and to interpose, in various ways, within the limits of the several
States, in the melioration of the condition of the colored
population of the South. I have examined the journals giving the
record of the proceedings in this House; I have looked into the
history of the times, to understand the grounds of the disposition
then made of those petitions. In the outset, I will observe, that
the debates on the subject present a remarkable parallel with what
has taken place under my own eyes in this House. Messrs. Jackson,
Baldwin, Tucker, Smith, and some other gentlemen from the South,
insisted, as we now hear it insisted, that the petitions should be
summarily rejected, without commitment. They alleged the same
reasons; such as unconstitutional object, and pernicious effects of
the discussion upon the interests of the slaveholding States. One
gentleman did, I believe, what I suppose would hardly be done at
this day, entering into an elaborate vindication of the
trans-Atlantic slave trade. But there was one most eminent and most
patriotic member of that House, a man as calm in judging as he was
deliberate in acting; who had himself been instrumental among the
first in laying the foundation of this Union; who since then has
successively filled the highest stations which the laws of his
country acknowledge; and who yet lives, in a venerable old age, to
receive the admiration of his countrymen, and to enjoy the rare
felicity of surviving, as it were, a witness of the honors bestowed
upon him by posterity. _Sero redeat in coelum._ Long may it be ere
he depart from among us, to take his place among the great and
glorious of other times. Sir, the House well anticipate that I have
in my eye JAMES MADISON the younger, who stood forth to pour upon
the troubled waves of that day the oil of peace and gladness. God
grant there may yet be found among his patriotic countryman, some
good and great man--a better and a greater there cannot be--now to