PREFACE.

HONORED by the request of the City Council to speak, in the name of Boston, on the Fourth of July, it seemed to me proper on that occasion to discuss some of our obligations, as Americans, to other nations and to ourselves.

The facts then stated, which bear upon the aid given our country in its Revolutionary struggle, were verified by the examination of original documents in the archives of the State Department at Washington, of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs at Paris, and of the Spanish government at Seville and Madrid; and also of papers in the hands of the executor of Caron de Beaumarchais, the agent of the first benefactions of France.*

In giving to Spain the credit of having projected the Armed Neutrality of 1780, I am aware that I may seem to have differed from many writers on International Law. The statement, however, was not lightly made, nor without documentary evidence to sustain it.

* As the recent biographer of Beaumarchais, M. de Loménie, has charged the United States with ingratitude to him, I take this opportunity publicly to state, that having drawn the attention of his executor to the first accusations of M. de Loménie, in the Révue des Deux Mondes, that gentleman declared to me, that every just claim of Beaumarchais had been "fully, largely, and generously paid by the United States;" and this declaration he offered to repeat, in his official capacity, before a Notary Public.

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Of what was said concerning the countries, I have nothing to alter on

of Villafranca.

position of European

account of the truce

As regards recent events in our own country, speaking in the name of a law-abiding people, I felt it my duty to raise a warning voice against conduct which the wisest jurists in the land have denounced, as tending to bring the tribunals of the law into disrespect. Speaking in the name of those whose ancestors made sacrifices to secure liberty founded on lawand who believe an essential guaranty of that liberty to consist in the separation of the legislative, executive and judicial functions- I should have been recreant to my trust did I fail to speak of acts which tended, if not to confound those functions, at least to destroy their harmonious balance. Venerating the Constitution, I could not stand dumb in presence of the earnest appeal of the Senior Judge of the Supreme Courtthe companion upon the bench of Marshall Mr. Justice McLean, who, alarmed at the usurpations of the Chief Justice, and other of his junior colleagues, exclaimed in the Dred Scott case: "Have the impressive lessons of practical wisdom become lost to the present generation? If the great and fundamental principles of our Government are never to be settled, there can be no lasting prosperity. The Constitution will become a floating waif on the billows of popular excitement." Yielding to no one in respect for our judicial system-and keenly alive to the importance of that respect being universal-I felt it my duty to invoke the supreme tribunal of the land the Sovereign Public Opinion of the country-to aid in awakening a portion of the Judiciary to a sense of self-respect the basis of respect from others.

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Jefferson in a letter to Edward Livingston, of 25th March, 1825, says: "Your code for Louisiana will range your name with the sages of antiquity. One single object will entitle you to the endless gratitude of society; that of restraining judges from usurping legislation. Expcrience has proved that impeachment in our forms is completely inefficient. A regard for reputation and the judgment of the world, may sometimes be felt where conscience is dormant, or indolence inexcitable."

Story also recognized as the High Court of Appeals of our country, "its intelligence, its integrity, its learning and its manliness."

In addressing myself to these, I followed my convictions of duty; being true to which I felt that I was true to Boston. I was happy moreover in the certainty that even so humble a voice as my own, when speaking for the purity and dignity of the Judiciary, had the cordial support of the members of every "healthy political organization" in the Republic. G. S.

BOSTON, 1st August, 1859.