less strong than dislike to those in place. Partisans so reckless deemed it no disgrace to adopt every measure in their power to prevent the enlistment of men, or the filling of government loans. Actuated by this spirit, they did not hesitate, in some portions of the Union, to proclaim as foes to their country all who lent their money at this time of need to the National Treasury; and instances were not wanting of their being denounced from the sacred desk as enemies of God and man. Mr. Grundy, in one of his speeches, while advocating the justice of the war, took occasion, especially, to notice this highly unpatriotic conduct. After reviewing the series of measures, adopted for the avowed purpose of discouraging enlistments and preventing loans to the Government, he exposed, in forcible language, the real guilt of such proceedings. "They," said he, in concluding his remarks, "who discourage enlistments, or use their influence to prevent loans to the Government, are, in my judgment, guilty of moral treason. By such conduct they are weakening the arm of their country and strengthening that of the enemy, more effectually than if they were at once to pass over and place themselves in his ranks to fight against their countrymen. It is true, the Constitution and laws will not punish them, but they must, and will receive the decided condemnation of every patriot." Language such as this drew down upon him the undivided odium of those who had pursued the course he so unequivocally reprobated. He became the constant theme of their anathemas, and it may not be uninteresting to record one, from among the many specimens that might be found, of the manner in which his manly exposition of their covert hostility to their country was denounced.

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"What, writes one of these reckless partisans, "if we now lend them money? They will not make peace. They will still hanker for Canada. They will still assemble forces and shed blood on our western frontier. Mere pride, if nothing else, would make them do it. The motives which first brought on the war will still continue it, if money can be had. But some say-will you let the country become bankrupt? No, the country will never become bankrupt. But pray do not prevent the abusers of their trust becoming bankrupt. Do not prevent them from becoming odious to the public and replaced by better men. Any Federalist who lends money to Government must go and shake hands with JAMES MADISON, and claim fellowship with FELIX GRUNDY. Let him no more call himself a Federalist and friend to his country. HE WILL

Against language such as this Mr. Grundy found an ample shield in the increased affection and confidence which he obtained among his Republican friends, but especially among his own high-spirited constituents. The latter had been from the first the brave and

gallant supporters of the war. The army was filled with volunteers from among them, and it was in allusion to their readiness every where to serve their country that he remarked in reply to an assertion of the right of the militia not to pass beyond the limits of the United States, "that his constituents had never studied geographical boundaries when contending against the enemies of their country; and that it was enough for them to know where the foe was to be found, in order to assert their constitutional right to meet him."

From the time Mr. Grundy left Congress until the year 1829, he took no direct part in public affairs with the exception of serving for a few sessions as a member of the Legislature of Tennessee. He was indeed occasionally employed in temporary official trusts in which his services were sought on account of his ability and high integrity; and among these, ought to be particularly mentioned, the settlement he effected of the boundary line with Kentucky, which had long been a subject of fierce and threatening controversy and repeated though unsuccessful negotiation. But during these fifteen years his professional duties and the nurture and education of his children formed his principal and favorite employment; and he had every reason to be gratified in the high legal reputation and successful practice he continued to enjoy-and not less in the happiness and freedom from misfortune which attended his domestic life. In 1829, on the resignation of Mr. Eaton as a Senator in Congress, Mr. Grundy was elected his successor and took his seat in the Senate on the seventh of December. His term expiring on the fourth of March, 1833, he was reelected for the succeeding six years; and has continued a member of that body until lately placed by Mr. Van Buren in his cabinet, as Attorney General of the United States. Throughout this period he held a distinguished rank as an able debater and judicious counsellor. To the firm support which his strong and unchanged Democratic opinions would naturally have induced him to give to the administration of General Jackson, he added that confidence in his wisdom, and that warm personal regard, which had grown up and were cemented by an intimate association of more than twenty years. When the Senate rung with the fierce denunciations of his political foes and rivals, upon the removal of the public money from the Bank of the United States, Mr. Grundy not only supported that measure by unanswerable views of its policy and justice, but vindicated the motives and character of the President with all the warmth and spirit of ancient friendship.

Few debates involving important public principles occurred, during the nine years he was in the Senate, without his participation in them. He sustained the right of the Executive to remove persons from office, as one founded on a fair construction of the Constitution, and practised without question for forty years; but in so

doing he did not recognise a mere difference of political opinions, unaccompanied by the abuse of official power or influence, as affording a just ground for its exercise. In the repeated discussions to which the tariff of 1828 gave rise, he seized every occasion to express his opposition to that measure. His opinion was, that the power to impose duties on imports could not be rightfully used for the purpose of protecting domestic manufactures, except to the extent of the selection of particular objects for taxation within the limits of the revenue actually necessary for legitimate purposes. When the events connected with this subject assumed their serious aspect in 1833, he used all means to effect the passage of the Compromise Bill, was a member of the committee by whom it was remodelled, and was among those who were most instrumental in warding off the shock threatened by a conflict between the general confederacy and a single State. Upon all measures connected with the abolition of slavery he has acted with the same republican spirit, and evinced the same anxious desire to preserve unimpaired the well settled compromises of the Constitution.

While in the Senate Mr. Grundy successively held the prominent posts of Chairman of the Committees on Post Offices and on the Judiciary. The former proved to be a place of great labor and responsibility, and required an examination into the whole history and business of the Post Office Department, accompanied with elaborate and voluminous reports. That branch of the Executive had never been previously organized on the principles of strict accountability which existed in the others; and the result of these investigations was, to place it upon the same footing, by a law matured in 1836, of equal benefit to the Department and the community. As Chairman of the Committee on the Judiciary, he introduced and carried through many important bills. Two of them particularly deserve notice. The first, was to extend to the new States the circuit courts of which they had never yet enjoyed the advantages, and thus give to their laws, institutions and practice, the consideration in the decisions of the Supreme Court, only to be obtained by having their own judges on its bench. The other, was a bill violently resisted, but successfully vindicated and at last triumphantly carried, of which the object was to prevent institutions chartered by Congress from issuing notes after their charter had expired; it was intended not only to prevent such an abuse of trust for the future, but to stop, as it effectually did, the unjustifiable conduct of the Bank of the United States chartered by Pennsylvania, in flooding the country with irresponsible notes originally made on the faith and under the guarantee of an act of Congress.

The close of Mr. Grundy's legislative career was marked by a philanthropic act whose usefulness, it is to be hoped, will be widely felt; he introduced, at the late session of Congress, a bill which

was subsequently passed, with little alteration, to secure the lives of passengers on board of steamboats; its provisions were carefully considered and it cannot be doubted that, if properly carried into effect, they will tend to check the great and apparently increasing disregard for the security of human lives from this cause.

On the first of September, 1838, he became Attorney General of the United States, being the first time he ever received an appointment under the General Government; and, with the exception of his very brief term on the bench of the Supreme Court of Kentucky, the only occasion in a long course of public life, on which he has held an office not derived immediately from the suffrages of his constituents.

In person Mr. Grundy is of the usual height, and his countenance though marked by a mild and bland expression, is full of intelligence. His conversation is characterized by easy humor and his manners are simple and unaffected. Though not of a disposition to permit difference in political sentiments to affect his private intercourse, he is yet remarkable for his own consistency and firmness in adhering to those principles which he adopted in the outset of public life. Commencing as a Republican of the old school he has so continued without deviation; and no circumstances, however trying, have induced him to waver from his early faith. As a Senator he always felt that pride of place, justifiable in one who had so entirely achieved a prominent position by his own exertions, and although in wit and sarcasm he had no superior, yet he has never been found to indulge in remarks unsuited to the high theatre in which he acted so conspicuous a part. Never did he degrade the elevated body of which he was a member by language that could not fail to lower it in public estimation. He eloquently and conclusively vindicated, on more than one occasion, the majority of which he was a part, from the imputation of a disregard for its independence and honor; and he defended the Senate itself from the charge that it could be ever lost to the manly assertion of its own rights. It was during one of these debates that he concluded a very able speech, of which unfortunately there is no report, by the following language illustrative of these opinions-which we quote, by the way, rather as the sentiment of the speaker, than as exactly our own opinion. "If," said he, "the time shall come when the Goddess of Liberty can find no resting place in the Executive mansion; when the spirit of faction shall expel her from the other end of the Capitol-yet she will still linger about this chamber unwilling to be gone; and if at last, she shall be compelled to take her final flight, the parting impress of her feet will be found upon that dome which overshadows the American Senate.”

THE EXILE.

As, wearily, upon a lonely strand,

Whose rugged front the ocean billow laves,
Wanders an Exile from a distant land,-

Far o'er that wild infinity of waves

Sending his soul's sad flight, as though its wing, Dove-like, some leaf of hope back to its ark might bring;—

As on that orb which, setting now to him,
Sheds on his own loved home its dawning ray,
Through the thick film of tears his eyes that dim,
His yearning gaze still lingers-ah, who may

Measure or tell the gathered griefs of years

From the heart's bitterest depth o'erflowing in those tears!

No voice comes to him o'er the waste of waves,
But the wild dashing of the unresting surge,
And that dim moan from ocean's mystic caves
Forever echoing like a solemn dirge,

As though of thousand spirit-voices swelling,
Far down below, to chaunt the drowning seaman's knelling.

No voice like those dear tones, by love's lip spoken,
Whose memories yet murmur on his ear,-
No imaged word or smile-no sign-no token-

With one bright beam that aching gloom to cheer-
How like an angel's visit might it bless,

To soothe and nerve his spirit's fainting weariness!

Nor voice nor sign!—and is he then forgot,

So soon, so utterly, so lightly, there

Whither 'mid all the anguish of its lot,

As to the heaven of mortal hope and prayer,

His faithful heart still sends its deep, sad yearning,

Like a slow fire within his wasted bosom burning!