pedient to impair a provision wisely calculated to promote the happiness and prosperity of the northwestern country and to give strength and security to that extensive frontier. In the salutary operation of this sagacious and benevolent restraint it is believed that the inhabitants of Indiana will at no very distant day find ample remuneration for a temporary privation of labor and of emigration."

Sir, these reports made in 1803 and 1807, and the action of Congress upon them in conformity with their recommendation saved Illinois and perhaps Indiana from becoming slave States. When the people of Illinois formed their State constitution they incorporated into it a section providing that neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall hereafter be introduced into this State. The constitution made provision for the continued service of the few persons who were originally held as slaves and then bound to service under the Territorial laws and for the freedom of their children and thus secured the final extinction of slavery. The senator thinks that this result is not attributable to the Ordinance. I differ from him. But for the ordinance I have no doubt slavery would have been introduced into Indiana, Illinois, and Ohio. It is something to the credit of the "Era of Conservatism," uniting its influences with those of the expiring "Era of Enfranchisement," that it maintained the Ordinance of 1787 in the northwest.

The "Era of Conservatism" passed, also by imperceptible gradations, into the "Era of Slavery Propagandism." Under the influences of this new spirit we opened the whole territory acquired from Mexico, except California, to the ingress of slavery. Every foot of it was covered by a Mexican prohibition; and yet by the legislation of 1850 we consented to expose it to the introduction of slaves. Some, I believe, have actually been carried into Utah and New Mexico. They may

be few, perhaps, but a few are enough to affect materially the probable character of their future governments. Under the evil influences of the same spirit we are now called upon to reverse the original policy of the republic, to support even a solemn compact of the conservative period, and open Nebraska to slavery.

Sir, I believe that we are upon the verge of another era. That era will be the "Era of Reaction." The introduction of this question here and its discussion will greatly hasten its advent. We who insist upon the denationalization of slavery and upon the absolute divorce of the general government from all connection with it will stand with the men who favored the compromise acts and who yet wish to adhere to them in their letter and in their spirit against the repeal of the Missouri prohibition. But you may pass it here. You may send it to the other House. It may become a law.

But its effect will be to satisfy all thinking men that no compromises with slavery will endure except so long as they serve the interests of slavery; and that there is no safe and honorable ground for non-slaveholders to stand upon, except that of restricting slavery within State limits and excluding it absolutely from the whole sphere of federal jurisdiction. The old questions between political parties are at rest. No great question so thoroughly possesses the public mind as this of slavery. This discussion will hasten the inevitable reorganization of parties upon the new issues which our circumstances suggest. It will light up a fire in the country which may perhaps consume those who kindle it.

I cannot believe that the people of this country have so far lost sight of the maxims and principles of the Revolution, or are so insensible to the obligations which those maxims and principles impose, as to acquiesce in the violation of this

NAPOLEON III

LOUIS NAPOLEON BONAPARTEP. Ho as the reputed

of France, was born at Paris, April 20, 1808. He was

third son of Louis Napoleon, king of Holland, and Hortense, step-daughter of Napoleon I. At his birth he was regarded as the second heir of the empire, and Napoleon took great interest in his education even after the birth of the King of Rome. After the battle of Waterloo, his mother having been exiled from France, he was brought up at Geneva, Augsburg, his mother's residence at Arenenberg, and at Rome. He began his military studies and exercises at Constance and made good progress in artillery, engineering, history, physics, and chemistry. In 1831 he went with his elder brother, Louis, to assist the Romagna in its revolt against the Pope. The death of Louis in this expedition, followed by that of the Duke of Reichstadt in 1832, made him the head of the Napoleonic dynasty. He returned to Paris with his mother, but, owing to a demonstration made by the people on the anniversary of the death of Napoleon, Louis Philippe insisted on their departure and they went to England. In 1832 he accepted the mission of leading the Polish insurrection and actually started for the border, but the fall of Warsaw, September 7, changed his plans. He returned to Switzerland and employed his leisure in the composition of various works. His "Reveries Politiques" had for its fundamental principle the idea of universal suffrage. In recognition of his work on Switzerland, published in 1833, he was proclaimed a citizen of the Swiss republic. In 1835 he completed a "Manual of Artillery" which brought him into favorable notice in the military circles of Europe. During the five years that followed he made two melodramatic and abortive attempts to gain the throne of France. Condemned to perpetual imprisonment he managed to escape in May, 1846, and returned to England. In 1848 he was elected deputy for Paris and three other departments and in September he was made President of the anomalous republic. In December, 1851, he dissolved the constitution and was re-elected President for ten years. He almost immediately threw off the mask and assumed the title of Emperor. Among the important events of his reign were the annexation of Savoy and Nice, the Hausmannization of Paris, the great Paris exposition, and the Crimean war. He wrote his "Life of Cæsar " as a veiled defence of his political measures. In 1870 he declared war against Prussia, but, though he assumed the chief command, he failed to cross the Rhine, and after a disastrous campaign he was obliged to surrender, September 2, 1870. In March, 1871, he was allowed to join the Empress Eugenie, his wife, at Chiselhurst, England, where he resided till his death, January 9, 1873.

O

SPEECH IN THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY

F my sentiments or of my opinions I shall not speak;
I have already set them before you, and no one as

yet has had reason to doubt my word. As to my parliamentary conduct, I will say that as I never permit myself the liberty of bringing any of my colleagues to an account for the course which he thinks proper to pursue, so, in like manner, I never recognize in him the right to call me to an account for mine; this account I owe only to my constituents.

Of what am I accused? Of accepting from the popular sentiment a nomination after which I have not sought. Well! I accept this nomination that does me so much honor; I accept it, because three successive elections and the unanimous decree of the National Assembly, reversing the proscriptions against my family, authorize me to believe that France regards the name I bear to be serviceable for the consolidation of society, now shaken to its foundations,-and for the establishment and prosperity of the Republic.

How little do those who charge me with ambition know my heart! If an imperative duty did not keep me here, if the sympathy of my fellow citizens did not console me for the violence of the attacks of some, and even for the impetuosity of the defences of others, long since would I have regretted my exile.

I am reproached for my silence! Few persons here are gifted with the faculty of eloquent speech, obedient to just and sound ideas. But is there only one way to serve our country? What she wants most of all is acts; what she wants is a government, firm, intelligent, and wise, more desirous to

heal the evils of society than to avenge them-a government that would openly set itself at the head of just ideas, and thus repel a thousand times more effectually than with bayonets those theories which are not founded on experience and

reason.

I know that parties intend to set my path with pits and snares; but I shall not fall into them. I shall always follow in my own way the course which I have traced out, without troubling myself or stopping to see who is pleased. Nothing shall interrupt my tranquillity, nothing shall induce me to forget my duty. I have but one aim; it is to merit the esteem of the Assembly, and with this esteem, that of all good men, and the confidence of that magnanimous people that was made so light of here yesterday.

I declare, then, to those who may be willing to organize a system of provocation against me that henceforward I shall reply to no questioning, to no species of attack, to none who would have me speak when I prefer to be silent. Strong in the approval of my conscience, I shall remain immovable amidst all attacks, impassable towards all calumnies.

C

FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS AS PRESIDENT

ITIZEN REPRESENTATIVES,-The suffrages of the nation and the oath which I have taken command my future conduct. My duty is marked out; I shall fulfil it as a man of honor.

I shall treat as enemies of the country all those who may attempt to change, by illegal means, what entire France has established.

Between you and me, citizen representatives, no real dissensions should exist; our wills, our desires are the same.