ng which so much
sensibility is expressed, I have no fears about analyzing its nature.
There is in it nothing of mystery. It depends upon the qualities of that
Union, and it results from its effects upon our and our country's
happiness. It is valued for "that sober certainty of waking bliss" which
it enables us to realize. It grows out of the affections, and has not,
and cannot be made to have, any thing universal in its nature. Sir, I
confess it: the first public love of my heart is the Commonwealth of
Massachusetts. There is my fireside; there are the tombs of my ancestors.

"Low lies that land, yet blest with fruitful stores,
Strong are her sons, though rocky are her shores;
And none, ah! none, so lovely to my sight,
Of all the lands which heaven o'erspreads with light."

The love of this Union grows out of this attachment to my native soil,
and is rooted in it. I cherish it, because it affords the best external
hope of her peace, her prosperity, her independence. I oppose this bill
from no animosity to the people of New Orleans; but from the deep
conviction that it contains a principle incompatible with the liberties
and safety of my country. I have no concealment of my opinion. The bill,
if it passes, is a death-blow to the Constitution. It may, afterward,
linger; but, lingering, its fate will, at no very distant period, be
consummated.

HENRY CLAY

--OF KENTUCKY. (BORN 1777, DIED 1852.)

ON THE WAR OF 1812--HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, JAN. 8, 1813.

SIR, gentlemen appear to me to forget that they stand on American soil;
that they are not in the British House of Commons, but in the chamber of
the House of Representatives of the United States; that we have nothing
to do with the affairs of Europe, the partition of territory and
sovereignty there, except so far as these things affect the interests of
our own country. Gentlemen transform themselves into the Burkes,
Chathams, and Pitts of another country, and, forgetting, from honest
zeal, the interests of America, engage with European sensibility in the
discussion of European interests. If gentlemen ask me whether I do not
view with regret and horror the concentration of such vast power in the
hands of Bonaparte, I reply that I do. I regret to see the Emperor of
China holding such immense sway over the fortunes of millions of our
species. I regret to see Great Britain possessing so uncontrolled a
command over all the waters of the globe. If I