should find a resting place in the same grave. I think it will be so, and I hope it will be so. I am sure if temperance and love prevail, what is offensive and sinful in the military spirit will pass

away.

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ful and interesting lessons in natural history. Sir, in my conception, there is no way in which you can fix a man up, in which he really looks so little, as when you have him as a full-dressed soldier. And, when we remember that the only use to which these men, in this capacity, can be put-except to please children, large and smallis to cut in pieces those, or persons like those, who now admire them as a show, the mind revolts at the idea of encouraging such a system. I am not speaking of the right of men to defend their country, but of the thing as an occupation, and of the awful fact, that these men are organized with the primary idea in their minds, that it is human beings they are to destroy. I say, then, Sir, that the expense of this militia system to the State, is a foolish and unnecessary expense, and that, therefore, the system ought to be abolished.

My second point is, that the militia is antirepublican in its nature, and especially is that Report anti-republican which is now before the Committee. The system, as it stands in the Constitution, provides that the legislature shall choose certain high officers; but this new proposition makes all the officers, if I mistake not, elected by the officers and men under their command-with the exception of the adjutant-general, who is to be appointed by the governor. All the rest are to be elected within themselves. I say that such a power is not republican, even if it be looked upon as harmless, as your militia system has been in times past; but I believe that it is a dangerous system, and it is anti-republican. These officers may depart, as far as they please, from what the common citizens, who pay them, regard as proper and right, and there is no way by which they can be called to account, with any hope of success, by citizens at large. I say that this proposition is far more objectionable than the law as it now stands. My venerable friend upon my right, (Mr. Rantoul,) whose present appearance goes back to my earliest recollection, declared that it was his wish that the militia system, according to the statement of the chairman of the Committee who made the Report, might die out in this State, and it ought to be left to die out under the old Constitution as it now stands, without attempting to infuse new life into it. If we can't take any of its present life out, let us not, Sir, attempt to infuse into it fresh vigor. It will live long enough at best, and the sooner it takes its departure for its appropriate place in the universe, the better for our race. And, if I am to choose between the two, I shall choose to have it as it is. My third point of objection is, the expense of this training. I am informed, that at this present time it costs the Commonwealth about $60,000 a year. Now, Sir, I do not believe that this money is well spent. I do believe that there is a great want of more holidays in Massachusetts, but I do not think that the best mode of employing the time of those we now have, is rightfully reached, by parading men, fantastically dressed, through the public streets, to the sound of martial music. Oh, Sir, if we could only have the music without all this attractive show of young men, thus attired, or, Sir, if we could even have the birds and the beasts whose plumage and skins are rifled to adorn these youthful heroes, it would do the people some good, for they might thereby learn use

My fourth objection is, the immorality which always attends military displays. I will not say that it inheres in the soldiers themselves, because we know that many of them are, in the common acceptation, pure and upright men; but, somehow or other, we know that these displays always attract the rum-drinking and rum selling, and the abandoned and vicious portions of human society. Sir, I regard it as a great calamity for one of these military encampments to be held in any of our country towns. However well you may get along in large cities, without their influence being felt, I do not believe that they can ever go into a country town without doing great injury. So much then, Sir, for the militia organization of Massachusetts, as an occasional help to the civil power.

Now, Sir, let me inquire if it is needful for Massachusetts to keep up this militia system for national purposes, to repel invasion, and to take care of the glory of the Commonwealth? If, Sir, Mr. Cobden and his friends, lying close beside their ancient enemies, the French, with a Bonaparte on the throne, can ridicule the idea of invasion, I think we in these United States, may well rest content without any fear of the inroads of those whose ambition or covetousness might tempt them to invade our territories. Who is to invade us? Russia? Why, Sir, Russia is becoming to be regarded as a very fine power by many democrats amongst us. Well, then, is it Austria that we are to be afraid of? She has enough to do, Sir, to take care of Hungary. Is it France? She has quite enough to do, Sir, to watch and restrain the ambition of Napoleon And will Great Britain make war upon us? No, Sir, for that would be to make war upon the cotton trade, and would be equivalent to their committing suicide. It would be to make war upon

themselves, for they can no more live without our cotton than they can live without our bread stuffs. Who then are to be the invaders? Mexico? Yes, Sir, I acknowledge that Massachusetts is in danger of another Mexican invasion. Already we hear that Mexican forces are occupying territory ten miles long by two miles broad, which is said to belong to the United States; and who is bold enough to say that that is not a sufficient occasion for war? I think, Sir, that there is danger of war with Mexico. And for what purpose is it to be waged? Why, Sir, if waged at all, it will be for the same purpose as that of every other war in which this country has been engaged, since the revolutionary war. I hold, Sir, that the war of 1812 was waged by our Southern friends for the purpose of injuring New England, and the Florida war, Sir, was waged for the purpose of capturing fugitive slaves. The Mexican war, glorious in its infamy and cowardice, was waged in order that we might acquire new slave territory, and if we have another Mexican war it will be to accomplish the same design. There is no reason, Sir, why a mighty power like that of the United States, should fall upon that feeble power, unless it be to acquire a more extensive slave territory. Gentlemen talk of military glory and military courage. Where, Sir, has been the display of courage in regard to Mexico? Are the Mexicans our equals? Sir, if there be glory in the strong crushing the weak, then was that war glorious; but the glory is just about the same as if the most athletic man in this body were to fall upon that feeble page, [pointing to a little boy] and beat him to death.

Now, Sir, I hold that there is danger in this, and therefore I would rather see the militia of Massachusetts remain as it is in our present Constitution, than adopt the changes which are proposed. Some gentlemen wish to have it so arranged, that there shall be no difficulty on the part of the governor, in getting the troops out of Massachusetts, in any emergency. Sir, I think that the governor ought to have the power to hold back the troops, if he chooses to do so.

In our discussions here, in regard to legal voters, we were told that every man who had five cents in his pocket, had a right to vote-that he was one of the people, and had a right to come to the ballot-box. I do not question this; but are not these legal voters capable of enforcing laws of their own enacting? Who are the men that are to endanger your rights, when we are all leg 1 voters? Will you say that a large class of legal voters are to rise up and cut the throats of their fellow voters? Do you suppose that they are ready for all sorts of treason and vio

[June 21st.

lence? Then it seems to me that you are getting a class of persons at the polls whom you cannot trust there. You ought to keep them away, and not give them the right of voting while they remain so unworthy and dangerous. Sir, it appears to me to be wholly unnecessary to expend fifty or sixty thousand dollars a year for any such purpose as is contemplated by this militia sys

tem.

It is sometimes said to us, in a taunting manner, "If you do not like to live where there is a militia organization, why do not you go somewhere else?" Why, Sir, we reply, "Simply because we have a right to be here; and we choose rather to suffer patiently and bide our time; and, as lawyers have now the privilege of sitting in the House of Representatives, and Baptists can preach and practice their doctrine without being whipped, so it is not impossible that the time may come when you will allow persons to hold civil offices under your government, who refuse to swear that they will help to take the lives of their fellow men. Are you afraid that by such a course you will endanger the stability of your government? What harm can we do? All that we can do is to make peace speeches when there is danger of your going to war. I do not believe that this would hurt the best of you.

Sir, I am sorry to have to say it; but it really seems so to me, that the slave system, in its various demands, is the only reason, throug out the whole country, is the only reason for the exercise or organization of the militia power, unless it be upon the borders of the country where you come upon Indian territory, and where, I must confess, you have not always done justice. If you, strong Anglo Saxons, take the land of the Indian from him without a sufficient equivalent, and at your own price, is it strange that he should attempt to right himself and turn upon you? No, Sir, it is not strange at all. This is what we do ourselves, and in condemning the Indian we condemn ourselves. Do justice to the red man, let him remain on the territory which the Almighty has given him; act towards him as if you believed him capable of civilization, and then see, Sir, whether you need military power to defend yourselves from him. Sir, I remember that a company of men maintained an efficient civil government on this continent for seventy years without so much as a show of a gun or a sword, and dwelt in peace, while our fathers were engaged with these red men in bloody wars. The same principle holds good with all men. The red man is simply

a man. I believe, then, that except for this great and absorbing evil-the evil of slavery-there is no necessity to maintain a military force in the

Tuesday,]

[June 21st.

the ploughshare and the days of everlasting peace ushered into the world.

Permit me, Sir, to trace in the briefest possible manner, the rise, progress, and termination of liberty in two or three of the great nations who have enjoyed somewhat of liberty, but afterwards lost the precious jewel.

First, then, they throw off the oppressive power and make themselves free; then, inflated by success, they make war upon their neighbors, conquer the weaker among them, and finally perish in a vain attempt at universal dominion. Thus Carthage rose, lived its day, and fell. Greece and Rome began much in the same way; they expelled their tyrants by the sword, they made wars upon their neighbors, they found none strong enough to stand before their arms; on they went, conquering all before them, till each in its turn fell by its own sword. This is the end of them all. In establishing their liberty they took the sword, and by the sword their liberty perished. It remains yet to be seen whether this beloved land of ours, this land now extending from ocean to ocean, shall find its final exit in this same way; whether, in getting the conception, which seems to prevail, that it is our manifest destiny to extend our borders, and with the extent of these borders, of course, the curse of slavery over those fair regions of the earth where it does not now exist, the armies which are needful to carry out this idea of manifest destiny shall finally work our own ruin. Men generally have no fears of this, and yet I have fears, and I am willing to express them, that this will be the end of the matter. This will certainly be the melancholy end unless slavery can not only be restrained within its present limits, but entirely abolished where it now exists.

country. But while this evil continues, while we insist upon reducing more than three and a half millions of human beings below the condition of brute beasts, making merchandise of the bodies and souls of men, we must have a military power, an ever increasing military power, to enforce such stupendous wrong, such heaven-defying crime. So long as this evil exists, you must, I suppose, have a military power to enforce your laws. It never can be otherwise. But, Sir, abolish this system of slavery-abolish it peacefully and by the operation of truth, and, as the gentleman from Boston, (Mr. Choate,) in his mighty eloquence, said here the other day, let us be a homogeneous nation from one end of the land to the other-all freemen; and then what need will there be for a military force? Enrol your voters so that every one of them should be a part of a national police force to execute the laws of the land. This is all that is needful. Now will any man say that there is any danger of an invasion if we were to proceed to that extent? I do not belive that such a man could be found. The question has been asked me what I would do if a military force should land upon our shores? Why, Sir, I would do this if I had the power. I would issue a proclamation to these men-that we, as Americans, were glad that they had landed here; that we sympathized with the whole human race; that we were glad their government had paid their expenses here; that we were ready to open our arms to all comers, and that we would give to each soldier a farm of forty acres, and to their officers as much more, in proportion to their rank;-and if there were any need of fighting after that, I would pledge myself to stand in the front rank and be shot down. I do not say that I would shoulder a musket and go there. Oh, no! I wish gentlemen to understand distinctly what we do mean. I did not agree that I would shoulder a musket and fire at my fellow men. This I hold myself bound not to do; but I do hold that it is not wrong for me to endanger my own life in the discharge of my duty. If other men see fit to take my life, that is their look out and not mine. I hold that when it comes to the last extremity-that I must either take the life of another man or lose my own-it is my duty to abstain from violence and die myself. This, I believe, is not only what Christ enjoins upon his disciples, but is also in accordance with what is highest in the human soul. Were this principle to prevail, were men as ready to die in the cause of liberty, justice and truth without appealing to arms, as they are to die fighting hand to hand, sword to sword, and cannon to cannon, with each other, we should soon find the sword beaten into

I wish to say, in conclusion, one word as to the merits of this present proposition when compared with the provision as it now stands in the Constitution. If all but the two first lines of the seventh section of chapter second were removed, the Constitution as it is, ought, in my judgment, to be preferred by all lovers of liberty and peace to the Constitution as amended by the Report of the Committee.

One word now, as to its reception by the people. One gentleman told us that we should secure at least five thousand votes by adopting these resolutions, from among those who were not well disposed towards this Convention. This we should do by recognizing, as he termed it, the military power, and making obeisance to it. Now, Sir, it may be so, but I do not believe it will. I believe that we shall put into the hands of the adversaries of this Convention a mighty power,

In speaking of military transactions, there is a side which is not quite so favorable as that which was represented here yesterday, for I remember, from the history of the last war, that a portion of the militia at that period seemed more inclined to devour the paths of flight than to face the enemy. I cannot forget one case of the action of a party of militia upon the Niagara River, where a large force remained on the American side, leaving another portion, under command of General Scott, to the tender mercies of the enemy, by whom they were taken prisoners. Such anecdotes of the conduct of the militia may be told as well as tales of their devotion and courage. I have no disposition to bring them forward, only that, as I shall vote for this Report, I do not wish to be considered as endorsing all the sentiments and exaggerations that were advanced yesterday. There was a gentleman behind me yesterday who addressed the Convention, and he stated that he knew of five thousand persons belonging to the military organization who, if this Convention saw fit to elevate the "feathers," would vote to endorse and approve the revised Constitution; but that otherwise, however worthy and meritorious the document we might present to the people, should be in other respects, though it might maintain all our institutions now in existence which are good, and might embrace many new ones of the same sort, they would reject it. Now, Sir, I do not like the looks of such patriotism.

I think the importance of the services of the militia has been somewhat exaggerated, although I do not know how many riots may have been prevented by the known fact that militia companies are organized in the community, and are within call in case of necessity.

There may

have been many, for every-body knows the destructive power they possess. A hundred men organized and under the control and direction of one head, are worth a thousand men fighting at random, and the very knowledge of this fact may have prevented many outbreaks of popular violence. These organizations may have done great good, when they have not been seen at all; but it is possible, also, that the military may do much more hurt than good.

We had the military out here in Boston once. They came out at great self-sacrifice, and at a very unusual hour-early in the morning-extraordinarily early, and escorted a poor unhappy victim out of this city. But when, on a former occasion, a colored man from South Carolina or Georgia, who had reached our shores and had become a freeman as much as any of us, was taken by force, kidnapped and carried out of the

[June 21st.

State, I take it that none of the militia of Boston could be found on that occasion to prevent that diabolical act.

Now, Sir, I would not have mentioned these things for any other reason than the fact that we sat here the whole of yesterday afternoon, an hour and a half later than usual, in listening to nothing but extreme exaggeration and compliment of that arm of the government, which I suppose is proud enough to demand nothing but justice at our hands, which I am as ready as any one to accord. But I still propose to vote for these resolutions, because I think the public demand them, and I am not sure but that large towns and cities need such an organization. They may not be wanted when "that good time coming" shall arrive, which has been so long talked of, but which yet appears to be afar off. And it would not be wise to adapt our institutions to a time somewhere in the fanciful future, to that millenium, for example, which we have heard so much about, but never seen. I propose to vote for them, then, on the ground that at the present time, and under the existing state of things, in large cities, the military may be useful, and at times, indispensable. And I vote for them on the understanding that, although the country, as distinct from cities, does not need the aid of the militia, it is always ready of itself, at all times, to take upon its own shoulders the burden of those organizations which are needed for the protection and safety of the cities.

Mr. WILSON, of Natick. It seems to me, Mr. President, that there is a great deal of misapprehension in relation to the provisions of this Report. If gentlemen will read the provisions of the Constitution, and the laws of the Commonwealth in reference to the militia, they will find that there is nothing in the Report of the Committee not now to be found in the Constitution and laws. These articles confer upon the government no new powers, they impose no new obligations. They simply embody the provisions of existing laws, or provisions now in the Constitution. Major-generals are now chosen by the legislature, in accordance with the requirements of the Constitution. The amendment gives to the brigadier-generals and field-officers of the several divisions the power, and it makes it their duty, to elect major-generals. Surely, no one will object to this change, and no one will be alarmed at this proposed constitutional amendment, which places the election where it should be. I admit, Sir, that there are too many articles in this Report, and I wish the Committee had expressed the substance of them in four or five articles. They are all well-expressed, however, and as