A Reminiscence [pp. 535-538]

SOUTHERN LITERARY MESSENGER.
535
men, even if honest, on whose judgment he would not
place the least reliance in the most common businesswhose opinion he would not regard in any concern of
his own of the value of a dollar. On the other side, he
finds the names of men long distinguished for their learning and experience, of unsuspected integrity, dispassionate in judgment, and pure in their patriotism and
purposes;-men to whom all the country has looked
for years, with confidence and veneration. In a word,
he sees the name of James Madison on the one hand,
opposed by that of some violent, ignorant, interested
demagogue on the other. Is he to shut his eyes and his
understanding to such a state of things, and surrender
his duty, his honor, and his conscience, to the dictation
of ignorance, passion and prejudice, and turn a deaf ear
to the voice of knowledge, virtue, and patriotismn? Is he
to decide a vital constitutional question by the will of
such masters, who would not hold themselves bound
by their vote? Mr. Tyler assures us that some of the
voters for his last instructions were among those who but
the year before gave him contrary orders on the same
subject. Such an obedience is to make himself something worse than an automaton-it is to be an active,
efficient, self-condemned agent in the consummation of
designs he knows to be morally wrong, and deeply injurious to his country, to the whole people he has sworn
to defend and protect, by the preservation, inviolate, of
the great charter of their rights and liberties. This Mr.
Tyler would not, could not do; it would be to contradict and disparage the whole course of an honorable and
useful life. He has spurned such degradation. But I
lament that he did not do more than this-that he could
find an alternative in abandoning his post to the enemy.
I have alluded to Mr. Leigh's letter, but should be
tedious were I now to make it a subject of particular
comment, but cannot refrain from remarking that these
gentlemen (Messrs. Tyler and Leigh) bothprofessing to
maintain the true and orthodox doctrines of "Instruction,"' and exerting their powerful and cultivated intellects to explain them through many a labored column,
at last bring themselves to opposite conclusions on the
same case. Is it possible to give a more impressive illustration and evidence of the fallacy of the whole faith
than that two such men, both indoctrinated in the
same school, should, when brought to the practical application of their principles, so differ about their import
and obligation?
This is a subject of vast and growing magnitude. In
my judgment, it is of vital importance to the Constitution of the United States, which will be essentially if
not fatally changed, if its powers and operations are to
be in this way under the dictation and control of State
Legislatures. It will no longer be a Government of the
United States. The Senate and House of Representatives will be but the agents of the State Legislatures,
"to move only when they are bidden, and to record
such edicts as may come to them."
In "Dodsley's Collection" is an old play called
"Eastward Hoe!" It was written by Ben Jonson, and
published in 1605 by George Chapman and John Marston. This probably suggested to our Paulding the title
of his " Westward Io!"7
TO -
BY W. GILMORE SIMMS.
'Twas meant for thee, when all look'd dark,
And ev'ry friend my childhood knevw,
Shrunk from the slight and vent'rous bark
As reckless, through the waves it flewUnshaken still, to keep thy faith,
And through each gloomy storm that came,
To shield me, in thy pray'rs, from scaith,
To keep me, in thy words, from blame.
When narrow fears beset the base,
And selfish hopes o'ercame the mean,
'Twas love alone vwhose gentle face
Look'd still unchanged through all the scene;
And with the darkness of the hour,
Thy truth but more conspicuous shone,
As some sweet star, when clouds have power,
Looks proudly out from Heaven, alone!
Shall I not love thee, evermore,
Thou more than planet guide to me,
Whose gentle light, on sea and shore,
Still spoke thy true heart's constancy!
Oh, be Time's changes what they will,
They cannot change that sleepless thought,
That tells,-that teaches of thee still,
By thee, for evermore, still taught.
A REMINISCENCE.
BY DR. FRANCIS LIEBER.
Charleston, S. C. June 28-the day oj
Fort Mloultrie-1836.
Dear Sir-Your favor of Richmond, June 18-the
anniversary of the battle of Waterloo-reached me
here, a few minutes ago. The vacations of South
Carolina College have begun, and I am here waiting
for a vessel to carry me to the Island of Porto Rico,
whither I intend to proceed for the sake of recreation!
A strange way of getting cool, you will say, to go from
South Carolina to the West Indies, firom degree 31
northern latitude to degree 18-it is a more formidable
experiment than the process of annealing, by which
glass is passed into an oven not quite so hot as the first
in which it was melted. I allow, it may be strange;
still I shall go. But here I am, not only without any
materials or memoranda, but confined to the sofa by a
faux-pas, which has made of me, ever since, a lame
man. Now if you sum up all these items-vacations
just begun, without books or papers, lame and windbound in a seaport, a voyage of considerable interest
before me, for which one ought to prepare himself a
little-you will own that they are as many difficulties
in the way of granting your request, which otherwise
it would have given me mich pleasure to comply with.
A lame man feels poor-helpless, much more so than
a man with an injured arm. How interesting does not
a young officer look with his arm in a sling; but his
comrade with a crutch attracts nothing but bare, sheer
pity. Limping-the mere idea of limping, makes all
the difference. Has not the Prussian government de