are not unforeseen. They are so far from inevitable, we are going to bring
them into being by our vote; we choose the consequences, and become as
justly answerable for them, as for the measure that we know will produce
them.

By rejecting the posts, we light the savage fires, we bind the victims.
This day we undertake to render account to the widows and orphans whom our
decision will make,--to the wretches that will be roasted at the stake,--to
our country,--and I do not deem it too serious to say, to conscience and to
God. We are answerable; and if duty be anything more than a word of
imposture, if conscience be not a bugbear, we are preparing to make
ourselves as wretched as our country. There is no mistake in this case;
there can be none. Experience has already been the prophet of events, and
the cries of our future victims has already reached us. The Western
inhabitants are not a silent and uncomplaining sacrifice. The voice of
humanity issues from the shade of the wilderness. It exclaims, that while
one hand is held up to reject this treaty, the other grasps the tomahawk.
It summons our imagination to the scenes that will open. It is no great
effort of the imagination to conceive that events so near are already
begun. I can fancy that I listen to the yells of savage vengeance and the
shrieks of torture! Already they seem to sigh in the western wind! Already
they mingle with every echo from the mountains!
F. Ames.


LIV.

SPEECH AGAINST A LIBELLER.

I am one of those who believe that the heart of the wilful and deliberate