TRISTAM BURGES.

TRISTAM BURGES was of a poor but worthy family, who for many years resided in the old colony of Plymouth, Massachusetts. His father settled at Rochester in that colony, where he managed a small farm; devoting the intervals of his agricultural pursuits to the employments of his trade, which was that of a cooper. On the commencement of the Revolution, he was appointed a lieutenant, and rendered important and valuable assistance in recruiting, and raising clothing for the army. After the battle of Lexington, he returned to his farm, much shattered in health, and, failing gradually, died in 1792.

At Rochester, Tristam was born on the twenty-sixth of February, 1770. The indigence of his parents, added to the illness of his father, rendered it necessary for him to assist in the labors of the farm and the shop, and thus the first fifteen years of his life were passed, without receiving any instruction, except such as was imparted to him by his eldest sister, "in the long winter evenings," and occasional lessons from his father in writing and arithmetic. At the age of fifteen he received six weeks' tuition in the village school, and, two years after, studied mathematics six weeks more, under the charge of one Hugh Montgomery. This was all the "schooling" he received until he attained the age of twenty-one. His youth, however, was not spent unprofitably. In the leisure he could command from his double duties as farmer and cooper, he was devoted to his books, "begging and borrowing" those he could not buy; and, as soon as he was capable of writing join-hand, many of his hours were employed in composition. Among the earliest books he read were the Pilgrim's Progress, and the life of Joseph, works to which he often reverted with pleasure, in the later period of his life. Soon after he reached his twenty-first year, he made every preparation to start on a whaling voyage, but the unexpected departure of the vessel in which he was to serve, altered his plans of life, and he determined to study medicine and prepare himself "to ride with a country doctor." To this end he borrowed Chesselden's Anatomy and Cullen's Theory, from the family physician, and applied himself with the greatest assiduity to study; but his medical career was of short duration. In 1793, having sold his share in the farm, to afford him a support during his collegiate course, he entered Rhode Island College, now Brown University, and, after spending three years there, graduated with the honors of his class. He then opened a school in Providence, and at the same time continued the study of law, to which he had devoted a portion of the time while in the University.

In 1799 he commenced practice in the Rhode Island courts, and soon rose to distinction. He attained a great influence as an advocate. "The powers of his mind, and his enthusiastic feelings, were enlisted in every cause in which he took part, and so deeply was he interested, so persuaded of the justice of his side of the question, that he never was known to admit his client to be in the wrong. If doubts were suggested by the opposite party, before trial, he would repel them in an instant, as if they reflected upon his own honor and judgment. His practice was very extensive; and few important causes were argued, in which he was not engaged. The power of his eloquence was supreme over judges, juries and spectators; when he spoke, the court was often thronged, and none listened without a tribute of admiration." He continued his duties at the bar, with a constantly increasing reputation, until 1825, when he was elected to the United States House of Representatives. In connection with his legal duties, he held a

seat in the Rhode Island Legislature, in 1811, was appointed Chief Justice of his adopted State, and for a short time occupied the chair of Oratory and Belles-Lettres, in Brown University.

Mr. Burges appeared in Congress in December, 1825. His first speech, which is spoken of as one of the greatest displays of eloquence ever made in the House of Representatives, was delivered during the debate on the Judiciary Bill, and placed him in the first rank of the orators and statesmen of his country. Again in 1827 he was elected to Congress, and continued there by re-election until 1835, taking an active part in all its deliberations, and always manifesting the deepest solicitude for the welfare of the country. His argument on the claim of Marigny D'Auterive for indemnity for injury sustained by a slave during the battle of New Orleans, gained him great applause, as did his eloquent appeal for the surviving soldiers of the Revolution; for whom he implored that the protecting arm of government might, "like the bright bow of Heaven," visit them with tokens of relief-that their descendants, for whom was established the broad basis of independence, "might give them one look of kindness, and pour one beam of gladness on the melancholy twilight of their days." But the most celebrated of his efforts, wulle in Congress, was the reply to John Randolph, during the debate on the Tariff.

Mr. Randolph had taken every opportunity, before that occasion, to ridicule and abuse the character, habits and institutions of New England, and to oppose any and every measure calculated to advance her interests.

Mr. Burges, in his remarks on the Tariff, observed, that there was a disposition among some gentlemen to support the interests of Great Britain rather than those of the United States; when Mr. Randolph rose, and interrupted him, saying, "This hatred of aliens, sir, is the undecayed spirit which called forth the proposition to enact the Alien and Sedition Laws: I advise the gentleman from Rhode Island to move a re-enactment of those laws, to prevent the impudent foreigner from rivalling the American seller. New England-what is she? Sir, do you

remember that appropriate exclamation,-Delenda est Carthago ?"

Mr. Burges now continued-"Does the gentleman mean to say, sir, New England must be destroyed? If so, I will remind him that the fall of Carthage was the precursor of the fall of Rome. Permit me to suggest to him to carry out the parallel. Further, sir, I wish it to be distinctly understood, that I am not bound by any rules to argue against Bedlam;-but when I hear any thing rational in the hallucinations of the gentleman, I will answer them." Here the Speaker interposed, and Mr. Burges resumed his seat, saying, "Perhaps it is better, sir, that I should not go on."

On the following day he continued his remarks, and after devoting some time to the refutation of the assertions made by Mr. Randolph a few days previous, on the subject of the Tariff, he concluded with the following:

"Whence all this abuse of New-England, this misrepresentation of the North and the West? It is, sir, because they, and all the patriots in the nation, would pursue a policy calculated to secure and perpetuate the national independence of Great Britain. It is because they are opposed by another policy, which, by its entire, and by every part of its operation, will inevitably bring the American people into a condition of dependence on Great Britain, less profitable, and not more to our honor, than the condition of colonies. I cannot, I would not look into the secrets of men's hearts: but the nation will examine the nature and tendencies of the American, and the anti-American systems; and they can understand the arguments offered in support of each plan of national policy; and they too can read, and will understand the histories of all public men, and of those two systems of national policy. Do we, as it has been insinuated, support the American policy, in wrong, and for the injury and damage of Old England? I do not; those with whom I have the honor to act, do not pursue this course-No, sir,

'Not that I love England less,
But that I love my country more.'

Who, sir, would wrong; who would reduce the wealth, the power of England? Who, without a glorious national pride, can look to that as to our mother country? It is the land of comfort, accommodation, and wealth; of science and literature; song, sentiment, heroic valor, and deep,

various, political philosophy. Who is not proud, that our fathers were the compeers of Wolfe; that Burke, and Chatham spoke our mother tongue? Who does not look for the most prosperous eras of the world, when English blood shall warm the human bosom over the habitable breadth of every zone-when English literature shall come under the eye of the whole world—English intellectual wealth enrich every clime; and the manners, morals, and religion, of us and our parent country, spread civilization under the whole star-lighted heaven; and, in the very language of our deliberations, the hallowed voice of daily prayer shall arise to God, throughout every longitude of the sun's whole race.

"I would follow the course of ordinary experience; render the child independent of the parent; and from the resources of his own industry, skill, and prudence, rich, influential, and powerful, among nations. Then, if the period of age and infirmity shall, as God send it may never, but if it shall come, then, sir, the venerated parent shall find shelter behind the strong right hand of her powerful descendant."

"The policy of the gentleman from Virginia calls him to a course of legislation resulting in the entire destruction of one part of this Union. Oppress New-England until she shall be compelled to remove her manufacturing labor and capital to the regions of iron, wool, and grain; and nearer to those of rice and cotton. Oppress New-England until she shall be compelled to remove her commercial labor and capital to New York, Norfolk, Charleston, and Savannah. Finally oppress that proscribed region, until she shall be compelled to remove her agricultural labor and capital-her agricultural capital? No, she cannot remove that. Oppress and compel her, nevertheless, to remove her agricultural labor to the far-off West; and there people the savage valley, and cultivate the deep wilderness of the Oregon. She must, indeed, leave her agricultural capital; her peopled fields; her hills with culture carried to their tops; her broad deep bays; her wide, transparent lakes, long-winding rivers, and populous waterfalls; her delightful villages, flourishing towns, and wealthy cities. She must leave this land, bought by the treasure, subdued by the toil, defended by the valor of men, vigorous, athletic, and intrepid; men, god-like in all, making man resemble the moral image of his Maker; a land endeared, oh! how deeply endeared, because shared with women pure as the snows of their native mountains ; bright, lofty, and overawing, as the clear, circumambient heavens, over their heads; and yet lovely as the fresh opening bosom of their own blushing and blooming June. 'Mine own romantic country,' must we leave thee? Beautiful patrimony of the wise and good; enriched from the economy, and ornamented by the labor and perseverance of two hundred years! Must we leave thee, venerable heritage of ancient justice and pristine faith? And, God of our fathers! must we leave thee to the demagogues who have deceived, and traitorously sold us? We must leave thee to them; and to the remnants of the Penobscots, the Pequods, the Mohicans, and Narragansetts; that they may lure back the far retired bear, from the distant forest, again to inhabit in the young wilderness, growing up in our flourishing cornfields and rich meadows, and spreading, with briars and brambles, over our most 'pleasant places.'

"All this shall come to pass, to the intent that New-England may again become a lair for wild beasts, and a hunting-ground for savages. The graves of our parents be polluted; and the place made holy by the first footsteps of our pilgrim forefathers become profaned by the midnight orgies of barbarous incantation. The evening wolf shall again howl on our hills, and the echo of his yell mingle once more with the sound of our waterfalls. The sanctuaries of God shall be made desclate. Where now a whole people congregate in thanksgiving for the benefactions of time, and in humble supplication for the mercies of eternity, there those very houses shall then be left without a tenant. The owl, at noonday, may roost on the high alter of devotion, and the 'fox look out the window,' on the utter solitude of a New-England Sabbath.

"New-England shall, indeed, under this proscribing policy, be what Switzerland was under that of France. New-England, which, like Switzerland, is the eagle nest of Freedom; NewEngland, where, as in Switzerland, the cradle of infant liberty was rocked by whirlwinds, in their rage;' New-England shall, as Switzerland was, in truth, be 'the immolated victim, where VOL. II.-21

nothing but the skin remains unconsumed by the sacrifice;' New-England, as Switzerland had, shall have nothing left but her rocks, her ruins, and her demagogues.'

"The mind, sir, capable of conceiving a project of mischief so gigantic, must have been early schooled, and deeply imbued with all the great principles of moral evil.

"What, then, sir, shall we say of a spirit, regarding this event as a 'consummation devoutly to be wished?'-a spirit without one attribute, or one hope, of the pure in heart; a spirit which begins and ends every thing, not with prayer, but with imprecation; a spirit which blots from the great canon of petition, 'Give us this day our daily bread;' that, foregoing bodily nutriment, he may attain to a higher relish for that unmingled food, prepared and served up to a soul 'hungering and thirsting after wickedness;' a spirit, which, at every rising sun, exclaims, 'Hodie! hodie! Carthago delenda!' 'To-day, to-day! let New-England be destroyed!'

"Sir, Divine Providence takes care of his own universe. Moral monsters cannot propagate. Impotent of every thing but malevolence of purpose, they can no otherwise multiply miseries, than by blaspheming all that is pure, and prosperous, and happy. Could demon propagate demon, the universe might become a Pandemonium; but I rejoice that the father of Lies can never become the father of liars. One 'adversary of God and man' is enough for one universe. Too much! Oh! how much too much for one nation."

Mr. Burges's labors were not alone confined to legal and political pursuits. He was often called upon to appear as the orator of popular assemblies, and, in addition to these duties, he contributed extensively to the periodical publications of the day. Among his occasional orations, The Spirit of Independence, delivered before the Providence Association of Manufacturers, in 1800, and another entitled, Liberty, Glory, and Union, or American Independence, pronounced at Providence, on the fourth of July, 1810, were highly commended, and obtained an extensive circulation.

At the close of Mr. Burges's term in Congress, he retired to his home, where he spent the rest of his life, free from any participation in public affairs, and chiefly devoted to rural and literary occupations. He died on the thirteenth of October, 1853

SPEECH ON THE JUDICIARY.

In December, 1825, Mr. Mercer, of Virginia, introduced a resolution in relation to the Judiciary of the United States, in the House of Representatives, which was subsequently modified as follows:-"Resolved, That the bill be recommitted to the committee, that brought it in, with an instruction so to amend it, as to discharge the Judges of the Supreme Court from attendance on the Circuit Court of the United States; and further, to provide an uniform efficient system for the administration of justice in the inferior Courts of the United States." Mr. Burges addressed the House as follows:

MR. SPEAKER: Unused to occasions like the present, and without any practice, other than forensic, I find myself, unadvisedly, engaged in deliberative debate, where nothing is worthy of attention, unless most valuable in material, and in detail most finished. If I could now fairly retreat, it would be impossible for me to pro

ceed. Abandoning myself, therefore, to your candor, sir, and that of the House, I will look to the question for that support which a great question never fails to afford.

This great question is the entire Judiciary of the United States. It was placed before Čongress by the President; has been by this House referred to the appropriate committee; and they have detailed to us the great judicial diseases of the country, and proposed, by this bill, a remedy for them. It, therefore, concerns the administration of national justice, and our attention is, moreover, loudly called to it by a great and respectable portion of the American people.

The resolution moved by the honorable gentleman from Virginia, (Mr. Mercer,) proposes a recommitment of the whole subject, to the intent that, the Judiciary, built at several times, and in distinct parcels, may be re-edified into one great whole, and accommodated to the present and future wants of the nation. The system of the bill is a Supreme Court, holding one term only, each year, sitting at Washington only; and beginning that term on the first Mon

day of February, as now is done; a Circuit | Another is deeply dissatisfied with the result Court, according to the present circuits, and of the Presidential election; 3d. Resolutions four new ones, to be formed from the circuit are poured in from every quarter for altering and the districts comprehending the nine States the constitution; 4th. The President is not yet in the Valley of the Mississippi. These ten quietly seated on his throne. To all these it circuits are to embrace all the districts in the may be replied, that the agitations of that State United States, excepting those of West New- sound more in words than in substantial dam York, West Pennsylvania, and West Virginia, ages. Men whom we daily see here with us alone. In every district but these three, dis- from that State, are too wise and too patriotic trict Judges alone shall be compelled to sustain to suffer that or their country to receive any district jurisdiction only, hold district rank, and serious injury from these discords. One emireceive district salary; in these three, with the nent citizen lately returned to her bosom, has same pay, and same rank, they shall be obliged exchanged too many and too high pledges with to perform circuit duties, and sustain circuit the nation, ever to give the aid of his influence jurisdiction. In each of the other districts, to any unreasctable sectional demands; and formed into ten circuits, justice shall be admin- without that aid, no such demands can be danistered by a circuit Judge, sustaining the gerous to this Union. After all, none of us can jurisdiction, holding the rank, and receiving fairly say, that his question, growing as it does the salary of a circuit Judge and a supreme out of a treaty, either fairly or fraudulently Judge, at the same time; and these, united to- made, threatening as it is represented to be, is gether, shall form a Supreme Court of ten of legislative, and not rather of judicial jurisJudges. These, sir, are the peculiar provisions diction. It would be indeed surprising if a of the bill. suit either at law or in equity, between parties of the highest rank, should ever agitate or endanger the government of this country. The other dissatisfied State has deposited a stake in the Union, too dear to her ambition to do or consent to a single deed, perilous to that depository. Her illustrious citizen is a candidate for the next Presidency. Will she abate the title, and sink the fee-simple of the whole estate, before she can place her tenant in possession of his term?

The resolution is intended to embrace another system. Each district shall remain as now. All the districts of the United States shall be formed into ten circuits. The whole United States shall be arranged into three great Supreme Court Departments; an Eastern, a Central, and a Western. In each district, as now, shall be a District Court, holden, as at present, by the same Judge, with the same jurisdiction, rank, and salary. In each circuit shall be a Circuit Court, holden at the same times and places as at present, and a circuit Judge shall be appointed for each circuit, with only Circuit Court salary, rank, and jurisdiction. In each of the Supreme Court departments, shall be holden a term of the Supreme Court once in each year. At Washington, Philadelphia, or Richmond, on the first Monday of January; at Columbus, Lexington, or a city in Tennessee, once in each year, on the first Monday in June; and at New-York or Boston once in each year, and on the first Monday of Sep- | tember. This court, so soon as constitutional causes shall have reduced it to that number, shall consist of six Judges, sustaining all the constitutional jurisdiction of the Supreme Court of the United States, and bearing the same rank, and receiving the same salary, as Judges of the Supreme Judicial Court of the United States now bear and receive. These, sir, are the provisions intended to be secured by the resolution. You therefore perceive, sir, that the subject of debate is a choice between the provisions of the bill and the proposals of the resolution. To me it seems proper, first to speak concerning the bill, and then to say a few things concerning the resolution.

Perhaps it may be needful, before debating the question, to remove some general and specific objections. It has been said, that this is an improper time to amend the Judiciary. Because, 1st. One of the States is agitated and embroiled with the General Government; 2d.

The numerous resolutions for altering the form of our government, will follow the numerous generations of the same race, which have gone before them. We shall discourse and vote concerning them; bind, letter, and deposite them in the legislative archives; and the million copies of them printed, and spread over the country, will survive as long, and subserve the same purpose, as does the fugitive fabric "in which they live, and move, and have their being." The people will (thanks be to Him who has blessed them with the right) if they please, and when they please, amend their constitution; all our profound reasonings, and patriotic recommendations, to the contrary notwithstanding.

The President does not, and I trust no Chief Magistrate of the United States ever will, sit on a throne. There now lives, and delightful is the hope that for many coming centuries there will live, in this first, and perhaps last, region of genuine republican governments, many a Junius ready to raise the hand, brandish the crimson steel, and swear by the Guardian Power of Nations, that in our Rome, while he lives, no king shall ever reign. The distinguished gentleman, now directing the executive affairs of the United States, was placed in his seat, in the same constitutional manner, as was one other great citizen of our nation, heretofore placed there; and I trust he will hold his place as securely, and as prosperously, as did that illustrious individual. Whether he will