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tor from Ohio, and even to the Senator from Michigan, that, long as their careers respectively may be protracted, even, as I hope they may, to the ends of natural lives, in ripened age, and diligent and devoted as I know they are, yet that it will be happy for them, and for us all, if even then they shall have established claims upon the affections of their country, and the gratitude of mankind, equal to those which were perfected in that administration— broken off in its seventeenth month, but wisely conducted for that short period by John M. Clayton, the eminent statesman of Delaware, and presided over by Zachary Taylor, the hero who indicated and opened the way of the American armies to the golden gates of Mexico.

DEATH OF SENATOR UPHAM.*

JANUARY 15, 1853.

MR. PRESIDENT,-How true it is that every day we spend here brings some fresh event to impress upon our minds the fraternity of the states and the comprehensiveness of the republic! We began the week with surveying our interests in the Caribbean Sea; we went from thence to examine the defences of the youngest member of the Union on the Pacific coast; and now, at the end, we are called to make a visit of condolence with the eldest of the adopted states in her eastern mountain home.

Last summer, I stood beside the grave of Ethan Allen, on the shore of Lake Champlain. The lightning had descended and had riven the native marble slab which covered it, as if nature herself had been willing to mark her appreciation of the free, yet turbu lent character of the founder of Vermont, and captor of Ticonderoga. But the rudeness and turbulence of the earlier age of Vermont have passed away, while her intelligence and love of freedom remain, increased and refined by art and learning.

WILLIAM UPHAM was of Vermont, a consistent exponent of her institutions the most equal institutions enjoyed by man in this

* Remarks on the death of Hon. William Upham, a Senator from Vermont, who died in Washington, January 11th, 1853.

country and in the world. He was a man of strong and vigorous judgment, which acted always by a process of sound inductive reasoning, and his compeers here will bear witness that he was equal to the varied and vast responsibilities of the senatorial trust. He was a plain, unassuming, unostentatious man. He never spake for display, but always for conviction. He was an honest and just man. He had gotten nothing by fraud or guile; and so he lived without any fear of losing whatever of fortune or position he had attained. No gate was so strong, no lock so fast and firm, as the watch he kept against the approach of corruption, or even undue influence or persuasion. He exacted little for his own state, but, like her, was liberal to all others. His national policy was the increase of industry, the cultivation of peace, and the patronage of improvement. He adopted his opinions without regard to their popularity, and he never stifled his convictions of truth, nor suppressed their utterance through any fear of power or of faction; but he was, on the contrary, consistent and constant,

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As pilot well expert in perilous wave,

That to a steadfast starre his course hath bent."

I was honored with a place in his friendship, and Vermont is intimately related to the state from which I come; and, therefore, I have thought it my right and duty to speak a just panegyric over his remains. I wish that the wreath I have contributed were more fit to adorn the bier and grace the tomb of so true a representative, and so upright a statesman.

NOTE. For a continuation of Speeches and Debates in the Senate of the United States, see Vol. III

FORENSIC ARGUMENTS.

FORENSIC ARGUMENTS.

THE LAW OF LIBEL.*

If your honors please, one of the most influential presses of this country has expressed the opinion, as appears in the present record, that if an action for libel be brought against an editor-no matter how true the publication may be-yet, "as the law is now expounded and administered by the Supreme Court, the writer has no earthly choice but to bow his neck to the yoke, pay all that may be claimed of him, and publish whatever humiliations shall be required of him, or else prepare to be immediately ruined."

I trust to be able to vindicate the law and this court from this censure, and from the censoriousness of public opinion on the same question.

Certainly it is true, notwithstanding legislative effort to introduce simplicity of pleading in Courts of Justice, that the defence of the action of libel in this state has come to be considered so technical, complicated, and difficult, that there is a general opinion that articles alleged to be libelous are defended with more difficulty now than formerly, and with more difficulty in this country than in England.

I trust to be able to show that these difficulties result from certain obiter dicta which have fallen from the bench in regard to pleadings, and to similar judicial expressions in regard to the nature and qualities of libels.

*

Argument in the Supreme Court of New York in the Cause of HORACE GREELEY and THOMAS MCELRATH, ads. JAMES FENIMORE COOPER, for Libel. May 14, 1845.

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