Phenix gazette. [volume] (Alexandria [D.C.]) 1825-1833, 1830-05-10
MONDAY, MAY 10, 1880.
SPEECH OF Mr.. c. ]. INGERSOLL,

SPEECH OF NIX. y. j. lTNUEnSolLII,
at the Public Dinner gioen TO Mr.. PolNsErT at
Philadelphia.
J. c. lngersoil, Esq. said: He hoped it would
not be thought improper to premise his toast with
a short vindication Of Mr.. Jefferson from the false
impressions of late anniversary, which the IRE
sident of the United States felt 1t incumbent on
him to check, by rebuke no doubt as unexpect-
ed az il was seasonabe and significant. Patriot
ism in this country Is an abstraction: our couh,
try is the constitution. Local allegiance and
personal LOYALTY are things unknown to people
whose attachment is to good government-to a
charter, a written act by which any number OF
free states and people unite as one nation. The
states, the elements of the system, without which
il could not be. and would not endure, existed
before the constitution and without it; with all
their natural advantages, genial climate, fertile
soil, abundant opportunity OF ports jas Burke ex-
pressed the maritime facilities OF TINS country,)
and all their political rights, civil and religious
liberty, free press, trial by jury, habeas corpus
actin word, every circumstance favorlhS
prosperity-they were confederated too; but all
in vain till the whole was crowned by good gov
eminent. The United States, free sovereign and
independent, with common sympathles, language,
success, vet, like the republics OF our southern
hemisphere now, were wasting with anarchy and
decline, even though united, because the Union
was not what it ought to be. The glorious spirits
of the revolution, who carried the country through
that struggle, with a gratuitOus government, the
demi-yods, as Mr.. Jefferson styled them, who
framed the present constitution, men who their
duties knew, who knew their rights, and knowing
dared maintain CONTRARY to the poets theory.
which is only good in poetry totally unable to
constitute state till they made constitution by
which the democracy Of the people and the arts
tocracv Of the states were chopped together
"a Mr.. Jefferson's phrase is, under the federal
head: and never was his radiant and revered
name more abused, than when vOuched tor redu-
cino the national constitution to the confederation,
from the ashes of which it rose-ashes which SUI
feed merely to manure the stately and sturdy
nlant that now OvershadOws four and twenty states
and is capable Of taking as many more to its shell
ter.
On the contrary, | will prove, in very few
words, that Mr.. Jeferson's construction OF the
constitution was uniformly signalized by its most
powerfcl developments. In connection with his
correspondence lately published, have recent
" read all the printed state-papers of his cornpo
sition; from anv or all of which, | aver, nothing
ike sanction can be found for what are called
the MULTIPLYING doctrines-as new as they are un-
sound. In a letter to Mr.. Madison, dated at
Paris in February, 1856, Mr.. Jefferson expresses
his great pleasure that the Assembly of Virgin
ia had resolved to give the regulation of the COM
MERGE of the state to the federal head" ''Not
one of its opposers. it placed where am" says
he. ..would fail to see the wisdom of the mea-
sure. the politics of Europe rendering it indis-
pensably necessary that. with respect to every
thing external we should be one nation, firmly
hooped together; each state to keep interior
government to ITSELF Remark his doctrine as
thus impaired to his friend, Mr.. Madison. in an
ticipation of the constitution. TIE commerce Of
The Sac, without reserve or condition to be giU-
en-. that is cesson of 1t. to the federal heat of
course supreme, to regulate it. as 1t would; and
that federal head to be one nation firmly hoped
toge,fe.c. The Northwestern lands coded by
Virginia to the Union were not more fully trans
ferred than the regulation of the commerce of
the State. Soon afterwards, Mr.. Jefferson en-
tered on the Department of State; and in May
sci. writing from Philadelphia to Mr.. Skipwith,
he ascribes the unparalleled prosperity of the
country to the unbounded confidence Ieposed by
the peooe in their government, their zeal to sup
rlrt II, their conviction that solid union is the
best rcck # safety; to favorable seasons, fertile
soil, genial climate, and to the gro'cth of in
dqs',1j, econ my and domestic manufactures"
In his famous report of December 179S on
the privileges and restrictions OF commerce,
he argues that where nation imposes high duties
on our productions. or prohibits them altogether,
we should do the same by theirs; first burdening
or excluding those productions which they bring
here in competition with ours of the same kind;
selecting next such manufactures as we take from
them in the greatest quantity, and which at the
same tine we could soonest furnish ourselves;
imposing on them duties lighter at first, but hea-
Wv and heavier afterwards; ,ohich duties, harmg
the effect of Indirect encouragement to domestic
may induce the manufacturer to
come himself into these States" am not now
dealing with policy, but power-a question of
power: and ask whether. at the
Of Mr.. Jefferson's birth day. this
report, together with MIR. Madson's late letter,
should not have been read to break the images of
unconstitutional idolatry. 1t isa remarkable fact,
throughout the speeches and communications Of
MIR. Adams the elder, as President, manufac-
ures are not once mentioned, whereas in Mr..
efferson's very first Message to Congress, in
ono ha IN ends In wordS the nro