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Mr. Bokee's energy of character, business | feelings and sentiments among the colonists, qualifications, and untiring industry were and paints forcibly the powerful causes which sensibly and favorably felt, during his labors brought them, through compromise and as a Representative, especially where the in- mutual concession, into one harmonious and terests of his immediate constituents or his united nation. own State were concerned; and his frank manners, generous disposition, and gentlemanly deportment made him a universal favorite with his compeers and associates. During the last session of Congress Mr. Bokee on more than one occasion gave evidence of a readiness and power in debate entirely unlooked for even by his warmest friends and admirers, who were aware of the absence of all pretension on his part as a public speaker, and which afford promise of extended usefulness in his rising career as a statesman. In connection with this subject it will not be inappropriate for us to refer to an oration delivered on the Fourth of July last by Mr. Bokee in Brooklyn, which ranks in our estimation among the most eloquent and patriotic ever delivered on that glorious occasion, and a few extracts from which our readers will readily excuse.

The exordium of Mr. Bokee is classic, and in good taste:

may

"There are times and seasons when it is proper for men, in travelling the journey of life, to pause and take a retrospect of the past, that they see what progress they have made, and whether they have deviated from the right course; and that they may also look forward and take as extensive a survey of their future route, as their own vision and the surrounding objects will permit. No wise man, indeed, will allow himself to neglect these proper occasions of self-examination in regard to the past, and serious contemplation of the fu

ture.

"The same may be said of nations. With them there are recurrences of important epochs, when the people are emphatically called upon to pause and reflect; to contemplate the past and survey the future. Can there be a more fitting occasion for such a pause and for such examination than upon the arrival of another national birthday? This is an annual resting-place, and it will be well for us to seize the opportunity it offers to deepen the impression and refresh our recollections of the events with which it is in every mind associated.

"The colonies which were planted in North America, and which at the commencement of that noble struggle which resulted so gloriously to them, were commenced at different periods, by different distant from each other, separated by an unexplored persons, and for different purposes. They were wilderness filled with wild beasts, and wild men, much more to be dreaded than the most savage and dangerous animals, and had little communicather all of one race or language, nor was there a tion or sympathy for each other. They were neicommunity of interest or religion to bind them together as one people. So far from this, there existed among some of them strong feelings of hostility, growing out of those embittered religious before they had left their parent land, for these contests that had disturbed the peace of England then western wilds. The Cavalier of Virginia, Maryland and South Carolina, saw in the NewEnglander the same sturdy, bigoted Puritan, who drawn his sword in the conflicts between Puritanhad kindled his ire, and against whom he had ism and Prelacy, or Protestantism and Papistry in Old England. And the Puritan beheld his old enemies settled upon the same continent, but at such a distance, and beyond such intervening obstacles, that there was little prospect of their ever being brought into proximity or association with

each other.

"Between these, and the staid, cool, and imperturbable settlers of New-Amsterdam, there was litthe affinity or intercourse, and sometimes even hostilities. Such were the disjointed members of that confederacy which was afterwards formed, and which eventually became a well-cemented Union. those causes-powerful, indeed, they must have "And what, let me ask you, fellow-citizens, were been-which overcame the repulsive force of these scattered members, and united them in a firm, fraternal, national band? What were the causes which brought the Cavalier, the Roundhead, and the sturdy Dutchman to forget former antipathies, to embrace as brothers, and to pledge their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor to stand by each other in the deadly conflict they had em

barked in?

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Of the difficulties which the early revoCircumstances of a momentons character that have lutionists encountered, especially those who lately transpired, and are now agitating the public mind, give additional interest to these events, and were in favor of declaring the colonies inadd greatly to the duty of the American people dependent, he speaks eloquently and feelrightly to appreciate the blessings which flowingly, and accords to John Adams, from from them, and which have made us a great and happy nation."

The orator then gives a brief but comprehensive view of the first settlement of the American colonies; refers to the diversity of

whose autobiography he quotes some extracts not generally known, all the credit which is so eminently due him, as one of the fathers of the Revolution. Mr. Adams was for independence, and the following

fine passage from Mr. Bokee's oration | ing as fully as we could wish from this throws light upon that period of his career, admirable address. Briefly, but clearly, and tends still more to consecrate his memory in the hearts of his countrymen :

But there were those who were faithful to the cause, that were unprepared for the great step which was taken in the Revolution, declaring the Colonies independent, and were even shocked at the suggestion of such a procedure! Will you believe it, fellow-citizens, that when this idea first got out through a private letter which had been intercepted, and published by order of General Gage, the author was shunned, even by members of the Congress of '76, as a dangerous person! Mr. Adams was the writer of that letter, and after its publication, he says, 'I was avoided like a man having the leprosy. I walked the streets of Philadelphia in solitude, borne down by the weight of care and unpopularity. And this account is confirmed by Dr. Rush, who says, 'I saw this gentleman (Mr. Adams) walk the streets of Philadelphia alone, after the publication of his intercepted letter in our newspapers, in 1775, an object of nearly universal scorn and detestation!' Such, fellow-citizens, was the odium which in Philadelphia fell upon those who dared even to hint at independence, as late as the fall of 1775, some months after the battle of Bunker's Hill, and after General Washington had taken command of the American army! Am I not then borne out, in saying that the labor of those great men who prepared the public mind for separation from the mother country-who led the way to independence, and who toiled in Congress to sustain the army and the conflict in the long years of a doubtful struggle, and of gloomy prospects-was no holiday labor, no drawing-room amusement? Nothing less than the most sacred conviction of the just ness of their cause, the inborn love of liberty which belongs to freemen, and a firm reliance on the goodness and justice of that Providence who had ever watched over the destinies of North America, could have sustained and encouraged them in those times that literally and emphatically tried men's souls.'

and in eloquent and energetic terms, Mr. Bokee describes the difficulties which surrounded the framers of the Constitution :

"The Constitution was brought into existence by compromise. Had each member of the Convention, and each section of the country adhered pertinaciously and unyieldingly to its own views and wishes, the delegates must have separated without accomplishing the glorious work which stands as an everlasting monument of their forbearance, conciliatory spirit and wisdom. What the condition of this country would now have been had they thus separated, and what the contrast between what it would have been and what it now is, I must leave to the imagination of those who may reflect upon the subject. May our own and all future generations prove themselves not less wise, patriotic and conciliatory than those who left us the inestimable legacy of the Constitution and the Union."

The following passage is exceedingly fine, and will be read with feelings of admiration and pleasure by every friend of the Union:

"Could the genius of America then have taken our fathers up into an exceeding high mountain, and showed them the United States as the country then was, almost entirely covered with boundless forests through which the wild beasts and the red man roamed undisturbed; and then, by shifting the scene, exhibited the United States as they now are, stretching from ocean to ocean, and from the St. John's to the Rio del Norte, covered with splendid cities and flourishing towns; our lakes, rivers and canals teeming with commerce; our railroads running in every direction, through valleys, over rivers, ascending mountains, creeping along frightful precipices, and leaping fearful chasms; our boundless fields of wheat, corn, cotton and other productions of the earth; the three or four millions of people multiplied into twentyfour, among whom intelligence is communicated from one extremity to the other, not only with the speed of lightning, but by lightning itself; what would have been their wonder and amazement ! Surely they would have thought that what they saw was not reality, but a vision, a dream, a hallucination, conjured up by spirits of the air, by some Prospero and his tricksy Ariel. But we, fellow-citizens, find the vision sober reality. Never, in any part of the globe, since the earth was given to man for his habitation, have there been such astonishing changes, improvements, and increase in the physical comforts of man, as have been witnessed in this country within the sixty-two years that have passed away since the ratification, by the people, of the Constitution of the United States. I wish I could say that there had been a corresponding increase in the patriotic attachment of the people to the simplicity of republican institutions, and an equal improvement in the moral and religious character of the country; but I fear, The want of space prevents us from quot- that if we greatly excel our fathers in physical

"But they were borne up through all trials, hardships, and difficulties, and had the satisfaction of seeing their country take her place among the nations of the earth, as their acknowledged equal. And here a reflection is forced upon us. John Adams was the first Minister who represented the United States at the Court of St. James, after the peace of '83, and the acknowledgment by Great Britain of our independence; and what a contrast must there have been in his feelings when he stood before George the Third, the proud representative of a nation of freemen, and when he walked the streets of Philadelphia, 'an object of nearly universal scorn and detestation,' because he had in a private letter dared to hint at independence! Amply was he then repaid for all the odium that had been attempted to be cast upon him for being six months in advance of some other members of Congress, and well might he afford to forget their scorn and contumely."

comforts, we fall behind them in some of those moral qualities which are essential to form a truly and permanently great nation.

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mation of a Southern Confederacy, would be the consequence. Our duties, then, are plain and palpable; listen to them from the lips of WASHINGTON "And now, let me ask, my friends, if we are pre- himself, who speaks to us as a father in his ever pared to tear to pieces that Constitution which was memorable Farewell Address: It is of infinite formed with so much labor and with such a patri- moment that you should properly estimate the imotic surrender of prejudices and sectional feelings, mense value of your national union to your collecunder whose protection the American people have tive and individual happiness; that you should run so splendid a career of national prosperity? cherish a cordial, habitual, and immovable attachAre we prepared to rend that UNION asunder, and ment to it, accustoming yourselves to think and speak scatter its fragments to the winds of heaven, which of it as the palladium of your political safety and our fathers made such efforts to establish? Are prosperity-watching for its preservation with jeawe prepared to condemn that noble work which lous anxiety-discountenancing whatever may sugthey looked upon with so much pride and exulta-gest a suspicion that can, in any event, be abantion, and pronounced good? Are we ready to doned, and indignantly frowning upon the first destroy that which has caused the forests of the dawning of every attempt to alienate any portion West to disappear like the mist before the morn- of our country from the rest, or enfeeble the sacred ing sun, and the tide of population to flow on, like ties which now link together the various parts.' the irresistible sweep of the ocean, driving before These are the words of wisdom; they are words it the wilderness, the buffalo and the red man, and uttered from the tomb; let us take heed that we carrying with it industry, agriculture and the arts, obey their solemn injunctions. And, my friends, intelligence, education and religion?—that which while we cherish a cordial, habitual, and immovhas whitened every ocean and sea and river with able attachment to the Union,' we must also cherour commerce, and brought the products of the ish and cultivate a cordial respect, and kindly frawhole world to our doors?-that which has made ternal feeling for our brother Americans, to whatever us a great, a prosperous, a brave and powerful section of the Union they may belong. We must people? Look around you: what do you now see, indulge in no jealousies, no prejudices, no heartstanding where you are, or upon the beautiful burnings towards any one, and especially of a secheights of our own city! Every ship and steamer tional character. The name of American which of the thousands in view,-every warehouse and belongs to you in your national capacity,' says the dock of our own and the adjoining city,-every same warning voice of WASHINGTON, 'must always spire of the hundreds that point like so many exalt the just pride of patriotism, more than any fingers up to heaven,-all, indeed, that goes to appellation derived from local discriminations.' make up the great emporium of commerce,' is a Without this respect and kindly feeling mutually monument to the wisdom of those who formed the maintained and cherished by Americans, there CONSTITUTION and established the UNION, and a may be a union of the States, but there cannot be cogent argument in favor of their faithful mainte- a cordial sympathy and brotherly union among the nance. Palsied be the hand that would touch the people; and they will be like man and wife, when first stone of that noble edifice to remove it from all love is fled, bound together by the bonds-no its place, and nerveless the arm that is outstretch- longer silken bonds-of matrimony, but becoming ed to do it harm! Let him who would destroy more and more averse to each other, and more and our reverence and attachment for the UNION, and more restive under the restraints which those bonds persuade us to do aught that should weaken its impose." foundations, be anathema maranatha; let him walk an object of scorn and detestation in our midst, and be shunned by every good citizen as one infected with moral leprosy.-a loathed lump of living corruption, whose touch is pollution, and whose breath is pestilence!"

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"And now, what is the remedy for the evils which threaten the integrity of the Union, and what are our duties as good citizens and Americans? The remedy is in faithfully adhering to and carrying out every requirement of the Constitution, and the execution of all and every law enacted by Congress, and especially those Compromise laws, one and all, entitled the adjustment measures,-for if these are not faithfully observed and executed, no one having seen what it has been my lot to see within the last two years, and who is not utterly incapable of judging of coming events by the shadows they cast before, can for a moment doubt that the secession of the entire South, and the for

In looking around for a suitable person to fill the important office of Naval Officer of the port of New-York, vacant by the death of the late and lamented Philip Hone, Esq., Mr. Fillmore fixed upon DAVID A. BOKEE, a selection creditable to the discrimination and judgment of the President, and an honor well deserved by the recipient thereof, and an appointment which cannot fail to give general

satisfaction.

Mr. Bokee is under the middle stature, a man of nervous, sanguine temperament, quick perceptions, clear, sound judgment, fine reasoning faculties, untiring industry, and indomitable perseverance; his disposition is open, frank, and generous. In the prime of life, with many warinly-attached friends, and a rising reputation, it is not hazarding too much to say that his career as a public man is destined to be both useful and brilliant.

THE APPROACHING PRESIDENTIAL CANVASS.

THERE is at present an unusual calm in | may be, it must be obvious to all reflecting the political atmosphere of the country, but during the coming fall the elements will be again in agitation. It will be well, whilst the passions are asleep, to take a survey of the field of conflict from a distance, and endeavor to settle the principles which should govern our actions when the day of battle arrives.

It is obvious to the most casual observer that there are many who are determined to fight the battle of the coming Presidential campaign upon the ground of sectional differences, the North against the South. Relying upon that unconquerable faith in the abstract principles of universal freedom which undoubtedly underlie our system of government, pervading as its very political atmosphere the entire mind of the North, there are those who are calculating upon the excitement always attendant upon political strife, to destroy the influence of that reason and those considerations of honor and pediency which must in all things so generally modify our actions, even when they spring from the purest dictates of our highest conscience. Whilst in the South, those who would make a local institution a political power, will endeavor to keep alive the animosity of sections to accomplish their ends, either of real separation, if there can be any so mad, or personal notoriety.

minds that the nature of the Constitution by
which these States are confederated is utterly
inconsistent with such an idea. If a difference
arise between these States purely and en-
tirely sectional in its character, such difference
must in all cases be adjusted by compromises
and concessions within all reasonable limits;
must be settled by discussion and arrange-
ment, and not by arbitrary force. Whatever
imperfection in our system this
may discover
to some minds, there are no arguments that
can show that it is not essentially the nature
of the case.

The Constitution adopted by these States, and under which they were to be united as one nation, was nevertheless in one sense a limited one. It was made sovereign over certain matters of government, while in certain other matters of government no sovereignty was granted. Nay, so far from any sovereignty being given, it was not even perex-mitted, as in the power of the English government over its colonial legislation, to have any controlling influence. The States reserved a large field of legislation entirely and exclusively to themselves, and made provision for all new States thereafter to be formed to enter into the bonds of the Union and to assume the nationality of the great Republic, possessing, and for ever to possess, the same freedom to regulate their domestic concerns, in all things not affecting the interests of the whole. This peculiarity, the highest reach of political wisdom, that has now stood the test of seventy years' experiment, and which we believe to be the grand discovery of political science, which the world must imitate if it is ever to be blest at large with true freedom, is at stake in this controversy, and

We are then to expect that some candidates will be pertinaciously insisted upon by no insignificant factions, North and South, who must be considered the express representatives of those ideas which are essentially sectional in their character. Now, however desirable to either section the enthronement in the presidency of their own exclusive ideas

therefore we may be earnest in its defense. | principle in the nomination of Mr. Polk is, However wrong to us may appear any thing we admit, a strong temptation for the other in another State than our own, we must never party to follow the bad example. This genbe tempted to encroach upon that freedom, tleman was put forward by his party solely to make or mend it, which guarantees us the to carry their then prominent purpose of the very rights by which we may defend our- "Annexation of Texas." The "Whole of selves against its encroachments or influence. Oregon" was included; but merely as a This great principle, we say, factions both deception to help the main purpose, as its North and South are about to put at stake, ultimate abandonment proves. But if this in the next Presidential canvass. They are case is a temptation to partyism, it is a seriabout to make nominations which, on the ous warning to patriotism; for through it question of the unfortunate sectional differ- came discord and "all our (present) woes." ence, will represent the one or the other side Now, if these principles to which we have of the question. Now, that no man, who referred are sound as applicable to any subdoes not maintain a strictly national attitude ject on which serious differences of opinion in rela tion to all questions, is qualified for exist, how much more must they be true the office of President in the present crisis, when those differences are sectional in their will, we think, be evident to the thinking character, and not to be enforced either way men of all parties and sections. without alienating one part of the nation from the other?

During the last Presidential canvass, viz., in the August No. of this Review for 1848, (to which we beg to refer the reader,) we stated and enforced the principle which should govern the Whig or Constitutional party in their choice of a candidate, to wit: That a candidate should never be put forward as a representative of, or pledged to, any one idea or measure, but should merely be a representative of the general principles on which the government ought to be administered, without being a special champion pledged to exert himself, or use any undue influence in carrying measures. Otherwise, you violate the very spirit of our Constitutional Republicanism, under which the President is intended to act only in a judicial, an executive, and an advisory capacity. The immediate representatives from the people alone in Congress assembled, have the power and the right to originate and enact those measures which are to govern. The simple statement of this view we should think sufficient to establish it. For in a nation jealous of all power in the hands of governors, it must be instantly perceived that the opposite idea is of the very essence of monarchy. The flagrant case of the violation of this

If, then, in any of the local nominations that have yet been made, the parties making them have fondly hoped to create a dictator of their sectional views, they must abandon them, or the persons they have named must distinctly aver that they will be the President, if elected, of the whole Union, and not the President of one section and the tyrant of the other; that they cannot do otherwise than the Constitution which they must swear to will allow; and that their private judgment is not to be the sole interpreter of what the Constitution is. General Scott or any other man must do this, or he cannot receive the nomination of the Constitutional party. But in a time like the present, no man must receive it, who has on the eve of such nomination to make his declaration of principles. It must be some one who has been well tried, and during a long career conspicuously the champion of an all-embracing nationality. There are at least two men in this position, eminent to the country, to the world, as the representatives not only of this patriotic nationality, but of all the beneficent principles which constitute the creed of the Whig party.

and

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