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ment, and the amendments were carried; and now, forsooth, they claim not only to be, but to have been, the especial friends. of this particular enlargement policy, with an assurance that shows they have become insensible to shame.

The "short boy" experiment of harmonizing Democrats into compliance having failed, it is now asserted by their drill sergeants that all officers upon the canals who do not submit to the softening process are to be forthwith decapitated. A political Millerite in Oneida, too, has had a revelation, and prophesied the removal, by the President, of Collector Bronson and District Attorney O'Connor for their manly sentiments upon." short boy" morality, and fixed on Wednesday, the 5th, already passed, for the accomplishment of his prediction. I can answer all these petty and officious threats as an old gentleman from Cape Cod, in the Massachusetts Legislature, did the glowing speech of a youthful Federal member from Boston, upon the power of Great Britain, about the time of the war with that nation. The member having enlarged upon her naval and military strength, and shown with great eloquence and power how she would burn our towns, destroy our commerce, defeat our army and navy, and desolate our country, was overthrown and laughed out of countenance by the country member's speech, which was as follows: "Mr. Speaker, Mr. Speaker, who's afear'd?"

But we are charged by "free-soilers" and petty officials with opposing the national administration. Fine subjects to defend an administration which came into power in spite of their pernicious doctrines! We are the supporters and upholders of the administration, not by base toadying for the spoils of office-but by supporting the great principles upon which the President came into power, and to which he stands committed before the world in his inaugural. The doctrines are not only his but ours, and the doctrines of the Democratic party, and this support is not the newborn zeal of yesterday or to-day but the settled principle of our lives.

It is high time, as Mrs. Caudle would say, when State of ficers play the dictator, to inquire whether they control the people, or the people them. I supposed they were creatures and not creators of the people. When William Penn was Governor of Pennsylvania, having occasion to transact some business in the interior of the colony, he went in company with a

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brother Quaker, and in their travels met with a justice of the peace, who, not knowing them, nor receiving from them as much deference as he thought his dignity required, said, "I presume you don't know who I am. I am justice of the peace, commissioned by the Governor." "Oh yes," said the Quaker, we know thee; Friend William makes such things as thou art." If they suppose they can coerce the sentiment of a free people by the puny threats of a few removals from office, they will live long enough to see what contempt, derision, and scorn such threats, whether put in execution or not, will receive from those who fear them as little as they regard them. Because the people propose to discharge these faithless servants, they are going to be revenged by turning out the people. Like the Bashaw of Tripoli, who, when his town was blockaded by one of our frigates, said he was shortly to have a frigate of his own, and then, unless this blockade was immediately withdrawn, he intended to blockade America!

The day of littleness, coalitions, and broken pledges is over. The Democratic party, purified as by fire, is upon its ancient footing, with candidates, one and all, who have been true and faithful to the Constitution in moments of fearful national excitement, and faithful to the great interests of this State when imperilled by enemies open and disguised. It is, my friends, a new and promising era in the affairs of the Democratic party. It can now again meet in convention without associating with ruffian violence—it can speak out its sentiments without sugaring them over to suit the taste of free-soil squeamishness, or to inquire who among its members can be tempted to sell out for "free-soil" favors. It can enjoy its self-respect and challenge the respect of all honest men; it can spurn the associations and defy the power of all the votaries of coalition; it can inscribe excelsior upon its banner; it can appeal to the integrity of the masses and rally them around its standard as in the palmiest days of Jefferson and Jackson, until, glorying in its success, the people with one accord shall exclaim:

"Bound in its ADAMANTINE chain,

The softs are taught to taste of pain,

And 'free-soil' tyrants vainly groan,

With pangs before unfelt, urpitied and unknown."

ADDRESS

TO THE JURY IN THE CASE OF THE UNITED STATES VS. JAMES COLLIER, LATE COLLECTOR AT SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA.

DELIVERED AT NEW YORK, May 2, 1854.

[Reported by EDWARD F. UNDERHILL, of the N. Y. Daily Times.]

[This case was tried in the District Court of the Southern District of New York, before Hon. Samuel R. Betts, sitting as Circuit Judge, and a Jury ;—Hon. Charles O'Conor, U. S. District Attorney, appeared for the United States. The circumstances out of which it arose, and the points involved in the controversy, fully appear in the argument. Notwithstanding the very large amount claimed by the government, the trial resulted in favor of the defendant. The case subsequently went before the Supreme Court of the United States, where it was argued by Attorney-General Black, for the United States, and by Mr. Dickinson for Col. Collier, and the finding below was confirmed.]

TUESDAY MORNING, May 2d.

The Court met pursuant to adjournment.

Hon, Daniel S. Dickinson proceeded on the part of the defendant to address the Jury. He said:

IF THE COURT PLEASE, GENTLEMEN OF THE JURY:—It was declared by the founders of this federal government, in the recital of the instrument by which it was formed, that one of its leading objects was "to establish justice." In its erection that object was accomplished, and justice established upon broad and deep foundations,-tribunals were organized for its administration, and in this conflict between the government and the citizen we only desire that it shall be judged by such principles as it has established for the government of others. The rights of every citizen are dear and sacred, and it is the duty and the business of the sovereign power to cherish and sustain,

and not to persecute, trample upon, and crush; and it boots but little indeed, if the citizen is to be prostrated and ruined, whether it be in a despotism or a democracy, or whether by the application of the knout or the bowstring, or by the slow and consuming process of legalized persecution.

The government, as you will perceive, in the contest with the citizen, in matters of this kind, has great and marked advantages. It cannot be sued. The citizen may have a claim against his government, but he cannot arraign it in a court of justice; he cannot demand before the judicial tribunals that it respond to him in damages and redress his grievances, however great or deep his cause of complaint; but he is compelled to resort to other agencies-its established executive or legislative departments for redress, and await their pleasure. If it has a real claim against the citizen, or, as in this case, a pretended one, it has only to certify its balance, and is its own witness, its own judge, and, I may add, its own executioner; and the citizen, no matter how just or sacred his demand, in answer, is compelled to bring witnesses to establish his defence. When government has, or fancies it has a claim, it has but to say, let it be done, and it is done. One of its own appointees, at his desk, states an account, either true or erroneous, purporting that an agent of the government owes a certain sum of money; and upon that the alleged debtor can be prosecuted and the statement of the account is prima facie evidence of its truth. Not only can he be prosecuted upon that statement, and a judgment be recovered, but the statement can be used as evidence in a criminal charge, and the citizen be indicted, thrown into prison, convicted and sent to the penitentiary upon an alleged balance, stated by the government appointee to be due. We do not complain of this, because it is a law extended to all citizens who act as government agents; but we desire that it may be remembered upon what dissimilar terms we meet here for trial. In tracing the history of this controversy, you will see that it is an exhibition on the part of the government which demands both of the court and the jury a rigid restriction upon this broad governmental license. It is a case which calls for our severest criticism upon a rule so alarming, I had almost said so monstrous.

James Collier, the defendant in this case, was appointed

Collector at San Francisco, in the district of Upper California, on the 3d of April, 1849. He forthwith took the oath of office, filed his official bonds, and was ready to enter upon the discharge of his duties. It will be remembered that at that time, although the revenue laws had recently been extended over that distant country, the broad ægis of American law had not been vouchsafed to that people, nor the fabric of social order erected there; that not only the business interests, but the desperate enterprise of the world, the adventurous spirit of the young, the ambition of the middle-aged, and the cupidity of the old, were flocking there for the purpose of partaking of the mineral wealth which had been recently discovered.

Mr. Collier, the defendant here, was not permitted to proceed to California over the customary route, and by the usual mode of travel, but, for the purposes of the government, and not for purposes of his own, he was directed to report himself at Fort Leavenworth, a military station, and thence proceed across the country under an escort, to subserve, I repeat, the purposes of the government, which purposes, when they are fully published to the country, will form a curious, if not an interesting chapter in our political history. He proceeded upon his journey. You have heard of the delays, the perils, the sicknesses, and the varied vicissitudes which beset his footsteps, consuming his time from the month of April, until the month of November, before he reached his destination. He escaped, to be sure, the stings of the adders which lurked in his pathway, the fangs of the wild beasts which prowled around his slumbers, the tomahawks of the savages who were upon his trail; more fortunate than some of his associates, he reached his post, discharged his duties, and returned, having escaped all the dangers of his journey, only to be calumniated in his good name, and have his reputation assailed and lacerated by the government he had served.

On his arrival at San Francisco he reported himself to the government. He tells his story with the eloquence and power of truth, in a letter, which he himself has read to you, written to the Secretary of the Treasury, two days after he reached there. Go with me for a moment and note the condition of things as they existed there, and see how different from affairs at the Atlantic ports. There was no law but the revenue law,

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