ence to India, Australia, China, and in almost
every region of the globe. It is upon this principle that Europe is now
controlling the destinies of the Old World, as the United States, if
they are true to themselves, will control the destinies of the New. This
has governed us in requiring that Japan should open her ports to the
commerce, and her coal mines to the navies of the world; that she should
enrol herself in the brotherhood of nations, and perform her part in the
great drama of life. It is upon this principle that England, France, and
the United States, are requiring the same thing of China; and it is upon
this principle that the vagrant is arrested in your streets and sent to
the work-house.

These principles are clearly enunciated, and ably defended by J. Q.
Adams in his celebrated speech on the Chinese question, delivered in
1841. It is true, that he applies them to the rights of commerce only;
but by legitimate deduction, they are as applicable to the rights of
labor, as to the rights of commerce. Although nations and races have
always acted on these principles, yet at the time of the delivery of
this speech, so startling were the positions assumed by Mr. Adams, that
but few could be found who were prepared to defend them, yet none were
able to controvert them. Their general adoption at the present day only
shows what history has so long taught, that master minds are generally
in advance of their age.

In the "Memoir of J. Q. Adams," by Josiah Quincy, we have a report of
this speech. Speaking of the Chinese war, Mr. Adams says, "that by the
law of nations is to be understood, not one code of laws, binding alike
on all nations of the earth, but a system of rules, varying according to
the condition and character of the nations concerned. There is a law of
nations among Christian communities, which is the law recognized by the
Constitution of the United States, as obligatory upon them in their
intercourse with European States and colonies. But we have a different
law of nations regulating our intercourse with the Indian tribes on this
continent; another between us and the woolly-headed nations of Africa;
another with the Barbary powers; another with the flowery land, or
Celestial empire." Then, reasoning on the rights of property,
established by labor, by occupation, by compact, he maintains "that the
right of exchange, barter--in other words, of commerce--necessarily
follows; that a state of nature among men