living by the sweat, of his brow.
his idols and turned his brain.
our country within the last twenty years? It was not difficult to predict
what would be the melancholy catastrophe.

Wealth and distinction have become
Is not this the history of thousands in

Bankruptcy and ruin have fallen upon the thoughtless adventurers. Happy would it have been for the country had this spirit of speculation confined itself to the farmers who turned merchant. We have witnessed it spreading over every class of the community. We have, in innumerable instances, seen the plain, sober, industrious and inexperienced farmer converted into a speculator in bonds and stocks. We have lived in a time when the foundations of society appeared to be shaken, and when the love of gain seemed to swallow up every other passion of the heart. This disposition gave birth to hundreds and thousands of banks, which have spread themselves over the country. Their reaction upon the people doubled the force of the original cause which produced them. They deluged the country with bank paper. The price of land rose far above its real value; it commanded from two hundred to four hundred dollars per acre in many parts of the district which I have the honor, in part, to represent; and I know one instance in which a man agreed to give fifteen hundred dollars per acre for a tract of land, which he afterwards laid out in town lots. He sold the lots at so large a profit that he would have accumulated an independent fortune by the speculation had not the times changed, and the lot-holders in consequence been unable to pay the purchase money.

"The universal delusion has vanished; the enchantment is at an end; the people have been restored to their sober senses. In the change, which was rapid, many honest and respectable citizens have been ruined. Among many misery and want have usurped the abodes of happiness and plenty. I most sincerely deplore their situation; but, as legislators, we should all have some compassion upon the community. Experience has taught us a lesson which, I trust, we shall never forget-that a wild and extravagant spirit of speculation is one of the greatest curses that can pervade our country. Do you wish again to raise it? wish again to raise it? Do you wish again to witness the desolation which it has spread over the land, and which we now are slowly repairing? Then pass this Bankrupt bill! Inform the farmer who is now contented and happy, and whom experience has taught the danger of entering into trade, that he may become a merchant or a land jobber; that he may proceed to any excess he thinks proper; that he need confine the extravagance of his speculations within no other limit but the extent of his credit; that if, at last, he should be successful, unbounded wealth will be his fortune; if not, the law will discharge him from all his debts and enable him to begin a new career." And again, upon the tariff question:

If this were the The farmers are

"Gentlemen have contended that should this bill be adopted, the agricultural interest of the country will be greatly injured. case, it would be a conclusive objection to its passage. the most useful, as they are the most numerous, class of society. No measure ought ever to be adopted by the government that will bear hardly upon them. They are the body of men among whom you may expect to find, in an eminent degree, that virtue without which your American institutions could not continue to exist. Agriculture is the most noble employment of men. It communicates vigor to the body and independence to the mind. The agriculturists are the great body of consumers. It is from them that the revenue must be derived, no matter what may be the mode by which it is collected. They must equally pay it, whether in the shape of an excise, a land tax, or an impost on the importation of foreign articles. I will never consent to adopt a general restrictive system, because that class of the community would then be left at the mercy of the manufacturers. The interest of the many would be sacrificed to promote the wealth of the few. The farmer, then, in addition to the payment which he would be thus compelled to pay the manufacturer, would have also to sustain the expenses of the government." In the debate upon the admission of Michigan to the Union he said: "The territory ceded by Virginia to the United States was sufficiently extensive for an immense empire. The parties to this compact of cession contemplated that it would form five sovereign states of this Union. At that early period we had just emerged from our revolutionary struggle, and none of that jealousy was then felt against foreigners, and particularly against Irish foreigners, which now appears to haunt some gentlemen. There had then been no attempts to get up a Native American party in this country. The blood of the gallant Irish had flowed freely upon every battle-field, in defense of the liberties which we now enjoy. Besides, the senate will well recollect that the ordinance (of 1787) was passed before the adoption of our present Constitution, and whilst the power of naturalization remained with the several states. The older I grow, the The peace

.

more I am inclined to be what is called a state rights man. and security of this Union depend upon giving to the Constitution a literal and fair construction, such as would be placed upon it by a plain and intelligent man, and not by ingenious constructions, to increase the powers of this government, and thereby diminish those of the state. The rights

of the states, reserved to them by that instrument, ought ever to be held sacred. If, then, the Constitution leaves to them to decide according to their own discretion, unrestricted and unlimited, who shall be electors, it follows as a necessary consequence that they may, if they think proper, confer upon resident aliens the right of voting."

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

S

AMUEL LINCOLN of Norwich, England, county of Norfolk,

came to this country and settled at Hingham, Massachusetts, about the year 1838. His grandson, Mordecai, removed to Monmouth, New Jersey, and thence to Pennsylvania, settling in what is now Berks county, where he died about 1735. He was a man of property, which he willed chiefly to his son, John Lincoln, who removed to Rockingham county, Virginia, and had numerous sons, to whom he gave the scriptural names of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Thomas and John. This Abraham was the grandfather of the President. In 1780 he removed to Kentucky. He was an intimate friend of the celebrated Daniel Boone. The Lincolns and Boones were closely allied by ties of friendship, and an Abraham Lincoln of another family married Anna Boone, a cousin of the great Kentucky explorer in 1760. This friendship between Daniel Boone and the President's grandfather may explain the latter's removal to Kentucky. He was killed by the Indians in 1786, and his three sons, Mordecai, Josiah and Thomas, barely escaped the same fate. The latter, then a lad of seven years, was rescued from imminent death from a bullet fired from the rifle of his brother Mordecai, which killed an Indian in his war paint, in the act of stooping to raise the child from the slain body of his father with the view of taking his life. This child's life was thus saved, providentially it would seem, that its possessor might be spared to be the father of a man who was to become one of the most illustrious characters of all times, and who would perpetuate a name that should adorn the most interesting pages of his country's history. Thomas Lincoln learned the trade of a carpenter. was an easy going man, entirely without ambition, but not without selfrespect. Though the friendliest and most jovial of gossips he was not insensible to affronts, and when his slow anger was aroused, he was a formidable adversary. Several border bullies, at different times, crowded him indiscreetly, and were promptly and thoroughly whipped. He was strong, well-knit and sinewy; but little over the medium height, though