oulded and settled, but one
"in the gristle, not yet hardened into the bone of manhood." The
people there, children of our older States, seem to have forgotten the
blood-tried principles of their fathers the moment they lost sight
of our New England hills. Something was to be done to show them the
priceless value of the freedom of the press, to bring back and set right
their wandering and confused ideas. He and his advisers looked out on
a community, staggering like a drunken man, indifferent to their rights
and confused in their feelings. Deaf to argument, haply they might
be stunned into sobriety. They saw that of which we cannot judge, the
necessity of resistance. Insulted law called for it. Public opinion,
fast hastening on the downward course, must be arrested.

Does not the event show they judged rightly? Absorbed in a thousand
trifles, how has the nation all at once come to a stand? Men begin, as
in 1776 and 1640, to discuss principles, to weigh characters, to find
out where they are. Haply we may awake before we are borne over the
precipice.

I am glad, sir, to see this crowded house, It is good for us to be here.
When Liberty is in danger Faneuil Hall has the right, it is her duty, to
strike the key-note for these United States. I am glad, for one reason,
that remarks such as those to which I have alluded have been uttered
here. The passage of these resolutions, in spite of this opposition,
led by the Attorney-General of the Commonwealth, will show more clearly,
more decisively, the deep indignation with which Boston regards this
outrage.

[Illustration: John Q. Adams]

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS,

OF MASSACHUSETTS. (BORN 1767, DIED 1848.)

ON THE CONSTITUTIONAL WAR POWER OVER SLAVERY

--HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, MAY 25, 1836.

There are, then, Mr. Chairman, in the authority of Congress and of the
Executive, two classes of powers, altogether different in their nature,
and often incompatible with each other--the war power and the peace
power. The peace power is limited by regulations and restricted by
provisions, prescribed within the constitution itself. The war power is
limited only by the laws and usages of nations. The power is tremendous;
it is strictly constitutional, but it breaks down every barrier so
anxiously erected for the protection of liberty, of property, and
of life. This, sir, is the power which authorizes you to pass the
resolution now before you, and, in my opinion, there is no othe