Presidential Candidates Part 10

"Up to this time Mr. Stephens was a prominent Whig, having been bred in that school of States' rights men of the South who sustained Harrison in 1840; but upon the question of the annexation of Texas coming up, he favored that bill, and for the first time affiliated with the Democracy. In the contest between Taylor and Ca.s.s, he supported Taylor. On the compromises of 1850, he was willing to support any measure that did away with Congressional restriction, leaving the territories to come into the Union with or without slavery. In the Mexican war, he stood beside Mr. Calhoun, and held that the troops should not be advanced; but after the war commenced, he sustained it with vigor.

"The guaranty that four slave States should be carved out of the territory of Texas was secured mainly by Mr. Stephens' untiring labor and foresight. In 1854, he advocated the Kansas bill, which declared null and void the Missouri restriction, for the purpose of carrying out the principle of 1850, advanced in the Utah and New Mexican bills.

The year 1855 was the most interesting and critical period of his life, which he spent fighting the Know Nothing organization, in the commencement of which he found all his early friends and a.s.sociates for the first time opposed to him. In the month of May, of this year, he wrote his celebrated letter against the order, addressed to Col.

Thos. W. Thomas. The effect of it was overwhelming, not only in his own State, but in Virginia and the adjoining States. His position was sustained, and commencing with three thousand majority against him in his own district, he came out of the contest with nearly three thousand majority.

"When Mr. Stephens rises to speak there is a sort of electric communication among the audience, as if something was about to be uttered that was worth listening to. The loungers take their seats, and the talkers become silent, thus paying an involuntary compliment to Mr. Stephens' talents and high claims as a gentleman. At first his voice is scarcely distinguishable, but in a few moments you are surprised at its volume, and you are soon convinced that his lungs are in perfect order, and as his ideas flow, you are not surprised at the rapt attention he commands. His style of speaking is singularly polished, but he conceals his art, and appears, to the superficial observer, to be eloquent by inspiration. The leading characteristic of his mind is great practical good sense, for his arguments are always of the most solid and logical kind; hence his permanent influence as a statesman, while his bright scintillations of wit, and profuse adornment, secure him a constant popularity as an orator. Possessed of a mind too great to be restrained by mere partisan influence, he has therefore the widest possible field of action, at one time heading a forlorn hope and leading it to victory, at another, giving grace and character to a triumphant majority. Common as it is to impugn the motives of many of our public servants, and charge them directly with corruption, Mr. Stephens has escaped without even the taint of suspicion, an inflexible honesty of purpose on his part, as a governing principle, is awarded to him by his veriest political foe."

Mr. Stephens' position in Georgia, in reference to calling a convention to frame a new const.i.tution, is not very distinctly stated by Mr. Thorpe. A bill was introduced into the legislature providing for the calling of a convention to remodel the State const.i.tution. Mr.

Stephens opposed the bill because the const.i.tution, as it then stood, provided that _only_ by a two-thirds vote of both branches of the legislature, at two consecutive sessions, could any amendment be put upon the const.i.tution. Mr. Stephens argued that, under these circ.u.mstances, it would be revolutionary to pa.s.s the bill calling a convention. But the bill pa.s.sed--and a convention submitted various amendments to the people, all of which were repealed. Since then Mr.

Stephens' views have been generally adopted by the people of Georgia, for the const.i.tution has been amended in the mode pointed out in that doc.u.ment itself. Since then, too, Mr. Stephens' position has been sustained by the Supreme Court of the United States in the Dorr case.

We have noticed the fact that Mr. Stephens, when young and poor, was furnished with the means to procure an excellent cla.s.sical and legal education. He repaid this money to the parties who so generously aided him when help was of so much importance to his welfare. Not only this: since he has himself been so successful, Mr. Stephens has been constantly engaged in helping poor young men to an education. He has carried _upward of thirty_ young men through a collegiate or academic course within the last fifteen or twenty years, and has, in this way, repaid the generosity of his friends to him. This single incident will show what his character is for generosity.

Mr. Stephens is one of the most effective public speakers in the country, whether it be in the court-room, the legislative hall, or before the people. During the last Congress he was the leader of the Democracy in the House of Representatives, and by his management secured the admission of Oregon into the Union. Perhaps the finest speech he ever made in Congress was the closing one in the Oregon debate. We subjoin a few quotations.

One in reference to the anti-negro clause of the Oregon const.i.tution:

"And those who profess to be the exclusive friends of negroes, as they now do, so far as that const.i.tution was concerned, voted to banish them forever from the State, just as Oregon has done.

Whether this banishment be right or wrong, it is no worse in Oregon than it was in Kansas. But, on the score of humanity, we of the South do not believe that those who, in Kansas or Oregon, banish this race from their limits, are better friends of the negro than we are, who a.s.sign them that place among us to which by nature they are fitted, and in which they add so much more to their own happiness and comfort, besides to the common well-being of all. We give them a reception. We give them shelter. We clothe them. We feed them. We provide for their every want, in health and in sickness, in infancy and old age. We teach them to work. We educate them in the arts of civilization and the virtues of Christianity, much more effectually and successfully than you can ever do on the coasts of Africa. And, without any cost to the public, we render them useful to themselves and to the world. The first lesson in civilization and Christianity to be taught to the barbarous tribes, wherever to be found, is the first great curse against the human family--that in the sweat of their face they shall eat their bread. Under our system, our tuition, our guardians.h.i.+p and fostering care, these people, exciting so much misplaced philanthropy, have attained a higher degree of civilization than their race has attained anywhere else upon the face of the earth. The Topeka people excluded them; they, like the neighbors we read of, went round them; we, like the good Samaritans, shun not their dest.i.tution or degradation--we alleviate both. But let that go.

"Oregon has, in this matter, done no worse than the gentleman's friends did in Kansas. _I think she acted unwisely in it_--that is her business, not mine. But the gentleman from Ohio [Mr. Stanton]

questions me, how could a negro in Oregon ever get his freedom under the const.i.tution they have adopted? I tell him, under their const.i.tution a slave cannot exist there. The fundamental law is against it. But, he asks, how could his freedom ever be established, as no free person of color can sue in her courts?

Neither can they in Georgia; still our courts are open to this cla.s.s of people, who appear by _prochein ami_ or guardian. Nor is there any great hards.h.i.+p in this; for married women cannot sue in their own names anywhere where the common law prevails. Minors also have to sue by guardian or next friend. We have suits continually in our tribunals by persons claiming to be free persons of color. They cannot sue in their own names, but by next friend. They are not citizens; we do not recognize them as such; but still the courts are open; and just so will they be in Oregon, if the question is ever raised."

The closing portions of the speech give such a good idea of the style of Mr. Stephens' oratorical powers, that we must quote them:

"Let us not do an indirect wrong, for fear that the recipient from our hands of what is properly due will turn upon us and injure us.

Statesmen in the line of duty should never consult their fears.

Where duty leads, there we may never fear to tread. In the political world, great events and changes are rapidly crowding upon us. To these we should not be insensible. As wise men, we should not attempt to ignore them. We need not close our eyes, and suppose the sun will cease to s.h.i.+ne because we see not the light.

Let us rather, with eyes and mind wide awake, look around us and see where we are, whence we have come, and where we shall soon be, borne along by the rapid, swift, and irresistible car of time.

This immense territory to the west has to be peopled. It is now peopling. New States are fast growing up; and others, not yet in embryo, will soon spring into existence. Progress and development mark everything in nature--human societies, as well as everything else. Nothing in the physical world is still; life and motion are in everything; so in the mental, moral, and political. The earth is never still. The great central orb is ever moving. Progress is the universal law governing all things--animate as well as inanimate. Death itself is but the beginning of a new life in a new form. Our government and inst.i.tutions are subject to this all-pervading power. The past wonderfully exemplifies its influence, and gives us some shadows of the future.

"This is the sixteenth session that I have been here, and within that brief s.p.a.ce of fifteen years, we have added six States to the Union--lacking but one of being more than half the original thirteen. Upward of twelve hundred thousand square miles of territory--a much larger area than was possessed by the whole United States at the time of the treaty of peace in 1783--have been added to our domain. At this time the area of our Republic is greater than that of any five of the greatest powers in Europe all combined; greater than that of the Roman empire in the brightest days of her glory; more extensive than were Alexander's dominions when he stood on the Indus, and wept that he had no more worlds to conquer. Such is our present position; nor are we yet at the end of our acquisitions.

"Our internal movements, within the same time, have not been less active in progress and development than those external. A bare glance at these will suffice. Our tonnage, when I first came to Congress, was but a little over two million; now it is upward of five million, more than double. Our exports of domestic manufactures were only eleven million dollars in round numbers; now they are upward of thirty million. Our exports of domestic produce, staples, etc., were then under one hundred million dollars; now they are upward of three hundred million! The amount of coin in the United States, was at that time about one hundred million; now it exceeds three hundred million. The cotton crop then was but fifty-four million; now it is upward of one hundred and sixty million dollars. We had then not more than five thousand miles of railroad in operation; we have now not less than twenty-six thousand miles--more than enough to encircle the globe--and at a cost of more than one thousand million dollars. At that time, Prof. Morse was engaged in one of the rooms of this Capitol in experimenting on his unperfected idea of an electric telegraph--and there was as much doubt about his success, as there is at present about the Atlantic cable; but now there are more than thirty-five thousand miles in extent of these iron nerves sent forth in every direction through the land, connecting the most distant points, and uniting all together as if under the influence of a common living sensorium. This is but a glance at the surface; to enter within and take the range of other matters--schools, colleges, the arts, and various mechanical and industrial pursuits, which add to the intelligence, wealth and prosperity of a people, and mark their course in the history of nations, would require time; but in all would be found alike astonis.h.i.+ng results.

"This progress, sir, is not to be arrested. It will go on. The end is not yet. There are persons now living who will see over a hundred million human beings within the present boundaries of the United States, to say nothing of future extension, and perhaps double the number of States we now have, should the Union last.

For myself, I say to you, my southern colleagues on this floor, that I do not apprehend danger to our const.i.tutional rights from the bare fact of increasing the number of States with inst.i.tutions dissimilar to ours. The whole governmental fabric of the United States is based and founded upon the idea of dissimilarity in the inst.i.tutions of the respective members. Principles, not numbers, are our protection. When these fail, we have like all other people, who, knowing their rights, dare maintain them, nothing to rely upon but the justice of our cause, our own right arms and stout hearts. With these feelings and this basis of action, whenever any State comes and asks admission, as Oregon does, I am prepared to extend her the hand of welcome, without looking into her const.i.tution further than to see that it is republican in form, upon our well-known American models.

"When aggression comes, if come it ever shall, then the end draweth nigh. Then, if in my day, I shall be for resistance, open, bold, and defiant. I know of no allegiance superior to that due the hearthstones of the homestead. This I say to all. I lay no claim to any sentiment of nationality not founded upon the patriotism of a true heart, and I know of no such patriotism that does not centre at home. Like the enlarging circle upon the surface of smooth waters, however, this can and will, if un.o.bstructed, extend to the utmost limits of a common country.

Such is my nationality--such my sectionalism--such my patriotism.

Our fathers of the South joined your fathers of the North in resistance to a common aggression from their fatherland; and if they were justified in rising to right a wrong inflicted by a parent country, how much more ought we, should the necessity ever come, to stand justified before an enlightened world, in righting a wrong from even those we call brothers. That necessity, I trust, will never come.

"What is to be our future, I do not know. I have no taste for indulging in speculations about it. I would not, if I could, raise the veil that wisely conceals it from us. 'Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof,' is a good precept in everything pertaining to human action. The evil I would not antic.i.p.ate; I would rather strive to prevent its coming; and one way, in my judgment, to prevent it, is, while here, in all things to do what is right and proper to be done under the Const.i.tution of the United States; nothing more, and nothing less. Our safety, as well as the prosperity of all parts of the country, so long as this government lasts, lies mainly in a strict conformity to the laws of its existence. Growth is one of these. The admission of new States, is one of the objects expressly provided for. How are they to come in? With just such const.i.tutions as the people in each may please to make for themselves, so it is republican in form. This is the ground the South has ever stood upon. Let us not abandon it now.

It is founded upon a principle planted in the compact of Union itself; and more essential to us than all others besides; that is, the equality of the States, and the reserved rights of the people of the respective States. By our system, each State, however great the number, has the absolute right to regulate all its internal affairs as she pleases, subject only to her obligations under the Const.i.tution of the United States. With this limitation, the people of Ma.s.sachusetts have the perfect right to do as they please upon all matters relating to their internal policy; the people of Ohio have the right to do the same; the people of Georgia the same; of California the same; and so with all the rest.

"Such is the machinery of our theory of self-government by the people. This is the great novelty of our peculiar system, involving a principle unknown to the ancients, an idea never dreamed of by Aristotle or Plato. The union of several distinct, independent communities upon this basis, is a new principle in human governments. It is now a problem in experiment for the people of the nineteenth century upon this continent to solve. As I behold its workings in the past and at the present, while I am not sanguine, yet I am hopeful of its successful solution. The most joyous feeling of my heart is the earnest hope that it will, for the future, move on as peacefully, prosperously, and brilliantly, as it has in the past. If so, then we shall exhibit a moral and political spectacle to the world something like the prophetic vision of Ezekiel, when he saw a number of distinct beings or living creatures, each with a separate and distinct organism, having the functions of life within itself, all of one external likeness, and all, at the same time, mysteriously connected with one common animating spirit pervading the whole, so that when the common spirit moved they all moved; their appearance and their work being, as it were, a wheel in the middle of a wheel; and whithersoever the common spirit went, thither the others went, all going together; and when they went, he heard the noise of their motion like the noise of great waters, as the voice of the Almighty. Should our experiment succeed, such will be our exhibition--a machinery of government so intricate, so complicated, with so many separate and distinct parts, so many independent States, each perfect in the attributes and functions of sovereignty, within its own jurisdiction, all, nevertheless, united under the control of a common directing power for external objects and purposes, may natural enough seem novel, strange, and inexplicable to the philosophers and crowned heads of the world.

"It is for us, and those who shall come after us, to determine whether this grand experimental problem shall be worked out; not by quarrelling amongst ourselves; not by doing injustice to any; not by keeping out any particular cla.s.s of States, but by each State remaining a separate and distinct political organism within itself--all bound together for general objects, and under a common Federal head; as it were, a wheel within a wheel. Then the number may be multiplied without limit; and then, indeed, may the nations of the earth look on in wonder at our career; and when they hear the noise of the wheels of our progress in achievement, in development, in expansion, in glory and renown, it may well appear to them not unlike the noise of great waters; the very voice of the Almighty--_Vox populi! Vox Dei!_ (Great applause in the galleries and on the floor.)

"THE SPEAKER.--If the applause in the galleries is repeated, the chair will order the galleries to be cleared.

"MANY MEMBERS.--It was upon the floor.

"MR. STEPHENS, of Georgia. One or two other matters only I wish to allude to. These relate only to amendments. I trust that every friend of this bill will unite and vote down every amendment. It needs no amendment. Oregon has nothing to do with Kansas, and should in no way be connected with her. To remand her back, as the gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. Marshall) proposes, to compel her to regulate suffrage as we may be disposed to dictate, would be but going back to the old attempt to impose conditions upon Missouri.

There is no necessity for any census if we are satisfied, from all the evidence before us, that there are sixty thousand inhabitants there. Florida was admitted without a census. Texas was admitted, with two members on this floor without a census. So was California.

"To our friends upon this side of the house, let me say, if you cannot vote for the bill, a.s.sist us in having it voted upon as it is. Put on no riders. Give us no side-blows. Aid in keeping them off. Let the measure stand or fall upon its merits. If you cannot vote for the bill, vote against it just as it stands.

"I see my time is nearly out, and I cannot go into the discussion of other branches of the question; but may I not make an appeal to all sides of the house to come up to do their duty to-day? I have spoken of the rapid development of our country and its progress in all its material resources. Is it true that the intellectual and moral development of our country has not kept pace with its physical? Has our political body outgrown the heads and hearts of those who are to govern it? Is it so, that this thirty-fifth Congress is unequal to the great mission before it! Are we progressing in everything but mind and patriotism? Has destiny cast upon us a heavier load of duty than we are able to perform?

Are we unequal to the task a.s.signed us? I trust not. I know it is sometimes said in the country that Congress has degenerated. It is for us this day to show whether it is true or not. For myself, I do not believe it. It may be that the _esprit de corps_ may have some influence on my judgment. Something may be pardoned to that.

But still I feel that I address men of as much intelligence, reflection, talent, integrity, virtue and worth, as I have ever met in this hall; men not unfit to be the Representatives of this great, growing and prosperous Confederacy. The only real fitness for any public station is to be up to the requirements of the occasion, whatever that be. Let us, then, vindicate our characters as fit legislators to-day; and, with that dignity and decorum which have so signally marked our proceedings upon other great, exciting questions before, and which, whatever may be said of our debates, may be claimed as a distinguished honor for the present House of Representatives, let us do the work a.s.signed us with that integrity of purpose which discharges duty regardless of consequences, and with a patriotism commensurate with the magnitude of the subject under all its responsibilities."

Mr. Stephens took very decided ground in favor of the Lecompton bill in 1857-8, and when that was likely to fail in favor of the English Compromise. He is also, while a Union man, very much in sympathy with the Southern Rights school of politicians, and has made two or three speeches in defence of filibusterism in the house. He has not entirely forgotten that he was once a Whig, for last winter he spoke in favor of, and supported heartily the French Spoliation bill. He is a very fair political opponent, doing everything in an open and frank manner, but a very shrewd tactician. He has rarely allowed himself to be led into excited, partisan or sectional speeches, and, therefore, has long been looked upon in Congress as an admirable party manager.

N. P. BANKS.

Few men in the country have, in these latter days of politics, been so uniformly successful, even when circ.u.mstances were untoward, as Governor Banks. He is known by the people as _a lucky man_. He succeeds in whatever he undertakes. He has risen from an obscure young man to be Speaker of the National House of Representatives, and Governor of one of the first States of the Union. What may not such a man expect if he be ambitious?

Mr. Banks was born in Waltham, Ma.s.s., January 30, 1816, where he received a common school education. At a very early age he was placed to work in a cotton-mill, in his native town, as a common hand. His father was an overseer in the same mill. Here he remained for some time, but not liking the business left the mill, and learned the trade of machinist. While thus engaged, a strolling theatrical company pa.s.sed through Waltham, and young Banks was so much taken with their acting, that he learned to perform several parts himself. He succeeded so well that a tempting offer was made to him to follow the fortunes of the company. He was sufficiently wise to refuse the offer. There can be no doubt that to this dramatic corps Mr. Banks owes much of his after success. They taught him much of that gracefulness which, to this day, distinguishes him as an orator and a presiding officer.

Banks now joined a village lyceum and made himself a ready speaker--then delivered temperance speeches, and at last drifted into politics as a Democrat. He edited a village paper in Waltham, a Democratic paper, and Mr. Polk gave him an office in the Boston Custom House. In attending political meetings, Mr. Banks often acted as presiding officer, and it was soon discovered that he possessed a remarkable talent for such a post. In 1849, Mr. Banks was elected to the Ma.s.sachusetts House of Representatives, and put himself down in the list of members as a "machinist." The very next year he turned to the law--in 1851 was chosen Speaker of the State Legislature, and was a prominent advocate of the coalition between the Democrats and Free Soilers. This was his first step out of the Democratic party toward Republicanism. The next year he was relected speaker, and in the autumn was elected to Congress. While in Congress, during his first term, he voted against the Kansas-Nebraska bill, though he was one of those Democrats who _voted to take the bill up_, a movement which insured its final success.

In 1854, Mr. Banks was taken up by the Americans and Republicans, and sent again to Congress, where, after a memorable _two months'_ contest, yet fresh in the reader's memory, he was elected Speaker of the House of Representatives. No man has ever surpa.s.sed, if one has ever equalled him, as a speaker of that turbulent body, and he left the post with the highest honors. He was relected to Congress, but after taking his seat and remaining a month at Was.h.i.+ngton, he resigned it to a.s.sume the governors.h.i.+p of Ma.s.sachusetts, to which office the people of the State had elected him by a tremendous majority.

He was relected in the fall of 1858 by a heavy majority, and at this time fills the Governor's chair. This, in a few words, is Governor Bank's political career. As a politician, he has shown himself shrewd, as a presiding officer prompt, graceful, commanding, and as an administrator, a governor, he has proved himself to be a man of rare genius. This, in fact, is Governor Bank's _forte_. He has a genius _for governing men_--that most rare of all gifts. He cannot be said to have made a political blunder in his life, speaking after the fas.h.i.+on of political men.

It is of great importance to the people what are the _political opinions_ of such a man as Governor Banks. But he is so cautious, so reticent, that upon some points it is difficult to state his exact position. In a letter, addressed by Mr. Banks to the Republican Convention of Worcester--in the fall of 1857, Mr. Banks states his opinions upon some of the prominent questions of the day. We will make a few extracts:

"My opinions upon all questions relating to the General Government of the States, have been made public during my connection with an office from which I have been but recently relieved, and also by my course in the late Presidential canva.s.s. I resisted the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, and I am still opposed to that measure, as I am to all acts of the late and present administration, whether of an executive, legislative, or judicial character, which have been devised to maintain or to perpetuate the original purpose of that flagitious wrong; and I shall earnestly advocate the admission of Kansas into the Union of States, under its own charter of freedom. I am opposed to the further extension of slavery, or to the increase of its political power. I believe that the Const.i.tution confers upon Congress sovereign power over the territories of the United States for their government; and that, in the exercise of its authority, it is its duty to prohibit slavery or polygamy therein. I shall support the most energetic measures which the Const.i.tution admits, for the development of the moral and material interests of the American people, defend the sovereignty of the States against executive or judicial encroachment, and contribute all in my power for the restoration of the General Government to the principles of the fathers of the Const.i.tution and the Union.

"I am opposed to the recent decision of the Supreme Court of the United States, not only upon the ground that it controverts the principles and overthrows all the precedents of our history upon the subject of slavery, but that it a.s.sumes to decide, as a judicial problem, the question whether slavery shall be established in this State, which has been, and ought to be, left as a political question for the people of the State to determine for themselves.

"It is pleasant for us at all times to recall the traditions of our fathers, to repeat their affirmation of principles, which seem to us to be self-evident truths, and which were announced to the world by men who were ready and able to support them in council, and to defend them in the field. But it is a pleasure that cannot be enjoyed apart from the conviction that it is for us an equal, if not a higher duty, vigilantly to course every means that will tend to insure and perpetuate their supremacy, on this continent at least. If it shall hereafter appear that our Government has departed therefrom, and joined itself to other and false political doctrines, I trust that it may never be said of the people of Ma.s.sachusetts, that an unreasonable refusal of minor concessions, or their immaterial diversities of opinions--always the bane of republics--gave success and perpetual power to their opponents. No one can doubt that a vast majority of the people of the United States are opposed to the policy represented by the slavery propagandists; and still less can we doubt that it is their diversity of opinion in non-essentials that encourages the Government with hopes of success, and constantly defeats the purposes of the people. It is no less a shame for us, under such circ.u.mstances, to admit our incapacity to maintain our principles, than to acknowledge a defection from the faith of our fathers.

"In our age, with our lights, success is a duty. The graves of the past proclaim that failure must be the fault of the people, and not of their cause. But there will be no permanent failure. There was never a more auspicious hour for the friends of freedom than the present. To whatever policy the Government may now devote its energies, political power must soon fall into new hands. And when power shall pa.s.s into the hands of the young men of this age, I can entertain no doubt that, like the young men of a past age, to whom Jefferson appealed, and who were his constant supporters in the great battles of his day, for the suppression of the slave trade, and the ultimate supremacy of Liberty in the early councils of our people, they will give renewed life to a national policy of freedom, traditional and true, which must be the basis of all moral or material prosperity, and which is dictated alike by conscience and common sense. I rejoice with an inward joy, that the young men of Ma.s.sachusetts, as it were by spontaneous movement, and with a true appreciation of their duty and power, have a.s.sumed a position and unfurled a flag that will be hailed in other States as a harbinger of a better age--a radiant star, that shall lead to new and decisive victories for the good old cause.

"The affairs of our State demand no less our attention. There is now an unusually favorable opportunity for the initiation of political changes of great importance, which cannot fail to be acceptable to all cla.s.ses of people. Of these, restricted sessions of the legislature, and heavy retrenchment in State expenditures, are of lasting importance. Our people, constantly engaged in pursuits of commerce, manufactures, mechanic arts, and agriculture, have a right to demand of the Government that it shall meet, without evasion, the necessities of the time, and enable them, without following the constant changes of partisans.h.i.+p, to hold their servants to an immediate and direct responsibility."

It is not easy to say how closely Mr. Banks has been connected with Americanism in Ma.s.sachusetts. It is very certain that he _used_ Americanism, and that he guided it, but to what extent he has adopted, at any time, its doctrines, we cannot say. It has been said that Mr.

Banks was opposed to the "Two Years' Amendment" recently adopted by the voters of Ma.s.sachusetts, but he failed to show his hand upon it one way or the other. The Americans, we believe, claim that Mr. Banks is one of them in principle, but upon what grounds we know not.

Mr. Banks, though formerly a Democrat, is understood to be in favor of a moderately protective tariff. He is, as the extracts we have quoted show, decidedly opposed to the extension of slavery, but does not occupy, as an opponent of slavery, such advanced ground as that upon which Mr. Seward stands. He is opposed to agitation upon the slavery question, except in self-defence, while Mr. Seward is for battle, open and decided, but const.i.tutional, till slavery is driven from the continent.