can paraUel.
This retaliation, as it was caUed, was so rapid, that it was
felt before the injury which was said to hav6 provoked it ;
and yet, that injury, such as it was, was preceded by the
practical assertion, on the part of Great Britain, of new and
alarming principles of public law, in the notification of the
blockade of May, 1806, and in the judicial decisions of the
year before. To uphold the retaliatory orders, every thing
was presumed with a surprising facility. Not only was an
impotent, unexecuted, and equivocal menace presumed to be
an active scourge of the commerce of neutral nations, but
the acquiescence of those nations was presumed against the
plainest eridence of facts,
" The alacrity with which all this was done can never be
remembered vrithout regret and astonishment ; but our re
gret and astomshment must increase, if, after four years
have been given to the pernicious innovation, wMch these

LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY, 263
presumptions were to introduce and support, something like
the same alacrity should not be displayed in seizing an hon
orable opportunity of discarding it for ever.
" It is not unnatural to imagine that it will be discard
ed vrith pleasure, tvhen it is considered, that haring never
been effectual as an instrument of hostUity, it cannot now
lay claim to those other recommendations for wMch it may
have heretofore been prized. The orders in councfl of No
vember have passed through some important changes ; but
they have been steady, as long as it was possible, to the
purpose which first impressed on them a character not to he
mistaken. " In their original plan, they comprehended not only
France and such alUed or dependent powers as had adopted
the edict of BerUn, but such other nations as had merely ex
cluded from their ports the commercial flag of England.
This prodigious expansion of the system, was far beyond any
inteUigible standard of retaliation; but it soon appeared
that neutrals might be permitted to traffic under certain re
strictions, vrith aU these different nations, provided they
would submit vrith a dependence truly colonial, to carry on
their trade tMough British ports, and to pay such duties as
the British govemment should think fit to impose, and such
charges as British agents and other British subjects might
be content to make.
" The United States abstained from tMs traffic, in which
they could not embark without dishonor ; and in 1809, the
system shrunk to narrower dimensions, and took the appear
ance of an absolute prohibition of all commercial intercourse
vrith France, HoUand, and the Mngdom of Italy.
" The prohibition was absolute m appearance, but not
in fact. It had lost sometMng of former exuberance, but
npthing of former pliancy, and in the event was seen to
yield to the demands of one trade, wMle it prevented every
other.

264 LIFE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY,
" Controlled and relaxed and managed by Ucenses, it did
not, after a brief exhibition of impartial stemness, affect to
" distress the enemy " by the occlusion of Ms ports, when the
commerce of England could advantageously find its way to
them. At length, however, this convenience seems to be en
joyed no longer, and the orders in councfl may apparently be
now considered (if indeed they ought not always to have
been considered) as affecting England with a loss as heavy
as that which they infiict on those whose rights . they
violate. In such circumstances, if it be too much to expect
the credulity of 1807, it may yet be hoped, that the evidence
of the practical effect of the French repeal need not be very
strong to be satisfactory. It is however as strong as the
nature of such a case wfll admit, as a few observations wfll
show. " On such an occasion it is no paradox to say, that the
want of eridence is itself evidence : That certain decrees are
not m force, is proved by the absence of such facts as would
appear if they loere in force. Every motive which can be
conjectured to have led to the repeal of the edicts, invites to
the fifll execution of that repeal, and no motive can be
imagined for a different course. These considerations are
alone conclusive,
" But farther, it is known that American vessels bound
confessedly to England, have, before the 1st of November,
been risited by French privateers, and suffered to pass upon
the foundation of the prospective repeal of the decree of
BerUn, and the proximity of the day when it would become
an actual one,
" If there are not even stronger facts to show that the
decree of Milan is also withdrawn, your lordship can be at
no loss for the reason. It cannot be proved that an Ameri
can vessel is practicaUy held by France. Not to be de
nationalized by British visitation, because your craisers visit
only to capture, and compel the vessel visited to terminate

LIPE OF -WILLIAM PINKNEY. 265
her voyage not in France, but in England, You will not ask
for the issue of an experiment which yourselves intercept,
nor complain that you have not received evidence, wMch is
not obtained because you have rendered it impossible. The
vessel which formed the subject of my note of the 8th inst.,
and another more recently seized as a prize, would, if they
had been suffered, as they ought, to resume their voyages after
haring been stopped and examined by English cruisers,-
have furnished on that point unanswerable proof; and I
have reason to know, that precise offers have been made to
the British govemment to put to a practical test the dispo
sition of France in this respect, and that those offers have
been refused. Your cruisers, however, have not been able to
visit aU American vessels bound to France, and it is under
stood, that such as have arrived have been received with
friendsMp. " I cannot quit tMs last question without entering my
protest against the pretension of the British government to
postpone the justice which it owes to my govemment and
country, for tMs tardy investigation of consequences. I am
not able to comprehend upon what the pretension rests, nor
to what Umits the investigation can be subjected. If it were
even admitted that France was more emphaticaUy bound to
repeal her almost nominal decrees than Great Britain to re
peal her substantial orders (which wiU not be admitted),
what more can reasonably be required by the latter than has
been -done by the former ? The decrees are officially de
clared by the government of France to be repealed. They
were ineffectual as a material prejudice to England before
the declaration, and must be ineffectual since. There is
therefore nothing of substance for this dilatory inquiry,
which if once begun may be protracted without end, or at
least tfll the hour for just and prudent decision has passed.
But, if there were room to apprehend that the repealed de
crees might have some operation in case the orders in coun-

266 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
cfl were withdrawn, stfll, as there is no sudden and formida
ble perU to wMch Great Britain could be exposed by that
operation, there can be no reason for decUmng to act at once
upon the declaration of France, and to leave it to the fu
ture to try its sincerity, if that sincerity be suspected.
" I have thus disclosed to your lordsMp, with that frank
ness which the times demand, my view of a subject deeply
interesting to our respective countries. The part which
Great Britain may act on this occasion cannot fail to have
important and lasting consequences, and I can only wish
that they may be good.
" By giving up her orders in council and the blockades,
to wMch my letter of the 21st of September relates, she has
notMng to lose in character or strength. By adhering to
them, she wiU not only be unjust to others but unjust to
herself" MR. PINKNEY TO LORD WELLESLEY.
"Great Cdmeeeland Place, Jan. 14, 1811.
" My Lord : — I have received the letter wMch you did
me the honor to address to me on the 29th of last month,
and vriU not fail to transmit a copy of it to my government.
In the mean time I take the hberty to trouble you vrith the
foUovring reply, wMch a severe indisposition has prevented
me from preparing sooner.
" The first paragraph seems to make it proper for me to
begin by saying, that th^topics introduced into my letter of
the 10th of December, were intimately connected with its
principal subject, and fairly used to Ulustrate and explain
it ; and consequently, that if they had not the good fortune
to be acceptable to your lordsMp, the fault was not mine.
" It was scarcely possible to speak with more moderation
than my paper exhibits, of that portion of a long Ust of in
vasions of the rights of the United States, which it necessa-

LIPE OP "WILLIAM PINKNEY. 267
rfly reriewed, and of the apparent reluctance of the British
government to forbear those invasions in future. I do not
know that I could more carefully have abstained from what
ever might tend to disturb the spirit wMch your lordship
ascribes to his majesty's government, if, instead of being
utterly barren and unproductive, it had occasionaUy been
visible in some practical result, in some concession either to
friendship or to justice. It would not have been very sur
prising, nor very culpable perhaps, if I had whoUy forgotten
to address myself to a spirit of concUiation, which had met
the most equitable claims with steady and unceasing repul
sion ; which had yielded nothing that could be denied ; and
had answered complaints of injury by multiplying their
causes. With this forgetfulness, however, I am not charge
able ; for, against aU the discouragements suggested by the
past, I have acted stiU upon a presumption that the dispo
sition to concihate, so often professed, would finally be
proved by some better eridence than a perseverance in
oppressive novelties, as obriously incompatible "with such a
disposition in those who enforce them, as in those whose
patience they contmue to exercise.
" Upon the commencement of the second paragraph,
I must observe, that the forbearance wMch it announces
might have afforded some gratification, if it had been fol
lowed by such admissions as my government is entitled to
expect, instead of a further manifestation of that disregard
of its demands, by wMch it has so long been wearied. It
has never been my practice to seek discussions, of which the
tendency is merely to irritate ; but I beg your lordship to be
assured, that I feel no desire to avoid them, whatever may
be their tendency, when the rights of my country reqmre to
be rindicated against pretensions that deny, and conduct that
infringes them.
" If I comprehend the other parts of your lordsMp's
letter, they declare in effect, that the British govemment

268 LIFE OF -WILLIAM PINKNEY.
wfll repeal notMng but the orders- in council,' wA that it
cannot at present repeal even them, because in the first
place, the French govemment has required, m the letter of
the Duke of Cadore to General Armstrong, of the 5th of
August, not only that Great Britain shafl revoke those
orders, but that she shaU renounce certain principles of
blockade (supposed to be explained in the preamble to the
Berlin decree) wMch France alleges to be new ; and, in the
second place, because the American government has (as you
conclude) demanded tlie revocation of the British order of
blockade of May, 1806, as a practical instance of that same
renunciation, or, in other words, has made itself a party, not
openly indeed, but indirectly and covertly, to the entire re-
qmsition of France, as you understand that requisition.
" It is certainly true that the American government has
required, as indispensable in the view of its acts of inter
course and non-intercourse, the annulment of the British
blockade of May, 1806 ; and further, that it has through me
declared its confident expectation that other blockades of a
similar character (including that of the island of Zealand)
will be discontinued. But by what process of reasoning
your lordship has arrived at the conclusion, that the govem
ment of the United States intended by this requisition to
become the champion of the edict of BerUn, to fashion its
principles by those of France while it affected to adhere to
its own, and to act upon some partnersMp in doctrines, which
it would fain induce you to acknowledge, but could not pre
vail upon itself to avow, I am not able to conjecture. The
frank and honorable character of the American govemment
justifies me in saying that, if it had meant to demand of
Great Britain an abjuration of aU such principles as the
French govemment may think fit to disapprove, it would not
have put your lordship to the trouble of discovering, that
meanmg by the aid of combinations and inferences discoun
tenanced by the language of its minister, but would have

LIPE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY, 269
told you so in explicit terms. What I have to request of
your lordship, therefore, is, that you will take our riews and
principles from our own mouths, and that neithefr the Berlin
decree, nor any other act of any foreign state, may be made
to speak for us what we have not spoken for ourselves.
" The principles of blockade which the American govern
ment professes, and upon the foundation of which it has repeat
edly protested agamst the order of May, 1806, and the other
Mndred innovations of those extraordinary times, have
aUeady been so clearly explained to your lordship, in my
letter of the 21st of September, that it is hardly possible to
read that letter and misunderstand them. Eecommended
by the plamest considerations of umversal equity, you wfll
find them supported vrith a strength of argument and a
weight of authority, of wMch they scarcely stand in need,
m the papers wMch wiU accompany this letter, or were trans
mitted in that of September. I wfll not recapitulate what
I cannot improve ; but I must avail myself of this oppor
tunity to caU your lordsMp's attention a second time, in a
particular manner, to one of the papers to wMch my letter
of September refers. I aUude to the copy of an official note
ofthe 12th of April, 1804, from Mr Meny to Mr Madison,
respecting a pretended blockade of Martinique and Guada
loupe. No comment can add to the value of that manly
and perspicuous exposition of the law of blockade, as made
by England herself in the maintenance of rules wMch have
been respected and upheld in aU seasons and on aU occasions,
by the govemment of the United States. I will leave it,
therefore, to your lordship's consideration, with only this re
mark, that, wMle that paper exists, it will be superfluous to
seek in any French document for the opinions of the Ameri
can government on the matter of it.
" The steady fideUty of the government of the United
States to its opimons on that interesting subject is known to
every body. The same principles which are found in the

270 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
letter of Mr Madison to Mr. Thornton, of the 27th, of Octo
ber, 1803, already before you, were asserted in 1799, by the
American Minister at this court, in his correspondence vrith
Lord Grenville, respecting the blockade of some of the ports
of HoUand ; were sanctioned in a letter of the 20th of Sep
tember, 1800, from the Secretary of State of the United
States to Mr. King, of which an extract is enclosed ; were
insisted upon in repeated instructions to Mr. Monroe and the
special mission of 1806 ; have been maintained by the
United States against others as well as against England, as
-will appear by the enclosed copy of instructions, dated the
21st of October, 1801, from Mr Secretary Madison to Mr
Charles Pinckney, then American Minister at Madrid ; and
finaUy, were adhered to by the United States, when belhg-
erent, in the case of the blockade of Tripoli.
"A few words will give a summary of those principles ;
and when recaUed to your remembrance, I am not without
hopes, that the strong grounds of law and right, on which
they stand, will be as ap,paren,t to your lordship as they are
to me. " It is by no means clear that it may not fairly be con
tended, on principle and early usage, that a maritime block
ade is incomplete with regard to states at peace, unless the
place which it would affect is invested by land as well as by
sea. The United States, however, have called for the recog
nition of no such rule. They appear to have contented them
selves with urging in substance, that ports not actuaUy
blockaded by a present, adequate, stationary force, employed
by the power which attacks them, shall not be considered as
shut to neutral trade in articles not contraband of war ; that,
though it is usual for a belUgerent to give notice to neutral
nations when he intends to institute a blockade, it is possi
ble that he may not act upon his intention at aU, or that he
may execute it insufficiently, or that he may discontinue his
blockade, of which it is not customary to give any notice ;

LIFE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY, 271
that consequently the presence of the blockading force, is the
natural criterion by wMch the neutral is enabled to ascertain
the existence of the blockade at any given period, in Uke
manner as the actual investment of a besieged place, is the
eridence by which we decide whether the siege, which may
be commenced, raised, recommenced and raised again, is con
tinued or not ; that of course a mere notification to a neutral
minister shaU not be reUed upon, as affecting, with know
ledge ofthe actual existence of a blockade, either his govern
ment or its citizens ; that a vessel cleared or bound to a
blockaded port, shaU not be considered as violating in any
manner the blockade, unless, on her approach towards such
port, she shafl have been preriously warned not to enter it ;
that this riew of the law, in itself perfectly correct, is pecu
liarly important to nations situated at a great distance from
the beUigerent parties, and therefore incapable of obtaining
other than tardy information of the actual state of their
ports ; that whole coasts and countries shall not be declared
(for they can never be more than declared) to be in a state
of blockade, and thus the right of blockade converted into
the means of extinguishing the trade of neutral nations ;
and lastly, that every blockade shaU be impartial in its ope
ration, or, in other words, shall not open and shut for the
convenience pf the party that institutes it, and at the same
time repel the commerce of the rest of the world, so as to be
come the odious instrument of an unjust monopoly, mstead
of a measure of honorable war.
" These principles are too moderate and just to furnish
any motive to the British government for hesitating to re
voke its orders in councU, and those analogous orders of
blockade, wMch the United States expect to be recalled. It
can hardly be doubted that Great Britain will ultimately
accede to them in their fullest extent ; but if that be a san
guine calculation (as I trast it is not), it is still incontrover
tible, that a disinclination at tMs moment to acknowledge

272 LIFE OF -WILLIAM PINKNEY,
them, can suggest no national inducement for decUning to
repeal at once what every principle disowns, and what must
be repealed at last.
" With regard to the rules of blockades, which the
French government expects you to abandon, I do not take
upon me to decide whether they are such as your lordship
supposes them to be or not. Your view of them may be
correct ; but it may also be erroneous ; and it is wholly im
material to the case between the United States and Great
Britain, whether it be the one or the other,
" As to such British blockades as the United States de
sire you to relinquish, you will, not, I am sure, allege that it
is any reason for adhering to them that France expects you
to reUnquish others. If our demands are suited to the
measure of our own rights, and of your obligations as they
respect those rights, you cannot think of founding a rejection
of them upon any imputed exorbitance in the theories of the
French govemment, for which we are not responsible, and
vrith wMch we have no concern. If, when you have done
justice to the United States, your enemy should call upon
you to go farther, what shaU prevent you from refusing ?
Your free agency -will in no respect have been impaired.
Your case -wfll be better, in truth and in the opinion of man
kind ; and you wfll be, therefore, stronger in maintaining it,
prorided that, m doing so, you resort only to legitimate
means, and do not once more forget the rights of others,
whfle you seek to vindicate your own,
" Whether France wfll be satisfied with what you may
do, is not to be known by anticipation, and ought not to be
a subject of inquiry. So vague a speculation has notMng
to do vrith your duties to nations at peace, and, if it had,
would anniMlate them. It cannot serve. your mterests; for
it tends to lessen the number of your friends, without add
ing to your security agamst your enemies,
" You are required, therefore, to do right, and to leave

LIPE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY, 273
the consequences to the future, when by domg right yoii
have every tMng to gain and nothing to lose.
" As to the orders in council, which professed to be a re
luctant departure from aU ordinary rules, and to be justified
only as a system of retaUation for a pre-existing measure of
France, their foundation (such as it was) is gone the mo
ment that measure is no longer in operation. But the Ber
Un decree is repealed : and even the Milan decree, the suc
cessor of your orders m councU, is repealed also. Why is it
then, that your orders have outUved those edicts, and that
ther are stUl to oppress and harass as before ? Your lord
sMp answers tMs question expUcitly enough, but not satis
factorUy. You do not aUege that the French decrees are
not repealed ; bijt you imagine that the repeal is not to re
mam in force, unless the British government shaU, in addi
tion to the revocation of its orders in councU, abandon its
system of blockade, I am not conscious of haring stated,
as your lordsMp seems to tMnk, that tMs is so, and I beUeve
in fact, that it is otherwise. Even if it were adnaitted, how
ever, the orders in councU ought nevertheless to be revoked.
Can ' the safety and honor of the British nation,' demand
that these orders shaU continue to outrage the pubhc law of
the world, and sport with the undisputed rights of neutral
commerce, after the pretext which was at first invented for
them is gone ? But you are menaced with the revival of
the French system, and consequently may agam be fumished
vrith the same pretext ! Be it so ; yet still, as the system
and the pretext are at present at an end, so, of course, should
be your orders.
"Accordmg to your mode of reasoning, the situation of
neutral trade is hopeless mdeed. Whether the BerUn decree
exists or not, it is equally to justify your orders in councfl.
You issued them before it was any thing but a shadow, and
by doing so gave to it aU the substance it could ever claim.
It is at this moment notMng. It is revoked and has passed
18

274 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY,
away, according to your own admission. You choose, how
ever, to look for its reappearance ; and you make your own
expectation equivalent to the decree itself Compelled to
concede that there is no anti-neutral French edict in opera
tion upon the ocean, you tMnk it sufficient to say that there
will he such an edict, you know not when ; and in the mean
time you do aU you can to verify your own prediction, by
giving to your enemy all the provocation in your power to
resume the decrees which he has abandoned.
" For my part, my Lord, I know not what it is that the
British government requires, with a view to what it caUs its
safety and its honor, as an inducement to rescind its orders
in council. It does not, I presume, imagine that such a
system wifl be suffered to ripen into law. It must intend to
rehnquish it, sooner or later, as one of those violent experi
ments for which time can do nothing, and to which subnais-
sion wfll be hoped in vain. Yet even after the professed
foundation of this miscMevous system is taken away, another
and another is industriously procured for it, so that no man
can teU at what time, or under what circumstances, it is
Ukely to have an end. When realities cannot be found, pos-
sibiUties supply their place, and that, wMch was originally
said to be retaUation for actual injury, becomes at last (if
such a solecism can be endured or imagined) retaliation for
apprehended injuries, which the future may or may not pro
duce, but which it is certain have no existence now !
" I do not mean to grant, for I do not think, that the
edict of Berlm did at any time lend even a color of equity
to the British orders m council, with reference to the United
States ; but it might reasonably have been expected that
they, who have so much relied upon it as a justification,
would have suffered it and them to sink together. How tMs
is forbidden by your safety or your honor remains to be ex
plamed ; and I am not -wflUng to believe that either the one
or the other is mconsistent with the observance of substan-

LIFE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY. 275
tial justice, and with the prosperity and rights of peaceful
states, " Although your lordship has slightly remarked upon cer
tain recent acts of the French government, and has spoken
in general terms of ' the system of violence and injustice now
pursued by France,' as reqmring ' some precautions of de
fence on the part of Great Britain,' I do not perceive that
you deduce any consequence from these observations, in favor
of a perseverance in the orders in councU, I am not myself
aware of any edicts of France which, now that the Berlin
and Milan decrees are repealed, affect the rights of neutral
commerce on the seas. And you wifl yourselves admit that
if any of the acts of the French govemment, resting on ter
ritorial sovereignty, have injured, or shall hereafter injure,
the United States, it is for them, and for them only, to -seek
redress. In like manner it is for Great Britain to determine
what precautions of defence those measures of France, which
you denominate unjust and violent, may render it expedient
for her to adopt. The United States have only to insist,
that a sacrifice of their rights shaU not be among the number
of those precautions.
" In replying to that passage in your letter, which ad
verts to the American act of non-intercourse, it is only ne
cessary to mention the proclamation of the President of the
United States, of the 2d of November last, and the act of
congress which my letter of the 21st of September commu
nicated, and to add that it is in the power of the British gov
emment to prevent the non-intercourse from being enforced
against Great Britain.
" Upon the concluding paragraph of your letter I will
barely observe, that I am not in possession of any document,
which you are likely to consider as authentic, showing that
the French decrees are 'absolutely revoked upon the single
londition of the revocation of the British orders in council,'
/rat that the information, wMch I have lately received from

276 LIFE OP -WILLIAM PINKNEY,
the American Legation at Paris, confirms what I have
already stated, and I thmk proved to your lordsMp, that
those decrees are repealed and have ceased to have any effect,
I wfll now trespass on you no farther than to suggest, that
it would have given me smcere pleasure to be enabled to say
as much of the British orders m council, and of the blockades
from wMch it is impossible to distmgmsh them."

MR, PINKNEY TO LORD WELLESLEY,
" Great Cumbeeland Place, February llth, 1811.
" My Lord : — Before I reply to your official commum
cation of the 15th instant, you wifl perhaps aUow me, m
acknowledging the receipt of the unofficial paper wMch ac
companied it, to trouble you vrith a few words,
" From the appointment wMch you have done me the
honor to announce to me of a minister plenipotentiary to the
Umted States, as weU as from the language of your private
letter, I conclude that it is the intention of the British gov
ernment to seek immediately those adjustments vrith Ame
rica, vrithout which, that appointment can produce no bene
ficial effect. I presume, that, for the restoration of harmony
between the two countries, the orders in councU wUl be re
Unquished -vrithout delay ; that the blockade of May 1806
wfll be annuUed ; that the case of the Chesapeake wfll be
ananged in the manner heretofore mtended, and, in general,
that afl such just and reasonable acts wfll be done as are
necessary to make us friends.
" My motives wifl not, I am sure, be misinterpreted, if,
anxious to be enabled so to regulate my conduct in the ex
ecution of my instructions as that the best results may be
accompUshed, I take the Uberty to request such explana
tions on these heads as your lordship may tMnk fit to give
me.

LIPE OP "WILLIAM PINKNEY, 277
" I ought to add, that, as the levee of Ms royal highness
the prince regent has been postponed until Tuesday the 26th
mstant, I have supposed that my audience of leave is post
poned to the same day ; and that I have, on that ground,
undertaken to delay my reply to your official communication
untfl I receive an answer to this letter,"

MR. SMITH to MR. PINKNEY "March 1th, 1811,
" Sm : — If, as signified m your letter of the 24th of No
vember, you shoifld persist in the desfre of closing your mis
sion at London and of returning tothe United States, Ihave
to inform you that the President, from his respect to your
wishes, cannot vrithhold his permission. You wifl accordingly
herewith receive a letter of leave, to be used in such case or
in the case pomted out m former mstructions,
" It affords me pleasure, and at the same time real happi
ness, in bemg authorized to assure you of the Mgh sense en
tertained by the President, of the distmguished talents and
faithful exertions of wMch you have given so many proofs
during a period of pubhc serrice, frequently not less embar
rassing than mteresting.
"A blank commission is also inclosed, to be fiUed, in case
of your retum to the Umted States, with the name of some
suitable person as secretary of Iggation,"

MR, PINKNEY TO THE MARQUIS DI CIECELLO,
"Naples, August 2ith, 1816.
" The undersigned, envoy extraordinary of the United
States of America, has afready had the honor to mention to
Ms exceUency the Marquis di CirceUo, secretary of state and
mmister for foreign affairs of his majesty the Mng of the two

278 LIFE OP -WILLIAM PINKNEY.
SiciUes, the principal objects of Ms mission ; and he now in-
rites Ms exceUency's attention to a more detailed and formal
exposition of one of those objects,
" The undersigned is sure that the appeal, which he is
about to make to the weU known justice of his SiciUan
majesty, in the name and by the orders of his government,
wiU receive a deUberate and candid consideration ; and that,
if it shaU appear, as he trusts it wfll, to be recommended by
those principles which it is the interest as wefl as the duty
of afl governments to observe and maintain, the claim in
volved in it wfll be admitted, effectually and promptly,
" The undersigned did but obey the instractions of the
President of the United States, when he assured his excel
lency the Marquis di CirceUo, at their first interview, that
Ms mission was suggested by such sentiments towards Ms
Sicilian majesty as could not fafl to be approved by him.
Those sentiments aire apparent in the desire which the Pres
ident has manifested, through the undersigned, that the
commercial relations between the territories of his majesty
and those of the United States should be cherished by re
ciprocal arrangements, sought m the spirit of enlightened
friendship, and with a sincere view to such equal advantages,
as it is for nations to derive from one another. The repre
sentations which the undersigned is commanded to make
upon the subject of the present note, will be seen by his
majesty in the same light. They show the firm reUance of
the President upon the disj)bsition of the court of Naples
impartially to discuss and ascertain, and faithfully to dis
charge its obligations toward foreign states and their citizens;
a reUance which the undesigned partakes vrith his govern
ment ; and under the influence of wMch, he proceeds to
state the nature and grounds of the reclamation in ques
tion. " It cannot but be known to Ms exceUency the Marquis
di CirceUo, that, on the 1st of July, 1809, the minister for

LIFE OF "WILLIAM PINKNEY. 279
foreign affairs of the then govemment of Naples, addressed
to Frederick Degan, Esq., then consul of the United States,
an official letter, contaimng an invitation to afl American
vessels, having on board the usual certificates of origin and
other regular papers, to come direct to Naples with their
cargoes ; and that the same minister caused that invitation
to be pubUshed in every possible mode, in order that it might
come to the knowledge of those whom it concerned. It will
not be questioned that the promise of security necessarfly
imphed m this measure had every title, in the actual circum
stances of Europe, to the confidence of distant and peaceful
merchants. The merchants of America, as was to have been
expected, did confide. Upon the credit and under the pro
tection of that promise, they sent to Naples many valuable
vessels and cargoes, navigated and documented with scru
pulous regularity, and in no respect obnoxious to molestation ;
but scarcely had they reached the destination to which they
had been aUured, when they were seized, without distmetion,
as prize, or as otherwise forfeited to the NeapoUtan govern
ment, upon pretexts the most frivolous and idle. These
arbitrary seizures were foUowed, with a rapacious haste, by
summary decree, confiscating in the name and for the use
of the same government, the whole of the property which
had thus been brought witMn its grasp ; and these decrees,
wMch wanted even the decent affectation of justice, were
immediately carried into execution against aU the remon
strances of those whom they oppressed, to enrich the treasury
of the state.
" The undersigned persuades himself, that it is not in a
note addressed to the Marquis di CirceUo, that it is neces
sary to enlarge upon the smgularly atrocious character of
tMs procedure, for wMch no apology can be derised, and for
wMch none that is inteUigible has hitherto been attempted.
It was, indeed, an undisguised abuse of power of wMch
nothmg could weU enhance the deformity, but the studied

280 LIFE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY.
deception that preceded and prepared it ; a deception wMch
by a sort of treason against society, converted a proffer of
hospitality into a snare, and that salutary confidence, vrith
out which nations and men must cease to have intercourse
into an engine of plunder.
" The right of the innocent victims of tMs unequaUed
act of fraud and rapine, to demand retribution, cannot be
doubted. The only question is, from whom are they entitled
to demand it ? Those, who at that moment ruled in Na
ples, and were in fact and in the riew of the world, the gov
emment of Naples, have passed away before retribution
could be obtamed, although not before it was required ; and,
if the right to retribution regards only the persons of those
rulers as private and ordinary wrong-doers, the American
merchants, whom they deluded and despofled in the garb and
vrith the instruments and for the purposes of sovereignty,
must despair for ever of redress.
" The undersigned presumes, that such is not the view
wMch the present government vriU feel itself justified m
taking of tMs interesting subject ; he trusts that it wiU, on
the contrary, perceive that the claim which the injured mer
chant was authorized to prefer against the govemment of
tMs country before the recent change, and wMch, but for
that change, must sooner or later have been successful, is
now a valid claim against the government of the same coun
try, notwithstanding that change. At least, the undersigned
is not at present aware of any considerations wMch, applied
to the facts that characterize this case, can lead to a differ
ent conclusion ; and certainly it would be matter for sincere
regret, that any consideration should be thought sufficient
to make the return of his SiciUan majesty's power fatal to
the rights of friendly strangers, to whom no fault can be
ascribed, " The general principle that a civil society may contract
obligations through its actual gfcvernment, whatever that

LIFE OP "WILLIAM PINKNEY, 281
may be, and that it is not absolved from them by reason
simply of a change of govemment or of rulers, is universally
received as incontrovertible. It is admitted, not merely by
writers on pubUc law, as a speculative truth, but by states
and statesmen, as a practical rule ; and, accordingly, his
tory is full of examples to prove, that the undisturbed pos
sessor of sovereign power m any society, whether a rightful
possessor or not, with reference to other claimants of that
power, may not only be the lawful object of aUegiance, but
by many of Ms acts, in his quaUty of sovereign de facto,
may bind the society, and those who come after him as
rulers, although thefr title be adverse to, or even better than
Ms own. The Marquis di CirceUo does not need to be in
formed, that the earUer annals of England, in particular,
abound in instructions upon tMs head.
"With regard to just and beneficial contracts, entered
into by such a sovereign vrith the merchants of foreign na
tions, or (wMch is the same thing), vrith regard to the deten
tion and confiscation of thefr property for pubhc uses, and
by Ms authority, m direct riolation of a pledge of safety,
upon the faith of wMch that property arrived within the
reach of confiscation, this continmng responsibflity stands
upon the plainest foundations of natural equity.
" It wifl not be pretended, that a merchant is called upon
to mvestigate, as he prosecutes Ms traffic, the title' of every
sovereign, with whose ports, and under the guarantee of
whose pUghted word, he trades. He is rarely competent.
There are few in any station who are competent to an inves
tigation so fuU of deUcacy, so perplexed with facts and prin
ciples of a pecuUar character, far removed from the common
concerns of Ufe. His predicament would be to the last de
gree calamitous, if, in an honest search after commercial
profit, he might not take govemments as he finds them, and
consequently rely at all times upon the risible, exclusive ac
knowledged possession of supreme aiithority. If he sees all

282 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY,
the usual indications of established rifle ; aU the distinguish
ing concormtants of real undisputed power, it cannot be that
he is at Ms peril to discuss mysterious theories above his ca
pacity or foreign to Ms pursuits, and moreover, to connect
the results of those speculations with events of which Ms
knowledge is either imperfect or erroneous. If he sees the
obedience of the people, and the acquiescence of neighboring
princes, it is impossible that it can be his duty to examine,
before he sMps his merchandise, whether it be fit that these
should acqmesce, or those obey. If, in short, he finds
nothing to interfere with or qualify the dominion which the
head of the society exercises over it, and the domain wMch
it occupies, it is the dictate of reason, sarictioned by aU ex
perience, that he is bound to look no farther,
" It can be of no importance to him that, notvrithstand
ing aU these appearances announcing lawful rule, the mere
right to fUl the throne is claimed by, or even resides in,
another than the actual occupant. The latent right (sup-
posmg it to exist), disjoined from and controverted by the
fact, is to him notMng wMle it continues to be latent. It
is only the sovereign in possession that it is in his power
to know. It is with him only that he can enter into engage
ments. It is through Mm only that he can deal with the
society. And if it be trae, that the sovereign in possession
is incapal5le, on account of a conffict of title between him and
another, who barely claims, but makes no effort to assert his
claim ; of pledging the public faith of the society and of the
monarch to foreign traders, for commercial and other objects,
we' are driven to the monstrous conclusion, that the society
is, in effect and indefinitely, cut off from all communication
with the rest of the world. , It has, and can have, no organ
by wMch it can become accountable to, orvmake any contract
with foreigners, by which needful supplies may be invited
into its harbors, by which famine may be averted, or redun
dant productions be made to find a market in the wants of

LIFE OP -WILLIAM PINKNEY. 283
strangers. It is, in a word, an outcast from the bosom of
the great community of nations, at the very moment too,
when its existence, in the form which it has assumed, may
every where be admitted. And, even if the dormant claim
to the throne should, at last, by a fortunate coincidence of
circumstances, become triumphant, and unite itself to the
possession, this harsh and palsying theory has no assurance
to give, either to the society or to those who may incUne to
deal with it, that its moral capacity is restored, that it is
an outcast no longer, and that it may now, through the pro
tecting "vriU of its new sovereign, do what it could not do
before. It contams, of course, no adequate and certain pro
vision against even the perpetuity of the dilemma which it
creates. If, therefore, a civil society is not competent, by
rules m entire possession of the sovereignty, to enter into all
such promises to the members of other societies as necessity
or convenience may requfre, and to remain unanswerable for
the breach of themj into whatsoever shape the society may
ifltimately be cast, or mto whatsoever hands the government
may ultimately fall ; if a sovereign, entirely in possession, is
not able, for that reason alone, to incur a just responsibiUty,
in his political or corporate character, to the citizens of other
countries, and to transmit that responsibUity, even to those
who succeed him by displacing Mm, it will be difficult to
show that the moral capacity of a civil society is any thing
but a name, or the responsibflity of sovereigns any thmg but
a shadow. And here the undersigned wifl take the Uberty
to suggest, that it is scarcely for the interest of sovereigns to
inculcate as a maxim, that their lost dominions can only be
recovered at the expense of the unoffending citizen of states
in amityj or, wMch is equivalent to it, to make that recovery
the practical consummation of intermediate injustice, by ut
terly extmguishing the hope of indemnity and even the title
to demand it.
" The undersigned wifl now, for the sake of perspicuity

284 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
and precision, recall to the recoUection of Ms exceUency the
Marquis di CirceUo, the situation of the government of Murat
at the epoch of the confiscation in question. Whatever
might be the origin or foundation of that government, it
had for some time been established. It had obtained such
obedience as in such times was customary, and had mani
fested itself, not only by active internal exertions of legis
lative and executive powers, but by important extemal
transactions with old and indisputably regular governments.
It had been (as long afterwards it continued to be) recogmzed
by the greatest potentates, as one of the European family
of states, and had interchanged with them ambassadors, and
other pubUc mimsters and consuls. And Great Britain, by
an order in council of the 26th of April, 1809, which modi
fied the system of constructive blockade, promulgated by the
orders of November, 1807, had excepted the Neapolitan ter
ritories, with other portions of Italy, from the operation of
that system, that neutrals might no longer be prevented
from trading with them,
" Such was the state of things when American vessels
were tempted into Naples, by a reUance upon the passports
of its government, to wMch perfidy had lent more than ordi
nary solemnity, upon a declaration as expUcit, as it was for
mal and notorious, that they might come without fear, and
might depart in peace. It was under these circumstances,
that, instead of bemg permitted to retfre with- their lawful
gains, both they and thefr cargoes were seized and appro
priated m a manner already related. The undersigned may
consequently assume, that if ever there was a claim to com
pensation for broken faith, wMcli surrived the political power
of those whose iniquity produced it, and devolved in full
force upon thefr successors, the present claim is of that de
scription. " As to the demand itself, as it existed against the gov
emment of Murat, the Marquis di CirceUo wiU undoubtedly

LIPE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY. 285
be the first to concede, not only that it is above reproach,
but that it rests upon grounds in wMch the civflized world
has a deep and lasting interest. And with regard to the U-
abUity of the present government as standing in the place of
the former, it may be taken as a coroUary from that conces
sion ; at least untU it has been shown, that it is the natural
fate of obUgations, so Mgh and sacred, contracted by a gov
ernment m the fuU and tranquil enjoyment of power, to per
ish vrith the first revolution, either in form or rulers, through
wMch it may happen to pass ; or (to state the same proposi
tion m different terms), that it is the natural operation of a
poUtical revolution in a state, to strip unfortunate traders,
who have been betrayed and plundered by the former sove
reign, of aUthat his rapacity could not reach — the right of
reclamation. " The wrong wMch the govemment of Murat infficted
tipon American citizens, wanted notMng that might give
to it atrocity, or effect, as a robbery mtroduced by treachery ;
but however pernicious or execrable, it was stiU reparable.
It left m the sufferers and their nation a right, which was not
Ukely to be forgotten or abandoned, of seeMng and obtaining
ample redress, not from Murat simply (who individuaUy was
lost in the sovereign), but from the government of the coun
try, whose power he abused. By what course of argument
can it be proved, that tMs mcontestable right, from wMch
that govemment could never have escaped, has been destroy
ed by the reaccession of his SiciUan majesty, after a longm-
terval, to the sovereignty of the same territories ?
" That such a result cannot in any degree be inferred from
the misconduct of the American claimants, is certain ; for
no misconduct is imputable to them. They were warranted
in every view of the pubUc law of Europe, in holdmg com
mercial commumcation vrith Naples in the predicament,, in
wMch they found it, and in trusting to the direct and au
thentic assurances, wMch the government of the place af-

286 LIFE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY.
fected to throw over them as a shield against every danger.
Their sMpments were strictly within the terms of those as
surances ; and nothing was done, by the shippers or thefr
agents, by which the benefit of them might be lost or im
paired. " From what other source can such a result be dr^wn ?
Will it be said that the proceeds of the confiscations were
not applied to public purposes during the sovereignty of
Murat, or that they produced no public advantages, vrith
reference to wMch the present government ought to be Ua
ble ? The answer to such a suggestion is, that let the fact
be as it may, it can have no influence upon the subject. It
is enough that the confiscations themselves, and the promise
of safety which they violated, were acts of state, proceeding
from him who was then, and for several successive years, the
sovereign. The derivative liability of the present govern
ment reposes, not upon the good, either public or private,
which may have been the fruit of such a revolting exMbition
of power, emancipated from all the restraints of principle,
but upon the general foundation, which the undersigned has
already had the honor to expose.
" To foUow the proceeds of these spoUations into the pub
Uc treasury, and thence to aU the uses to which they were
finaUy made subservient, can be no part of the duty of the
American claimant. It is a task which he has no means of
performing, and whichf if performed by others, could neither
strengthen his case nor enfeeble it. And it may confidently
be insisted, not only that he has no concern with the partic
ular application of these proceeds, but that, even if he had,
he would be authorized to rely upon the presumption, that
they were appUed as public money to pubUc ends, or left in
the pubUc coffers. It must be remembered, moreover, that
whatever may have been the destiny of these unhaUowed
spoils, they cannot well have faUed to be instrumental in me-
Uorating the condition of the country. They afforded extra-

LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 287
ordinary pecuniary means, which, as far as they extended,
must have saved it from an augumentation of its burdens ;
or by reUering the ordinary revenue, made that revenue ad
equate to various improvements, either of use or beauty^
which othervrise it could not have accomplished. The terri
tories, therefore, under the sway of Murat, must be supposed
to have returned to his SiciUan majesty much less exhausted,
more embeUished, and more prosperous, than if the property
of American citizens had not in the mean time been sacri
ficed to cupidity and cunnmg. It must further be remem
bered, that a part of that property was notoriously devoted
to the pubUc serrice. Some of the vessels seized by the or
ders of Murat, were, on account of their exceUent construc
tion, converted mto vessels of war, and as such commissioned
by the government ; and the undersigned is informed that
they are now in possession of the officers of Ms SiciUan ma
jesty, and used and claimed as belonging to him.
" The undersigned having thus briefly explained to the
Marquis di Cfrcello, the nature of the claim which the gov
emment of the Umted States has commanded him to submit
to the reflection of the govemment of his Sicflian majesty,
forbears at present to multiply arguments in support of it.
He feels assured that the eqmtable disposition of his majesty
renders superfluous the further fllustrations of wMch it is sus
ceptible."

288 LIFE OF -SVILLIAM PINKNEY.

MISSOURI QUESTION.
It was a splendid spectacle the American Senate Cham
ber presented, according to contemporaneous authority^ the
day that WiUiam PmMiey arose to participate in this mo
mentous discussion. The reputation of the speaker, just
transplanted from the forum to that garden of American
legislators, and the magmtude of the question involved, ex
cited the public mind to the highest state of expectation,
and brought to the Capitol such a crowd as has rarely if ever
been gathered withm its waUs. Eufiis Kmg, an honored son
of New- York, a gentleman of enlarged views and command
ing abUities, who had borne a conspicuous part in the foreign
serrice of his. country as weU as her deUtserative councils at
home, was then a Senator. He was a splendid specimen of
a man, and wore Ms varied honors -vrith wondrous grace. —
Otis, Dana, Barbour, Macon and Burrfl, were his distin
guished associates in tMs first deliberative assembly of the
world. Mr. Kmg felt the grandeur and responsibflity of the
occasion. The country he knew had a deep interest at stake.
He knew also that many eyes were upon him, that he was
now called upon tO give to the country and the world the
closing speech of Ms Ufe, and leave beMnd Mm the noblest
exposition he could of the constitution. That speech was
deUvered. Its eloquent warnings fflled the land. Many
prided themselves upon this effort of the distinguished and
venerable champion of the North. A gentleman rose to re
ply to it, who was not altogether a stranger to the Senate.
He came from an arena, on wMch his powers had been tested

LIPE OP "WILLIAM PINKNEY. 289
by the strongest men of the land ; and if he stood not " quite
alone, he had confessedly no superior." Fresh, too, from a
diplomatic service, in wMch he had erinced Ms usual abflity
and discretion, he brought with Mm to that Senate Chamber
a world-vride reputation. Already upon tMs very question,
Ms voice had been heard in a most admirable and powerful
speech ; so that, although little more than six weeks a mem
ber of the body, we are justified in saymg that he was not
altogether a stranger. New to the scene ; inexperienced in
senatorial Ufe he was, but still not unknown. Deep was the
mterest awakened in the pubUc mind by tMs approacMng
conffict, in wMch Maryland's favorite son was to measure a
lance vrith the veteran statesman of New- York. It was not
a mere personal feeUng, not a vainglorious conffict of rival
ry, that caused them to assume tMs antagonistic position.
That would have been unworthy of the Senate and the
country. It was a Mgh constitutional question that divided
them. It was a grave conflict of opimon that made up the
struggle. Mr. King had chosen Ms position — selected his
ground — ^marshaUed Ms arguments — arrayed Ms facts. He
came thorougMy equipped to the battle. The chosen rep
resentatives of the riews of a portion of the northern wing of
the confederacy, he was no mean antagonist. The North had
spoken, weU and powerfully, through Mm. Pinkney arose.
The occasion was one of imposing sublimity — the scene
worthy of the occasion, and the advocate, vrith whom he was
now brought in dfrect colUsion, worthy of both.
The talent, the taste, and beauty of the land were
there. Crowd upon crowd thronged the galleries. Every
nook and comer of the large, capacious haU was fiUed almost
to suffocation. Hundreds went away disappointed, unable
to catch a gUmpse of the orator or a tone of his powerful
and melodious voice. AU business was suspended in the
Lower House, for the representatives from aU parts of the
Umon participated to the fuU in the common desire to vrit-
19

290 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY,
ness tMs conflict of mmd with mind. The whole country
was ahve. The pubUc peace and safety had been seriously
threatened. Mr. King's dark and dismal picturings had no
tendency to aUay the popular apprehension or quiet the
pubUc agitation. Some hoped — others feared. AU partook
more or less of the mtense anxiety. Pinkney arose. The
very novelty of the scene, and the sight of a new antagonist
upon a field of such thrflling issues, where afl Ms long che
rished principles of constitutional interpretation so thor
ougMy coincided vrith the position he occupied, only tended
to give greater impetus and wider scope to the worMngs of
his giant inteUect. It was in opposition that Mr. Pinkney
exhibited to most advantage his wondrous power. Not far
from the spot where Webster subsequently encountered
Hayne, he stood.. There W9,s unusual fire in Ms fine blue
eye, and exulting hope. Strong in the confidence he reposed
in the views he entertained of the constitution, he was not
less strong in Ms reUance " upon the unsophisticated good
sense of the American people." TaMng up that glorious
charter of our Uberties, and foUowing Mr. King step by step
m argument and fllustration, he poured forth the treasures
of his mmd -with a keenness of analysis and a copiousness and
concentration of reasoning, that annihUated at once and for
ever the position of Ms opponent. TMs speech more than
sustained the reputation of, the orator, and gratified to the
full the Mghest expectations of the audience. It was a sur
prising combmation of eloquence and argument, beauty and
strength, amplitude and condensation. Although a close
and severe logical discussion, it rivetted attention, „ and
caUed forth as extraordmary panegyric as was ever vouch
safed to any other parUamentary effort. That speech is a
sort of beacon Ught, by which men may make the most ex
traordinary developments of oratorical power and abflity of
argument. One of the most significant proofs of its power
was the fact, that Eufus King never answered it. I have

LIPE OF "WILLIAM PINKNEY 291
been told, upon what I tMnk good authority, that Mr King
Mmself, with a magnammity worthy of all praise, took occa
sion to say that, during the time Mr. Pinkney was speaMng,
he could not shake off the impression that he must be
wrong A not less significant proof of the rare power of tMs
speech may be found in the fact, that even learned Mstorians
at the North, bUnded by prejudice, have conspired "with
stump orators and pampMeteers to misrepresent grossly the
riews expressed, and the Ime of argument pursued on that
occasion. HUdreth states (vol. 6, 689), that " Pinkney ap
peared on the other side as leading orator for the extension
of slavery." And again, " that Pinkney and Clay, both of
whom had begun thefr poUtical career vrith earnest efforts
for the curtaflment and aboUtion of slavery in thefr respec
tive States, were now among the most vehement advocates
for its extension aU over the new West." Let any one read
the speech, and if he does not see tMough the tMnly veUed
misrepresentation and misconception of tMs author, he must
be bUnd, indeed. Mr. Pinkney stood up m defence of the
constitution. He stood by the States, mamtained thefr
origmal and indestructible equaUty, and denied that you
" could make the Umon as to the new States what it is not
as to the old." He deprecated the introduction of such ex
traneous matter as had been un"vrisely forced into the discus
sion, and unwove the web so artisticaUy wowen by the Sen
ator from New- York. It was not a discussion on slavery at
afl. It was a bare^ naked, constitutional question, and as
such Mr. Pinkney treated it.
It excites a smfle to read a Uttle further on in the pages
of tMs recondite historian. " That the idea" that Congress
had no power to impose conditions in the admission of new
States, "was ridiculous." It may be that the principles of
constitutional law, so eloquently enforced by Mr Pinkney in
tMs speech, and so extensively indorsed, are, after aU, mere

292 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
dreams of the imagination, sicMy notions, which, after
stalMng tMough the halls of legislation like ghosts, struck
northern statesmen dumb, may be dispeUed by one wave of
the historic wand, never more to mislead or confound the
world. It may be that argument unanswered wfll sink be
fore "assertion vrithout proof" — but really, Mr Hildreth
must excuse us if we prove a little refractory, and refuse to
acknowledge any idea ridiculous, which is sustained by such
power of argument and force of eloquence. When an histo
rian manifests such carelessness (t had weU nigh said, reck
lessness of assertion), he must bear with us if we demur to
Ms decision of grave points of constitutional law, wMch he
has neither the capacity to decide, nor the authority.
We ask a perusal of the speech, and although it must
suffer from the imperfection of the report, we have no fears
concerning it. It is a gem of American eloquence, that has
lost nothmg of its splendor m its passage tMough the cruci
ble of an unsparing criticism : —
SPEECH ON THE MISSOURI QUESTION,
As I am not a very frequent speaker in this Assembly,
and have shown a desire, I trast, rather to listen to the wis
dom of others, than to lay claim to superior knowledge by
undertaMng to advise, even when adrice, by being seasona
ble in point of time, might have some chance of bemg profi
table, you wiU, perhaps, bear vrith me if I venture to trouble
you once more on that eternal subject wMch has lingered
here, until aU its natural mterest is exhausted, and every
topic connected vrith it is literally worn to tatters, I shall,
I assure you, sfr, speak vrith laudable brerity — ^not merely
on account of the feeble state of my health, and from some
reverence for the laws of good taste wMch forbid me to speak
otherwise, but also from a sense of justice to those who honor
me vrith thefr attention. My single purpose, as I suggested

LIPE OP "WILLIAM PINKNEY. 293
yesterday, is to subject to a friendly, yet close examination,
some portions of a speech, imposing certainly on account of
the distinguished quarter from whence it came — not very
imposing (if I may so say, vrithout departing from that re
spect which I sincerely feel and intend to manifest for emi
nent abiUties and long experience) for any other reason.
I beUeve, Mr. President, that I am abont as likely to
retract an opinion wMch I have formed, as any member of
this body, who, being a lover of truth, inquires after it with
dUigence before he imagines that he has found it ; but I sus
pect that we are all of us so constituted as that neither ar
gument nor declamation, leveUed against recorded and pub
Ushed decision, can easUy discover a practicable avenue
through which it may hope to reach either our heads or our
hearts. I mention tMs, lest it may excite surprise, when I
take the Uberty to add, that the speech of the honorable
gentleman from New- York, upon the great subject vrith
which it was principaUy occupied, has left me as great an
mfidel as it found me. It is possible, mdeed, that if I had
had the good fortune to hear that speech at an earlier stage
of this debate, when aU was fresh and new, although I feel
confident that the analysis which it contained of the consti
tution, Ulustrated as it was by historical anecdote rather than
by reasoning, would have been just as imsatisfactory to me
then as it is now, I might not have been altogether unmoved
by those warnings of approaching evU which it seemed to
intimate, especiaUy when taken in connection with the obser
vations of the same honorable gentleman on a preceding day,
" that delays in disposing of tMs subject, in the manner he
desires, are dangerous, and that we stand on sUppery ground."
I must be permitted, however (speaking only for myself),
to say, that the hour of dismay is passed. I have heard the
tones of the larum beU on afl sides, untU they have become
lamfliar to my ear, and have lost their power to appall, if,
indeed, they ever possessed it. Notvrithstanding occasional

294 LIFE OP -WILLIAM PINKNEY,
appearances of rather an unfavorable description, I have long
smce persuaded myself that the Missouri Question, as it is
caUed, might be laid to rest, vrith innocence and safety, by
some conciliatory compromise at least, by which, as is our
duty, we might reconcile the extremes of confficting riews
and feeUngs, without any sacrffice of constitutional principle ;
and in any event, that the Umon would easily, and trium
phantly emerge from those portentous clouds with wMch tMs
controversy is supposed to have enrironed it,
I confess to you, nevertheless, that some of the princi
ples announced by the honorable gentleman from New- York,*
with an explicitness that reflected the highest credit on Ms
candor, did, when they were first presented, startle me not a
little. They were not perhaps entirely new. Perhaps I had
seen them before in some shadowy and doubtful shape,
'¦ If shape it might be called, that shape had none
Distinguishable in member, joint, or limb."
But in the honorable gentleman's speech they were shadowy
and doubtful no longer. He exMbited them in forms so
boldly and accurately defined — with contours so distmctly
traced — with features so pronounced and striking, that I was
unconscious for a moment that they might be old acquamt-
ances. I received them as novi hospites within these waUs,
and gazed upon them with astomshment and alarm. I have
recovered, however, thank God, from tMs parPxysm of terror,
although not from that of astomshmerit, I have sought
and found tranquUUty and courage in my former consolatory
faith. My reUance is that these principles vriU obtain no
general currency ; for, if they should, it reqmres no gloomy
imagination to sadden the perspective of the future. My
reliance is upon the unsopMsticated good sense and noble
spfrit of the American people. I have what I may be al
lowed to caU a proud and patriotic trust, that they wfll give
countenance to no principles, which, if foUowed out to theii
* Mr, King,

LIPE OP -WILLIAM PINKNEY, 295
obrious consequences, -wiU. not only shake the goodly fabric
of the Umon to its foundations, but reduce it to a melan
choly ruin. The people of this country, if I do not whoUy
mistake thefr character, are vrise as well as rirtuous. They
know the value of that federal asso(;iation which is to them
the smgle pledge and guarantee of power and peace. Their
warm and pious affections wUl cUng to it as to their only hope
of prosperity and happiness, in defiance of pernicious ab
stractions, by whomsoever inculcated, or howsoever seductive
and aUuring in thefr aspect.
Sfr, it is not an occasion like tMs, although connected,
as contrary to aU reasonable expectation it has been, vrith
fearful and disorgamzing theories, wMch would make our
estimates, whether fanciful or sound, of natural law, the
measure of ciril rights and poUtical sovereignty in the social
state, that can harm the Union. It must, indeed, be a
mighty storm that can push from its moorings tMs sacred
ark of the common safety. It is not every triffing breeze,
however it may be made to sob and howl m imitation of the
tempest, by the auxiUary breath of the ambitious, the timid,
or the discontented, that can drive tMs gaUant vessel,
freighted with every thing that is dear to an American bo
som, upon the rocks, or lay it a sheer hulk upon the ocean.
I may perhaps mistake the flattering suggestions of hope
(the greatest of aU flatterers, as we are told), for the conclu
sions of sober reason. Yet it is a pleasing error, if it be an
enor, and no man shafl take it from me. I wiU continue to
cherish the beUef, in defiance of the pubUc patronage given
by the honorable gentleman from New- York, with more
than his ordinary zeal and solemnity, to deadly Speculations,
wMch, invoking the name of God to aid their faculties for
mischief, .strike at aU establishments, that the union of these
States is formed to bear up against far greater shocks than,
through aU ricissitudes, it is ever likely to encounter. I
wUl continue to cherish the belief, that, although Uke aU

296 LIFE OP -VriLLIAM PINKNEY,
other human institutions it may for a season be disturbed,
or suffer momentary ecUpse by the transit across its disk of
some maUgnant planet, it possesses a recuperative force, a
redeeming energy in the hearts of the people, that wiU
soon restore it to its wo^ited calm, and give it back its ac
customed splendor. On such a subject I wUl discard aU
hysterical apprehensions— I vriU deal in no sinister auguries
— I wiU indulge in no hypochondriacal forebodings. I wfll
look forward to the future with gay and cheerful hope ; and
. wifl make the prospect smfle, in fancy at least, untfl over
whelming reaUty shaU render it no longer possible.
I have said thus much. Sir, in order that I may be un
derstood as meeting the constitutional question as a mere
question of interpretation, and as disdaining to press into
the serrice of my argument upon it prophetic fears of any
sort, however they may be countenanced by an avowal, for
midable by reason of the Mgh reputation of the individual
by whom it has been hazarded, of sentiments the most de
structive, wMch, if not, borrowed from, are identical with,
the worst risions of the political phUosophy of France when
aU the elements of discord and misrule were let loose upon
that devoted nation. I mean " the mfinite perfectibiUty of
man and his institutions," and the resolution of every thmg
mto a state of nature. I have another motive, which, at
the risk of being misconstrued, I -wUl declare without reserve.
With my conrictions, and with my feelings, I never will
consent to hold confederated America as bound together by
a sUken cord, wMch any instrament of mischief may sever,
to the view of monarcMcal foreigners, who look vrith a jealous
eye upon that glorious experiment wMch is now in progress
amongst us in favor of repubUcan freedom. Let them
make such prophecies as they wfll, and nourish such feeUngs
as they may, I wiU not contribute to the fulfilment of the
former, nor minister to the gratffication of the latter.
Sfr, it was but the other day that we were forbidden-

LIPE OP -WILLIAM PINKNEY. 297
(properly forbidden I am sure, for the prohibition came from
you) to assume that there existed any intention to impose
a prospective restraint on the domestic legislation of Mis
souri — a restraint to act upon it contemporaneously with its
origin as a State, and to continue adhesive to it through all
the stages of its poUtical existence. We are now, however,
permitted to know that it is determined by a sort of political
surgery to amputate one of the Umbs of its local sovereignty,
and thus mangled and disparaged, and thus only, to receive
it into the bosom of the constitution. It is now avowed
that, while Maine is to be ushered into the Union with every
possible demonstration of studious reverence on our part,
and on hers with colors flying, and aU the other graceful
accompamments of honorable triumph, this ill-conditioned
upstart of the West, tMs obscure foundUng of a wilderness
that was but yesterday the hunting-ground of the savage, is
to find her way into the American family as she can, with an
humiUating badge of remediless inferiority patched upon her
garments, vrith the mark of recent, qualified manumission
upon her, or rather with a brand upon her forehead to teU
the story of her territorial vassalage, and to perpetuate the
memory of her evU propensities. It is now avowed that,
whfle the robust district of Maine is to be seated by the side
of her truly respectable parent, co-ordinate in authority and
honor, and is to be dandled into that power and dignity of
wMch she does not stand in need, but wMch undoubtedly
she deserves, the more infantine and feeble Missouri is to be
repelled vrith harshness, and forbidden to come at all, unless
vrith the fron coUar of servitude about her neck, instead of
the ciric crown of repubUcan freedom upon her brows, and
is to be doomed for ever to leading strings, unless she wfll
exchange those leading strings for shacMes.
I am told that you have the power to estabUsh this odious
and revolting distinction, and I am referred for the proofs
of that power to various parts of the constitution, but prin-

298 IJFE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY.
cipaUy to that part of it wMch authorizes the admission of
new States into the Umon. I am myseK of opimon that it
is in that part only that the advocates for tMs restriction
can, vrith any hope of success, apply for a Ucense to impose
it; and that the efforts wMch have been made to find it in
other portions of that instrument, are too desperate to re
qufre to be encountered, I shaU, however, examme those
other portions before I have done, lest it should be supposed
by those who have reUed upon them, that what I omit to
answer I believe to be unanswerable.
The clause of the constitution wMch relates to the ad-
imssion of new States is in these words : " The Congress
may admit new States into this Union," &c,, and the advo
cates for restriction mamtain that the use of the word " may"
imports discretion to admit or to reject ; and that m tMs
discretion is wrapped up another — ^that of prescribing the
terms and conditions of admission m case you are wiUing to
admit : Cujus est dare ejus est disponere, Iwfll not for the
present inqufre whether this involved discretion to dictate
the terms of admission belongs to you or not. It is fit that
I should first look to the nature and extent qf it.
I think I may assume that if such a power be any tMng
but nominal, it is much more than adequate to the present
object; that it is a power of vast expansion, to wMch human
sagacity can assign no reasonable limits ; that it is a capa
cious reservofr of authority, from which you may take, m afl
time to come, as occasion may serve, the means of oppression
as weU as of benefaction, I know that it professes at this
moment to be the chosen mstrument of protecting mercy,
and would wm upon us by its benignant smUes : but I know
too it can frown, and play the tyrant, if it be so disposed,
Notvrithstanding the softness wMch it now assumes, and the
care vrith wMch it conceals its giant proportions beneath the
deceitful drapery of sentiment, when it next appears before
you it may show itself with a sterner countenance and in

LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY, 299
more awfrfl dimensions. It is, to speak the truth, Sfr, a
power of colossal size — ^if indeed it be not an abuse of lan
guage to caU it by the gentle name of a pmver. Sfr, it is a
wUderness of powers, of wMch fancy in her happiest mood is
unable to perceive the far-distant and shadowy boundary.
Armed -with such a power, vrith reUgion m one hand and
pMlanthropy in the other, and followed vrith a goodly train
of pubUc and private virtues, you may acMeve more con
quests over sovereignties not your own than faUs to the com
mon lot of even uncommon ambition. By the aid of such a
power, skUfiiUy employed, you may " bridge your way" over
the HeUespont that separates State legislation from that of
Congress ; and you may do so for pretty much the same
purpose with wMch Xerxes once bridged Ms way across the
HeUespont, that separates Asia from Europe. He did so, in
the language of MUton, " the Uberties of Greece to yoke."
You may do so for the analogous purpose of subjugatmg and
reducing the sovereignties of States, as your taste or conve
nience may suggest, and fasMoning them to your imperial
wiU. There are those in tMs house who appear to think,
and I doubt not smcerely, that the particular restramt now
under consideration is wise, and benevolent, and good : wise
as respects the Umon — ^good as respects Missouri — ^benevo
lent as respects the unhappy victims whom, vrith a novel
Mndness, it would incarcerate m the South, and bless by de
cay and extirpation. Let aU such beware, lest m thefr desire
for the effect wMch they beUeve the restriction wUl produce,
they are too easfly satisfied that they have the right to im
pose it. The moral beauty of the present purpose, or even
its poUtical recommendations (whatever they may be), can
do nothing for a power Uke tMs, wMch claims to prescribe
conditions ad libitum, and to be competent to this purpose,
because it is competent to all. This restriction, if it be nPt
smothered m its birth, wUl be but a smaU part of the pro
geny of that prolific power It teems vrith a mighty brood.

300 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
of which tMs may be entitled to the distinction of comeliness
as well as of primogeniture. The rest may want the boasted
loveliness of their predecessor, and be even ugUer than
" Lapland witches."
Perhaps, Sir, you will permit me to remind you that it
is almost always in company with those considerations that
mterest the heart in some way or other, that encroachment
steals into the world. A bad purpose throws no veU over
the Ucenses of power. It leaves them to be seen as they are.
It affords them no protection from the inquiring eye of
jealousy. The danger is when a tremendous discretion hke
the present is attempted to be assumed, as on this occasion,
in .the names of pity, of reUgion, of national honor and
national prosperity ; when encroachment tricks itself out in
the robes of piety, or humanity, or addresses itself to pride
of country, vrith all its kindred passions and motives. It is
then that the guardians of the constitution are apt to slum
ber on thefr watch, or, if awake, to mistake for lawful rule
some pernicious anogation of power.
I would not discourage authorized legislation upon those
Mndly, generous, and noble feeUngs wMch Providence has
given to us for the best of purposes : but when power to act
is, under discussion, I wiU not look to the end in .riew, lest I
should become indifferent to the lawfuMess of the means.
Let us discard from tMs high constitutional question, aU
those extrinsic considerations which have been forced mto
its discussion. Let us endeavor to approach it with a
phUosopMc impartiahty of temper — with a sincere desire to
ascertain the boundaries of our authority, and a deter
mination to keep our wishes in subjectipn to our aUegiance
to the constitution.
Slavery, we are told in many a pampMet, memorial, and
speech, vrith wMch the press has lately groaned, is a foul
blot upon our otherwise immaculate reputation. Let tMs
be conceded — yet you are no nearer than before to the con-

LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 301
elusion that you possess power which may deal with other
subjects as effectuaUy as with this. Slavery, we are further
told, with some pomp of metaphor, is a canker at the root
of aU that is exceUent in tMs repubUcan empire, a pestilent
disease that is snatcMng the youthful bloom from its cheek,
prostrating its honor and withering its strength. Be it so —
yet U you have power to medicine to it in the way proposed,
and m virtue of the diploma wMch you claim, you havo also
power in the distribution of your poUtical alexipharmics to
present the deadliest drugs to every territory that would be
come a State, and bid it drink or remain a colony for ever.
Slavery, we are also told, is now " roUing onward with a rapid
tide towards the boundless regions of the West," threatemng
to doom them to sterihty and sorrow, unless some potent
voice can say to it — thus far shalt thou go and no farther.
Slavery engenders pride and mdolence in him who com
mands, and infficts mteUectual and moral degradation on
him who serves. Slavery, in fine, is unchristian and abom
inable. Sfr, I shaU not stop to deny that slavery is aU this
and more ; but I shaU not think myself the less authorized
to deny that it is for you to stay the course of this dark tor
rent, by opposing to it a mound raised up by the labors of
this portentous discretion on the domam of others — a mound
wMch you cannot erect but through the instrumentaUty of a
trespass of no ordinary Mnd — ^not the comparatively inno
cent trespass that beats down a few blades of grass wMch
the first Mnd sun or the next refresMng shower may cause
to spring again, but that wMch levels with the ground the
lordliest trees of the forest, and claims immortahty for the
destruction wMch it infficts.
I shaU not, I am sure, be told that I exaggerate this
power It has been admitted here, and elsewhere, that I
do not. But I want no such concession. It is manifest,
that as a discretionary power it is every thing or nothing—
that its head is in the clouds, or that it is a mere figment of

302 LIFE OP -WILLIAM PINKNEY.
enthusiastic speculation — ^that it has no existence, or that it
is an alarming vortex ready to swaUow up aU such portions
of the sovereignty of an infant State, as you may tMnk fit
to cast into it as preparatory to the introduction into the
Umon of the miserable residue. No man can contradict me
when I say, that if you have this power, you may squeeze
dovm a new-born sovereign State to the size of a pigmy, and
then taMng it between finger and thumb, stick it into some
niche of the Union, and stUl contmue by way of mockery to
caU it a State in the sense of the constitution. You may
waste it to a shadow, and then mtroduce it into the society
of flesh and blood, an object of scom and derision. You
may sweat and reduce it to a thmg of sMn and bone, and
then place the ominous skeleton beside the raddy and he,alth-
ful members of the Union, that it may have leisure to mourn
the lamentable difference between itself and its compamons,
to brood over its disastrous promotion, and to seek in justifi
able discontent, an opportunity for separation, and insurrec
tion, and rebeUion. What may you not do by dexterity and
perseverance vrith tMs terrific power ? , You may give to a
new State, in the form of terms wMch it cannot refuse, (as
I shaU show you hereafter,) a statute book of a thousand vol
umes — proriding not for ordmary cases only, but even for
possibUities ; you may lay the yoke, no matter whether Ught
or heavy, upon the necks of the latest posterity ; you may
send tMs searcMng power into every hamlet for centuries to
come, by laws enacted in the spirit of prophecy, and regulat
ing aU those dear relations of domestic concern, wMch be
long to local legislation, and which even local legislatiorn
touches vrith a dehcate and sparmg hand. TMs is the first
mroad. But wfll it be the last ? TMs prorision is but a
pioneer for others of a more desolating aspect. It is the fatal
bridge of wMch MUton speaks, and when once firmly buflt,
what shaU Mnder you to pass it when you please, for the
purpose of plundering power afler power at the expense of

LIPE OP -WILLIAM PINKNEY, 303
new States, as you wUl stUl contmue to caU them, and rais
ing up prospective codes, irrevocable and immortal, which
shaU leave to those States the empty shadows of domestic
sovereignty, and convert them into petty pageants, in them
selves contemptible, but rendered infimtely more so by the
contrast of their humble faculties, with the proud and ad
mitted pretensions of those who, having doomed them to the
inferiority of vassals, have condescended to take them into
their society and imder their protection ?
I shaU be told, perhaps, that you can have no tenipta-
tion to do all, or any part of tMs, and, moreover, that you
can do nothing of yourselves, or, in other words, without the
concurrence of the new State, The last of these sugges
tions I shaU examme by and by. To the first I answer, that
it is not incumbent upon me to prove that tMs discretion
wfll be abused. It is enough for me to prove the vastness of
the power as an inducement to make us pause upon it, and
to inquire vrith attention, whether there is any apartment in
the constitution large enough to give it entertainment. It
is more than enough for me to show that vast as is tMs power,
it is vrith reference to mere territories an irresponsible power.
Power is irresponsible when it acts upon those who are de
fenceless agamst it, who cannot check it, or contribute to check
it, m its exercise, who can resist it only by force. The terri
tory of Missouri has no check upon tMs power. It has no share
in the govemmerit of the Union. In this body it has no repre
sentative. In the other House it has, by courtesy, an agent,
who may remonstrate, but cannot vote. That such an ine-
sponsible power is not Ukely to be abused, who wfll undertake
to assert ? If it is not, ' ' Experience is a cheat, and fact a Uar. "
The power wMch England claimed over the colomes, was such
a power, and it was abused — ^and hence the revolution. Such
a power is always perUous to those who wield it, as weU as
to those on whom it is exerted. Oppression is but another
name for inesponsible power, if Mstory is to be trusted. ^

304 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY,
The free spirit of our constitution and of our people, is
no assurance agamst the propension of unbridled power to
abuse, when it acts upon colonial dependents rather than
upon ourselves. Free States, as well as despots, have op
pressed those whom they were bound to foster — and it is the
nature of man that it should be so. The love of power, and
the desire to display it when it can be done with impunity,
is inherent m the human heart. Turn it out at the door,
aind it will in again at the wmdow. Power is displayed m
its fuUest measure, and with a captivating dignity, by re
straints and conditions. The pruritas leges ferendi is an
universal disease ; and conditions are laws as far as they go.
The vanity of human vrisdom, and the presumption of hu
man reason, are proverbial. TMs vanity and this presump
tion, are often neither reasonable nor wise. Humanity, too,
sometimes plays fantastic tricks with power. Time, moreover,
is frmtful in temptations to convert discretionary powe;r to
aU sorts of purposes.
Time, that vrithers the strength of man, and " strews
around him Uke autumnal leaves, the ruins of Ms proudest
monuments," produces great -ricissitudes m modes of think
mg and feeling. It brings along vrith it, m its progress,
new circumstances — new combmations and modifications of
the old — generating new views, motives, and caprices — new
fanaticisms of endless variety — ^in short, new every tMng.
We ourselves are always changing — and what to-day we
have but a smaU desfre to attempt, to-monow becomes the
object of our passionate aspirations.
There is such a tMng as enthusiasm, moral, reUgious, or
political, or a compound of all three ; — and it is wonderful
what it wUl attempt, and from what imperceptible beginnmgs
it sometimes rises into a mighty agent, Eismg from gome
obscure or imknown source, it first shows itself a petty
rivulet, which scarcely murmurs over the pebbles that ob
struct its way — then it swells into a fierce tonent, bearing

LIPE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY, 305
aU before it — and then again, like some mountain stream,
which occasional rains have precipitated upon the valley, it
sinks once more into a rivulet, and finally leaves its channel
dry. Such a tMng has happened. I do not say that it is
now happenmg. It would not become me to say so. But if
it should occur, woe to the unlucky territory that should be
straggling to make its way into the Union at the moment
when the opposing inundation was at its height, and at the
same instant, this wide Mediterranean of discretionary pow
ers, wMch it seems is ours, should open up aU its sluices, and
vrith a consentaneous rush, mingle with the turbid waters of
the others.
" New States may be admitted by the Congress into this
Union." It is objected that the word " may" imports power,
not obligation — a right to decide — a discretion to grant or
refuse. To tMs it might be answered, that power is duty on
many occasions. But let it be conceded that it is discre
tionary. What consequence follows ? A power to refuse,
in a case like this, does not necessarily involve a power to
exact terms. You must look to the result, which is the de
clared object of the power. Whether you will arrive at it,
or not, may depend on your wfll ; but you cannot compro
mise with the result intended and professed.
What then is the professed result ? To adnoit a State
mto tMs Union.
What is that Union ? A confederation of States, equal
in sovereignty — capable of every thing wMch the constitu
tion does not forbid, or authorize Congress to forbid. It is
an equal Union, between parties equally sovereign. They
were sovereign, independently of the Union. The object of
the Union was common protection for the exercise of already
existmg sovereignty. The parties gave up a portion of that
sovereignty to insure the remamder As far as they gave it
20

306 LIFE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY.
up, by the common compact, they have ceased to be sove
reign. The Union provides the means of defending the resi
due : and it is into that Union that a new State is to come.
By acceding to it, the new State is placed on the same foot
ing with the original States. It accedes for the same
purpose, i. e., protection for its unsurrendered sovereignty.
If it comes in shorn of its beams — crippled and disparaged
beyond the original States, it is not into the original Union
that it comes. For it is a different sort of Union. The '
first was Union inter pares : This is a Union between
disparates — between giants and a dwarf — between power and
feebleness — between full proportioned sovereignties, and a
miserable image of power— a thing which that very Union
has shrank and shrivelled from its just size, instead of pre-
serring it in its true dimensions.
It is into " tMs Union," i. e., the Union of the Fede
ral Constitution, that you are to admit, or refuse to admit.
You can admit into no other. You cannot make the Union,
as to the new State, what it is not as to the old ; for then it
is not this Union that you open for the entrance of a new
party. If you make it enter into a new and additional com
pact, is it any longer the same Union ?
We are told that admitting a State into the Union is
a compact. Yes — ^but what sort of a compact ? A compact
that it shall be a member of the Union, as the constitution
has made it. You cannot new fashion it. You may make
a compact to admit, but when admitted, the original com
pact prevails. The Union is a compact, vrith a prorision of
political power and agents for the accomplishment of its ob
jects. Yary that compact as to a new State — ^give new
energy to that pohtical power, so as to make it act with
more force upon a new State than upon the old — ^make the
wiU of those agents more effectuaUy the arbiter of the fate
of a new State than of the old, and it may be confidently
said that the new State has not entered into this Union, but

LIFE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY. 307
into another Umon. How far the Union has been varied is
another question. But that it has been varied is clear
If I am told, that by the biU relative to Missouri, you do
not legislate upon a new State — I answer that you do ; and
I answer further, that it is immaterial whether you do or not.
But it is upon Missouri, as a State, that your terms and
conditions are to act. Untfl Missouri is a State, the terms
and conditions are nothing. You legislate in the shape of
terms and conditions, prospectively ; and you so legislate
upon it, that when it comes into the Union it is to be bound
by a contract degrading and diminishing its sovereignty,
and is to be stripped of rights which the original parties to
the Union did not consent to abandon, and which that
Union (so far as depends upon it) takes under its protection
and guarantee.
Is the right to hold slaves a right which Massachusetts
enjoys ? If it is, Massachusetts is under this Union in a dif
ferent character from Missouri. The compact of Union for
it, is different from the same compact of Union for Missouri,
The power of Congress is different — every thing which de
pends upon the Union is, in that respect, different.
But it is immaterial whether you legislate for Missouri as
a State or not. The effect of your legislation is to bring it
into the Umon with a portion of its sovereignty taken away.
But it is a State wMch you are to admit. What is a
State in the sense of the constitution ? It is not a State in
the general — but a State as you find it in the constitution.
A State, generaUy, is a body poUtic or independent political
society of men. But the State wMch you are to admit must
be more or less than this poUtical entity. What must it be ?
Ask the constitution. It shows what it means by a State
by reference to the parties to it. It must be such a State
as Massachusetts, Virginia, and the other members of the
American confederacy — a State vrith fuU sovereignty, except
as the constitution restricts it.

308 LIFE OF -WILLIAM PINKNEY,
It is said that the word may ncessanij impUes the right
of prescribing the terms of admission. Those who maintain
this are aware that there are no express words (such as upon
such terms and conditions as Congress shall think fit), words
which it was natural to expect to find in the constitution, if
the effect contended for were meant. They put it, there
fore, on the word may, and on that alone.
Give to that word all the force you please — what does it
import ? That Congress is not bound to admit a new State
into tMs Union. Be it so for argument's sake. Does it
follow that when you consent to adnut into this Union a new
State, you can make it less in sovereign power than the ori
ginal parties to that Union — that you can make the Union
as to it what it is not as to them — that you can fashion it to
your liMng by compelling it to purchase admission into an
Union by sacrificing a portion of that power which it is the
sole purpose of the Union to maintain in all the plenitude
wMch the Union itself does not impair ? Does it foUow,
that you can force upon it an additional compact not found
in the compact of Union .P that you can make it come into
the Union less a State, in regard to sovereign power, than its
fellows in that Union? that you can cripple its legislative
competency (beyond the constitution which is the pact of
Union, to which you make it a party as if it had been origi
naUy a party to it), by what you choose to caU a condition,
but which, whatever it may be called, brings the new gov
ernment into the Union under new obligations to it, and
vrith disparaged, power to be protected by it ?
In a word, the whole amount of the argument on the
other side, is — that you may refuse to admit a new State,
and that therefore, if you admit, you may prescribe the
terms. The answer to that argument is — ^that even if you can re
fuse, you can prescribe no terms which are inconsistent with
the act you are to do. You can prescribe no condition

LIFE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY, 309
which, if carried into effect, would make the new State
less a sovereign State than, under the Union as it stands, it
would be. You can prescribe no terms which wfll make the
compact of Umon between it and the original States essen
tiaUy diff'erent from that compact among the original States.
You may admit, or refuse to admit : but if you admit, you
must admit a State in the sense ofthe constitution — a State
vrith aU such sovereignty as belongs to the original parties :
and it must be into this Union that you are to admit it, not
into a Umon of your own dictating, formed out of the exist
ing Union by qualifications and new compacts, altering its
character and effect, and makmg it faU short of its protect
ing energy in reference to the new State, wMlst it acquires
an energy of another sort — the energy of restraint and de
struction. I have thus endeavored to show, that even if you have a
discretion to refuse to admit — ^you have no discretion, if you
are wilUng to admit, to insist upon any terms that impair
the sovereignty of the admitted State as it would otherwise
stand in the Union by the constitution which receives it into
its bosom. To admit or not, is for you to decide. Admis
sion once conceded, it follows as a corollary that you must
take the new State as an equal companion with its fellows —
that you cannot recast or new model the Union pro hac vice
— but that you must receive it into the actual Union, and
recognize it as a parcener in the common inheritance, with
out any other shackles than the rest have, by the constitu
tion, subnfltted to bear — vrithout any other extinction of
power than is the work of the constitution acting indiffer
ently upon aU.
I may be told, perhaps, that the restriction, in this case,
is the act of Missouri itself— that your law is nothing with
out its consent, and derives its efficacy from that alone.
I shaU have a more suitable occasion to speak on this
topic hereafter, when I come to consider the treaty wMch

310 LIFE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY.
ceded Lomsiana to the United States, But I wiU say a few
words upon it now, of a more general application than it wiU,
m that branch of the argument, be necessary to use,
A territory cannot surrender to Congress by anticipa
tion, the whole, or a part, of the sovereign power^ wMch,
by the constitution of the Union, vriU belong to it when it
becomes a State and a member of the Union, Its consent
is, therefore, nothing. It is in no situation to make tMs sur
render. It is under the government of Congress ; if it can
barter away a part of its sovereignty, by anticipation, it can
do so as to the whole. For where will you stop ? If it does
not cease to be a State, in the serise of the constitution, with
only a certain portion of sovereign power, what other smaller
portion vrill have that effect ? If you depart from the
standard of the constitution, i. e., the quantity of domestic
sovereignty left in the first contracting States, and secured
by the original compact of Union, where wUl you get ano
ther standard ? Consent is no standard, — ^for consent may
be gained to a sunender of all.
No State or Territory, in order to become a State,* can
alienate or surrender any portion of its sovereignty to the
Umon, or to a sister State, or to a foreign nation. It is un
der an incapacity to disqualify itself for all the purposes of
government left to it in the constitution, by stripping itself
of attributes which arise from the natural equahty of States,
and wMch the constitution recognizes, not only because it
does not deny them, but presumes them to remain as they
exist by the law of nature and nations. InequaUty in the
sovereignty of states is unnatural, and repugnant to all the
principles of that law. Hence we find it laid down by the
text writers on pubhc law, that " Nature has estabUshed a
perfect equaUty of rights between independent nations " —
and that " Whatever the quaUty of a free sovereign nation
gives to one, it gives to another." ® The constitution of the
?Vattel, Droit des Gens, Hv. 2, c. 8. s. 36,

LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 311
United States proceeds upon the truth of tMs doctrine. It
takes the States as it finds them, free and sovereign alike
BY NATURE. It rcceivcs from them portions of their power
for the general good, and provides for the exercise of it by
organized political bodies. It diminishes the individual
sovereignty of each, and transfers, what it subtracts, to the
government wMch it creates : it takes from all alike, and
leaves them relatively to each other equal in sovereign power.
The honorable gentleman from New- York has put the
constitutional argument altogether upon the clause relative
to admission of new States into the Union. He does not
pretend that you can find the power to restrain, in any ex
tent, elsewhere. It follows that it is not a particular power
to impose this restriction, but a power to impose restrictions
ad libitum. It is competent to tMs, because it is competent
to every thing. But he denies that there can be any power
in man to hold in slavery Ms feUow-creature, and argues,
therefore, that the proMbition is no restraint at all, since it
does not interfere vrith the sovereign powers of Missouri.
One of the most signal errors with which the argument
on the other side has abounded, is this of considering the pro
posed restriction as if levelled at the introduction or estab-
lishrhent of slavery. And hence the vehement declamation,
which, among other things, has informed us that slavery orig
inated in fraud or violence.
The truth is, that the restriction has no relation, real or
pretended, to the right of maMng slaves of those who are free,
or of introducing slavery where it does not already exist. It
appUes to those who are admitted to be already slaves, and
who (with thefr posterity) would continue to be slaves if they
should remain where they are at present ; and to a place
where slavery afready exists by the local law. Their ciril
condition wUl not be altered by thefr removal from Virginia,
or CaroUna, to Missouri. They wiU not be more slaves than

312.. LIFE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY.
they now are. Their abode, indeed, will be different, but
their bondage the same. Their numbers may ppssibly be
augmented by the diffusion, and I think they wUl. But this
can only happen because their hardsMps wfll be mitigated,
and their comforts increased. The checks to population,
wMch exist in the older States wiU be diminished. The
restriction, therefore, does not prevent the estabUshment of
slavery, either vrith reference to persons or place ; but simply
inMbits the removal from place to place (the law in each
being the same) of a slave, or make his emancipation the
consequence of that removal. It acts professedly merely on
slavery as it exists, and thus acting restrains its present law
ful effects. That slavery, Uke many other human institu
tions, originated in fraud or violence, may be conceded : but,
however it originated, it is estabUshed among us, and no
man seeks a further estabUshment of it by new importations
of freemen to be converted into slaves. On the contrary, aU
are anxious to mitigate its erils by all the means within the
reach of the appropriate authority, the domestic legislatures
of the different States.
It can be nothing to the purpose of this argument, there
fore, as the gentlemen themselves have shaped it, to inquire
what was the origin of slavery. What is it now, and who
are they that endeavor to innovate upon what it now is (the
advocates of tMs restriction who desire change by unconsti
tutional means, or its opponents who desire to leave the
whole matter to local regulation), are the only questions
worthy of attention.
Sir, if we too closely look to the rise and progress of long
sanctioned establishments and unquestioned rights, we may
discover other subjects than that of slavery, with which fraud
and violence may claim a fearful connection, and over which
it may be our interest to throw the mantle of oblirion. What
was the settlement of our ancestors in this country but an
invasion of the rights of the barbarians who inhabited it ?

LIPE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 313
That settlement, with slight exceptions, was effected by the
slaughter of those who did no more than defend their native
land against the intruders of Europe, or by unequal compacts
and purchases, in which feebleness and ignorance had to deal
with power and cunning. The savages who once built their
huts where this proud Capitol, rising from its recent ashes,
exemplifies the sovereignty of the American people, were
swept away by the injustice of our fathers, and their domam
usurped by force, or obtained by artifices yet more criminal.
Our continent was full of those aboriginal inhabitants.
Where are they or their descendants ? Either " vrith years
beyond the flood," or driven back by the swelUng tide of our
population from the borders of the Atlantic to the deserts of
the West. You foUow stfll the miserable remnants, and
make contracts vrith them that seal their ruin. You pur
chase thefr lands, of which they know not the value, in order
that you may seU them to advantage, increase your treasure,
and enlarge your empire. Yet further — you pursue as they
retire ; and they must continue to retire, until the Pacific
shafl stay their "retreat, and compel them to pass away as
a dream. WiU you recur to those scenes of various iniquity
for any other purpose than to regret and lament them ?
WiU you pry into them, vrith a view to shake and impair
your rights of property and dominion ?
But the broad demal of the sovereign right of Missouri,
if it shaU become a sovereign State, to recognize slavery by
its laws, is rested upon a variety of grounds, all of which I
vriU examine.
It is an extraordmary fact, that they who urge this denial
with such ardent zeal, stop short of it in their conduct.
There are now slaves in Missouri whom they do not insist
upon dehvering from their chains. Yet if it is incompetent
to sovereign power to continue slavery in Missouri, in respect
of slaves who may yet be carried thither, show me the power
that can continue it in respect of slaves who are there already.

314 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY,
Missouri is Out of the old Umits of the Union, and beyond
those limits, it is said, we can give no countenance to slavery,
if we can countenance or tolerate it any where. It is plain,
that there can be no slaves beyond the Mississippi at this
moment but in virtue of some power to make or keep them
so. What sort of power was it that has made or kept them
so ? Sovereign power it could not be, according to the
honorable gentlemen from Pennsylvania and New Hamp-
sMre : * and if sovereign power is unequal to such a purpose,
less than sovereign power is yet more unequal to it. The
laws of Spain and France could do nothing — the laws of the
territorial government of Missouri could do nothing towards
such a result, if it be a resiflt which no laws, in other words,
no sovereignty, could accomplish. The treaty of 1803 could
do no more, inthis riew, than the laws of France, or Spain,
or the territorial government of Missouri. A treaty is an act
of sovereign power, taMng the shape of a compact between the
parties to it ; and that which sovereign power cannot reach at
all, it cannot reach by a treaty. Those who are now held in
bondage, therefore, in Missouri, and their issue, are entitled to
be free, if there be any truth in the doctrme of the honorable
gentlemen ; and if the proposed restriction leaves all such in
slavery, it thus discredits the very foundation on which it re
poses. To be inconsistent is the fate of false principles — but
this inconsistency is the more to be remarked, since it cannot
be referred to mere considerations of policy, without admit
ting that such considerations may be preferred (without a
crime) to what is deemed a paramount and indispensable
duty. It is here, too, that I must be permitted to observe, that
the honorable gentlemen have taken great pains to show
that this restriction is a mere work of supererogation by the
principal argument on wMch they rest the proof of its pro
priety, Missouri, it is said, can have no power to do what
* Mr. Roberts, Mr. Lowrie, and Mr. Morril.

LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 315
the restriction would prevent. It would be void, therefore,
without the restriction. Why then, I ask, is the restriction
insisted upon ? Eestraint implies that there is sometMng
to be restrained : But the gentlemen justify the restraint
by shovring that there is nothing upon which it can operate !
They demonstrate the wisdom and necessity of restraint, by
demonstrating that with or vrithout restraint, the subject is
in the same predicament. This is to combat vrith a man
of straw, and to put fetters upon a shadow.
The gentlemen must, thereforOj abandon either thefr doc
trine or their restriction, their argument or their object, for
they are directly in conffict, and reciprocaUy destroy each other.
It is erident, that they vriU not abandon their object, and of
course, I must believe, that they hold their argument in as
Uttle real estimation as I myself do. The gentlemen can
scarcely be sincere beUevers in their own principle. They
have apprehensions, which they endeavor to conceal, that
Missouri, as a State, vriU have power to continue slavery
vrithin its Umits ; and if they will not be offended, I will
venture to compare them, in this particularj with the dueUst
m Sheridan's comedy of the Eivals, who affecting to have
no fear whatever of his adversary, is, nevertheless, careful to
admonish Sir Lucius to hold him fast.
Let us take it for granted, however, that they are in
eamest in thefr doctrme, and that it is very necessary to im
pose what they prove to be an unnecessary restraint : how do
they support that doctrine ?
The honorable gentleman on the other side* has told us,
as a proof of Ms great position (that man cannot enslave Ms
feUow man, in which is impUed that aU laws upholding slave
ry are absolute nuUities), that the nations of antiquity as
weU as of modem times have concurred in laying down that
position as incontrovertible. *Mr. King.

316 LIFE OF "WILLIAM PINKNEY.
He refers us in the first place to the Eoman law, in
which he finds it laid down as a maxim : Jure naturcdi om
nes homines ah initio liberi nascebantur. From the manner
in wMch this maxim was pressed upon us, it would not read
Uy have been conjectured that the honorable gentleman who
used it had borrowed it from a slave-holding empfre, and stiU
less from a book of the Institutes of Justinian, which treats
of slavery, and justifies, and regulates it. Had he given us
the context, we should have had the modifications of wMch
the abstract doctrine was in the judgment of the Eoman law
susceptible. We should have had an explanation of the
competency of that law, to convert, whether justly or un
justly, freedom into servitude, and to maintain the right of
a master to the service and obedience of his slave.
The honorable gentleman might also have gone to Greece
for a similar maxim and a similar commentary, speculative
and practical.
He next refers us to Magna Charta. I am somewhat famil
iar vrith Magna Charta, and I am confident that it contains no
such maxim as the honorable gentleman thinks he has discov
ered in it. The great charter was extorted from John, and
his feeble son and successor, by haughty slave-holding barons,
who thought only of themselves and the commons of Eng
land (then inconsiderable), whom they wished to enlist in
their efforts against the crown. There is not in it a single
word which condemns civil slavery. Freemen oifly are the ob
jects of its protecting care, "Nuflus liher homo," is its
phraseology. The serfs, who were chained to the soil — the
vflleins regardant and in gross, were left as it found them.
All England was then full of slaves, whose posterity would
by law remam slaves as with us, except only that the issue
followed the condition of the father instead of the mother.
The rule was " Partus seqmtur patrem " — a rule more favor
able, undoubtedly, from the very precariousness of its apph
cation, to the gradual extinction of slavery, than ours, which

LIFE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY. 317
has been dra-wn from the Eoman law, and is of sure and un
avoidable effect.
StiU less has the Petition of Right, presented to Charles
I., by the Long Parliament, to do with the subject of civil
slavery. It looked merely, as Magna Charta had not done
before it, to the freedom of England — and sought only to
protect them agamst royal prerogative and the encroaching
spfrit of the Stewarts.
As to the Bill of Bights, enacted by the Convention Par
liament of 1688, it is almost a duplicate ofthe Petition of
Eight, and arose out of the recoUection of that poUtical ty
ranny from wMch the nation had just escaped, and the re
currence of which it was intended to prevent. It contains
no abstract principles. It deals only with practical checks
upon the power of the monarch, and in safeguards for insti
tutions essential to the preservation of the pubhc liberty.
That it was not designed to anathematize ciril slav-ery may
be taken for granted, smce at that epoch and long afterwards
the English govemment inundated its foreign plantations
with slaves, and supplied other nations with them as mer
chandise, under the sanction of solemn treaties negotiated
for that purpose. And here I cannot forbear to remark that
we owe it to that same government, when it stood towards
us in the relation of parent to child, that involuntary serri-
tude exists in our land, and that we are now deliberating
whether the prerogative of conecting its evUs belongs to the
national or the State governments. In the early periods of
our colonial history every thing was done by the mother
country to encourage the importation of slaves into North
America, and the measures wMch were adopted by the Colo
nial Assemblies to proMbit it, were umformly negatived by
the crown. It is not therefore our fault, nor the fault of our
ancestors, that tMs calamity has been entaUed upon us ; and
notwithstanding the ostentation with wMch the loitering ab
oUtion of the slave trade by the British ParUament has been

318 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
vaunted, the principal consideration which at last reconcUed
it to that measure was, that by smtable care, the slave pop
ulation in their West India islands (already fully stocked)
might be kept up and even increased without the aid of im
portation. In a word, it was cold calculations of interest,
and not the suggestions of humanity, or a respect for the
philanthropic principles of Mr. Wilberforce, which produced
their tardy abandonment of that abominable traffic.
Of the Declaration of our Independence, which has also
been quoted in support of the perUous doctrines now urged
upon us, I need not now speak at large. I have shown on a
former occasion how idle it is to rely upon that instrument
for such a purpose, and wfll not fatigue you by mere repe
tition. The self-erident truths announced inthe Declaration
of Independence are not truths at all, if taken UteraUy ;
and the practical conclusions contained in the same passage
of that Declaration prove that they were never designed to
be so received.
The Articles of Confederation contain nothing on the
subject ; whilst the actual constitution recognizes the legal
existence of slavery by various prorisions. The power of
prohibitmg the slave trade is involved in that of regulating
commerce, but tMs is coupled vrith an express iuMbition to
the exercise of it for twenty years. How then can that con
stitution wMch expressly permits the importation of slaves,
authorize the national government to set on foot a crusade
against slavery ?
The clause respecting fugitive slaves is affirmative and
active in its effects. It is a direct sanction and positive pro
tection of the right of the master to the serrices of his slave
as derived under the local laws of the State. The phrase
ology m wMch it is wrapped up stifl leaves the mtention clear,
and the words " persons held to serrice or labor in one State
under the laws thereof," have always been interpreted to ex
tend to the case of slaves, in the various acts of Congress

LIPE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY, 319
which have been passed to give efficacy to the provision, and
in the judicial application of those laws. So also in the clause
prescribing the ratio of representation — the phrase, " three-
fifths of all other persons," is equivalent to slaves, or it
means nothing. And yet we are told that those who are act
ing under a constitution which sanctions the existence of
slavery in those States which choose to tolerate it, are at lib
erty to hold that no law can sanction its existence !
It is idle to make the rightfulness of an act the measure
of sovereign power. The distinction between sovereign pow
er and the moral right to exercise it, has always been recog
nized. All poUtical power may be abused, but is it to stop
where abuse may begin ? The power of declaring war is a
power of vast capacity for mischief, and capable of inflicting
the most wide-spread desolation. But it is given to Con
gress without stint and vrithout measure. Is a citizen, or
are the courts of justice to inquire whether that, or any other
law, is just, before they obey or execute it ? And are there
any degrees of injustice which vrill withdraw from sovereign
power the capacity of maMng a given law ?
But sovereignty is said to be deputed power. Deputed
— ^by whom ? By the people, because the power is thefrs.
And if it be theirs, does not the restriction take it away ?
Examine the constitution of the Union, and it vrill be seen
that the people of the States are regarded as weU as the
States themselves. The constitution was made by the peo
ple, and ratified by the people.
Is it fit, then, to hold that all the sovereignty of a State
is in the govemment of the State ? So much is there as
the people grant : and the people can take it away, or give
more, or new model what they have already granted. It is
this right which the proposed restriction takes from Missouri.
You give them an immortal constitution, depending on your
wUl, not on theirs. The people and their posterity are to be
bound for ever by this restriction ; and upon the same prin-

320 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY,
ciple any other restriction may be imposed. Where then is
their power to change the constitution, and to devolve new
sovereignty upon the State government ? You limit their
sovereign capacity to do it ; and when you talk of a State,
you mean the people, as well as the government. The people
are the sou'rce of all ppwer — you dry up that source. They
are the reservoir — you take out of it what smts you.
It is said that this govemment is a government of depu
ted powers. So is every government — and what power is
not deputed remains. But the people of the United States
can give it more if they please, as the people of each State
can do in respect to its own govemment. And here it is
weU to remember, that this is a government of enumerated,
as weU as deputed powers ; and to examine the clause as to
the admission of new States, vrith that principle in view.
Now assume that it is a part of the sovereign power of the
people of Missouri to continue slavery, and to devolve that
power upon its government — and then to take it away — and
then to give it again. The government is their creature —
the means of exercising their sovereignty, and they can vary
those means at their pleasure. Independently of the Union,
thefr power would be unhmited. By coming into the
Union, they part 'vrith some of it, and are thus less sov
ereign. Let us then see whether they part vrith tMs power.
If they have parted vrith this portion of sovereign power,
it must be under that clause of the national constitution
which gives to Congress " power to adnut new States into
tMs Union." And it is said, that tMs necessarily implies
the authority of prescribing the conditions, upon which such
new States shall be admitted. This has been put into the
form of a syUogism wMch is thus stated :
Major. Every universal proposition includes aU the
means, manner, and terms of the act to wMch it relates.
Minor. But this is a universal proposition.

LIFE OF "WILLIAM PINKNEY. 321
Conclusion. Therefore, the means, manner, and terms,
are involved in it.
But tMs syllogism is faUacious, and any tMng else may
be proved by it, by assuming one of its members which
involves the conclusion. The minor is a mere postulate.
Take it in tMs way :
Major. None but a universal proposition includes in
itself the terms and conditions of the act to be done.
Minor. But this is not such a universal proposition.
Conclusion. Therefore, it does not contain in itself the
terms and conditions of the act.
In both cases the minor is a gratuitous postulate.
But I deny that a umversal proposition as to a speciHc
act, involves the terms and conditions of that act, so as to
vary it and substitute another and a different act in its
place. The proposition contained in the clause is universal
in one sense only. It is particular in another. It is um
versal as to the power to admit or refuse. It is particular
as to the being or thing to be admitted, and the compact by
wMch it is to be admitted. The sopMstry consists in
extending the umversal part of the proposition in such, a
manner as to make out of it another umversal proposition.
It consists in confoundmg the right to produce or to refuse
to produce a certain defined effect, with a right to produce a
different effect by refusing otherwise to produce any effect at
aU. It makes the actual right the instrument of obtaining
another right vrith wMch the actual right is incompatible.
It makes, in a word, lawful power the mstrument of unlaw-
fifl usurpation. The result is kept out of sight by tMs
mode of reasonmg. The discretion to decUne that result,
wMch is caUed a umversal proposition, is singly obtruded
upon us. But m order to reason conectly, you must keep
m riew the defined result, as weU as the discretion to pro
duce or to decline to produce it. The result is the particu
lar part of the proposition ; therefore, the discretion to
21

322 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
produce or decUne it, is the umversal part of it. But
because the laist is found to be umversal, it is taken for
granted that the fbrst is also umversal. TMs is a sophism
too manifest to impose.
But discarding the machinery of syUogisms as unfit for
such a discussion as tMs, let us look at the clause with a
riew of interpreting it by the rales of sound logic and com
mon sense.
The power is " to admit new States mto this Union ;"
and it may be safely conceded that here is discretion to
admit or refuse. The question is, What must we do if we
do any thing ? What must we admit, and into what ?
The answer is a State — and into this Union.
The distinction between federal rights and local rights,
is an idle distmetion. Because the new State acquires
federal rights, it is not, therefore, in this Union. The Union
is a compact ; and is it an equal party to that compact, be
cause it has equal federal rights ?
How is the Umon formed ? By equal contributions of
power. Make one member sacrifice more than other, and it
becomes unequal. The compact is of two parts,
1. The thmg obtained — ^federal rights.
2, The price paid — ^local sovereignty.
You may disturb the balance of the Union, either by di-
inmisMng the tMng acquired, or increasing the sacrifice
paid. What were the purposes of commg into the Union
among the original States ? The States were originaUy
sovereign vrithout Umit, as to foreign and domestic concerns.
But being incapable of protecting themselves singly, they
entered into the Union to defend themselves against foreign
riolence. The domestic concerns of the people were not, in
general, to be acted on by it. The security of the power of
managmg them by domestic legislation, is one of the great
objects of the Umon. The Umon is a Tneans, not an end.

LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 323
By requiring greater sacrifices of domestic power, the end is
sacrificed to the means. Suppose the sunender of aU, or
nearly aU, the domestic powers of legislation were required ;
the means would there have swaUowed up the end.
The argument that the compact may be enforced, shows
that the federal predicament is changed. The power of the
Umon not only acts on persons or citizens, but on the
faculty of the govemment, and restrains it in a way which
the constitution nowhere authorizes. TMs new obUgation
takes away a right wMch is expressly " reserved to the peo
ple or the States," since it is nowhere granted to the govem
ment of the Umon. You cannot do indirectly what you
cannot do directly. It is said that this Union is competent
to make compacts. Who doubts it ? But can you make
this compact ; I insist that you cannot make it, because it
is repugnant to the tMng to be done.
The effect of such a compact would be to produce that
mequaUty in the Union, to which the constitution, in aU its
provisions, is adverse. Every thing m it looks to equahty
among the members of the Union. Under it, you cannot
produce inequaUty. Nor can you get beforehand of the con
stitution, and do it by anticipation. Wait untfl a State is
m the Umon, and you cannot do it : yet it is only upon the
State fa. the Umon that what you do begins to act.
i^ 5S ^f ^5 ^ ^« 5^ ^ 5^
But it seems, that although the proposed restriction may
not be justified by the clause of the constitution wMch gives
power to admit new States into the Union, separately con
sidered, there are other parts of the constitution which com
bined vrith that clause wiU wanant it. And first we are
informed that there is a clause in tMs instrament wMch de
clares that Congress shcdl guarantee to every State a repub
hcan form of govemment ; that slavery and such a form of
govemment are incompatible ; and finaUy, as a conclusion
from these premises, that Congress not only have a right.

324 LIFE OF -WILLIAM PINKNEY.
but are bound to exclude slavery from a new State. Here
again. Sir, there is an edifying inconsistency between the ar
gument and the measure which it professes to vindicate.
By the argument it is maintained that Missouri Cannot have
a repubUcan form of government, and at the same time toler
ate negro slavery. By the measure it is admitted that Mis
souri may tolerate slavery, as to persons already in bondage
there, and be nevertheless fit to be received into the Union.
What sort of constitutional mandate is this which can thus
be made to bend, and trucMe, and compromise as if it were
a simple rale of expediency that might admit of exceptions
upon motives of countervailing expediency ? There can be
no such pliancy in the peremptory prorisions of the consti
tution. They cannot be obeyed by moieties and violated in
the same ratio. They must be foUowed out to their full
extent, or treated vrith that decent neglect wMch has at
least the merit of forbearing to render contumacy obtrusive
by an ostentatious display ofthe very duty which we in part
abandon. If the decalogue could be observed m this casu
istical manner, we might be grievous sinners, and yet be
Uable to no reproach. We might persist in aU our habitual
frregularities, and stiU be spotless. We might, for example,
continue to covet our neighbors' goods, prorided they were
the same neighbors whose goods we had before coveted* — and
so of aU the other commandments.
WiU the gentlemen tell us that it is the quantity qf
slaves, not the quality of slavery, which takes from a govern
ment the repubUcan form ? WiU they teU us (for they
have not yet told us) that there are constitutional grounds
(to say nothing of common sense) upon which the slavery
which now exists in Missouri may be reconciled with a re
publican form of government, whfle any addition to the
number qf its slaves (the quality of slavery remaining the
same) from the other States, wiU be repugnant to that form,
and metamorphose it into some non-descript govemment

LIFE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY. 325
disowned by the constitution ? They cannot have recourse
to the treaty of 1803 for such a distinction, since indepen
dently of what I have before observed on that head, the
gentlemen have contended that the treaty has nothing to do
vrith the matter. They have cut themselves off from all
chance of a convenient distinction in or out of that treaty,
by insisting that slavery beyond the old United States is re
jected by the constitution, and by the law of God as discov
erable by the aid of either reason or revelation ; and more
over that the treaty does not include the case, and if it did
could not make it better. They have therefore completely
discredited their own theory by their own practice, and left
us no theory worthy of being seriously controverted. This
peculiarity in reasoning, of giring out a universal principle
and coupUng vrith it a practical concession that it is wholly
faUacious, has indeed run through the greater part of the
arguments on the other side ; but it is not, as I think, the
more imposing on that account, or the less Uable to the cri
ticism which I have here bestowed upon it.
There is a remarkable inaccuracy on this branch of the
subject into wMch the gentlemen have faUen, and to which
I wfll give a moment's attention vrithout laying unnecessary
stress upon it. The govemment of a new State, as well as
of an old State, must, I agree, be repubUcan in its form.
But it has nof been veiy clearly explained what the latos
wMch such a government may enact can have to do with its
form. The form of the government is material only as it
furnishes a security that those laws wiU protect and promote
the pubUc happiness, and be made in a repubUcan spirit.
The people being, in such a government, the fountain of
aU power, and their servants being periodically responsible
to them for its exercise, the constitution of the Union takes
for granted, (except so far as it imposes hmitations,) that
every such exercise wiU be just and salutary. The intro
duction or continuance of civU slavery is manifestly the mere

326 LIFE OF WELLLiM PINKNEY.
resiflt of the power of maMng laws. It does not in any
degree enter into the form of the government. It pre-sup-
poses that form afready settled, and takes its rise not from
the particular frame of the government, but from the gene
ral power wMch every government mvolves. Make the gov
ernment what you vriU in its orgamzation and in the distri
bution of its authorities, the introduction or continuance of
involuntary serritude by the legislative power wMch it has
created can have no influence on its pre-estabUshed form,
whether monarchical, aristocratical, or repubUcan. The
form of government is still one thing, and the law, being a
simple exertion of the ordinary faculty of legislation by those
to whom that form of government has intrusted it, another.
The gentlemen, however, identify an act of legislation sanc
tioning involuntary servitude with the form of government
itself, and then assure us that the last is changed retroac
tively by the first, and is no longer republican.!
But let us proceed to take a rapid glance at the reasons
which have been assigned for this notion that involuntary
servitude and a republican form of government are perfect
antipatMes. The gentleman from New-Hampshire® has de
fined a republican government to be that in which aU the
men participate in its power and privileges : from whence it
fijUows that where there are slaves, it can have no existence.
A defimtion is no proof, however; and even if it be dignified
(as I think it was) with the name of a maxim, the matter
is not much mended. It is Lord Bacon who says "that
notMng is so easily made as a maxim ;" and certainly a
definition is manufactured vrith equal facihty. A polit
ical maxim is the work of induction, and cannot stand
against experience, or stand on any thmg but experience.
But tMs maxim, or definition, or whatever else it may be,
sets fact at defiance. If you go back to antiquity, you
* Mr. Morril.

LIFB OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 327
vrill obtain no countenance for this hypothesis ; and if you
look at home you wiU gain stfll less. I have read that
Sparta, and Eome, and Athens, and many others of the
ancient family were repubhcs. They were so in form un
doubtedly — ^the last approaching nearer to a perfect demo
cracy than any other govemment which has yet been known
in the world. Judging of them also by their fruits, they
were of the highest order of republics. Sparta could
scarcely be any other than a republic, when a Spartan
matron could say to her son just marching to battle, Ee
turn VICTORIOUS, OR RETURN NO MORE. It was the uncou-
querable spirit of Uberty, nurtured by republican habits
and institutions, that Ulustrated the pass of Thermopylae.
Yet slavery was not only tolerated in Sparta, but was estab
lished by one of the fundamental laws of Lycurgus, haring
for its object the encouragement of that very spirit. Attica
was fuU of slaves — yet the love of liberty was its charac
teristic. What else was it that foiled the whole power of
Persia at Marathon and Salamis ? What other sofl than
that wMch the gemal Sun of Eepublican Freedom Ulumm-
ated and warmed, could have produced such men as Leo-
mdas and Mfltiades, Themistocles and Epaminondas ?
Of Eome it would be superfluous to speak at large. It is
sufficient to name the mighty mistress of the world, before
SyUa gave the first stab to her Uberties and the great dic
tator accomplished thefr final rain, to be reminded of the
practicability of umon between civU slavery and an ardent
love of liberty cherished by repubUcan establishments.
If we retum home for instruction upon tMs point, we
perceive that same union exempUfied in many a State, in
wMch " Liberty has a temple in every house, an altar in
every heart," wMle involuntary servitude is seen in every
dfrection. Is it denied that those States possess a repubU
can form of government ? If it is, why does our power
of conection sleep ? Why is the constitutional guaranty

328 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
suffered to be inactive ? Why am I permitted to fatigue
you, as the representative of a slaveholding State, vrith the
discussion of the nugoe canoroe (for so I tMnk them)
that have been forced into this debate contrary to aU the
remonstrances of taste and prudence ? Do gentlemen per
ceive the consequences to which their arguments must lead
if they are of any value ? Do they reflect that they lead
to emancipation in the old United States — or to an exclu
sion of Delaware, Maryland, and aU the South, and a great
portion of the West, from the Union ? My honorable
friend from Vfrginia has no business here, if tMs disor
gamzing creed be any tMng but the production of a heated
brain. The State to wMch I belong, must " perform a lus
tration" — must purge and purify herself from the feculence
of civU slavery, and emulate the States of the north m
thefr zeal for throvring down the gloomy idol wMch we are
said to worsMp, before her senators can have any title to ap
pear m this Mgh assembly. It wfll be in vain to urge that
the old United States are exceptions to the rule — or rather
(as the gentlemen express it), that they have no disposition
to apply the rule to them. There can be no exceptions, by
impUcation only, to such a rule ; and expressions which jus
tify the exemption of the old States by inference, vriU jus
tify the like exemption of Missouri, unless they point ex
clusively to them, as I have shown they do not. The
guarded manner, too, m which some of the gentlemen have
occasionaUy expressed themselves on tMs subject, is some
what alarming. They have no disposition to meddle vrith
slavery m the old Umted States. Perhaps not — but who
shaU answer for thefr successors ? Who shall fumish a
pledge that the prmciple once engrafted into the constitu
tion, wUl not grow, and spread, and fructify, and overshadow
the whole land ? It is the natural office of such a principle
to wrestle with slavery, wheresoever it finds it. New
States, colomzed by the apostles of tMs principle, wfll

LIPE OF "WILLIAM PINKNEY. 329
enable it to set on foot a fanatical crasade against all who
stUl continue to tolerate it, although no practicable means
are pointed out by wMch they can get rid of it consistently
fvrith their own safety. At any rate, a present forbearing
flisposition, in a few or m many, is not a security upon
wMch much reUance can be placed upon a subject as to
wMch so many selfish mterests and ardent feeUngs are con
nected vrith the cold calculations of poUcy. Admitting,
however, that the old Umted States are in no danger from
this principle — why is it so ? There can be no other an
swer (wMch these zealous enemies of slavery can use) than
that the constitution recognizes slavery as existing or
capable of existing in those States. The constitution, then,
admits that slavery and a repubUcan form of government
are not incongruous. It associates and binds them up to
gether, and repudiates tMs wild imagination which the gen
tlemen have pressed upon us "vrith such an air of triumph.
But the constitution does more, as I have heretofore proved.
It concedes that slavery may exist in a new State, as weU as
m an old one — since the language in which it recognizes
slavery comprehends new States as weU as actual. I trust
then that I shaU be forgiven if I suggest, that no eccentri
city in argument can be more trying to human patience,
than a formal assertion that a constitution, to which slave-
holding States were the most numerous parties, in wMch
slaves are treated as property as weU as person.s, and prori
sion is made for the security of that property, and even for
an augmentation of it, by a temporary importation from
Africa, a clause commanding Congress to guarantee a repub
lican form of govemment to those very States, as weU as to
others, authorizes you to determine that slavery and a re
pubUcan form of government cannot coexist.
But U a repubUcan form of govemment is that in which
all the men have a share in the pubUc power, the slave-
holdmg States wUl not alone retfre from the Union. The

330 LIFE OF VraLLIAM PINKNEY.
constitutions of some of the other States do not sanction um
versal suffrage, or universal eUgibUity. They require citizen-
sMp, and age, and a certain amount of property, to give a
title to vote or to be voted for ; and they who have not those
qualifications are just as much disfranchised, with regard to
the government and its power, as if they were slaves. They
have civU rights indeed (and so have slaves in a less degree) ;
but they have no share in the govemment. Their province
is to obey the laws, not to assist in making them. AU such
States must therefore be forisfamiliated with Vfrginia and
the rest, or change their system : for the constitution bemg
absolntely sflent on those subjects, vrill afford them no pro
tection. The Union might thus be reduced from an Union
to an umt. Who does not see that such conclusions flow
from false notions — that the true theory of a republican gov
ernment is mistaken — and that in such a government, rights
political and ciril, may be quaUfied by the fundamental law,
upon such iriducements as the freemen of the country deem
sufficient.? That ciril rights maybe qualified as weU as
poUtical, is proved by a thousand examples. Minors, resi
dent aliens, who are in a course of naturaUzation — the other
sex, whether maids or wives, or vridows, fumish sufficient
practical proofs of tMs.
Again; if we are to entertain these hopeful abstractions,
and to resolve all estabUshments into their imaginary ele
ments in order to recast them upon some Utopian plan, and
if it be true that aU the men in a republican govemment
must help to vrield its power, and be equal in rights, I beg
leave to ask the honorable gentleman from New Hampshire —
and why not aU the women ? They too are God's creatures,
and not only very fafr but very rational creatures ; and our
great ancestor, if we are to give credit to MUton, accounted
them the " vrisest, virtuousest, discreetest, best ;" although
to say the truth he had but one specimen from which to
draw Ms conclusion, and possibly if he had had more, would

LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 331
not have drawn it at aU. They have, moreover, acknowledged
ci-vU rights in abundance, and upon abstract principles more
than their mascuhne rulers aUow them m fact. Some
monarcMes, too, do not exclude them from the throne. We
have afl read of Ehzabeth of England, of Catharine of Eus
sia, of Semframis, and Zenobia, and a long Ust of royal and
imperial dames, about as good as an equal Ust of royal and
imperial lords. Why is it that their exclusion from the
power of a popiflar government is not destructive of its re
pubUcan character ? I do not address tMs question to the
honorable gentleman's gaUantry, but to Ms abstraction, and
Ms theories, and Ms notions of the infimte perfectibUity of
human institutions, bonowed from Godvrin and the turbulent
phflosophers of France. For my own part, Sfr, if I may
have leave to say so much in the presence of tMs mixed un
common audience, I confess I am no friend to female govem
ment, unless indeed it be that wMch reposes on gentleness,
and modesty, and rirtue, and fenflnine grace and deUcacy ;
and how powerful a government that is, we have aU of us, as
I suspect, at some time or other experienced ! But if the
ultra repubUcan doctrines wMch have now been broached
shoifld ever gain ground among us, I should not be surprised
if some romantic reformer, treadmg in the footsteps of Mrs,
Wolstoncraft, should propose to repeal our repubUcan law
saUque, and claim for our vrives and daughters a fuU par
ticipation in poUtical power, and to add to it that domestic
power, wMch in some famUies, as I have heard, is as absolute
and unrepubhcan as any power can be,
I have thus far aUowed the honorable gentlemen to avaU
themselves of thefr assumption that the constitutional Pom-
mand to guarantee to the States a repubUcan form of
government, gives power to coerce those states in the ad
justment of the detafls of their constitutions upon theo
retical speculations. But surely it is passing strange that
any man, who thinks at afl, can view tMs salutary command

332 LIFE OP -WILLIAM PINKNEY,
as the grant of a power so monstrous ; or look at it in any
other light than as a protecting mandate to Congress to in
terpose with the force and authority of the Union against
that riolence and usurpation, by wMch a member of it might
otherwise be oppressed by proffigate and powerfrfl individuals,
or ambitious and unprincipled factions.
In a word, the resort to this portion of the constitution
for an argument in favor of the proposed restriction, is one
of those extravagancies (I hope I shafl not offend by tMs ex
pression) which may excite our admiration, but cannot caU
for a very rigorous refutation, I have dealt vrith it accord
mgly, and have now done vrith it.
We are next invited to study that clause of the consti
tution wMch relates to the migration or importation, before
the year 1808, of such persons as any ofthe States then ex
isting should tMnk proper to admit. It runs thus : " The
migration or importation of such persons as any of the States
now existmg shaU tMnk proper to admit, shaU not be pro
hibited by the Congress prior to the year one thousand eight
hundred and eight, but a tax or duty may be imposed
on such importation not exceeding ten doUars for each
person." It is said that tMs clause empowers Congress, after the
year 1808, to proMbit the passage of slaves from State
to State, and the word " migration" is rehed upon for that
purpose. I vriU not say that the proof of the existence of a power
by a clause wMch, as far as it goes, demes it, is always inad
missible ; but I wiU say that it is always feeble. On this
occasion, it is singularly so. The power, m an affirmative
shape, cannot be found in the constitution; or if it can, it
is equivocal and unsatisfactory. How do the gentlemen
supply this deficiency ? by the aid of a negative prorision m
an article of the constitution m wMch many restrictions are
mserted ex abwndanti cautda, from wMch it is plainly im-;

LIFE OP -WILLIAM PINKNEY. f 333
possible to infer that the power to which they apply would
othervrise have existed. Thus : " No bUl of attainder or ex
post facto law shaU be passed." Take away the restriction,
could Congress pass a biU of attainder, the trial by jury in
criminal cases being expressly secured by the constitution ?
The inference, therefore, from the proMbition in question,
whatever may be its meaning, to the power which it is sup
posed to restrain, but wMch you cannot lay your finger upon
with any pretensions to certamty, must be a very doubtful
one. But the import of the prohibition is also doubtful, as
the gentlemen themselves admit. So that a doubtful power
is to be made certain by a yet more doubtful negative upon
power — or rather a doubtful negative, where there is no eri
dence of the correspondmg affirmative, is to make out the
affirmative and to justify us in acting upon it, in a matter
of such high moment, that questionable- T^ovex should not
dare to approach it. If the negative were perfectly clear in
its import, the conclusion which has been drawn from it
would be rash, because it might have proceeded, as some of
the negatives in whose company it is found eridently did
proceed, from great anxiety to prevent such assumptions of
authority as are now attempted. But when it is conceded,
that the supposed import of this negative (as to the term
migration) is ambiguous, and that it may have been used in
a very different sense from that wMch is imputed to it, the
conclusion acqufres a character of boldness, -which, however
some may admirS, the wise and reflecting wifl not fail to
condemn. In the constraction of tMs clause, the first remark that
occurs is, that the word migration is associated -with the
word importation. I do not insist that noscitur a sociis is
as good a rule in matters of interpretation as in common
Ufe ; ' but it is, nevertheless, of considerable weight when the
associated words are not qualified by any phrases that disturb
the effect of thefr feUowship ; and unless it announces (as

334 LIFE of WILLIAM PINKNEY.
in this case it does not), by specific phrases combmed vrith
the associated term, a different intention. Moreover, the
ordinary unrestricted import of the word migration is what
I have here supposed. A removal from district to district,
vritMn the same jurisdiction, is never denominated a migra
tion of persons. I vriU concede to the honorable gentlemen,
if they wfll accept the concession, that ants may be said to
migrate when they go from one ant-hfll to another at no
great distance from it. But even then they could not be
said to migrate, if each ant-MU was thefr home m virtue of
some federal compact with insects like themselves. But,
however tMs may be, it should seem to be certain that hu
man beings do not migrate, in the sense of a constitution,
simply because they transplant themselves, from one place,
to which that constitution extends, to another wMch it
equaUy covers.
If tMs word migration applied to freemen, and not to
slaves, it would be clear that removal from State to State
would not be comprehended vrithin it. Why then, if you
choose to apply it to slaves, does it take another meamng as
to the place from whence they are to come ?
Sfr, if we once depart from the usual acceptation of tMs
term, fortified as it is by its union vrith another in wMch
there is notMng m this respect equivocal, vrifl gentlemen
please to intimate the point at which we are to stop ? Migrcu-
tion means, as they contend, a removal from State to State,
witMn the pale of the common government.' Why not a re
moval also from county to county vritMn a particular
State — ^from plantation to plantation— from farm to farm —
from hovel to hovel ? Why not any exertion of the power
of locomotion ? I protest I do not see, if tMs arbitrary
Umitation of the natural sense of the term migration be war
rantable, that a person to whom it appUes may not be com
peUed to remam immovable aU the days of his Ufe (wMch

life op -WILLIAM PINKNEY. 335
could not weU be many) m the very spot, literaUy speaking,
in wMch it was his good or Ms bad fortune to be born.
Whatever may be the latitude in wMch the word "per
sons" is capable of being received, it is not denied that the
word "importation" indicates a bringing in from a jurisdic
tion foreign to the United States. The two termini of the
importation, here spoken of, are a foreign country and the
American Union — the first the terminus a quo, the second
the terminus ad quem. The word migration stands in sun-
pie connection vrith it, and of course is left to the full in
fluence of that connection. The natural conclusion is, that
the same termini belong to each, or in other words, that if
the importation must be abroad, so also must be the migro/-
tion — ^no other termim being assigned to the one wMch are
not manifestly characteristic of the other. TMs conclusion
is so obvious, that to repel it, the word migration requfres,
as an appendage, explanatory pMaseology, giring to it a dif
ferent beginning from that of importation. To justify the
conclusion that it was intended to mean a removal from
State to State, each vrithin the sphere of the constitution in
wMch it is used, the addition of the words from one to
another State in this Union, were indispensable. By the
omission of these words, the word " migration" is compeUed
tb take every sense of which it is fafrly susceptible from its
immediate neighbor " importation." In tMs riew it means
a coming, as " importation" means a bringing, from a foreign
jurisdiction into the Umted States. That it is susceptible
a&.this meaning, nobody doubts. I go further. It can have
no other meaning in the place m wMch it is found. It is
found in the constitution of this Umon — wMch, when it
speaks of migration as of a general concern, must be sup
posed to have in view a migration into the domain wMch
itself embraces as a general govemment.
Migration, theuj even if it comprehends slaves, does not
mean the removal of them from State to State, but means

336 LIFE OF -WILLIAM PINKNEY,
the coming of slaves from places beyond thefr limits and
their power. And if this be so, the gentlemen gam notMng
for thefr argument by showing that slaves were the objects
of tMs term.
An honorable gentleman from Ehode Island,* whose
speech was distinguished for its ability, and for an admfrable
force of reasoning, as weU as by the moderation and mfldness
of its spirit, informed us, with less discretion than m general
he exhibited, that the word " migration" was introduced into
tMs clause at the instance of some of the Southern States,
who wished by its mstrumentality to guard against a pro
hibition by Congress of the passage into those States of
slaves from other States. He has given us no authority for
this supposition, and it is, therefore, a gratuitous one. ' How
improbable it is, a moment's refiection wUl convmce Mm,
The African slave-trade being open during the whole of the
time to wMch the entire clause in question referred, such a
purpose could scarely be entertained ; but if it had been en
tertained, and there was believed to be a necessity for secur
ing it, by a restriction upon the power of Congress to interfere
vrith it, is it possible that they who deemed it important
would have contented themselves vrith a vague restramt,
which was calculated to operate in almost any other manner
than that wMch they desfred ? If fear and jealousy, such
as the honorable gentleman has described, had dictated this
provision, a better term than that of " migration," simple
and unquahfied, and joined too vrith the word " importa
tion," would have been found to tranquUUze. those fears and
satisfy that jealousy. Fear and jealousy are waitchflfl, and
are rarely seen to accept a security short of their object, and
less rarely to shape that security, of thefr own accord, m
such a way as to make it no security at aU. They always
seek an expUcit guaranty ; and that tMs is not such a gua-
* Mr, Burrill,

LIPE OF "WILLIAM PINKNEY. 337
ranty this debate has proved, if it has proved notMng
else. Sir, I shaU not be understood by what I have said to ad-
Eoit that the word migration refers to slaves. I have contended
only that if it does refer to slaves, it is in this clause syno
nymous with importation; and that it cannot mean the
mere passage of slaves, with or without their masters, from
one State in the Union to another.
But I now deny that it refers to slaves at all. I am not
for any man's opinions or his histories upon this subject. I
am not accustomed jurare in verba magistri. I shaU take
the clause as I find it, and do my best to interpret it.
^ ^ i\t i[i ¦s.'f V
[After going tMough with that part of his argument re
lating to tMs clause of the constitution, which I have not
been able to restore from the imperfect notes in my posses
sion, Mr. Pinkney concluded Ms speech by expressing a hope
that (what he deemed) the perilous principles urged by
those in favor of the restriction upon the new State would
be disavowed or explained, or that at all events the applica
tion of them to the subject under discussion would not be
pressed, but that it might be disposed of in a manner satis
factory to aU by a prospective prohibition of slavery in the
territory to the north and west of Missouri.]

SPEECH IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES ON THE TREATY-
MAKING POWER,
In the debate upon the bill to cany into effect the
British convention of 1815, Mr Pinkney said : He intended
yesterday, if the state of his health had permitted, to have
trespassed on the House with a short sketch of the grounds
upon which he disapproved of the biU. What I could not
do then, (said he,) I am about to endeavor now, under the
22

338 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY,
pressure, nevertheless, of continuing indisposition, as well as
under the influence of a natural reluctance thus to manifest
an apparently ambitious and improrident huny to lay aside
the character of a listener to the wisdom of others, by which
I could not fail to profit, for that of an expounder of my own
humble notions, which are not likely to be profitable to any
body. It is, indeed, but too probable that I should best
have consulted both deUcacy and discretion, if I had forborne
this precipitate attempt to launch my Uttle bark upon what
an honorable member has aptly termed "the torrent of de
bate " which this bill has produced. I am conscious that it
may with singular propriety be said of me, that I am noves
hospes here ; that I have scarcely begun to acquire a domicfl
among those whom I am undertaking to address ; and that re
cently transplanted Mther from courts of judicature, I ought
for a season to look upon myself as a sort of exotic, which
time has not sufficiently familiarized with the soil to which it
has been removed, to enable it to put forth either fruit or
flower. However all this may be, it is now too late to be
sflent. I proceed, therefore, to entreat your indulgent atten
tion to the few words with which I have to trouble you upon
the subject under dehberation.
That subject has already been treated vrith an admirable
force and perspicuity on aU sides of the House. The strong
power of argument has drawn aside, as it ought to do, the
veil which is supposed to belong to it, and which some of us
seem unwfllmg to disturb ; and the stronger power of genius,
from a Mgher region than that of argument, has thrown
upon it afl the light with which it is the prerogative of genius
to invest and Ulustrate every thing. It is fit that it should
be so ; for the subject is worthy by its digmty and impor
tance to employ in the discussion of it all the powers of the
mind, and all the eloquence by which I have already felt
that tMs assembly is distinguished. The subject is the fun
damental law. We owe it to the people to labor with sin-

' LIFE OF "WILLIAM PINKNEY. 339
cerity and diligence, to ascertain the true constraction of
that law, wMch is but a record of their will. We owe it to
the obligations of the oath which has recently been imprinted
upon our consciences, as well as to the people, to be obedient
to that wiU when we have succeeded in ascertaining it . I
shaU give you my opimon upon this matter, with the utmost
deference for the judgment of others ; but at the same time
with that honest and unreserved freedom wMch becomes tMs
place, and is suited to my habits.
Before we can be in a situation to decide whether this
bfll oughtto pass, we must know precisely what it is ; what it
is not is obrious. It is not a bifl which is auxiUary to the
treaty. It does not deal vrith detaUs which the treaty does
not bear in its own bosom. It contains no subsidiary enact
ments, no dependent prorisions, flowing as coroUaries from
the treaty. It is not to raise money, or to make appropria
tions, or to do any tMng else beyond or out of the treaty. It
acts simply as the echo of the treaty.
Ingeminat voces, auditaque verba reportat. It may
properly be caUed the twin brother of the treaty; its dupU
cate, its reflected image, for it re-enacts with a timid fidelity,
somewhat inconsistent vrith the boldness of its pretensions,
aU that the treaty stipulates, and having performed that
work of supererogation, stops. It once attempted something
more, indeed ; but that surplus has been expunged from it
as a desperate intruder, as something wMch might riolate,
by a misinterpretation of the treaty, that very public faith
wMch we are now prepared to say the treaty has never
plighted in any the smaUest degree. In a word, the biU is
a facsimile ofthe treaty in aU its clauses.
I am warranted m concluding, then, that if it be any
thmg but an empty form of words, it is a confirrriation or
ratification of the treaty; or, to speak vrith a more guarded
accuracy, is an act to wMch only (if passed into law) the
treaty can owe its bemg. If it does not spring from the

340 LIFE OF "WILLIAM PINKNEY, "
pruritas leges ferendi, by which tMs body can never be
afflicted, I am warranted in saying, that 'it' sj)rings from an
hypothesis (which may afllict us vrith a worse disease) that
no treaty of commerce can be made by any power in the-
state but Congress, It stands upon that postulate, or it is
a mere bubble, wMch might be suffered to float through thfr
forms of legislation, and then to burst vrithout consequence
or notice. That tMs postulate is utterly irreconcflable with the
claims and port with which tMs convention comes before you,
it is impossible to deny. Look at it ! Has it ., the, air or
shape of a mere pledge that the President vrill recommend
to Congress the passage of such laws as -wiU prbduce the
effect at which it aims ? Does it profess to be preliminary,
or prorisional, or mchoate, or to rely upon your instrumen
tality in the consummation of it, or to take any ribtice of
you, however distant, as actual or eventual parties to it ?
No, it pretends upon the face of it, arid in the sPlemriitief
vrith which it has been accompanied and foUowed, to be a
pact vrith a foreign state, complete and self-efficient, from
the obligation of wMch tMs government carinot now escape,
and to the perfection of which no more is necessary than has
fi.fready been done. It contains the clause which is found in
the treaty of 1794, and substantially in every othertreaty'
made by the Umted States under the present constitution,
so as to become a formula, that, when ratified by the Presi
dent of the United States, by and "vrith the advice and con
sent of the Senate, and by Ms Britannic majesty, and the
respective ratifications mutuafly exchanged, it shafl be bind^'
ing and obUgatory on the said states and his majesty,'
It has been ratified in conformity with that clause. Its
ratifications have been exchanged m the estabUshed and
stipulated mode. It has been proclaimed, as other treaties
have been proclaimed, by the executive government, as an
integral portion of the law of the land, and our citizens at

LIPE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY, 341
home and abroad, have been admonished to keep and observe
it accordingly. It has been sent to the other contracting
party vrith the lagt stamp of the national faith upon it, after
the manner of former treaties with the same power, and
-wiU have been received and acted upon by that party as a
^concluded contract, long before your loitering legislation can
.overtake it, I protest, Sfr, I am somewhat at a loss to un-
Serstand what this convention has been since its ratifications
were exchariged/ and what it is now, if our biU be sound in
its prmciple. Has it not been, and is it not an uninteUigible,
unbaptized and unbaptizable thmg, vrithout attributes of any
Mnd, bearing the semblance of an executed compact, but in
reaUty a hoUow fiction ; a thing which no man is led to con
sider even as the germ of a treaty, entitled to be cherished
in the rineyard of the constitution ; a thing which, profess
ing to have done every tMng that public honor demands, has
done notMng but practise delusion ? You may ransack
every diplomatic nomenclature and ran through every voca
bulary, whether of diplomacy or law, and you shall not find a
word by which you may distinguish, if our biU be correct in
its hypothesis, this "deed vrithout a name." A plain man
who is not used to manage Ms pMases, may, therefore, pre
sume to say that if tMs convention vrith England* be not a
valid treaty, which doesnot stand in need of your assistance,
it is an usurpation on the part of those who have undertaken
to make it ; that if it be not an act within the treaty-making
capacity, confided to the President and Senate, it is an en
croachment on the legislative rights of Congress.
I am one of those who view the bill upon the table, as
declaring that it is not within that capacity, as looMng down
upon the, convention as the stUl-born progeny of arrogated
power, as offering to it the paternity of Congress, and affect
ing by that paternity to give to it Ufe and strength ; and as I
think that the convention does not stand in need of any such
filiation, to make it either strong or legitimate, that it is

342 LIFE OF -WILLIAM PINKNEY,
afready aU that it can become, and that useless legislation
upon such a subject is vicious legislation, I shaU vote agamst
the bill. The correctness of these opimons is what I propose
to establish. I lay it down as an incontrovertible truth, that the con
stitution has assumed (and, indeed, how could it do other
wise ?) that the government of the United States might and
would have occasion, Uke the other govemments of the
civilized world, to enter into treaties with foreign powers,
upon the various subjects involved in their mutual relations ;
and further, that it might be, and was proper to designate
the department of the government in which the capacity to
make such treaties should be lodged. It has said, accord
ingly, that the President, with the concurrence of tbe Sen
ate, shaU possess this portion of the national sovereignty.
It has, furthermore, given to the same magistrate, with the
same concurrence, the exclusive creation and control of the
whole machinery of diploriiacy. He only, with the appro
bation of the Senate, can appoint a negotiator, or take any
step towards negotiation. The constitution does not, in any
part of it, even intimate that any other department shaU
possess either a constant or an occasional right to interpose
in the preparation of any treaty, or in the final perfection
of it. The President and Senate are expUcitly pointed out
as the sole actors in that sort of transaction. The pre
scribed concurrence of the Senate, and that too by a major
ity greater than the ordinary legislative majority, plainly
excludes the necessity of congressional concunence. If the
consent of Congress to any treaty had been intended, the
constitution would not have been guflty of the absurdity of
first putting a treaty for ratification to the President and
Senate exclusively, and again to the same President and
Senate as portions of the legislature. It would have sub
mitted the whole matter at once to Congress, and the
more especially, as the ratification of a treaty by the Senate,

LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 343
as a branch of the legislature, may be by a smaller number
than a ratification of it by the same body, as a branch of
the executive government. If the ratification of any treaty
by the President, with the advice and consent of the Senate,
must be foUowed by a legislative ratification, it is a mere
nonentity. It is good for aU purposes, or for none. And if
it be notMng in effect, it is a mockery by which nobody would
be bound. The President and Senate would not themselves
be bound by it — and the ratification would at last depend,
not upon the wiU of the President and two-thirds of the
Senate, but upon the wfll of a bare majority of the two
branches of the legislature, subject to the qualified legisla
tive control of the President.
Upon the power of the President and Senate, therefore,
there can be no doubt. The only question is as to the ex
tent of it, or in other words, as to the subject upon which
it may be exerted. The effect of the power, when exerted
within its lawful sphere, is beyond the reach of controversy.
The constitution has declared, that whatsoever amounts to
a treaty, made under the authority of the United States,
shaU immediately be supreme law. It has contradistin
guished a treaty as law from an act of Congress as law. It
has erected treaties, so contradistinguished, into a binding
judicial rule. It has given them to our courts of justice, in
defining their jurisdiction, as a portion of the lex terras,,
which they are to interpret and enforce. In a word, it has
communicated to them, if ratified by the department wMch
it has speciaUy provided for the making of them, the rank
of law, or it has spoken without meaning. And if it has
not elevated them to that rank, it is idle to attempt to
raise them to it by ordinary legislation.
Upon the extent of the power, or the subjects upon
which it may act, there is as little room for controversy.
The power is to make treaties. The word treaties is nomen
gemralissimum, and wiU comprehend commercial treaties.

344 LIFE OP -WILLIAM PINKNEY,
unless there be a limit upon it by which they are excluded.
It is the appellative, which wfll take in the whole species, if
there be notMng to narrow its scope. There is no such
limit. There is nPt a syllable in the context of the clause
to restrict the natural import of its phraseology. The
power is left to the force of the generic term, and is, there
fore, as wide as a treaty-making power can be. It em
braces all the varieties of treaties wMch it could be sup
posed this government could find it necessary or proper to
make, or it embraces none. It covers the whole treaty-
making ground which this government could be expected to
occupy, or not an inch of it.
It is a just presumption, that it was designed to be co
extensive vrith all the exigencies of our affairs. Usage
sanctions that presumption — expediency does the same.
The omission of any exception to the power, the omission of
the designation of a mode by which a treaty, not intended
to be included vrithin it, might otherwise be made, confirms
it. That a commercial treaty was, above aU others, in the
contemplation of the constitution, is manifest. The imme
morial practice of Europe, and particularly of the nation
from wMch we enaigrated, the consonance of enUghtened
theory to that practice, prove it. It may be said, indeed,
that at the epoch of the birth of our constitution, the neces
sity for a power to make commercial treaties was scarcely
visible, for that our trade was then in its infancy. It was
so ; but it was the infancy of another Herculps, promising,
not indeed a rictory over the lion of Nemsea, or the boar of
Erymanthus, but the peaceful conquest of every sea which
could be subjected to the dominion of commercial enterprise.
It was then as apparent as it is now, that the destinies of
this great nation were irrevocably commercial ; that the
ocean would be wMtened by our saUs, and the uUima Thule
of the world compeUed tp witness the more than Phoenician
spirit and inteUigence of our merchants. With this glo-

LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 345
rious anticipation dawning upon them — ^with tMs resplen
dent Aurora gUding the prospect of the future; nay,. vrith
the risen orb of trade iUuminating the vast horizon of Amer
rican greatness, it cannot be supposed that the framers of
the constitution did not look to the time when we should be
caUed upon to make commercial conventions. It needs
not the aid of the imagination to reject this disparaging and
monstrous supposition. Dulness itself, throvring aside the
lethargy of its character, and rising for a passing moment
to the rapture of enthusiasm, wfll disclaim it with indig
nation. It is said, however, that the constitution has given to
Congress the power to regulate commerce with foreign na
tions ; and that, since it would be inconsistent with that power,
that the President, with the consent of the Senate, should
do the same thing, it foUows, that this power of Congress is
an exception out of the treaty-maMng power. Never were
premises, as it appears to my understanding, less suited to
the conclusion. The power of Congress to regulate our fo
reign trade, is a power of municipal legislation, and was
designed to operate as far, as, upon such a subject, munici
pal legislation can reach. Without such a power, the gov
emment would be whoUy inadequate to the ends for wMch it
was instituted. A power to regulate commerce by treaty
alone, would touch only a portion of the subject. A vrider
and more general power was therefore indispensable, and it
was properly devolved on Congress, as the legislature of
the Union.
On the other hand, a power of mere municipal legisla
tion, acting upon riews exclusively our own, having no re
ference to a reciprocation of advantages by arrangements with
a foreign state, would also faU short of the ends of govem
ment in a country of wMch the commercial relations are
complex and extensive, and Uable to be embanassed by
conflicts between its own mterests and those of other na-

346 LIFE OF -WILLIAM PINKNEY.
tions. That the power of Congress is simply legislative in
the strictest sense, and calculated for ordinary domestic regu
lation only, is plain from the language in which it is com-
mnnicated. There is notMng in that language which indi
cates regulation, by compact or compromise, nothing which
points to the co-operation of a foreign power, notMng which
designates a treaty-maMng faciflty. It is not connected
with any of the necessary accompaniments of that faculty ;
it is not furmshed -vrith any of those means, without which
it is impossible to make the smaUest progress towards a
treaty. It is self-evident, that a capacity to 'regulate com
merce by treaty, was intended by the constitution to
be lodged somewhere. It is just as evident, that the legis
lative capacity of Congress does not amount to it ; and
cannot be exerted to produce a treaty. It can produce only
a statute, vrith wMch a foreign state cannot be made to
concur, and which "wiU not yield to any modifications which
a foreign state may desire to impress upon it for suitable
equivalents. There is no way in wMch Congress, as such,
can mould its laws into treaties, if it respects the constitu
tion. It may legislate and counter-legislate ; but it must
for ever be beyond its capacity to combine in a law, emanat
ing from its separate domestic authority, its own views with
those of other governments, and to produce a harmomous
reconcihation of those janing purposes and discordant ele
ments wMch it is the business of negotiation to adjust.
I reason thus, then, upon tMs part of the subject. It is
clear that the power of Congress, as to foreign commerce, is
only what it professes to be in the constitution, a legislative
power, to be exerted municipally without consultation or
agreement with those with whom we have an intercourse of
trade ; it is undeniable that the constitution meant to pro
vide for the exercise of another power relatively to com
merce, which should exert itself m concert vrith the analo-

LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY, 347
gous power in other countries, and should bring about its
results, not by statute enacted by itself, but by an inter
national compact called a treaty ; that it is manifest, that
this other power is vested by the constitution in the Presi
dent and Senate, the only department of the government
which it authorizes to make any treaty, and wMch it enables
to make aU treaties ; that if it be so vested, its regular ex
ercise must result in that which, as far as it reaches, is law
in itself, and consequently repeals such municipal regula
tions as stand in its way, since it is expressly declared by
the constitution that treaties regularly made shall have, as
they ought to have, the force of law. In all this, I perceive
notMng to perplex or alarm us. It exMbits a weU digested
and uniform plan of government, worthy of the excellent
men by whom it was formed. The ordinary power to regu
late commerce by statutory enactments, could only be de
volved upon Congress, possessing all the other legislative
powers of the government. The extraordinary power to re
gulate it by treaty, could not be devolved upon Congress,
because from its composition, and the absence of aU those
authorities and functions wMch, are essential to the activity
and effect of a treaty-maMng power, it was not calculated
to be the depository of it. It was vrise and consistent to
place the extraordmary power to regulate commerce by
treaty, where the residue of the treaty-making power was
placed, where only the means of negotiation could be found,
and the skilful and beneficial use of them could reasonably
be expected. That Congress legislates upon commerce, subject to the
treaty-maMng power, is a position perfectly intelUgible ; but
the understanding is in some degree confounded by the other
proposition, that the legislative power of Congress is an ex
ception out of the treaty-maMng power It introduces into
the constitution a strange anomaly — a commercial state, with
a written constitution, and no power in it to regulate its

348 LIFE OF -WILLIAM PINKNEY,
trade, in conjunction -with other states, in the universal mode
of convention. It wfll be iri -vain to urge, that tMs anomaly
is merely imaginary ; for that the President and Senate may
make a treaty of commerce for the consideration of Con
gress, The answer is, that the treaties which the President
and Senate are entitled to make, are such, as when made,
become a law ; that it is no part of thefr fiiinctions simply
-tOriMtiate, treaties, but conclusively to make them ; and
th?ut where- they have no power to make them, there is no
prorision in the constitution, how or by whom they shaU be
made. That there is nothing new in the idea of a separation of
the legislative and conventional powers upon commercial
subjects, and of the necessary control of the former by the
latter, is known to aU who are acquainted vrith the constitu
tion of England, The parUament of that country enacts
the statutes by which its trade is regulated municipaUy.
The crown modifies them by a treaty. It has been ima
gined, indeed, that parUament is in the practice of confirm
ing such treaties ; but the fact is undoubtedly otherwise.
Commercial treaties are laid before parUament, because the
Mng's mimsters are responsible for their adrice in the mak
ing of them, and because the vast range and complication of
the Enghsh laws of trade and revenue, render legislation
unavoidable, not for the ratification, but the execution of
their commercial treaties.
It is suggested, again, that the treaty-makmg power
(unless we are tenants in common of it vrith the President
and Senate, to the extent at least of our legislative rights)
is a pestflent monster, pregnant vrith all sorts of disasters 1
It teems vrith " Gorgons, and Hydras, and Chimeras dfre ! "
At any rate, I may take for granted that the case before us
does not justify tMs anay of metaphor and fable ; since we
are aU agreed that the conventipn vrith England is not only
harmless but salutary. To put this particular case, how-

LIPE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY, 349
ever, out of the argument, what have we to do vrith consi
derations like these ? are we here to form, or to submit to,
the constitution as it has been given to us for a rule by
those who are our masters ? Can we take upon ourselves
the office of poUtical casuists, and because we think that a
power ought to be less than it is, compel it to shrink to our
standard ? Are we to bow vrith reverence before the na
tional wiU as the constitution displays it, or to fashion it to
our own, to quarrel with that charter, without wMch, we
ourselves are notMng ; or to take it as a guide which we
cannot desert vrith innocence and safety ? But why is the
treaty-maMng power, lodged, as I contend it is, in the Pre
sident and Senate, Ukely to disaster us, as we are required
to apprehend it wiU ? Sufficient checks have not, as it
seems, been prorided, either by the constitution or the na
ture of things, to prevent the abuse of it. It is in the
House of Eepresentatives alone, that the amulet, wMch bids
defiance to the approaches of pohtical diseasOj or cures it
when it has commenced, can in aU vicissitudes be found, I
hold that the checks are sufficient, "without the charm of our
legislative agency, for aU those occasions which vrisdom is
bound to foresee and to guard agamst ; and that as to the
rest (the eccentricities and portents wMch no ordinary
checks can deal vrith) the occasions must provide for them
selves. It is natural, here, to ask: of gentlemen, what security
they would have ? They cannot " take a bond of Fate ; "
and they have every pledge wMch is short of it. Have they
not, as respects the President, all the security upon which
they rely from day to day for the discreet and upright dis
charge of the whole of Ms other duties, many and various as
they are ? What security have they that he vrill not ap
point to office the refuse of the world ; that he wiU not pol
lute the sanctuary of justice by caUing vagabonds to its holy
ministry, Uistead of adorning it vrith men like those who

350 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY,
now give to the bench more dignity than they receive from
it : that he will not enter into a treaty of amnesty with
every conspirator against law and order, and pardon culprits
from mere enmity to virtue ? The security for afl this, and
infinitely more, is found in the constitution and in the or
der of nature ; and we are all satisfied with it. One should
tMnk that the same security, which thus far time has not
discredited, might be sufficient to tranquUUze us upon the
score of the power which we are now considering.
We talk of ourselves as if we only were the representa
tives of the people. But the first magistrate of this'country
is also the representative of the people, the creature of their
sovereignty, the administrator of their power, their steward
and servant, as you are — ^he comes from the people, is lifted
by them into place and authority, and after a short season
returns to them for censure or applause. There is no ana
logy between such a magistrate and the hereditary monarchs
of Europe. He is not bom to the inheritance of office ; he
cannot even be elected until he has reached an age at wMch
he must pass for what he is ; until his habits have been
formed, his integrity tried, his capacity ascertained, his cha
racter discussed and probed for a series of years, by a press,
wMch knows none of the restraints of European policy. He
acts, as you do, in the fufl view of his constituents, and un
der the consciousness that on account of the singleness of his
station, all eyes are upon him. He knows, too, as well as
you can know, the temper and inteUigence of those for
whom he acts, and to whom he is amenable. He cannot
hope that they vriU be blind to the vices of his administra
tion on subjects of high concernment and vital interest ; and
in proportion as he acts upon his own responsibility, unre
lieved and undiluted by the infusion of ours, is the danger
of ifl-advised conduct likely to be present to his mmd.
Of all the powers which have been intrusted to him,
there is none to which the temptations to abuse belong so

LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 351
Uttle as to ^the treaty-making power in aU its branches ;
none which can boast such mighty safeguards in the feel
ings, and views, and passions which even a misanthrope
could attribute to the foremost citizen of tMs repubhc. He
can have no motive to palsy by a commercial or any other
treaty the prosperity of Ms country. _Settmg apart the re
straints of honour and patriotism, which are the character
istic of public men in a nation habitually free, could he do
so without subjecting himself as a member of the com
munity, (to say notMng of Ms immediate connections) to the
evils of Ms own work ? A commercial treaty, too, is al
ways a conspicuous measure. It speaks for itself It can
not take the garb of hypocrisy, and shelter itself from the
scrutiny of a rigUant and well instructed population. If it
be bad, it wiU be condemned, and if dishonestly made, be
execrated. The pride of country, moreover, which animates
even the lowest of mauMnd, is here a pecuUar pledge for the
prorident and wholesome exercise of power. There is not a
consideration by which a cord in the human breast can be
made to ribrate that is not in this case the ally of duty.
Every hope, either lofty or humble, that springs forward to
the future ; even the vanity which looks not beyond the mo
ment ; the dread of shame and the love of glory ; the in
stinct of ambition ; the domestic affections ; the cold pon-
derings of prudence ; and the ardent instigations of senti
ment and passion, are all on the side of duty. It is in the
exercise of this power that responsibUity to public opinion,
which even despotism feels and trucMes to, is of gigantic
force. If it were possible, as I am sure it is not, that an
American citizen, raised, upon the credit of a long life of
virtue, to a station so full of honor, could feel,a disposition
to mingle the Uttle interests of a perverted ambition with
the great concerns of his country, as embraced by a com
mercial treaty, and to sacrifice her happiness and power by
the stipulations of that treaty, to flatter or aggrandize a fo-

352 LIFE OP WILLIAM PINKNE"!?:
reigri state, he would stUl be saved from th& perdition of
such a course, not only by constitutional checks/ 'but by the
frresistible efficacy of responsibiUty to pubUc opinibfa, in-^a
nation whose public opinion wears no mask, and wfll not'be
sflencefl. He would remember that his poUtical cafeer' is
but the thing of an hour, and that when it has passed he
must descend to the private station from wMbh he rose, th^
object either of love and veneration, or of scorri and honor.
If we cast a glance at England, we shaU not fafl to see the
influence of public opinion upon an hereditary Mng,"' ari'
hereditary nobUity, and a House of Comriions elected iri'tf
great degree by rotten boroughs, and overflowing with place
men. And if this influence is ;^tent there against' afl tne
efforts of independent power and vride spread corruptiori, it
must in this country be ommpotent, ¦ '¦ ' '
But the treaty-making power of the President is further
checked by the necessity of the concurrence of two-thiffls of
the Senate, consisting of men selected by the legislatures of
the States, themselves elected by the pecple. They too
must have passed through the probation of time befor& they
can be chosen, and must bring vrith them every title to con
fidence. The duration of their office is that of a few years ';'
thefr numbers are considerable ; their constitutional resp6n-
sibiUty as great as it can be ; and thefr morail respbrisibUity
beyond aU calculation.
The power of impeachment has been mentioned as a
check upon the President in the exercise of the treaty-mak
mg capacity, I rely upon it less than upon others, of, as I
thmk, a better class ; but as the constitution places some re
Uance upon it, so do I, It has been said, that impeachment
has been trie* and found wanting. Two impeachments have
fefled, as I have understood, (that of a judge was one) — but
they may have failed for reasons consistent vrith" the general
efficacy of such a proceeding. I know nothmg of their merits,
but I am justified in supposing that the eridence was defec-

LIPE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 353
tive, or that the parties were mnocent as they were pro
nounced to be : — Of this, however, I feel assured, that if it
should ever happen that the President is found to deserve
the punishment which impeachment seeks to inflict, (even
for makmg a treaty to which the judges have become parties,)
and this body should accuse Mm in a constitutional way, he
wfll not easfly escape. But, be that as it may, I ask if it is
notMng that you have power to arraign Mm as a culprit ?
Is it notMng that you can bring him to the bar, expose his
misconduct to the world, and bring down the indignation of
the pubhc upon Mm and those who dare to acquit him ?
K there be any power expUcitly granted by the constitu
tion to Congress, it is that rif declaring war ; and if there be
any exercise of human legislation more solemn and important
than another, it is a declaration of war. For expansion it is
the largest, for effect the most awful of all the enactments
to wMch Congress is competent ; and it always is, or ought
to be, preceded by grave and anxious dehberation. TMs
power, too, is connected vrith, or rirtually involves, others of
high import and efficacy; among wMch may be ranked the
power of granting letters of marque and reprisal, of regulat
ing captures, of proMbiting intercourse -vrith, or the accept
ance of protections or Ucenses from the enemy. Yet farther;
a power to declare war impUes, with peculiar emphasis, a
negative upon aU power, in any other branch of the govern
ment, mconsistent with the fuU and continuing effect of it. A
power to make peace in any other branch of the government,
is utterly inconsistent with that full and continuing effect.
It may even prevent it from haring any effect at aU ; since
peace may foUow almost immediately (although it rarely does
so foUow) the commencement of a war. If, therefore, it be
undeniable that the President, with the advice and consent
ofthe Senate, has power to make a treaty of peace, available
ipso jure, it is undeniable that he has power to repeal, by
the mere operation of such a treaty, the highest acts of con-
23

354 LIFE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY,
gressional legislation. And it wfll npt be questioned that
tMs repealing power is, from the eminent nature of the war-
declaring power, less fit to be made out by inference than
the power of modifying by treaty the laws which regulate
our foteign trade. Now the President, vrith the adrice and
consent of the Senate, has an incontestable and uncontested
right to make a treaty of peace, of absolute mherent efficacy,
and that too in virtue of the very same general provision m
the constitution which the refinements of poUtical speculation,
rather than any known rules of coristruction, have led some
of us to suppose excludes a treaty of commerce.
By what process of reasoning vriU you be able to extract
from the vride field of that general provision the obnoxious
case of a commercial treaty, without forcing along with it
the case of a treaty of peace, and along with that again the
case of every possible treaty ? Will you rest your distinction
upon the favorite idea that a treaty cannot repeal laws com
petently enacted, or, as it is sometimes expressed, cannot
trench upon the legislative rights of Congress ? Sueh a dis
tinction not only seems to be reproached by all the theories,
numerous as they are, to which this bifl has given birth, but
is against notorious fact and recent experience. We have
lately witnessed the operation in this respect of a treaty of
peace, and could not fail to draw from it this lesson ; that
no sooner does the President exert, with the eonsent of the
Senate, his power to make such a treaty, than your war-de
nouncing law, your act for letters of marque, your prohibit
ory statutes as to intercourse and Ucenses, and aU the other
concomitant and dependent statutes, so far as they affect the
national relations' vrith a foreign enemy, pass away as a dream,
and in a moment are ' with years beyond, the flood,' Your
auxiUary agency was not required in the production of this
effect ; and I have not heard that you even tendered it. You
saw your laws departing as it were from the statute books,
expeUed from the strong hold of supremacy by the single

LIFE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY. 355
fotce of a treaty of peace ; and you did not attempt to stay
them ; you did not bid them linger until you should bid them
go ; you neither put your shoulders to the wheel of expulsion
nor made an effort to retard it. In a word, you did notMng,
You suffered them to flee as a shadow, and you know that
they were reduced to shadow, not by the necromancy of
usurpation, but by the energy of constitutional power, Yet,
you had every reason for interference then which you can
have now. The power to make a treaty of peace stands upon
the same constitutional footing with the power to make a
commercial treaty. It is given by the same words. It is
exerted in the same manner. It produces the same conflict
vrith municipal legislation. The ingenuity of man cannot
urge a consideration, whether upon the letter or the spirit of
the constitution, against the existence of a power in the Pres
ident and Senate to make a vaUd commercial treaty, which
wfll not, if it be correct and sound, drive us to the negation
of the power exercised by the President and Senate, with
universal approbation, to make a valid treaty of peace.
Nay, the whole treaty-making power wfll be blotted from
the constitution, and a new one, alien to its theory and prac
tice, be made to supplant it, if sanction and scope be given
to the principles of tMs bfll. This bill may indeed be con
sidered as the first of many assaults, not now intended per
haps, but not therefore the less hkely to happen, by which
the treaty-maMng power, as created and lodged by the con
stitution, wfll be pushed from its place, and compeUed to
abide vrith the power of ordinary legislation. The example
of this bfll is beyond its ostensible limits. The pernicious
principle, of which it is at once the cMld and the apostle,
must work onward and to the right and the left until it has
.exhausted itself; and it never can exhaust itself untfl it has
gathered into the vortex of the legislative powers of Con
gress ;the whole treaty-making capacity of the govemment.
For if, notwithstanding the directness and precision with

356 LIFE OF -WILLIAM PINKNEY,
wMch the constitution has marked out the department of the
govemment by which it wflls that treaties shafl be made, and
has declared that treaties so made shall have the vforce and
dignity of law, the House of Eepresentatives can msist upon
some participation in that high faculty, upon the simple
suggestion that they are sharers in legislative power upon
the subjects embraced by any given treaty, what remains to
be done, for the transfer to Congress of the entire treaty-
making faculty, as it appears in the constitution, but to show
that Congress have legislative power dfrect or indirect upon
every matter wMch a treaty can touch ? And what are the
matters vrithin the practicable range of a treaty, which your
laws cannot either mould, or qualify, or influence ? Imagi
nation has been tasked for example, by which this question
might be answered. It is admitted that they must be few,
and we have been told, as I think, of no more than one. It
is the case of contraband of war. This case has, it seems,
the double recommendation of being what is called an inter
national case, and a case beyond the utmost grasp of congres
sional legislation, I remark upon it, that it is no more an
mternational case than any matter of coUision incident to
the trade of two nations with each other, I remark farther,
that a treaty upon the point of contraband of war may in
terfere, as well as any other treaty, vrith an act of Congress,
A law encouraging, by a bounty or otherwise, the exporta
tion of certain commodities, would be counteracted by an
insertion into the hst of contraband of war, in a treaty with
England or France, any one of those commodities. The
treaty would look one way, the law another. And various
modes might readfly be suggested in which Congress might
so legislate as to lay the foundation of repugnancy between
its laws and the treaties of the President and Senate vrith
reference to contraband. I deceive myself greatly if a sub
ject can be named upon wMch a like repugnancy might not
occur. But even if it should be practicable to fumish, after

LIPE OF "WILLIAM PINKNEY, 357
laborious inqufry and meditation, a meagre and scanty in
ventory df some half dozen topics, to wMch domestic legisla
tion cannot be made to extend, wfll it be pretended that
such was the insignificant and narrow domain designed by
the constitution for the treaty-maMng power ? It would
appear that there is -with some gentlemen a wUUngness to
distmguish between the legislative power expressly granted
to Congress and that which is merely implied, and to admit
that a treaty may control the results of the latter, I reply
to those gentlemen that one legislative power is exactly
eqmvalent to another, and that, moreover, the whole legisla
tive power of Congress may justly be said to be expressly
granted by the constitution, although the constitution does
not enumerate every variety of its exercise, or indicate aU the
ramifications mto wMch it may diverge to suit the exigencies
of the times, I reply, besides, that even vrith the qualifica
tion of tMs vague distinction, whatever may be its value or
effect, the principle of the biU leaves no adequate sphere for
the treaty-maMng power, I reply, finaUy, that the ac
knowledged operation of a treaty of peace in repealmg laws
of smgular strength and unbendmg character, enacted in
virtue of powers communicated in terminis to Congress, gives
the distmetion to the winds.
And now that I have again adverted to the example of a
treaty of peace, let me caU upon you to reflect on the an
swer which that example affords to all the warnings we have
received m this debate agamst the mighty danger of intrast-
ing to the only department of the government, wMch the
constitution supposes can make a treaty, the incidental pre
rogative of a repealing legislation. It is inconsistent, we
are desired to beUeve, vrith the genius of the constitution,
and must be fatal to aU that is dear to freemen, that an Ex
ecutive magistrate and a Senate, who are not immediately
elecj;ed by the people, should possess this authority. We
hear from one quarter that if it be so, the pubUc Uberty is

358 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
already in the grave ; and from another, that the public in
terest and honor are upon the verge of it. But do you not
perceive that this picture of calamity and shame is the mere
figment of excited fancy, disavowed by the eonstitution as
hysterical, and enoneous in the case of a treaty of peace ?
Do you not see that if there be any thing in tMs Mgh co
lored perU, it is a treaty of peace that must reaUze it ?
Can we in tMs view compare vrith the power to make such a
treaty, that of. makmg a treaty of commerce ? Are we
unable to conjecture, wMle we are thus brooding over antici
pated evfls which can neyer happen, that the lofty character
of our country (which is but another name for strength and
power) may be made to droop by a mere treaty of peace ;
tha,t the national pride may be humbled ; the just hopes of
the people blasted ; their courage tamed and broken ; thefr
prosperity struck to the heart ; their foreign rivals encour
aged into arrogance and tutored into encroachment j by a
mere treaty of peace ? I bonfidently trust that, as tMs
never has been so, it vriU never be so ; but surely it is just
as possible as that a treaty of commerce should ever be made
to shacMe the freedom of tMs nation, or check its march to
the greatness and glory that await it, I know not, indeed,
how it can seriously be thought that o-ar liberties are in
hazard from the smaU witchery of a treaty of commerce,
and yet in none from the potent enchantments by which a
treaty of peace may strive to enthral them, I am at a loss to
conceive by what form of words; by what Mtherto unheard-
of stipulations, a commercial treaty is to barter away the
freedom of United America, or of any the smaflest portion
of it, I cannot figure to myself the possibihty that such a
project can ever find its way into the head or heart of any
man, or set of men, whom this nation may select as the
depositories of its ppwer ; but I am quite sure that an at
tempt to insert such a project in a commercial treaty, or in
any other treaty, or m any other mode, could work no other

LIFE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY. 359
effect than the destruction of those who should venture to
be parties to it, no matter whether a President, Senate, or a
whole Congress. Many extreme cases have been put for iUus
tration in this debate ; and this is one of them ; and I take
the occasion wMch it offers to mention, that to argue from
extreme cases is seldom logical, and upon a question of inter
pretation, never so. We can only bring back the means of
delusion, if we wander into the regions of fiction, and ex
plore the -wUds of bare possibiUty in search of rules for real
Ufe and actual ordinary cases. By arguing from the possible
abuse of power against the use or existence of it, you may
and must come to the conclusion, that there ought not be,
and is not, any government m tMs country, or in the world.
Disorgamzation and anarchy are the sole consequences that
can be deduced from such reasomng. Who is it that may not
abuse the power that has been confided to Mm ? May not
we, as weU as the other branches -of the government .? And
if we may, does not the argument from extreme cases
prove that we ought to have no power, and that we
have no power .? And does it not, therefore, after hav
ing served for an instant the purposes of this bill, turn
short upon and condemn its whole theory, which attri
butes to us, not merely the power, which is our own, but
inordinate power, to be gained only by wresting it from
others .? Our constitutional and moral security against the
abuses of the power of the executive govemment have al
ready been explamed. I wifl only add, that a great and ma
nifest abuse of the delegated authority to make treaties would
create no obUgation any where. If ever it should occur, as I
confidently beUeve it never wfll, the eril must find its cor
rective in the wisdom and ffimness, not of this body only,
but of the whole body of the people co-operating with it.
It is, after all, m the people, upon whose Atlantean shoul
ders our whole repubUcan system reposes, that you must ex
pect that recuperative power, that redeeming and regenerat-

360 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
ing spirit, by which the constitution is to be purified and
redintegrated when extravagant abuse has cankered it.
In addition to the example of a treaty of peace which I
have just been considering, let me put another, of wMch
none of us can question the reaUty, The President may
exercise the power of pardonmg, save only in the case of im
peachments. The power of pardoning is not commumcated
by words more precise or comprehensive than the power to
make treaties. But to what does it amount ? Is not every
pardon, pro hac vice, a repeal of the penal law against
which it gives protection ? Does it not ride over the law,
resist its command, and extinguish its effect ? Does it not
even control the combined force of judicature and legisla
tion ? Yet, have we ever heard that your legislative rights
were an exception out of the prerogative of mercy ? Who
has ever pretended that this faculty cannot, if regularly ex
erted, wrestle with the strongest of your statutes ? I may
be told, that the pardoning power necessarily imports a con
trol over the penal code, if it be exercised in the form of a
pardon. I answer, the power to make treaties equaUy im
ports a power to put out of the way such parts of the civfl
code as interfere with its operation, if that power be exerted
in the form of a treaty. There is no difference in their es
sence. You legislate, in both cases, subject to the power.
And this instance furnishes another answer, as I have already
intimated, to the predictions of abuse, with which, on this
occasion, it has been endeavored to appal us. The pardonmg
power is in the President alone. He is not even checked by
the necessity of Senatorial concurrence. He may by Ms
single fiat extract the sting from your proudest enactments
— and save from their vengeance a conricted offender.
Sir, you have my general notions upon the biU . before
you. They have no claim to novelty, I imbibed them from
some of the heroes and sages who survived the storm of that
contest to which America was summoned m her cradle. I

LIFE OP -WILLIAM PINKNEY. 361
imbibed them from the father of Ms country. My under-
Btandmg approved them, -with the fafl concunence of my
heart, when I was much younger than I am now ; and I
feel no disposition to discard them, now that age and feeble
ness are about to overtake me. I could say more — much
more — ^upon tMs Mgh question ; but I want health and
strength. It is, perhaps, fortunate for the House that I do ;
as it prevents me from fatiguing them as much as I fatigue
myself. I have searched m vain for the authorsMp of the " PoUtical
Sketches," or even a sight of the book. There is a vague
impression on my mind, that it was the production of one of
our northem stars. But whoever the author may be, or what
may have become of the work, the foUovring remarks vriU
reward perusal. It is a most masterly dissertation on style ;
singularly rich, discrimmating and profound. Elevated above
the asperity of captious criticism by a nice and accurate per
ception of true beauty and force, it is a jewel of its kmd.
For imagmation m its Mghest form and noblest development
Mr. Pinkney possessed the most unbounded admfration, and
gave to the country and the world the most perfect and ex
quisite fllustration of it. But for it, in its uncurbed irreg
ularity and mystical dreammgs, he expressed, as he felt, the
most unmixed disgust and contempt.
It must not be supposed that Mr. Pinkney, in the close
of this article, designed to intimate that Dr. Johnson wrote
vrith diMculty, for no one knew better than he the actual ra
pidity vrith which he wrote ; but only to reaffirm what John
son said of himself, " that whenever he said a good thing he
seemed to labor." Dr. Johnson, speaMng of Addison, used
to say that he was the Baphael of essay -writers.

362 LIFE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY.

EEMAEKS ON "POLITICAL SKETCHES.'
BY -WILLIAM PINKNEY.
When I first perused tMs valuable performance, I con
demned it without hesitation, as a work wherein the imagi
nation had been permitted to flutter at large, unaccompa
nied by the judgment. I thought the great subject of the
author's consideration lightly and gracefuUy handled ; and
the remarks he has bestowed on Montesquieu, at the end of
Ms section on Vfrtue, more properly applicable to himself
He appeared to me far more solicitous to please his reader by
a labored floridity of style, and a succession of gay images,
than to enlighten the understanding, by accuracy of thought
and justness of conception.
But upon a more atteritive perusal of his work, I am
thorougMy conrinced of its merits. As far as I am able to
decide, it discovers a clear discriminating heg,d — a soUdity of
reflection — an acquaintance vrith history, men, and the prin
ciples of govemment, and an animated fancy. It is not how
ever without faults. Want of originaUty is apparent in the
two sections of Virtue and Eeligion. Again ; the author's
meaning is often so concealed by a redundancy of uncommon
and figurative expressions, that it is accessible to none, but
those geniuses -whom Johnson speaks of, who "grasp a sys
tem by intuition," except through the medium of unremitted
application. Perspicuity is frequeritly sacrificed to that "anx
iety which is natural to a young writer, of strewing over his
subject with the fiowers of rhetoric, and embeUishing reflec
tion -with the graces of expression. The tinsel of Lexiphanic

LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 363
language in many places involves Ms argument in almost in
extricable mystery, and pains whom it was mtended to please,
by maMng them tofl for instruction, when an easy, natural
communication was practicable. To be learnedly incompre
hensible was certainly not the author's intention. He wrote
to be admired, but he wrote also to be understood. The
cool approbation wMch is given to sohdity of thought, could
not content Mm. He sought by splendid imagery to gain
that tribute of approbation from the heart, wMch is given
to the warm glow of rhetoric. But notMng niore complete
ly removes an argument from the reach of general compre
hension, than what is commonly, though falsely caUed, an
elegance of diction. Paradoxically as it may sound, its very
lustre is the parent of darkness. By fascinating the imagi
nation it monopoUzes the attention, and the plain simphcity
of trath, sunounded by the dazzling ghtter of a highly col
ored style escapes the eye of observation. In works of mere
entertamment, the impropriety of tMs species of writing in
some measure ceases ; but surely to support a train of rea
soning in such a manner as to oblige a majority of readers to
apply almost every moment to a dictionary, upon a question,
too, where the mcety of discrimination is necessary at every
tum, to destroy apparent analogies — where the under-
standmg (mdependent of the obstacles throvm in its way by
perplexing figures and unusual words) can vrith • difficulty
pursue the chain of reflection ; and where, in the combined
consideration of human nature, facts, and principles, the con
clusions must be embanassed rather than iflustrated, if not
perspicuously treated — ^is at least impolitic in Mm who seeks
to lead the mind to information and conviction.
In the world of taste, the plain simple language of Ad
dison has been preferred to that of the Eambler The
periods of the last impress us vrith the painful idea of labor ;
and give us a disagreeable conception of a tedious process by

364 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
wMch every sentence was tortured mto form. I would ap
ply the same remark to the PoUtical Sketches.
When the ardor of our author's fancy shaU have cooled
by time — ^when Ms notions of a writer's trae reputation
shall have become juster — ^when he shaU have leamed to
prefer that style which explains Ms subject, instead of plung-
mg it into obscurity ; and when he shall be convinced that to
bury the matter of Ms discussion beneath a profusion of
gaudy trappings, is only the affectation of elegance, he wUl
m aU probabUity be among the first ornaments of the Uter
ary world, and do honor to his country and himself

I come now to consider the character of Mr, Pinkney as
a man ; to sum up with an impartial and truthful pen those
moral and intellectual qualities that united to make him an
ornament of society.
His personal appearance possessed a goodly degree of
dignity and grace, TaU and finely formed, with a head ex
quisitely shaped, forehead high, broad, massive and slightly
retreating, eyes of the softest blue, rather heavy in repose,
but capable of the intensest and most varied expression
when roused in the excitement of debate, a mouth of un
common sweetness and flexibffity, soft brown hair, scarcely
tinged vrith gray when death laid Mm low, and a character
istic neatness and elegance of address — ^he was a man re
markable to look upon. It is almost amusing to glance at
the caricature of Mm published many years ago in the " North
American," and one can only smUe m wonder at the
strange want of resemblance it exhibits.
Affable in the immediate circle of his fiiends, he was
rather maccessible to strangers. He was never very talk
ative ; and yet when disengaged and not too much abstract
ed by press of business, he was the Ufe and Ught of society.
On such occasions Ms vrit sparkled and flashed, givmg to

LIFE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY, 365
his conversation a nameless and indescribable charm, not
unhke inteUectual fascination. His very taciturnity gave to
Ms coUoquial powers, when he chose to exercise them, a
more remarkable and striking effect. He was a great ad-
mfrer of ladies, and always paid a marked tribute of respect
to that refinement and elegance of taste and intmtive per
ception, which constitute at once the beauty and marvel of
the female character. No one knew better than he how to
draw out its pecuhar powers, and elicit to advantage its
finer and softer sensibflities. During Ms frequent risits to
AnnapoUs, he loved to wMle away an hour ofthe evenmg in
an old mansion, which was the home of elegance and. the
cMef centre of attraction, the residence of the late Mrs.
L  , a lady of whom it were impossible to speak
vrithout seemmg exaggeration, whose loveliness of character
was only equaUed by her rigor of inteUect and suavity of
manners — who in life was the honored companion of the
young and the old ; and at whose funeral the legislature of
Maryland considered it a sad privUege to walk as mourners.
For tMs lady, and the cfrcle of beauty and intelligence that
was ever congregated around her, Mr, Pinkney entertamed
the most unbounded admfration ; and on more than one oc
casion of pubhc interest, in the discussion of the forum, did
he exhibit his sense of her presence by a display of eloquence
which he knew she could both appreciate and understand.
He never presumed to talk nonsense to ladies, or lowered
himself, as some great men are wont to do, to the supposed
measure of their abiUty, for he was one of those who be
lieved them to be in aU respects, by character, education,
and inteUect, worthy of the companionsMp of those who are
so much dependant upon them for sympathy and support.
He had -without doubt formed his opinion of the mind and
heart of woman from the noblest specimen ; and knew by
early experience that there was nothing too abstrase or sub
Ume for the one to grasp, or too magnanimous, exalted, or

366 LIFE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY.
ennobhng for the other to embrace. Beheving them to be
capable of the highest inteUectual enjoyment, and eminently
skilled in inteUectual taste, he conversed with them as
equals ; and his conversation was on that account pecuUarly
attractive and instructive. He often expressed the opinion,
that no great man ever Uved, who had not a highly intel
lectual and clear-headed mother. Of one of the ladies of
his acquaintance now living (with whom he conesponded
when abroad), he was accustomed to say, that her letters
gave him more real pleasure and delight, than those received
from any other source. The letters which passed between
them were for a long time in the possession of my own fa
mUy ; and were a truly brilUant passage of arms, in which
grace and beauty triumphed on either side. They were,
however, lost, to the regret of the author of this meirioir. .
He was singularly free , from the spirit of detraction.
Tender of the feelings and motives of others, he seldom, if
ever, permitted any thing of the sort to pass by without re
buke. In the company of the young, especially, who are too
Uable to be betrayed into sarcastic and ill-natured com
ment upon the conduct of others, he was ever ready to
pour oil on the troubled waters, and vindicate the aspersed,
or at all events sUence and confound the asperser
He possessed very high veneration for consistent and
humble piety. Well versed in the best old Church of England
theology, and accustomed to hold frequent and deUghted
converse, vrifch Hooker, Taylor, et id omne genus, he was pe
culiarly clear in his views of its true character. On one oc
casion, iUustrative of this high veneration for all that was
pure and holy, and this aversion to disparaging comment,
when seated at a festive board in the city of Annapolis, a
young member of the bar chanced to mention the insanity of
a lady of distinction, and as a proof conclusive of the fact,
stated that she was running into all the lanes and alleys of
Baltimore, and ferreting out objects of charity from among

LIPE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY, " 367
thefr filthy and wretched inmates, Mr Pinkney turned
and said, with one of Ms sweetest smiles, and in a tone of
most melting pathos, "what a beautiful combination of mo
ral virtues to constitute mental derangement, piety towards
God, and benevolence towards man." The only criticism,
said a lady to me, who often went with him to pubflc wor
sMp, I ever remember to have heard him make was, " praise
that sermon if you dare."
He was a stanch friend ; although in the selection of a
fiiend, he followed the rule so beautifuUy and forcibly laid
dovm by Shakspeare :
"The friends thou hast and their adoption tried.
Grapple them to thy soul -with hooks of steel.
But do not dull thy palm -with entertainment
Of each new hatched unfledged comrade." Hamlet,
His sensibihties were singularly warm for a man of re
serve. His heart beat responsive to the touch of Mndness,
His zeal in the serrice of those he loved knew no bounds.
His eloquence and legal learning were not unfrequently
poured forth in pleading their cause and defending their
rights and honor ; and the offering was made altogether
without the hope or the acceptance of reward, A gentleman,
not now liring, who lost a suit in chancery which involved
his aU, as he supposed, because of some incidental expression
of Mr. Pinkney, went to him ; and he told me that he en
tered immediately vrith aU his heart and soul into the in
vestigation, and never rested until he had reversed the deci
sion of the court below, and established him in the full pos
session of his lost estate, and would never hear of the least
compensation. It was a friend's claim upon his sympathy
m a cause he knew to be just, and the only remuneration he
could or would receive, separate and above the pleasure of
the deed, was gratitude for the service rendered. The au
dience were in tears, no eye was dry, whfle a friend's voice

368 LIFE OF WILLIAM PLNKNEY,
was uplifted in the defence of a friend's rights. There are wit
nesses to the trath of tMs simple fact, now alive, whose tes
timony could be mvoked were it necessary. TMs was by no
means an uncommon occurrence. One of the most powerful
and touching speeches he ever deUvered before a jury was iu
defence of a near relative of a lady with whom he boarded ;
and long will the echoes of that memorable effort live in the
memory of those who heard it. Upper Marlborough was the
place, a jury of Prmce George's County the arbiters, and the
tears of a lone vridow restored to the embrace of one she
loved, the only reward of the eloquent advocate. This kind
ness of disposition and warmth of friendship were exMbited
in behalf of the poor and uninfiuential more readily, than
those whom it might appear to be politic to defend.
One of the strongest proofs of the warmth and genero
sity of Ms feelings is furnished in the fact, that he never
forfeited a friendsMp he once learned to honor and trast.
With Jefferson, Madison and Monroe, he continued on terms
of the closest intimacy and confidence. The foUovring ex
tract, from a letter written just before his final return to the
country and but a short time before Ms death, wiU show in
what Ught the last continued to regard him ; and there were
few men Uving, who had a better opportunity of knowing
and understanding Mr, Puikney's character : —
" I pray you be assured that I riew your forbearing to
name me for the court of England exactly as you do, and
that I rejoice you took that course. It would certainly have
been hazardous, and moreover, I had no vrish to go to Eng
land, or to remam any longer abroad. The office of Attor
ney-General would not have suited me, as I have some tune
since taken measures for resummg my residence in Balti
more, where I hope to retrieve the losses, wMch my missions
could not fafl to mffict upon me in a pecimiary sense ; but
they have been mcurred m the pubhc serrice, and if Pro
vidence spares and assists me wfll not long be felt. Your

LIPE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 369
friendly wishes are reaUy invaluable. I do not want office,
but I higMy prize your esteem,
" Notwithstanding my anxiety to get home, I shaU quit
this station vrith some regret. They have been very kind to
me here. My place wiU doubtless be supplied by a man
much more able and distinguished, and at the same time of
equal discretion,"
TMs letter was written from St. Petersburg, where Mr
Pinkney was MgMy esteemed.
Although not indiscriminate in his friendships, where his
heart was given, it was the heart in its fulness, warm, gush
ing, simple and confiding as a chUd's. To both the friends
and the scenes of Ms early youth, he tumed with undimin
ished interest and pleasure in the close of his brUliant
career. He was an affectionate husband and father ; and evinced
the greatest anxiety to promote the welfare of his chfldren iu
every way possible. He had noble riews on the subject of
education. I have it in my power to present those riews to
the pubUc, for the first time, in a letter written by him to
my father. It contains the very breathings of his soul, and
possesses an additional value, viz., that it was intended
solely for the eye of a brother's sympathy, from whom he
concealed notMng, and was never designed for publication.
It is just what he thought on a subject of the most absorb
ing interest.

MR. PINKNEY TO HIS BROTHER NINIAN.
"London, 1st Jime, 1800.
" Deap. Ninian, — Your last letter has given me great
hopes of WflUam. If I should be disappomted in regard to
him, I shaU feel it severely, and I shaU certainly form my
judgment of him impartiaUy when I retum. We are some
times disposed to thmk too favorably of our own, and to
24

370 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY,
permit our understandings to be blinded by our affections,
I am not of that temper. He wiU find me able to deter
mine accurately of Ms progress, without being biassed by a
parent's, fondness, to imagine excellence where it does not
exist. I have perfect confidence, however, that he wiU not
need this sort of bias. On your care of him (for wMch I
cannot be too grateful), I have implicit reliance that you
vrill give him sound principles, both by your instruction and
example ; that you will incite him to early habits of honor
able thinMng and manly feeling ; that you will teach him
that the whole complexion of his future life depends upon
his boyish years ; that you will inspire him with that just
ambition, wMch, having excellence for its object, is the best
security for its attainment ; that you will impress upon his
mind the indispensable necessity of regular application and
systematic industry as the only sure aids of talent where it
exists, and the only effectual substitute for it where it is
wanting ; and in a word, that you will form him to know
ledge and virtue, with skill and attention equal, if not su
perior, to my own, I have no doubt. There are, indeed,
some tMngs in the education of a boy which men are apt to
neglect, but wMch, I trust, you will think too important to
be slighted. I mean certain principles, moral and reUgious,
wMch we allow ourselves to refer to the future, in the hope
that they wiU grow up of themselves or be acquired as the
mind advances to maturity. A mother teaches them in in
fancy, and stamps them upon the heart, not by formal lec
tures, but by reiterated admonition or reproof, as occasions
present themselves. Among those principles the detestable
nature of a falsehood deserves to be strongly inculcated,
TMs is a. subject upon which half manMnd are casuists ; but
I would not have my son among this class of moralists — with
the great and essential traths of religion, the outline of the
Christian creed, and the prominent duties involved in it, a
boy cannot be too soon possessed, I would have my son in

LIPE OP "WILLIAM PINKNEY, 371
early Ufe instructed, to avoid the fashionable infidelity of the
times. I would have him reared in the bosom of a faith, by
which no man was ever made worse, and all may hope to be
made better : a sound and rational piety (the surest warrant
of happiness in this world as well as in the next) is rarely
to be expected, unless it be the result of instruction com
menced when the mind is susceptible of deep impressions,
and continued tiU they are firmly fixed. The fanatic is
usuaUy a recent convert to mystical doctrines he does not
understand ; and the sceptic in religion, too often owes the
doubts that torment him to the unpardonable negligence of
those to whose care his childhood was confided.
" I know it is unnecessary to write thus to you ; but you
wiU place what I have said to the account of my anxiety for
this boy's welfare, and excuse it.
" I have nothing to add to this scrawl, worth the writing.
The French have opened the campaign on the Ehine with bril
hant success ; and in Italy, the early prosperity of the Aus
trians seems likely to end in defeat and ruin. A friend to
the peace of the world knows not to which side he should
give his vrishes. The ambitious riews of the Emperor of
Germany &c., &c., are Uttle better than those of republican
France. " Each party is tolerably honest in adversity, and be
comes the reverse in the hour of triumph. Americans should
leam to be the partisans of neither. I beg you to be as
sured that I think of you always with true affection,
" p.S. — \st July, 1800. — I have kept this letter for the
purpose of sending it by » * * who has remained here
longer than was expected.
" You wUl see by the public papers that my conjecture
as to the result of the campaign in Italy was correct, al
though at that time the general opinion was rather the other
way. The overthrow of the Austrians is signal and decisive.
NotMng could be more absolute and complete. The Em-

372 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
peror wfll now be driven to make peace, and Bonaparte of
fers it to Mm in the hour of success and triumph, and doubt
less vrith smcerity. TMs country must follow the example
of Austria." The campaign on the Ehine has hitherto been manifestly
subserrient to that of Italy, but it seems already to assume a
more active character, and if peace does not speedUy mter-
pose the Austrians under Kray wiU experience a fate simflar
to those under Melas. Such a constellation of mUitary
talent has seldom (if ever) been seen as may now be fourid
in the French armies and at the head of French affairs. It
is to tMs cfrcumstance that have been principally owing the
splendid events in Italy and the masterly though less active
operations in Germany. That Kray and Melas have been
outgeneralled is universaUy admitted. The precise co-opera
tion between the two French armies, although so far apart,
towards the accompUshment of one object, is a proof, if any
was wanting, of the superior inteUigence of those by whom
their movements were planned and conducted.
" We hear nothing of our commissioners at Paris. It is
beUeved that they are going on weU ; but with what speed
(although I hear from Murray now and then) we are ignorant.
" You are likely I perceive to have a contest for Pres
ident and Vice-President. So far removed as I am, I ought
to abstain from aU interference on the subject ; but I must
express an opinion that Mr. Adams's administration has been,
in the main, wise and proper. So far as I have been able
to judge of the leading measures of Ms adnumstration they
have been politic and just in substance. That some of them
should create clamor was to be expected — and tMs must be
looked for let who vriU be President.
" Mr. Adams has done nothing to deserve to be discarded.
He came mto power at a very deUcate crisis, and the
delicacy of that crisis was much mcreased by the circumstance
of Ms having General Washington for Ms immediate and

LIPE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY, 373
only predecessor in office, SUght errors should be overlooked
in a man who means weU, and who has acted essentiaUy right
in situations peculiarly arduous and embarrassing."
This letter abounds in vrise and judicious sentiments. It
is a faithful transcript of Ms paternal feehngs, and wiU secure
for him the thanks of aU, who are themselves concerned for
the proper traming of thefr children.
Mr. Pinkney was too severe a student to mmgle much in
general society. His practice was too extensive to admit of
much recreation. Duty triumphed over the yearnings of a
social disposition ; and pleasure vrith him was always made
secondary to duty. But stfll at home, itt the privacy of Ms
own hearthstone, or abroad, in the centre of society, he was
the finished gentleman, and contributed allin his power to the
pleasure and entertainment of those around him. Never, as
many can testify, did the chann of Ms eloquence or the
sahent rigor of Ms inteflect appear more fascinating, than
m the presence of a friendship he loved and trusted.
He was a man of elegant ho.spitality, and always welcomed
to his board those who chose to share in its conriviaUty. He
knew not the love of money, and nothing gave him truer de
light than to shower it down in blessings on the pathway of
others. His favorite Uterary works are not known. But that he
deUghted especiaUy iri Shakespeare, Milton, Addison and
Johnson, is weU known. The former he never tired in read
ing, and thoroughly comprehended. Perfectly at home in all
the poUte Uterature of the mother country, and extensively
and criticaUy read in the poets, he was admirably quahfied
to appreciate that splendid monument of vrise and judicious
criticism, " The Lives of the Poets," and detect its faults.
The copy now in my possession affords abundant proof of both
the pleasure and care with wMch he read.
The Bible he was accustomed to regard not only as the
word of God, but as the very first of literary works ; incom-

374 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY,
parably above and beyond them aU, of ancient or modern
times. He studied it closely, and Ms mind teemed -with
its beauties. Hooker was also an especial favorite, particu
larly Ms magnificent first book. He loved the Church of
England, and esteemed its theologians perfect masters of
style and matter.
He was fond of his pencil, and often sketched for the
amusement and gratification of his chUdren — and singular
to state, his sketches were executed vrith the sMU of a mas
ter, and only wanted the aid of experience to entitle them to
the highest rank in artistic exceUence. He was passionately
fond of nature, and loved to revel in its beauties. In the
very trees and flowers he found a sort of companionship. On
one occasion, iUustrative of this ardent attachment for ex
ternal nature, he observed that a favorite tree, one of the
monarchs of the forest, had been cut down, and it stined his
soul to the Mghest degree of eloquent rebuke. He inveighed
against the deed, and in Ms own expressive language affirmed
" that the growth of centuries was ever venerable."
His recreation was walMng and huntmg. Of the latter
he was particularly fond. There was an excitement about
it congenial to Ms ardent temperament. He was a capital
shot, and was capable of great endurance. He was a man of
heart in every thing he undertook. His soul was in his
business and his pleasures, his study and his pastime. He
did nothing languidly. Enthusiastic and aspiring, he strove
to excel in every thing he attempted.
He was a man of the nicest sense of honor. Trath was
the grace he was most ambitious to exhibit in all his inter
course vrith Ms fellow men. A gentleman now residing m
New- York, whose letter is before me, relates the foUowing
conversation that passed between Mr. Emmet and himseU".
I cannot, said tMs celebrated and eloquent lawyer, pay Mr.
Pmkney a greater compUment than by teUing you that in
aU Ms arguments before the Supreme Court he was never

LIFE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY. 375
known to cite a single authority that was not on record pre
cisely as he cited it, and so fufly was the court satisfied vrith
this fact, that they never thought it necessary to test the
accuracy of the citation-. It gives me the more pleasure to
refer to this, because it proves what Mr. Emmet thought of
his iUustrious rival, and how he spoke of Mm in the freedom
of conversation. Mr. Pinkney was not a man of professions,
and yet to use Ms own language in a letter to a friend, " he
had a good memory and a grateful heart." The reciproca
tion of Mndness was the cordial of his Ufe. Domestic in his
tastes and habits, nothing afforded him more lively satisfac
tion, when the caUs of business permitted, than to gather
around him his chUdren and the old friends whom he never
changed for new ones, and the young men of promise in
whose advancement he took an intense interest, and live
over again the days of his boyhood and indulge in a real
sunsMne of heart cheerfulness. Even when he could not
afford from press of busmess to contribute his full share to
the pleasure of his friends, he would pass to and fro from his
study to his parlor in the course of the evening and endeavor
to make the best atonement in his power for the stern neces
sity of his absence. Such was the discipUne of his mind, he
could resume the tMead of his most abstruse argument in an
instant, and go on consolidating the chain, as though he had
suffered no interruption. There was in one word a sort of
pensive cheerfulness about him that captivated the heart,
and a warm sympathy where the friends of his bosom were
concemed, which none who ever shared it can forget.
It is said that Mr. Pinkney was inordinately ambitious ;
and I am not disposed to deny that his ambition may have
exceeded the limits that are wisely and in mercy prescribed
to the aspfrations of men. But there was nothing low or sordid
in his thirst after distinction. If he were ambitious, it was not
to appear tp be what he was not, but to be what he felt he
should become. He was ambitious to be truly learned and

376 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
truly great. He selected the profession of the law, and al
ways continued to pursue it with delight, because it was not
possible to acquire in it a spurious and undeserved reputation.
If he sought to occupy the rank of the first pf orators, or
the greatest of lawyers, it was by giring expression to such
sentiments as could alone proceed from the lips of that rarest
and most briUiant creation of God, and exhibitmg those un
questionable frmts of ripe and profound legal learmng, that
could alone proceed from the other. He knew that the path
of soUd distinction was only open to the patient and laborious
student, and in striring to make the most rapid and advanced
progress m it, he was contented to toU on, amid drudgmg
labor to the end, in his endeavor and determination to vrin
the unfading laurel. He never resorted to low and vulgar
artifice to gain a fraudulent reputation. He bmlt upon no
other man's foundation the superstructure of Ms vast renown.
He rose on no other man's rain. In fair and open contest,
by dint of persevering and indefatigable and mtense exer
tion, he fought for victory ; and it may be truly said of Mm
that he wore not a garland he did not fafrly win. Self-
culture in the exercise of a seU-discipUne, rarely if ever
equalled, was the true secret of his success. Conscious of the
possession of rare inteUectual endowments, and grateful for
the gift, he labored to make the most of them by constant and
imremitting dihgence. Thus far he was ambitious. Eager
to excel, but only by endeavoring to deserve the pre-eminence
he sought. Too eager to excel it may have been for Ms own
happiness and good ; but stiU neither moved by envy nor poi
soned by jealousy, in Ms efforts to excel. He recognized m
his competitors the first men of the old and the new world,
and he met them like a man, in the spirit of a man, who
felt the terrible strokes of their stalwart arms, and acknow
ledged their inimitable power and dialectic skUl, and who
spurned the resort to underhand trick as self-degradation.
FeeUng the grandeur of the excitmg race, he laid aside every

LIFE OF -WILLIAM PINKNEY. 377
thing that could impede his progress. Pleasure, self-ease,
society, were all not only resolutely but cheerfully reUnquish
ed, to secure the palm for which he struggled. Superficial
' he was not ; self-sufficient he was not. Never satisfied to
remain where he was, his motto was ever onward. His con
stant aim was to be what he wished men to think him ; and
what he knew, by a prudent husbandry of his resources,
he could readily make Mmself to be. There was a sub
Umity in this deatMess desire to improve to the highest pos
sible degree the faculties of a noble inteUect, wMch com
mands our admiration. There was a moral power in that
severe disciphne of the mmd, for its o-wn improvement, wMch
was never relaxed for a moment, that made its influence felt
by the very ffist minds of the profession. It sought no
ephemeral end by fllegitimate means. Distinction alone
was not the boon it craved. Applause was not alone the in
cense it coveted. Distmetion as the reward of real attain
ment ; professional applause as the fruit of gigantic pro
fessional labor, — ^this it was wMch moved the soul of Pink
ney, and fired Ms noble spirit. Solid reputation, based upon
real merit, was what he desfred. So exceedingly jealous was
he of the moral beauty of this element in the reputation he
sought, that Ms friends were apprised of his intention to
abandon the field of professional duty, the very moment he
was conscious of any diminution of zeal in study or inherent
faUure of his mental faculties. With less labor he might
have lived upon the reputation he had acquired, and occa
sionaUy poured forth the higher specimens of his power ; but
that would not have fiUed the measure, or reahzed the idea
he had formed of the ambition worthy of his profession.
Ambition I know is a dangerous thing. It sometimes de
generates into a mean and pitiful vice. But such was not
the ambition of WiUiam Pinkney. There is notMng even
in his most private correspondence, or the most unreserved
commumngs of Ms friendsMp, that savored of UliberaUty or

378 a LIFE OF -WILLIAM PINKNEY.
meanness. There was, it is true, a reserve in his profession
al bearing, that was distasteful to many, and misinterpreted
by more. Mr. Kennedy has done Mm justice in this respect.
He appeared in the forum in the midst of his competitors
like a knight ever equipped for battle, and he walked the
field vrith Mut brow and cautious step, ready for a tilt wher
ever he met a foeman worthy of Ms steel. On such occasions
there was at times too much the semblance of hauteur
imparted to his air and mien. But stfll he was not wanting
in courtesy. He always engaged his adversary in fafr fight
and with honorable weapons. It will be remembered that
Judge Story said of him (page 252, vol. i.), "that he was
fafr in not urging points on which he did not rely with con
fidence, and acute in seizing the proper point of attack, and
driring the enemy from it by storm." This is the deUber
ate and honest asseveration of one who knew him weU, It
was a grapple of mind with mind, learning vrith learning,
eloquence vrith eloquence.
His ambition did not blind him to the real merit of oth
ers, neither did it excite envy in his bosom. He admfred the
talents of a Hamflton, Madison, Dexter, DaUas, Jones, Em
met, Story, Marshafl, Webster, Clay and others ; and to the
worth of most, if not afl of them, there are interspersed
either in his letters or his speeches, most expUcit and noble
tributes of praise. They were, most of them, his competi
tors, and he disputed vrith them, inch by inch, the pahn of
ascendency ; and he disputed to the last with the keen
eye and practised skUl of the most consummate gladiator.
But although he was accustomed to press Ms advantages with
vast dexterity, he was not bhnd to their exalted mental and
moral worth. I very much question whether any man ever
paid more frequent and spontaneous tribute to the genius or
acquirements of his competitors than he. One tMng is cer
tain ; his private conespondence is defiled by as Uttle acri
mony or bitterness of criticism upon his contemporaries, or

LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY, , 379
disgusting egotism, as any. In Ms more famiUar converse
he spoke freely of measures and of works ; sparingly of men
and of motives. He was perhaps as little personal in his many
eamest struggles of the forum and the Senate chamber, as
the least offensive and most guarded of Ms competitors.
To the younger members of the bar he was, at all times,
the kind, considerate and sympathizing friend, the deUghted
and interested eulogizer of their endeavors to ascend the rug
ged bfll of fame, " to drink the nectar and breathe the ambro
sial perfume." He loved to encourage them in their first
struggles to be great, and sought to stimulate their ambi
tion, and elevate thefr professional seU-respect by judicious
praise and wefl directed criticism.
I do not question that Mr. Pinkney had his faults and
weaknesses Uke other men. But, with Story, I aver they
were tririal, when compared vrith his virtues — "lighter
than the linnet's wing." To use the language of Vir-
gmia's noble orator, Eandolph of Eoanoke: "He had in
deed his faults, Ms foibles ; I should rather say sins. Who
is vrithout them ? Let such, such only, cast the first stone.
And these foibles, if you wfll, which „every body could see,
because every body is clear-sighted with regard to the faults
and foibles of others, he I have no doubt would have been
the ffist to acknowledge on a proper representation of them."
These are noble words, uttered m the same breath that told
the world that the last act of intercourse between them was
an act the recoUection of which he would not be without for
aU the offices that aU the men in the United States have
fiUed or ever shaU fiU. What that act was, was only known
to Mm who witnessed it ; but where the recollection is so
sweet and fragrant, the knowledge is a thing of naught. I
am not conscious that I have colored too Mghly a single trait ;
and fuU weU I know, I have not so combined or developed
them as they were combmed and developed in the dafly
walk. Justum et tenacem propositi vu-um.

380 LIFE OF "WILLIAM PINKNEY,

MARSHALL, STORY, WEBSTER, CLAY, CAL
HOUN, PINKNEY,
MarshaU, Story, Pinkney, and Webster, four of the
greatest names in American jurisprudence. All now gone
to their rest. The first two may be said without a figure to
Unger stiU in the highest forum of this nation, and give
forth law to the country and the world. The forms of Mar
shall and of Story (alike calm and dignified, and yet aU un
like in the living lineaments of manly beauty), the befitting
sanctuaries of minds free from prejudice, and- well nigh intu
itive in judgment, have not yet faded from the memory of
the Uring. The form of the third is not yet a stranger to
the haU, that has oft resounded with his trumpet tones,
MarshaU and Story (Uctated law to the nation. They ex
pounded the constitution of the freest and noblest Eepublic
known to the page of Mstory, The world has learned to ven
erate their judgments. They were lumina jicstitice in foro
justitice. AU men loved to do them reverence. No man
can wish, for the judicatures of the land, a more exalted des
tmy or a fufler measure of glory, than the- permission to
wear their mantle and emulate their greatness, by imbibing
their lofty principles, Pinkney took, in his hands, the same
inimitable constitution. Fresh from the society of its most
revered authors, and animated by its stupefldous principles,
he unfolded it to the view' of the American people, and as
sisted in the estabUshment of those great principles of con
struction, wMch are at once the ornament and the strength
of that more than Egyptian pyramid, reared by the hands of

LIFE OP -WILLIAM PINKNEY. 381
a MarshaU and a Story, to the lasting honor of American
jurisprudence, Webster lived to prove that the highest in
tellectual endowments and the profoundest legal learning
perished not with them. He wore the mantle of his three
great predecessors (for a time his cotemporaries on earth),
-with not less grace than dignity. He enjoyed the enriable
title of defender and expounder of the constitution. It is
not transcending truth to say of Mm, that that precious in
strument has been made more Ulustrious by the surpassing
brilliancy and depth of his giant inteUect, and that ages yet
to come -wiU hold it m stiU Mgher reverence as they riew it
m the gorgeous light of Ms masterly commentary. There
was a rare combination in the character of Pinkney and
Webster ; soUd as thq gramte, profound as the ocean, brU
liant as the diamond, they were, it seems to me, the purest
specimens of aU that was great in oratory and masterful in
reasonmg. And now that the shades of MarshaU and Story
Uve but in name, and the echoes of Pinkney's eloquence and
profound legal learning are heard amid the MUs of Ms own
beautiful Potomac, and Webster, too, is dead, and Marsh
field is desolate ; we may say, with proud exultation, in
Webster's own words, " the past, at least, is secure," and
Columbia shafl be remembered as the abode of eloquence
and the home of genius. In naming Mr Pmkney and Mr,
Webster together, and wearing a like brUUant and imperish
able garland for each, it must not be supposed that I mean
to mtimate that they were whoUy aUke in the quality and
character of thefr mmds. They resembled each other m
that feature wMch made them so unlflie any other of their
iflustrious compeers. They were aUke in the wonderful
combmation of depth and briUiancy, But in most other
respects they differed from each other as vridely as they did
from the more distinguished of their competitors. Clay was
far reacMng, endowed with extraordinary sagacity, iuU of
sterimg common sense,, bold as a Uon, the most perfect mas-

382 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY,
ter of the power to move and mould the masses, empha
ticaUy and par exceUence the orator of the people. He was
the first statesman of the world. Almost intuitive in judg
ment, he was equal to any emergency, and could steer the
noble ship of state through the most difficult and appaUing
crisis. His courage always rose with the occasion, and his
admirable decision of character gave a sort of charm to
the pohcy he pursued, and was the chief element of his suc
cess. His tall and majestic figure ' beautifully harmonized
with his frankness of disposition ; wMle his voice, which was
the very melody of eloquence, capable of the most marvel
lous modulation, pre-eminently fitted him for a leader in
the fervor and excitement of debate. The great pacificator
of the country, he more than once calmed the spirit of the
storm, as it rose in its fury, and threatened to pour desola
tion in its wMrlwind path ; so that vrithout the charge of
extravagance, we may apply to him those beautiful words of
the poet : " Tumida aequora placat
Collectasque fugat nubes, solemque reducit."
He led on in the Missouri compromise, and Pinkney fol
lowed. He led on in the last, not less glorious, compromise,
and Webster followed. The glory of the invention and
guiding policy was in either case Clay's ; the noblest defence
was Pinkney's and Webster's. The chivalrous and heroic
Clay will be remembered as long as the Union lasts, and the
marvel of his eloquence, identified with the floating stars,
will recall the splendors of the elder Pitt, and make immor
tal the principles of freedom it so briffiantly illustrated.
His name is stifl the watchword which is recogmzed by
every sentinel on guard, as the countersign ; and his memory
is stifl; as it ever wifl be, a tower of strength.
Tha gemus of Calhoun (which dehghted to revel in the
midst of its own splendid theories, remarkably rich and

LIFE OP WILLIAM PINKNER, 383
fruitful), united to his singularly strong and vigorous intel
lect, will command the admiration of the world, so Jong as
originaUty and force are properly appreciated. But Clay,
vrith aU his incomparable exceUence as a popular orator and
statesman, was defective in profound logical power ; and Cal
houn, -with aU Ms unquestioned inteUectuality, was defective
m judgment and splendor of eloquence. Their eminence
was restricted to the two great departments of oratory and
statesmanship. Mr. Pinkney and Mr. Webster were left to iUustrate that
rare combination, which secured for them like pre-eminence
as lawyers, orators, and statesmen. For close, severe, con
nected, logical reasoning, they were unsurpassed. Perfect
masters of the science of the law ; inimitable expounders of
the constitution, they were as profound as brilUant, as deep
as eloquent. They were tried in the severest school and in
the presence of the most critical and competent judges. The
very first court ofthe nation, in the very zenith of its fame,
was not ashamed to sit at the feet of either, and learn the
trae prmciples of constitutional interpretation. They were,
indeed, amici curiae. But stUl they were very unlike each
other, notwithstanding this wonderful resemblance, Pink
ney was rapid. He poured forth torrents of forensic elo
quence and vehement argumentation in a swollen stream,
that seemed to be absolutely exhaustless. Engaged in the
most diversified and extensive practice, he never fafled to in
fuse the magic of his eloquence and transparency of his rea
soning into his numberless arguments. Mr Webster could
be eloquent ; at times most eloquent ; and on such occasions
the effect was inesistible. He was calm, coUected, delibe
rate m the main ; and yet his great soul was sometimes
roused, and his lion spirit stirred, and then there was the
Ughtning flash in Ms eye, and the thunder tone *n his
tongue. At such times, there was an awful sublimity in his
thouo-hts, and a bold, massive structure in his style, that

384 LIFE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY,
were admirably adapted to the occasion. He bore down,
Uke a roused Uon, upon Ms antagonist, and desperate and
weU-timed were the blows of Ms stalwart arm. He was
master of every passion, and Ms countenance glowed vrith
the most varying expression, I was pri-vfleged to -witness
one of those noblest bursts of oratorical power in the cele
brated Gerard WiU case. Never shall I forget the vrither-
mg scorn, the bitmg sarcasm, the deep affecting pathos and
fearful subUmity, that alternately thriUed and delighted the
wrapt assembly,
Mr Pinkney was not less self-coUected, But ffied by the
briUiancy of Ms genius, and transported by the subhmity of
his thoughts, Ms warm southern temperament was more
qmcMy and keenly roused, and he always rose m grandeur
before the court, and was not confessedly exceUed by any.
He saw Ms conclusion with an eagle eye, hurried on with
giant strides to reach it, and fafled not of his mark. He
forced you along " pari passu" in breathless wonder, in a
very whfrl, not of declamation, but of overpowering and
matchless argumentation. And yet, in the Mghest excite
ment of Ms fervor arid rusMng impetuosity, he was ever per
fect master of himself
Webster requfred some powerful stimulus to draw out his
giant faculties, Pmkney never was -vrithout such stimulus.
It was as natural for Mm to be eloquent as to speak,
Pinkriey's, was the outgusMng of thought and expression
from an overflowing fountain ; Webster's, the weUmg up
of thought and expression, not less rich, but less copious
and free in its flow. They were more Demosthemc than Ci
ceronian in thefr style of eloquence, and yet modeUed upon
neither. Vigor and perspicuity were the cMef characteris
tics. Admirable scholars, they were smgularly happy in the
choice and arrangement of their words ; not less admfrable
logicians, they were equaUy happy in the classification and
disposition of thefr ideas. Webster never had occasion

LIPE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY, 385
to recaU a word or re-arrange a sentence ; but then he was,
even in his most excited mood, what would be termed a slow
speaker. Pinkney was not less skUful in the structure of his
sentences and the choice of Ms words. He was never known
to be at fault for either. TMs was the more wonderful, be
cause, in the greatest rapidity of utterance, there was never
a pause for either language or ideas. Neither of them was
ever exceUed in the abUity to explore all the depths of a
subject ; and though differing vridely in their pecuUar powers
of imagination, neither of them was ever excelled in the
beauty and magnificence of coloring they could impart to
the deductions and processes of reasonmg. Mr. Webster
sometimes drew a vast crowd to the courts of justice, and at
times riveted the attention of the audience. Mr. Pinkney
never spoke vrithout drawing a crowd, and wielding a tre
mendous infiuence over the promiscuous assemblage ; and
tMs he did vrith such consummate sMU, that he never weak
ened Ms argument or made it nerveless. Men are as fond
of eloquence now as they were then ; and yet, taking the
whole professional Ufe together, it may be truly affirmed that
no man ever drew together such crowds with like power to
keep them speU-bound, vrithout the weakening of a single
hnk m the chain of severe logical discussion. It was, in
deed, a rare and wonderful gift.
It is to be deeply regretted that these two great men, so
much aUke in towering strength, transparency of reasoning,
copiousness and concentration of thought and wealth of
imagination, were never brought into direct antagomsm.
They were engaged in the great Bank cause ; and there, ac
cording to Story's estfrnate, Pmkney was the bright pecuUar
star But to the best of my knowledge, they were never
engaged as opposite counsel m any cause. It is a weU
known fact, that Mr Pmkney's highest powers were always
more signaUy displayed in such antagonism. It was then,
that his mgenuity in the conduct of a cause, Ms quickness
25

386 LIFE OP -WILLIAM PINKNEY.
of perception, Ms accuracy of law knowledge, his powers of
scatMng analysis, his almost intuitive perception of the weak
points, and ardent spirit (that, Uke Napoleon's, would scarce
admit the possibiUty of defeat) shone out m aU their strength.
When it is said that Webster stated, that he had met
Pinkney, Emmet and Wirt, but never feared either of them
as much as he did Jeremiah Mason, it should not be forgot
ten that he had never encountered Pinkney. He had argued
by Ms side ; never in opposition to him. It woifld have
been a glorious contest, and I regret that their mutual friends
were not permitted to vritness it, knowing that it would have
been conducted in a way to reflect honor upon both.
If, as I have shown, they were aUke in combmation of
talent (however much they differed in their idiosyncrasies of
mtellect), they were not unlike in the destiny that befel
them. Neither of them was ever vanqmshed. They never
suffered a Waterloo defeat, although they passed the bridge
of Lodi, and scaled the passage of the Alps.
Mr. Pinkney could never be foUowed by a reporter. He
soon gave up the task in despair, in the fascmating speU of
the orator. And from the constant multiplicity of Ms ef
forts, another consequent necessity for extraordinary ex
ertion, unassisted by reporters, it was impossible for
Mm to revise and prepare for publication any of his
speeches. Thoughts struck out in the excitement of debate,
and beauties of expression and flashes of eloquence emitted
by the mind, when roused by the fervor of discussion, can
never be recalled ; and consequently, if the reporter from
any cause prove unequal to the task, the speech is lost. It
was Mr. Pinkney's misfortune to live and die, vrithout meet
ing the man, who could write down those splendid passages,
or even preserve unbroken the cham of Ms argument ; and
it is the misfortune of the lovers of true eloquence, that
such was the melancholy fact. Mr Webster in tMs respect

LIFE OP -WILLIAM PINKNEY. 387
•
has the advantage over aU others. He has left a monument
beMnd him worthy of Ms vast fame.
Not too rapid to be foUowed, in the present improved
state of stenography, his speeches were happily preserved ;
and that without any great labor on Ms part. In Ms speech
on Foote's resolution, he had the advantage of a report from
the pen of the semor editor of the IntelUgencer, who is se
cond to none of Ms cotemporaries in the best quahties of a
statesman. It is not, therefore, possible to conceive of a
richer mine of aU that is grand in eloquence, stupendous in
genius, and conclusive in argument, than the speeches of
Darnel Webster afford, caught up as they feU from Ms Ups,
vrith the glow fresh upon them, and reriewed by himself m
the sunset of his splendid career, when not a faculty was
dimmed, nor a ray obscured.
No man can accord to the lamented Webster a pre-emi
nence I do not accord to him. No man can take a prouder
pleasure in contemplating the rismg columns of Ms fame,
wMch, " piercmg the sMes, is gUded by the ffist and latest
rays of the sun" m Ms cfrcuit of glory.
I have thus ventured to give to the pubhc my estimate
of the character of these two remarkable men, Webster and
Pinkney. I waved the expression of my opinion untU the
facts that Ulustrated the latter were spread out before it.
That estimate must pass for what it is worth. For a rare com
bmation of aU the elements of trae greatness, they were, in my
opimon, proudly pre-eminent. For massive grandeur of intel-
tellect and gramte strength, soUdity of judgment and sub
lime eloquence, they were principes mter pares. Pinkney
was Webster's equal in depth and briUiancy ; more varied
in his gifts and uniformly great in the use of them. His
oratory was more splendid and overpowering if riewed m
the aggregate ; fuUy its equal, riewed m any other Ught.
They were, however, Mndred orbs, stars of the first magni
tude. In aU that is worthy of lasting renown, in devotion

S88 LIFE OP -VflLLIAM PINKNEY. •
to the Umon, power of argument, conservative statesman
ship and majesty of eloquence, thefr names vriU be handed
down to coming generations — the ffist of lawyers, orators
and statesmen. Equalled, it may be, by some, in one or
other of those departments ; they were unequaUed in the
exquisite union of pre-eminent excellence in all. I award
to them Uke honor and distinction, satisfied that our coun
try vrill never want a title to the name of eloquence and
force of intellect, so long as either name shaU survive to be
remembered.

LIFE OP -WILLIAM PINKNEY. 389

CONCLUSION.
Having caught up the trae echoes of Mr. Pinkney's fame,
I may be permitted in conclusion to address a few words to
the young men of the Umted States ; and enforce the sub
lime moral, which they so impressively inculcate. I had a
Mgher object in undertaMng this work than the mere desire
of paying a merited tribute to the subject of tMs memoir.
For although the part enacted by Mr. Pinkney in the past
history of the countiy, and his briUiant acMevements in Par
liamentary and forensic eloquence are worthy of perpetua
tion ; although his name and character are a portion of our
common heritage of glory, and therefore justly entitle him to
be held in grateful remembrance — it strikes me that the
powerful influence, wMch such an example ought to exert
upon the enterprismg youth of the present day, constitutes
the most important and attractive aim of the biography.
Example is ever more potent for good than precept. The
present receives its vrisest lessons and most exciting stimulus
from the past, and the future wifl, for the most part, take
its hue from the past and the present combined. Youth has
always been nerved to patriotism and excited to eloquence
by the great and the virtuous, whose footprints are left on
the paths they tread. It will be so, so long as the human
soul retains its love of rirtue and admiration of distin
guished talent. The tombs of the departed great, the
mausoleums of the iUustrious dead, are the best schools for
the mental and moral training of those who follow them.
Oblivion may have its sweets, and forgetfulness its charms

390 LIFE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY.
and usefoMess, but not where the fragrance of noble prin
ciples is scentmg the afr, and the frmts of gigantic exertion
are clustering on the boughs. He, who strives to deserve
weU of Ms country and of manMnd, and consecrates Ms rich
and varied powers to the serrice of his feUows, is a beacon
Ught, set up by Dirine Providence forfthe encouragement
and imitation of succeedmg ages. It is not possible to
multiply too much the exemplars, who have fllustrated the
page of history and made it glorious. Each additional star
swefls the brflUancy of the consteUation, and the eye never
tfres in gazing upon its beauty, for to each there is its own
pecuUar fascination. There is no antagonism in those cu
mulating rays. It is one harmomous blended Ught, that
gathers mtensity and strength from the burmng splendors of
the whole.
Our young countrymen have an awful trast committed
to their charge, a magnificent present, and a future such as
never before dawned upon the world. The blessings they
enjoy are not the birth and growth of a single day. They
see the gorgeous blossom of the flower that was but yester
day in the bud ; the mighty development of the seed that
was but just now in the germ. The Umted States of
America are a new star in the poUtical ffimament — a
federative government not known to any other confederation
of the old or the new world — ^vrithout a paraUel in the Ms
tory of the past. A distingmshed writer of England, in a
disquisition concermng the power and stabihty of federative
governments, of singular force and discrimmation, asserts
that ours "is a new creation in poUtics ; that our union has
avoided the glaring enors of former confederacies — that our
forefathers studied the models of antiquity in the trae spirit
of poUtical wisdom. With a -riew to balance the powers of
the central and state governments, and to prevent the former
from oversteppmg its proper limits, a power has been there
conceded to the judiciary, wMch has in no other instance

LIFE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY. 391
been vested in that department." These United States
then, the invention and discovery of the patriots of '87, men
of the Uon heart and patriot wiU, the cool sagacity to discem
what was best and the enlargement of soul to adopt what
they discemed, is the country of your hopes and aUegiance.
Its principles, institutions, resources, power and future des
tiny, have been long the topic of eloquent discussion. It is
Mstory known by heart to each one of you. In territory, for
extent, richness and variety of soil ; in beauty of scenery,
and mineral resources, and every other quaUty that could
fit it to be the fafrest heritage that ever feU to the lot
of any people, whose bosoms beat Mgh vrith love of Uberty,
social, civfl, and reUgious — it is unsurpassed. Mountam
and vale, woodland and prafrie, bay, river, and lake, con
stitute it the consecrated land of Uberty. Possessed of every
variety of cUmate, from the ice-bound shores of the Atlantic
to the warm and gemal breezes of the tropics, it is adapted
to the growth of every luxury that the palate can crave, and
smted to the wants and tastes of the mUlions who have
sought upon it a shelter and a home. Dotted over by the
footsteps of the arts and sciences vrith beauty and comfort ;
covered vrith raUroads, wMch promise in a few brief years to
form a complete fron web for the diffusion of commerce and
the propagation of Ught and Uberty from the centre to the
Cfrcumference of its wide-spread domain; blessed vrith in
stitutions, free, nicely balanced, beautifuUy and wondrously
harmonized, where the freedom of each is as large as the
security of the whole will permit, and the power of the whole
is so tempered and guarded that it cannot weU become the
oppression of the few. — such is the land of your birth.
Those who inteUigently read the past and then contem
plate the present, must feel more than ever conrinced that
our growth is fuU as marveUous as our birth. The aegis of
the constitution now covers an immense area. The very
sentinels, who cry out the watchword of freedom on the

392 LIFE OF -WILLIAM PINKNEY.
shores of the Atlantic, may hear the echo that sends it back
from the mfld Pacific wave. These separate and indepen
dent sovereignties have multipUed ; and each in tum has taken
its place beneath the floating stars without so much as a jar
in the glorious consteUation. The weak and the strong have
been gathered into the same clustering group without so
much as the loss of a single beam, save where that beam was
voluntarily surrendered to be absorbed into the splendors of
the whole.
And yet our growth has been singularly guarded against
those dangers that foUow the vridening of the bands of em
pire, by the discoveries of science wMch have brought the
most distant States of the Umon into close proximity. The
pulsations of the great national heart may be heard and felt
at almost every beat to the farthest verge of the body
poUtic. We are a nation among men, a power on the earth. Our
influence for good or evfl can be circumscribed by no limits.
Liberty in union is the true genius ,of our institutions, and
who shafl fetter or restrain them ? Our power is in the jus
tice of our political principles. It is a moral power, the
greatest and most master&l of afl powers. Adherence to
what is constitutional law at home, and a due observance of
what is clear mternational law abroad, are the very elements
of our greatness. Our power is not a thing of force. Mut
tering cannon and frowning battlements do no? aptly repre
sent it. These appendages of power we possess, it is trae,
and the thunders of Lake Erie and the bloody plains of New
Orleans proclaim to aU the sunounding natioris, that whUe
we love peace and cultivate it, we know how to meet force
by force and uphold the dignity of the flag. But stiU our
power is pre-eminently and characteristically the power of
moral suasion, Mgh example and noble unselfish principle.
We have had a briUiant past. We have a glorious present.
We shaU have a future. But what a future ? ShaU it be

LIPE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY. 393
a future of joy and hope to ages yet unborn, or blacker than
midnight when it settles aU gloomUy on the fretted bosom
of the sea ?
The ship of State has passed through sea and fire. More
than once has she been driven furiously among the breakers,
untU her very beams seemed to bend and crack in the shock,
and the pUot hung doubtingly at the helm.
" Ponto BOX incubat atra
Intonuere poll et orebris micat ignibus aether."
More than once has she been conducted in safety through
the howhngs of the tempest to mUd waters and a friendly
harbor, where the storm spent its fury in impotency. Bright
sMes are once more above her — a clear pathway before her —
cahnly, quietly, and beneath the beauteous banner of peace,
she cfrcumnavigates the world. The true glory of a country
does not consist in a fruitful sofl, overflowing treasury, weU
eqmpped and weU discipUned armies, fortified cities, frown
ing batteries, or a splendid naval force, ships manned by
brave tars and governed by gaUant officers. It does not
consist in -wide extent of territory or a crowded population.
These thmgs are valuable m theL_wl,oi3, images of power
and where rightly used and honestly obtained images of
greatness. But they do not constitute true national glory.
The day was when we had them not — a day of darkness,
peril, fierce and desperate conffict. And yet the measure of
our glory was never fuUer. Our name was for praise on the
Ups of aU,
The trae glory of a nation consists in moral elevation, high-
toned principle, love of justice, adherence to right, schools
and coUeges, the purity of her statesmen, the inteUigence
and patriotism of her yeomanry, and above aU incomparably,
the vital godhness of each.
It is for the young men of the Union, thus circumstanced,
I write, I write to them because they are young men,
young m hopes, young in energy, young in the fervor and

394 LIFE OP -WILLIAM PINKNEY.
freshness of an enterprising enthusiastic public spirit. Youth
is generaUy represented as a sort of hohday of sunsMne, a
pleasure-taMng, gay, joyous, buoyant season ; when the
prisoner just escaped from the painful restramts of Ms alma
mater may give himself up to those waking dreams, wMch
Prior seems disposed in a very mockery of refinement to dig
nify with the name of hopes. I would not take one ray of
real sunsMne from its path, I would not dim one rush
candle that ffickers by its way, I would not put into its
sparkling chahce one drop of bitterness, to mar the buoyancy
and elasticity of this sweet spring-time of existeuice.
Youth when virtuously spent, is an oasis in this bleak, drear
vrildemess. It is the dew-drop on the trembUng leaf, the
petal of the flower not yet blown, the acorn of the oak not
yet developed. It is pre-eminently the season of hope, the
hour of risions bright and golden fancies, when the mind
may weave the garland of its future fame and rega,le itself
amid scented bowers and golden frmt. But youth is some
tMng more, sometMng vastly Mgher, nobler, more august.
It is the period for the moulding of the immortal mind and
heart ; and gives the coloring and character to the days to
come. It is for the young men of the Union I write. It is for
them I have endeavored to draw tMs character and disclose
the life of one of om- distinguished sons — satisfied that every
exemplar of noble energy and aspiring character, set before
them, must tend to stimulate thefr efforts and awaken emu
lation in thefr bosoms.
In Ms loyalty to the Union — ^m Ms deep and patient ex
amination of its stupendous principles— -m Ms awful rever
ence for the constitution — ^m Ms broad and expansive patri
otism that scorned all sectional boundaries, and aspfred to
be coextensive with the limits of the land of Ms fondest love
— ^in Ms Mgh tOned, and energetic endeavor to assist in the
estabUshment of the trae principle of its interpretation — ^in

LIFE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY, 395
aU those respects we fancy we may behold in Mr, Pmkney
an example worthy of their imitation in this day of ultraisms
on either side of the Une that separates between North and
South, Like him, see to it that notMng is wanting on your
part to uphold the constitution of tMs Union and cause it to
be reverenced and obeyed. Look upon it as the strong bond
of society — cherish it in your mmost soul. Let your fealty
to it be above suspicion and reproach. In afl your exposi
tions of it, learn vrith him, whfle you do all in your power to
enUghten its duly commissioned expounders, to bow vrith
deference to thefr decisions, satisfied that the constitution,
constitutionally interpreted, is the law of safety, honor, pros
perity, and peace to aU, Should you enter the halls of legis
lation or rise to address courts of justice, be ever ready to
resist by argument and eloquence the slightest encroachment
of State sovereignty on the national jurisdiction, and vindi
cate the States from national usurpation. Like Mm never
approach the discussion of any constitutional question vrith
out an overawmg sense of the responsibiUty of the deed, and
feel as though your country is standing before you to be
elevated or depressed, as the constitution triumphs or is un-
pafred. In your youthful preparations for the onerous duties that
must devolve upon you as the future guardians of your
country's honor and mterests, should difficulties rise up to
impede your progress or dampen your energies — should
poverty bow down your souls in the dust, and patronage be
wanting to give you confidence and inspire you vrith hope
 should the sa,d defects of early education conspfre to abate
your ardor in the excitmg race of honorable distinction, I
would point you to the youthful Pinkney, who was compeUed
to grapple -with fiercer difficulties, and alone, without money
or patronage, the smfle of friends, or the favors of the rich,
push forward Ms onward and upward career ; and bid you
take courage and never yield to despondency and gbom. If

396 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
endowed with genius (the real power to scale the loftiest em
inence of professional renown), remember that genius alone ¦
will not suffice to crown you with complete success. Like
Pinkney, you must study toTje great. Close, dfligent, search
mg mental discipline must be the very aliment of your
Ufe. Your motto, like his, must be " plus ultra." Knowl
edge, coextensive with the widest range of the profession ot
the law andthe science of government, must be not only
sought by you but obtained, and that, too, by labor contin
ued without intermission. You must realize what is sobeau-
tifriUy recorded of PubUus Scipio, " ilium et in otio de ne-
gotfls cogitare et in soUtudine secum loqui soletum ; ut ne
que cessaret unquam et interdum coUoquio npn egeret.
Hceque duse res quae langorem afferunt caeteris iUum accue-
bant otium et solitude." Never forget the lessons which
those echoes teach so conclusively, and always bear in mind,
that no matter how prodigal Proridence may have been in
her gifts to you, all must at last depend upon yourselves.
Work you must, and that, too, in the close as in the begin
ning of your professional life ; or you may never hope to scale
the summit and reflect lasting renown and distinction on the
land of your birth. In this strenuous desire and exertion to
do your best, to add something dafly to the stores of your
mental resources, you must, like him, give your days and
nights to study ; so that when you arise to address juries, or
courts, or legislators, you may reasonably expect to mstract
and delight them, haring mastered your subject and threaded
aU its intricacies.
The benefit and importance of such an example cannot be
better stated than inthe language of Mr, Wfrt, "No man
dared to grapple with him without the most perfect prepa
ration and the full possession of all his strength. He kept
the bar on the alert and every horse vrith Ms traces tight. It
vriU be useful to remember him, and in every case imagine
Mm the adversary with whom we have to cope," Years have

LIFE OP -WILLIAM PINKNEY, 397
passed since these words were penned, but the power of such
an example is imperishable. So far from losing, it acquires
strength by age, and comes to us clothed with afl the dignity
and veneration of a relic of times gone by. This ceaseless men
tal struggle (that never so much as winked its eye, but always
marched steadily to the point and made preparation a de
light) is less the habit of our day than it was ; and, there
fore, there is peculiar propriety in calling up this marked and
striMng feature in Pinkney's character for renewed imitation
and study.
Above aU, like him, keep your professional integrity as
an advocate unimpeached and unimpeachable. Never rest
your defence upon weak points — spurn aU captious carillings
— and when you grapple with your adversary, meet Mm Uke
a man and storm the very bulwarks of his argument.
Be it your ambition, like him, to be truly great, because
truly learned and upright. Aim to be what you would have
the world suppose you to be. Let your confidence be the re
sult of dihgent preparation, and then, although like him,
you may never rise vrithout embarrassment, you - wUl find
yourselves more and more assured. Your pathway of argu
ment and eloquence wfll be clear before you.
I hand you this simple record of a man who has been
said, somewhat reproachfully, to Uve in the mere echoes of
his fame. You have heard those echoes coming up from the
courts before wMch he plead — the pubUc service he so much
adorned by his vrise, moderate and patriotic principles — ^the
Congress of the Union, where he always stood forth the
champion of the people's rights, and where Ms eloquence
and Ms logic were the breathings of a conservative states
manship — and the private walks of Ufe, which he iUustrated
by a moderation, temperance, and kmdUness of heart, that
might be said, without a figure, to have been that chorus of
the vfrtues wMch Cicero so much lauds. You can now
judge whether these echoes be not conrincing proofs of the

398 LIFE OF -WILLIAM PINKNEY.
more than gotMc splendors of the original. Pinkney's fame
may Uve for the most part m the echoes of the past. But
stUl they are the echoes of the great, the learned, and the
vrise, who have left beMnd them the most undoubting testi
mony to the wonders of Ms mind — echoes not of the enrious
or fawnmg parasite, but the honest and upright, men of men
tal enlargement and weU cultivated taste, giants of the age
in wMch they Uved. The speeches that surrive him are aU
fragmentary. They lost so much in the effort to report them,
that you can scarce discern the resemblance. Such was the
discipline of Ms mind and Ms sMU in extemporaneous discus
sion, that when fuUy prepared (and he never spoke when he
was not), he poured forth his arguments in a stream of the
purest EngUsh, fresh and gusMng from the " weU undeffled."
Is it hoping too much ; is it asMng too much of the young
men ofthe United States,, who are now treading in his foot
steps and the footsteps of the other giants of his day, that,
thriUed by such glowmg reminiscences of genius, patriotism
and labor, they would redeem the promise of the future and
hand on the record to succeeding ages, bright vrith new names,
that shaU Uve after them ?
In a country like ours, where each citizen has his fuU
share in the affairs of the body politic, — and no one can teU
what positions of power and infiuence he may have to fiU, —
and where in the most retired sphere he may choose to occupy
" procul a republica," he can hope to serve the country most
effectually — it is his bounden duty to prepare himself by a
careful traming of both mind and heart for any and every
possible pubUc emergency. He belongs to the republic, for
the repubUc is but an aggregate of personal indiriduaUty.
He cannot lead a solitary, selfish existence, vrithout the guflt
of moral treason against her pride and power,
Dihgence and appUcation are tremendous levers and the
fulcrum on which they rest is the might and majesty of
your individual wfll. Possunt, qwia posse videntwr, was a

LIFE OP -WILLIAM PINKNEY, 399
favorite maxim in the olden time. Who can calculate what
moderate abflities will accomplish, when stfrred into action
and kept vigorously at work by plodding industry and steady
perseverance ? AppUcation works wonders, Bacoui has said
that " crafty men contemn studies, simple men admire them,
wise men use them." " Eead to wei^h and consider," continues
that master mind, " Some books are to be tasted, others to
be swaUowed, and some few are to be chewed and digested."
With some such maxims in your view, and the firm deter
mination to make the most of your powers, you must hve
benefacere EeipubUcae and refiect upon it fadeless lustre and
renown. Shun superficiahty in every thmg you undertake. The
habit wfll soon become a palsy upon your mental faculties.
Take a step at a time, and no step without a fufl comprehen
sion of its use and aim. " Festma lente." Be satisfied to
move a step at a time, and rest assured that your progress
wfll be rendered thereby the more rapid and certain.
The repubUc expects each one to do his duty, and we
would therefore urge upon you the importance and necessity
of dUigent preparation to do it weU and faithfuUy,
Your fathers, " Patres conscripti," were vrise men aU, of
the most approved patriotism, calm phUosopMc wisdom,
patient study, and intense appUcation, Washmgton, Adams,
Hamflton, MarshaU led them on in thefr bright career, a
career carved out for them on the blood- washed fields of the
Eevolution, They left thefr impress on the history of the
vrorld  and that Mstory must be tom to tatters before thefr
memory can begin to fade, and then so long as the shreds
remain the disjecta membra wiU hand down thefr names to
confound tyrants on their thrones and rebuke the myrmidons
of despotism. Wise men wiU be needed, wise councUs, wise
measures, for the future guardians of our ship of State,
Patriotism and mteUigence, m combmation with moral vfrtue

400 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
and a pure Christian faith — ^these are the gotMc and corintMan
pfllars of the noble edffice.
Your country looks to you, ShaU she look m vain ? To
uphold her ancient renown and fulffl her exalted destmy, she
craves your warmest sympatMes and most substantial aid,
Wifl you refuse her the just demand ? None but true
hearts, enUghtened mmds, heroic wills can serve her as she
needs. You are young and rigorous. There is nothing that you
may not do wMch she has either the right to expect or the
authority to exact. She neither exacts nor expects of you
impossibilities. Girded in by an example ever powerful to
thriU and stimulate you — sunounded by the monuments df
a prudence, moderation, and patriotism, that have pervaded
the land in aU the beauty and impressiveness of an august
reality, she woifld have you only re-enact the magnificence
and glory of the past. Worthy sons of worthy sires is aU
she desfres you to be. She would have you imitate virtues
that have afready found an impersonation on the earth, and
emulate a patriotism that knew of no measure short of the
highest national exaltation.
Aim to be real characters. There is power m reaUty.
This was Mr. Pinkney's crowmng characteristic.
The age in wMch we live is an age of actirity, rather
than patient, laborious, plodding industry and attention to
study. Even among professional men there is far less of the
"labor limae" than existed m the generation just passed.
There is not the same ambition to excel, the same emulation
m the path of honorable distinction. The dust actuaUy ac
cumulates on the pages of splendid Ubraries that were
thoroughly conned by the fathers of the present generation,
who possessed no more time for Uterary and leamed pursmta
than those who have inherited their names and fortunes, but
not their thirst for knowledge or distmetion.

LIFE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY. 401
The great Eoman Satfrist thus -wrote in the decime of
his country's Uterary and poUtical glory.
"Indooti primum, quamquam plena omnia gypso
Ohrysippi invenias. Nam perfectissimus horum est,
Si quia Aristotelem siinilem vel Potticon emit
Et jubet archetypos pluteum servare Oleanthes."
He rebuked those who aped learmng vrithout undergoing
the fatigues and toU of study, and flattered themselves, that
by fiflmg their studios vrith the busts of deceased logicians
and statues of renowned philosophers, they would merit and
win for themselves honorable and lasting distinction. May
we not, -vrithout charge of presumption, warn you against
this foUy, and by the hard-earned laurels of your ancestors,
and ours, mculcate the aU-important truth, that nothing
truly great can be accompUshed without intense appUcation.
It wUl not do to have the images of Lord Bacon, Shakspeare,
Hooker, Taylor, Coke, Mansfield, Steward, Sir Matthew Hale,
Johnson, lookmg down upon us vrith calm beauty and inspirmg
earnestness. It wiU not suffice to gaze upon the statues of
Aristotle, Cicero, QuintiUian, Thucyd^es, Herodotus, as
though the cold marble would warm us into life and transfuse
into our bosoms thefr own bright thoughts and deeds. It
wUl not do to stand in the shadow of the fathers of the re
pubUc and feast our eyes upon their calm phUosopMc features.
We must study thefr immortal works to emulate their great
ness. However eagerly we may pursue the discoveries made
in science and government since thefr day, we must remem
ber that these are fixed stars which can never lose thefr bril
hancy or their use. Their works are sohd gold, hammered
out, wMch must constitute the warp and woof of every
character which Uke thefrs would aspire to like immortality.
The mention of Cleanthes recaUs to mind an historic fact
of pregnant friterest to the young. It proves what the heart
of oak, and fron wfll can accompUsh. He was a Stoic pMl
osopher, sumamed Hercules, because of Ms excessive labors
26

402 LIFE OP "WILLIAM PINKNEY,
to amass knowledge. He was so poor that he was accustomed
to get his living by drawing water for the gardens at night,
that he might apply himself to the study of philosophy by
day. It was even said of him that he wrote the doctrines of
his master upon ox bones and broken tfles for want of money
to purchase befitting materials. And we know that some
other immortal works have been since written on scraps of
paper picked up accidentafly in the streets. The home of
genius is not in the palaces of luxury or the gardens of de
light, but the workshops of patient and secluded labor.
Great names are enrolled, not upon the fleeting, unsubstantial
cloud, which receives its roseate hue from the hand of an ex
cited fancy or a rich and discursive imagination, but on the
marble dug from the quarry and poUshed by industry and
perseverance. We know that we are oftentimes charged with egotistic
folly as a nation, because we regard ourselves as the world's
trustees. But we plead not guilty to the impeachment. We
hold that this western continent is destined for the enact
ment of a grand drama in the world's Mstory. We see the
hand of Proridence in her birth and growth. We have no
prophet's vision to read the future ; but we can sit down in
the light of the past and read enough to thriU and fill us
vrith awe and pleasure. Our fathers copied after no model.
It was aU their own brilliant creation ; God's blessing on
their honest patriotism, love of justice, moderation and fear
of wrong. Liberty and equaUty constitutionally guarded,
were the magic words they emblazoned upon thefr high
floating standard. They kindled a flame that stifl cheers the
world, amid the darkness of misrule and the clouds of poUti
cal superstition and antiquated error.
In handing over this precious legacy to you, are you sur
prised that our anxiety and our fears are awakened, as weU
as our patriotic exultation and pride. Your fathers wifl soon
Ue down to die, and the floating stars wifl wave before thefr

LIPE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY. 403
dying eye in all the beauty of unity and harmony of their
blended rays. Her martial airs will float triumphantly on
every breeze, and mingle, as they fall upon their ear, in death,
with those other sounds that wiU soothe and compose them
to their final rest. They will soon cease to be actors in this
busy scene Their last prayer offered up for the country's
weal, their last deed of loyalty performed, they wfll pass from
off this stage of action and leave you the responsibility and
privilege of being alone in your glory. Their solicitude is for
you and yours, not for themselves. Their task is well-nigh
concluded ; their responsibility weU-nigh accomplished.
The past is theirs. The present and the future belong to
ypu. " The past is secure." It gives neither anxiety nor
concern. The stars and stripes cover it with glory. But
the present and the future are laden with hopes and fears.
WiU you make it the heritage of good or the prognosticator
of evil ?
You have the hopes of the world in your care and keep
ing. You are each one of you sentinels on the watch-tower
of Uberty. The countersign from your lips is echoed from
the Atlantic to the Pacific wave, and the world honors and
respects it. It finds a welcome response in thousands, who
dare not whisper even to their trembling hearts the solace
and the comfort it affords. Be it your highest earthly ambi
tion to live as men should Uve who are put in charge of such
a dread trust. Let your pohcy be just and upright. Culti
vate peace, and let the repose of nations be undisturbed by
you. Suffer the country to grow. Intermeddle not with
her inner Ufe for it constitutes at once her truest power and
Mghest renown. God, in His wise overruling Providence,
wUl develope her as rapidly as her safety and honor wiU per
mit. Let the American name, under your guardianship, be, as
it ever has been, the watchword of honesty and truth. Her
flag, let it wave the symbol of equal-handed justice and en
larged civfl and rehgious liberty, the pledge of protection to

404 LIFE OP -WILLIAM PINKNEY.
the rights of aU and the stern, unbending, unyielding exactor
of our own.
Promote purity of morals and elevation of principle.
Frown upon vice. Eevive, as far as you can^ the self-sacri
ficing habits that characterized the infancy of the republic.
Do all in your power to bring back again the period of '76 ;
and let the heroic deeds and virtues of that golden age be
your constant study and imitation.
And above aU, learn to estimate, as you ought, the power
of individual influence, the force and naight of individual ex
ample. "Eivulets are made up of drops — ^mountains of
grains of sand," The onward rushing stream of pohtical
power, wMch on this continent, and in these Umted States,
occasionally sweUs with more than the majesty and impet
uosity of the Mississippi, when a flood is upon her, is only
the swoUen aggregate of private views and principles. Each
gives an impetus to the whole. There is no danger so sub
tle, crafty, and insidious in its first approaches, and after
worMngs for evil, as the secret conviction that it matters
not what tMs or that private citizen does or thmks — the
persuasion that the man is absorbed and swaUowed up in the
multitude. It is the most bitter drop of poUtical poison ever
distifled into the cup of a freeman — ^it is the ffist weaving
of the cham of the despot on his stalwart arm. He has read
history to but Uttle practical profit, who does not know
that every thought and deed of each and every freeman is
incorporated by the mysterious law wMch pervades all hu
man society into the grand aggregate ; and that the citadel
is never so safe as when each watchman, feeling her to be M
danger, is wide awake and at his post.
That my young countrymen may Uve to reaUze their
most sanguine hopes, and reflect new lustre on the land of
their birth; that they may be happy and useful in their re-
tfrement, if they should prefer the quiet shade — and re
spected and revered for thefr public and private rirtues.

LIFE OP -WILLIAM PINKNEY. 405
should they be called to serve their country in the legislative
haUs, at the councfl board, or in the courts of justice ; that
they may cultivate their minds and hearts, and refresh
themselves at the weU-springs of eloquence and of learning;
and, above all, that they may be strong in wisdom, and
show themselves as men, keepmg the statutes of the Lord,
and walking in His ways, and thus diffuse all around them
the fragrance of a holy and virtuous Ufe, is my most earnest
prayer. They must expect difficulties, look for trials, and
encounter many rude shocks as they traverse the sea of life.
The very castles they buUd in what may be caUed the mock
grandeur of thefr youth, "when hfe is Uke a summer
dream," -wiU be soon demolished, and the solid superstruc
ture of a sure and enduring renown wiU cost them many
days of anxious toU in its erection. But still, if true to
themselves, the country and the world, they wiU not fail to
be honored and revered as public benefactors. " There is an
intimate connection between private virtue and public
greatness. The most honorable and liberal, the most benev
olent and reUgious man is in the first instance, and wiU
eventuaUy appear to have been, the best friend to his coun
try and the noblest benefactor to manMnd."
I have a deep and unfeigned veneration for the memory
of lofty talent and high-toned manly principle, consecrated
tMouo-h long years of pubUc serrice, by single-minded earnest
ness and self-sacrificing labor; and if I mistake not, there is
that in the bosom of my feUow-men wMch beats responsive
to my own. He who erects a monument to departed worth,
and by Ms art and skfll causes the marble or the brass to
speak trumpet-tongued to the present of the past, is a bene
factor of his race. Every monument thus erected to lend
beauty to the streets of the crowded city, is a pillar of na
tional security, which strengthens whfle it adorns the great
temple of freedom. It speaks in a language free from pas
sion and with the awful impressiveness of the tomb, which

406 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
coriseci-ates aU that is virtuous and ennobUng among men.
A monument of marble or of brass, it was not possible for
me to raise. It is not often the privilege of descent to en
grave on the cold marble the image of a loved ancestry,
Trae it is, the world is occasionafly cheered by the sight of
the filial deed ; and even now the American can look with
pride upon the enterprising artist, who calmly and patiently
continues at his work, and will not abandon it untU his
countrymen shall hail the consummation of the deed. Jus
tice Story will live, not only in his own imperishable works,
but in the life-revealing pen and chisel of his son.
Mine is an humble task. To the memory of WiUiam Pink
ney after a long lapse of years, during which his form has
neither moved among men, nor his tongue electrified them,
and when the prejudices of rivalry may be .supposed to have
given place to nobler sentiments, I have erected this modest
and unpretending monument. Inscribed upon it is his char
acter as I have studied and understand it. In the fourfold
aspect of orator, lawyer, statesman, and man, you may read
it there. I have asserted notMng without proof I have
weighed weU the facts stated. I have uniformly permitted
other Ups to speak forth his praise. In my own estimate of
Ms mental and moral character, I have studied to be impartial,
and although it would be disgusting presumption to affirm that
I have not unconsciously yielded somewhat to the power of
those feelings of partiality which almost always give a coloring
to our riews, I can truly say, that I believe that the work con
tains intrinsic internal evidence of its truthfulness and fide
lity. WiU any cynic chide me for the work ? He may re
buke the rashness of the undertaking, and I bow to the sad,
though just impeachment. But the desire to rescue from
oblivion the memory of departed worth is immortal, and
none may dare rebuke it. That desfre, united to the deep
interest I take m the young men of the land, is my only

LIPE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 407
apology for what I know and feel, as deeply as the most un
sparing critic of my work, to be its ra,shness.
Quid erit tutius quam eam exercere artem qua semper
armatus, presidium anflcis, opem alienis, salutem pericUtanti-
bus, invidis vero et immicis metum et terrorem, ultro feras,
ipse securus et velut quadam perpetua potently ac potestate
munitus ?

THE END,

A MOST INTEIiESTmG AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.

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LIFE OF JOHN RANDOLPH
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— Syracuse Journal.
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markable men of raodern times." — AWmny Atlas.
" We have had, in our young republic, some indigenous specimens of character
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of his satirical power, his eccentric habits, and curious adventures are rife in the
land, we have had no complete memoir untU the one before us, whioh we doubt not
wiU 'be read with avidity.'*— »oy W%. •„ - , .,u •
" Those who laugh and weep over some of the pages of Uickens, will find their
sense of pathos and humor awakened by many a scene and saying here recorded ol
Kandolph of Eoanoke."— .2b«M Jov/rndl.

THE WORKS OF JOHN C. OALHOUN.
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HIS LIFE.
Calhouk, Clat, and Weestee are three names which will long be venerated
by American Citizens. Of the three, Calhoun, during the early part of his life, was
perhaps the greatest favorite with the people. His highly cultivated miud, pro
found views of government, and his pure character, gave great weight and impor
tance to his opinions with all parties. Of the writings and speeches of American
statesmen, there are scarcely any whioh bear so directly upon the great measures
adopted by our Government, during the last forty years, as those of the lamented
Calhoun. The War, the Eevenuo System, the Currency, and States Eights, were
subjects upon which he took a leading position, and greatly aided the decisions
which were made on them. With those who take an interest in our national histo-
tj, the value of the writings of our public men cannot be too highly estimated.
The works of Calhoun will follow each other rapidly from the press. His
friends who are desirous of procuring them, are invited to subscribe without delay.
The terms are two dollars per volume, payable on delivery.
200 Broadway, New-York, February 1, 1858

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mott useful, and tlie most elevatiug snbject of human contemplation . It must ever form tht
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Dmei, no history, (except Niebuhr's, whose style ia often obscure; of this wonderful people ex
isted, commensurate either to their dignity, their importance, or their intimate connectioB
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FROM THE FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE TO THE
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BY F. GUIZOT,
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France has produced, within late years, some remarkable historians
and Appleton & Co. are rendering an impor|ant service to the public in
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HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH
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WORKS BY M. MICHELET.
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HISTORY OF FRANCE,
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reader the desire to investigate the ancient history of thia wonderful land. Ue next
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jBS rarely fonnd occasion to make his own appearance on the scene. * * « * «
it ia almost invariably Luther himself wbo speaks, almost invariably Luthei related
iy Luther. — Extreuit fi'om M. Miehelefa Preface.
THE PEOPLE.
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**• Thii boe^ is more than a book ; it is mvaelf, therefore it belongs to ^ou * *
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lerived it from my observation, from my relations of friendship and of neighborhood;
lave picked it vp upon the roads. Chanee loves to favor those who follow out on*
BOntiFaous idea. Above all, I bave fonnd it in the recollections of my ]fOuth. T«
know the Ufe of tbe people, their labor and their sufferings, I bad but to intr»iogat«
«r memory.— JlKtrorf from Jiuthor'a Prtfacc.

LORD MAHON'S HISTORY OF ENGLAND^
D. Appleton cf- Compaivy kave just puhlished,
HISTORY OF ENGLAND,
FROM
THE PEACE OF UTRECHT TO THE PEACE OF PARia
BY LORD MAHON
EDITED BT
HENRY REED, LL.D.,
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partiality in estimating characters." Quarterly Review.
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trasting, the various elements of interest which his materials afforded ; he hab continuad
to draw his historical portraits wich the same firm and easy hand ; and no one can lay
down the book without feeling that he has been under the guidance of a singularly clear,
high-princi()]ed, and humane mind ; one uniting a very searching shrewdness with a
pore and unaffected charity. He has shown equal courage, judgment, and taste, ia
availing himself of minute details, so as to give his narrative the pictn esqueness of a
memoir, wiihout sacrificing one jot of the real dignity of history  His History i^
veil calculaieil to temper the political judgment. It is oue great lesson of modesty, t^
[learance, and charity.*' Edinburgh Review.
"It was with no small satisfaction that we saw a history of this period announced
from the pen of Lord Malion, nor have we been disappointed in our expectations^ His
¦arrative is minute and circumsfantial, without being tedious. His History of the Re
bellion in particular is clear, distinct, and entertaining. In his judgment uf persons he v
OB the whole fair, candid, nqd discriminating." English Review.
" Lord Mahon's work will supply a desideratum which has long been *' -^ reafly
food history of the last 150 years. It is written with an ease of style, a c ^land of rfa«
labject, and a comprehensiveness of view, which evince the possession oX xiigh ouatifica-
tioas for the great task which the noble author has nroposed to hinistif. Lord Mahoa
avails himself extensively of tbe corresjion dence and private diaries of 'he times, whiob
gives nnnsnai interest and life to the narrative  The authorities quoted fcf
Spanish orFreuch details are always the original ; and we can hardly lememher a refet-
eace of his Lordship's on any subject whi(!h is not to the best testimony known la
aeceuible." Sismondi — Histoire dea Francais,
" Sor le Prince Charles Edouard, en 1745 — nous renvoyons uniqnement k I'admiiabJs
i4ait de cette expedition dnns I'liistoire'de Lord Mahon. Toutea les relations y soa
a^pu^esetjugdes avec une saine critique, et le recit presente levifinterdtd'nn romaa.'
Professor Smyth — University of Cambridge,
•' T may recommend to others, what I have just had so much pleasure in reading ny
¦•If, the History lately published by Lord Mahon. All that need now be knowa «<' tnt
tra f.-om the Peace of Utrecht to that of Aix-la-Cha;)elle, wid be ther* fonnd.'

D. AppMon ^ Co.'s Publicatxon,.^.

ILLUSTRATED AMERICAN POETS.
BeautifuUy printed in one S^are crown Qvo, Volume.
POEMS BY AMELIA,
(MRS. WELBT. OF KENTUCKY,)
A. new enlarged edition, Illustrated with original designs by Robert W. Weir, Engraftd oi
Steel in the best mannor.
Price $2 50 cloth ; $3 gilt sides and edges ; $3 50 imitation morocco ; $i 50 mar. extra. ^
"Mrs, Welby, of Kentucky, stands in the highest rank of our female poets ; she in a Doet—
her poems are creations, and they well up from her heurt with a naturalness and prdfusion
which leave no doubt of an Inexhaustible fountain. Of their popularity there is sufficient evi»
denco in the fact that seven editions, issued in rapid succession, leave the demand undiminished.
It wae filii ng that such poemSj so received, should be clad in the superb outward adornmentB
which are now before us— a triumph of typographic skill, to which the artistic powers of Weir
have addsd increased attractions. A more elegant, or more attractive volume has rarely ap
peared from the American press. We are mistaken if Americans do not receive the volume
with pleasure and pride." — iV. Y. Recorder.
"These poems, oy Mrs, Welby, of Kentucky, are characterized by much tenderness of feel
ing, chasteness of seniiment, sweetness of expression, and beauty of description. Many of them
also exhibit piety and devotion which heighten the charm oi^ her poetry. The volume is de
lightfully iUustrated with original designs by R. W. Weir." — Churchman.
"It is not necessary for us to express our opinion of the quality of the contents of this book.
That we have done frequently herelofore. The volume is eminently beautiful, and eminently
creditable to all concemed. The very numerous admirers of the distinguished poetess will find
it a casket worlhy ofthe briUiant gem it comains."— iou?suiWe Journal.
" Mrs, Welby's poetry has no need of indorsement ; its sweetness, and elegance, and truth
fulness to nature, have long been i-ecognized and felt by hundreds and thousands of readers. In
very befitting style have the publishers issued this enlarged edition. It has seven finely engraved
iUustrations, from original designs by Weir. They are exceedingly beautiful, especially ' Me-
lodis,' ''The Rainbow,' and * The Mother.' A moie elegant book of poems has rarely been pub
lished." — Com. Adv.
"These poems exhibit great impressibility and ardor of imagination, chastened by purity of
taste and delicacy of feeling. The thoughts are generally exalted, the language beautiful, and
the melody for the mosl part perfect."— Evening Post.
Third Edition— reduced in price— The complete
POETICAL WORKS OF FITZ-GREENE HALLECK,
IUustrated with Fine Steel EngravingSj from paintings by American Artists. One vol., Svo.
Price $2 50; cloth, gilt leaves, ®3 ; Turkey morocco, $5.
"Few American poets would bear the test of such an edition as this, so well as Halleck. Oi
late years there has been a demand fOr his poems, much ereater than the supply. The present,
indeed, is the first comjplete edition ever published, including, as it does, the long poem oi Fanny,
one of the most delightful combinations of satire, sentiment, fancy, and nin, in the lan
guage — and also the celebrated Croaker Epistles, which are as good as the best of Tom
nioore's, with the further advantage of being different in subject and mode of treatment. Tha
volume is a perfect 'nest of ^icery,' and it requires no gift of prophecy to predict for it a large
and immediate sale. About half of the volume will be riew to the majority of the readers, and
that half contairs probably the best expression of Halleck's peculiar genius— the felicitous union
in his mind of the poet and the man of the world. The wit is exceedingly brilliant, and evei7
stroke tells and tingles upon the finest risibilities of 'our common nature.' Alnwick Castle,
Marco Bozzaris, Woman, Red Jacket, Connecticut, and other well known piecesj appear now
forthefirsv time in an appropriate dress. We doubt not that the volume will literally ' run '
through many editions." — Boston Courier.
SACRED POETS OE ENGLAND AND AMERICA,
From Ihe Earliest to the Present Time. Edited by Rupus W. Gkiswold.
Uluatrated with Ten Fine Steel Engravings. A new improved edition. One vol., Sro.
Cloth, $2 60 ; gilt sides and edges, $3 ; imitation morocco, $3 60 ; morocco, *4.
" This is a truly elegant book, both externally and internally. It is filled with gems of m
ered Dootry culled with great care from the most inspired ofthe religious bards."
" Both the editor and publishers have shown jreat and good taste in getting up this beautiful
To'nme and it cannot fail to command an extensive sale. The illustrative engravings are in tht
anest BtVle ofthe art, and each of the numerous specimens is introduced with a brief biogra-
nhical sketch which greatly adds to the value of the work. It is one of the purest, safest, aud
most beautiful gift books that a father can present to his daughter, a brotLier to iiis sister, oir a
husband to his wi<e."— Tribune.