The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1860-12-17
[From the National EnteHigencer,l

REMARKS OF MR.. REVERDY JOHNSON.
At the conclusion of his argument in an impor-
tant case before the Supreme Court of the United
States on Thursday last, the Hon. Reverdy johnson
spoke follows in impressive reference to passing
events and in just tribute to the historical place
which, in any event, must be filled by the high
tribunal before which he was called to plead:
Nav it please your Honors, indulge with a
word or two more before | conclude.
This may be the last time that this Court will sit
in peaceful Judgment on a Constitution acknowl-
edged and obeyed by ALL God, in his providence and
for our sins may, in his inscrutabe wisdom, suffer
the folly and wckedness of this generation to de-
stroy the fairest, noblest fabric of constitutional
freedom ever erected by man. Its whole history,
from the first moment of its operation even to the
present hour, bears evidence of its unriYaled ex-
cellence. Our country, our whole country, has,
from the first, prospered underit, and because of 1t,
with a rapidity, and in manner, before unknown
to nations. That prosperity vindcates the wisdom
and patriotism of its good and great founders. Is
| this prosperity now to cease? Is it now to be
dashed to the earth? Are the hopes of civilized man
the world ovar, now to be blasted? Are we to become
the JEST the scorn the detestation Of the people oil
the earth? Is all memory and reverence for the great
dead ,who living, admired and adored, to be now
forgotten? Is all gratitude for the mighty, trying
struggles of fathers to end? Are the warn
ings, the parting warnings of the peerless man of
all this world now to be disregarded and despised?
Is the country of Washington, consecrated by his
vaor, wisdom and virtue, to freedom and peace,
now to be converted into wild scene of disorder,
fraterna strife boodshed, war? May Heaven in its
mercy forbid! May it stay the arm of the madman,
arrest lin midcareer before it strikes the fatal,
parricdal blow. May it give time for reason and
patriotism to resume their sway! May it remove
the delusons of the misguided, strengthen the eff
forts of the patriotic, impart heavenly fire to the
eloquence of the faithful statesman silence by the
universal voice of the good and true men of the ma
ion the utterings of treason now tainting the air
and shocking the ear of patriotism, and the whin-
ngs of imbecility, now discouraging and sickening
the honest public heart May it, above all, rekindle
that fraterna love which bound us together by ties
stronger, infinitely stronger, than any which
Government can create, during the whole of our
revolutionary struggle, and has since cbeered us
on in our pathway to the power and renown which
have made US, until now, the wonder and admira-
tion of the world
But if all shall fail us and ruin come; if chaos,
worse than chaos is to be fate, the spirits of
those who have departed, and the survivors who
have administered Justice in this tribunal, in the
general wreck and wretchedness that will ensue,
will be left this consolation-that their recorded
judgments, now, thank God! the rich inheritance
of the world, and beyond the spoilers reach, WILL
till time shall be more, testify to the spotless in
tegrty, the unsurpassed wisdom, the ever-bright
patriotism of the men who from the first have
served their country in this temple, sacred to JUS
tice and duty, and to the matchess wisdom of our
fathers, who bequeathed it and commended it to
the perpetual reverence and support of their sons
and remain never dying dshonor and reproach
to the sons who shall have caused or permitted its
destruction.
The sloop Garnet Demerest, from New York, was
upset in squall on Thursday night at o'clock,
near Irvington. A sailor named Moore, of OsTe-
go, was so badly frozen that he will probably die
Another was also frozen, and will perhaps die.
They were not rescued until O'Clock Friday morn
ing. At about the same hour the sloop Jenny
Lind was capsized just above Hurlgate, and the
crew were rescued in exhausted condition.
Mr.. H. H. Tuckerman, gentleman well known
to large circle, father of the poet and essayist,
II. T. Tuckerman, died the lth inst, in the
10th year of his age.
The New York Times says that the State of Mas
sachusetts sends annually into the commerce of
the country, values greater than that of the en-
tire cotton crop of the South!
1t was rumored in Memphis, Tenn, on Tuesday
last that VIM. II. Rhea, editor of the Union, and
John c. Morrill,, of the Citizen, of Des Arc, Ark,
had LETT town for the purpose of lighting duel.
The Philadelphia Press denies the statement that
Mr.. Buchanan and Mr.. J. W. Forney had settled
their difficulties.