TWENTY-NINTH CONGRESS, 1845-47. 425 



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 instinctive, 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 cen- 

 turies will convince every inquirer, that their development 

 from their germs, as involved in the fundamental do.ctrines 

 of the Keforrnation, has been the work not of unconscious 

 time only, but has required the labor of successive genera- 

 tions of philosophers and statesmen. 



I look upon a great and well selected library, composed 

 of the monuments of all knowledge, in all tongues, as the 

 most effective means of releasing us from the slavish defer- 

 ence 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 mult! 

 of new cases which are perpetually arising, we are often at a 

 loss for domestic parallels, and find it cheaper to cite an Eng- 

 lish dictum than to investigate a question upon more mde 

 pendent grounds. Not only are our parliamentary law, o 

 legislative action, our judicial proceedings, to a great extent 

 fashioned after those of the mother country, but the funda- 

 mental principles of our Government, our theory of 

 political rights of man, are often distorted, in order that 

 they may be accommodated to rules and definitions drawn 

 from English constitutional law. Even the most sacred of 

 political rights, the right of petition, I have heard b 

 attacked and defended upon this floor, by very sufficient 

 Democrats, entirely upon precedents drawn from the prac- 

 tice of the British Parliament, Our community of on 

 language, and law, exposes the younger nation to the con- 

 stant dlnger of being overshadowed by the authority of the 

 elder, if 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 ^^ W* 

 conform ty to any one model, however excellent ; and i* 

 quite time for us to learn, that there are other sources of 

 instruction than the counsels and example of our ancient 



' make these remarks in no narrow feeling of jealous 

 hostilitv to England ; still less at M**^"^ 

 -aeekin^ to raise a whirlwind of popular indignation a? 

 that country, upon which they may themselves float to 



