Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1853-09-03
A CONTRIBUTION TO HISTORY.

| In the absence, at the present moment, of any
particularly exciting political discussion in the
- try, our readers generally will find in the art
- 4, ne preceding columns matter Of sufficient
interest - :; 'tify our giving SO much space to it
Tor monv &c tbs, it will have BESIDES the attrac
ion of noveltv no+ hat it il really new, but thai
il has never before seen IN light, having been now
rescued from obscurity by ca. 'u''a'auoo' Du' 40
which it would have never met the !. 'ioie" eye
1t may not be very generally known tina. ~
proprietors of the National Intelligencer are en-.
gagged IN work, under the sanction Of the Govern
ment, which is to embody and preserve the already
perishing history OF the earlier Congresses. In
this undertaking they have thus far succeeded even
beyond their hopes. In the prosecution of the
work it has been brought down to the date of the
Twelfth Congress The conflict of commercial
restrictions in various forms between the United
States and the two principal Maritime Power. Of
Europe-in which the latter were steadily the
aggressors- terminated in the Declaration of War
on the 18th of June, 1872, by this country against
Great Britain. The debates which Immediately
preceded this declaration, as well as those which
accompanied and Immediately followed it, running
Though period Of several months, were not only
profoundly interesting from the gravity of the main
subject, but also from their high ability.
In debates of this character, the well-pondered
speeches delivered in both Houses of Congress would
of course find their way to the journals of the parties
into which the country was at that time divided and
in this case quite frequently from the pens Of the
members themselves; the reporting force, of the
body Consisting then of only individual, with
only such time he could spare from other duties
being in truth far too small to cope with abors SO
voluminous. 1t necessarily happened, in this state
of things, that important portions of debates failed
to Rewritten out at length by the reporter through
the mere impossibility of accomplishing the task
within the time at command for the purpose.
Such parts of debates, therefore, unless the def
ciencies were supplied BY the speakers themselves,
were lost to the Public. Of those urwritten rem
nants of debate however the original steaogropstc
notes, to some extent at least have been preserved
among the manuscripts of this Office. From
bundle of these relics of bygone age the publishers
have obtained the means Of presenting to their
readers Speech upon the War, by JOHN RAN
DoLPH, (ofRoanoke,) as just written out for pub
ication in the !" Annals of Congress"
1t cannot be more matter of surprise to any of
our readers than it has been to US, that, after an
interval of more than forty years from the delivery
of that speech, SO true and living report of it
could at this day be reproduced, as it were, from
the ashes Of the dead.
In the perusal of this speech the reader will not
10 fba &c tlot +bal
eloquence of that gesture; the fire of those eyes,
which constituted so much of the fascination Of
Mr.. RANDoLpH's oratory. Few persons, however,
who are old enough to have had the opportunity of
hearing him in the Hall of Representatives in the
prime of his power but will recognise in this report
its peculiar traits and characteristics