384 CONGRESSIONAL PROCEEDINGS. 



It is this very point the maintenance of principles discovered and 

 defended by men prepared for that service by severe discipline and 

 laborious study that so strikingly distinguishes the English rebellion 

 of 1649 and our own Revolution from most other insurrectionary move- 

 ments, and particularly from the French revolution. The English and 

 American statesmen of those two periods were contending for truths, 

 the French atheists and philosophers for interests; the former sought 

 to learn their duties, the latter concerned themselves only about their 

 rights; the Anglo-Saxon was inspired by principle, the Gaul was 

 instigated by passion. 



The principles of American liberty, which education and habit have 

 rendered so familiar to us that we fancy them intuitive or even instinc- 

 tive, are in truth no more obvious than the physical theory of the 

 universe; and the study of the philosophical and political history of 

 the last three centuries will convince every inquirer that their devel- 

 opment from their germs as involved in the fundamental doctrines of 

 the Reformation has been the work not of unconscious time only, but 

 has required the labor of successive generations of philosophers and 

 statesmen. 



I look upon a great and well-selected library composed of the mon- 

 uments of all knowledge in all tongues as the most effective means of 

 releasing us from the slavish deference, which in spite of our loud 

 and vaporing protestations of independence we habitually pay to 

 English precedents and authorities in all matters of opinion. Our 

 history and our political experience are so brief that in the multitude 

 of new cases which are perpetually arising we are often at a loss for 

 domestic parallels, and find it cheaper to cite an English dictum than 

 to investigate a question upon more independent grounds. Not only 

 are our parliamentary law, our legislative action, our judicial proceed- 

 ings, to a great extent fashioned after those of the mother country, 

 but the fundamental principles of our Government, our theory of the 

 political rights of man, are often distorted in order that they may be 

 accommodated to rules and definitions drawn from English constitu- 

 tional law. Even the most sacred of political rights, the right of 

 petition, I have heard both attacked and defended upon this floor by 

 very sufficient Democrats entirely upon precedents drawn from the 

 practice of the British Parliament. Our community of origin, lan- 

 guage, and law exposes the younger nation to the constant danger of 

 being overshadowed by the authority of the elder. It is a great evil 

 to a young and growing people as well as to a youthful and aspiring 

 spirit to have its energies cramped and its originality smothered by a 

 servile spirit of conformity to any one model, however excellent; and 

 it is quite time for us to learn that there are other sources of instruc- 

 tion than the counsels and example of our ancient mother. 



Sir, I make these remarks in no narrow feeling of jealous hostility 



