The daily Madisonian. [volume] (Washington City [i.e. Washington, D.C.]) 1841-1845, 1842-05-18

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the country from which they derived their liberal
principles. He said aud he deliberately believed,
| that the State which the Senator called Hfie had
as elevated notions Of political freedom as any other
State under heaven and that they adhered to their
- -'" Of Government because they had not been
| dr-lse1 irolm At Of - mere talk of demagogues
They adhered TO the substance, irrespective Oh mere
form. With respect totthe Constitution OF Rhode
Island, the Senator had thought fit to characterize it
as dead and all its acts under the Constitution OF the
United States as basphemous assumption
| MIR. ALLEN. | said charter
| MIR. SIMMONS. That is our Constitution; call II
what you please. The usages Of society under II mad
made = So There were people on earth who better
knew their laws or their rights than the people OF
Rhode Island The Constitution of that State, the re-
'arks Senator to the contrary did contain pro-
vision for altering it, The Legislature of that State
But the Senator asked what right had Rhode Island
to enter into the Union after the Confederation Did
| the Charter give that right Most assuredly and
came into the Union as the other States. Had other
States at that time written Constitutions other than
| those derived from the mother country Certainly
not; and even in his (Mr. Simmonss) day, Connecti-
cut had changed its form of Government The peo-
pie OF Rhode Island knew what they were about
when they adopted this Constitution, and the records
would show that they understood the elementary prn-
| ciples OF free government If there were any peo-
pie who had occasion to be proud 1t was the gallant
State of Rhode Island, Where else would religious
| liberation be found but in that charter which
was the first, before the State of Maryland
gran ed TO any of the Colonies guaranying that ines
| Unable blessing, and upon which so much denuncia-
ton had been bestowed by the Senator from Ohio. II
held forth in its language that there should be
| no interference in religious matters by the Govern
ment from which il was derived. 1t was this cher
ished principle that bound it to the people of that
State The Senator from Ohio had assumed that the
State in the hands of the minority; but this was
not so. There time when the qualified
| voters of the State did not outnumber those who were
not. The people of Rhode Island had fixed their
own rules and let him say that these rules were best
calculated to subserve the interests of all classes there
They required some evidence of their attachment TO a
particular district called Rhode Island. And did not
Ohio req ue some evidence distinguish the voters OF
that State from those of other States he then roceed-
ed to show that there effort desire on the part
of one portion of the people of Rhode Island to ex-
cude the other from having voice in selecting ofti-
GERS to administer its affairs All that was insisted on
| was that alterations in their form Of Government
should be by law and through law and he trusted
that this the doctrine which the States and the
Government would insist upon. The opposite doc
trne that may revoluonize State in the absence of
law and order perfect absurdy Ii there WI re
| no mode by which he Constitution of Government
could be changed except by revolution, then were they
all in hopeless condition. He trusted that it was
the last time that it would be said the Sc
majors from that State were not entitled TO
Their seats They loved its institutions, and the
people Of that State always ready and st and
foremost in the fight whentheir common rights were IN
ing every cherished principle of liberty whenever and
by whoever assaed.
| Mr.. CRITTENDEN inquired whether he under
stood the Senator from Ohio saying that he had,
face to face, told the President of the United States
that he dared not march army into Rhode
Island;
Mr.. ALLEN replied that he told the President OF
the consequences of such movement, and that II an
army should be marched there for the purpose OF
spilng American blood at the point of the bayonet,
| M man from yItin /
ing throughout the country terrible in its consequent
ces, and which ought to be avoided.
Mr., CRI1'TENDEN observed that he had pro-
pounded the question for the sake of the Senator as
well as for that of the President of the United
States, that the remark might be properly UNI
derstood. The gentleman did say, and he was
so understood his Mr., Crttenden's) side of
the chamber that he had told the President, face to
face, that he dared not march an army into Rhode
Island.
Mr.. ALLEN said that if the Senator wanted any
additional information he could call the President
and inquire. He would give no further reply.
Mr.. CRlTTENDEN: The explanation was not in
accordance with what you did say.
The CHAIR here called to order, and
Mr. SIMMONS rose to make a few additional re-
marks. In conclusion, he said that the people OF
Rhode Island had right to demand the protection OF
the Government troops, because they surrendered
the right to defend themselves when they into
the Union
Mr. Aliens resolutions we're read and the question
stated ordering them to be printed but before
twas taken motion made to go mo an Execu
tive session. which prevailed, and when the doors
were opened,
The Senate adjourned
Il SKILL OF THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS.
LOST ARrs-The subject suggests few recapitu-
atory remarks respecting the qudesto peraa Of lost
arts" If the Thebans, 800 years before Christ,
knew less in some departments of useful knowledge
than ourselves, they also in others knew more. One
great proof of the genius of that splendid line of pc
tentaes entitled the 18th Thebian dynasty, is that
the practical, chemical, astronomical and mechanical
knowledge which they shared with the priestly sci
entifc colleges was in some respects greater than
our own. They made glass in great profuson (Dlo-
dorus Siculus) and burning glasses and lenses for
glasses. They must have cut heir delicate canoes
by the aid of microscopes. Ptoemy describes an as
trolahe they calculated eclpses; they said that the
moon diversified by sea and land (Pluarch defd-
Gle lunG; that one lunar day was equaltQ ID of the
earths ; that the earths diameter third of the
moons and that the moons to that Of the
earth as Ito 70 All these things show good nstru-
ments. They made gold potable Gnferentialy: Mo-
ses did So who was a Scribe brought up by the
reign Pontif and nursed in the wisdom of the
Egptians) art lost till recently recovered by a
French chymist Their workmanship in gold as re-
corded by Homer, and their golden cockwork, by
which thrones moved, must have been exquistely in
genous. They possessed the ait of temperng copper
tools, so to cut the hardest granite with the most
minute precision. This art we have lost We see
the scupors in the act of cutting the inscriptions
the granite obeisks and tablets We pictorial
copy of the chisels and tools with which the opera
ton was performed. We the tools themselves.
(There scuptor's tools at the Museum, the
cutting end of which preserves its elge unim-
i paired - whilst the blunt extremity is 1attened
by blows of the mallet) But our tools would not
such stone with the precision of outline which the
inscriptions retain to the present day Again, what
mechanical means had they to raise and fix the
nous mposts on the lntels of their temples at Kar
nac Architects now confess that they could not
raise them by the usual mechanical powers Those
means must therefore, be put amongst the lost arts.
That they were familiar with the principle of Arte
sian wells has been lately proved by engineering in
vesgations carried while boring for water in the
great Oasis. That they were acquainted with the
principle of railroads is certain, that is to say that