bless a mighty nation, and their diabolical attempts, on the other, to pollute and blot it from existence, without sending up the fervent ejaculation, ‘_Heaven save my country from falling into such hands_’? After the dust and fog created by their unnatural endeavors had passed away, the object of their malice appeared in his proper place, as unmoved and serene as though the clangor of their strife had not saluted his ears, and as unaffected by the showers of their envenomed arrows, as though he had been sitting in his native forests amid the rain-like fall of autumnal leaves. Their loud and discordant clamors did not for a moment interrupt his meditations concerning that important, that solemn duty, which had devolved upon him, in the performance of which he had resolved that no arts of wheedling or coercion should influence him; that no man nor set of men should act as his casuist; and that he would not select from the numerous casuistical proposals, which party zeal had placed before him, _one_ that should determine the _mode_ of its discharge. No! he chose to settle _that_ question at a tribunal from which there was _no appeal_――at the tribunal of _Nature_, which Nature’s God had erected in his own bosom. To _that_ he resorted; indeed, it was one of his most favorite resorts; and spreading out this momentous question before her bar, we hear him exclaim, ‘_My position in relation to the presidential contest is highly critical_, and such as to leave me no path on which I can move without censure. I have pursued in regard to it the rule which I always observe in the discharge of my public duty. _I have interrogated my conscience_ as to what I ought to do, and that faithful guide tells me that I ought to vote for Mr. Adams. I shall fulfil its injunctions. Mr. Crawford’s state of health, and the circumstances under which he presents himself to the house, appear to me to be conclusive against him. As a friend to liberty, and to the permanence of our institutions, I cannot consent, in this early stage of their existence, by contributing to the election of a military chieftain, to give the strongest guarantee that this republic will march in the fatal road which has conducted every other republic to ruin. I am, and shall continue to be, assailed by all the abuse which partisan zeal, malignity and rivalry can invent. I shall view without emotion these effusions of malice, and remain unshaken in my purpose. What is a public man worth, if he will not expose himself, on fit occasions, for the good of his country?’ Yes! he _did_ act according to the response which that ‘_faithful guide_’ gave to his sincere interrogation, and had the anathemas of the world been thundered in his ears, they would not have driven him from thus acting. He deemed _her_ will paramount to that of his constituents, who had desired him to vote for general Jackson. They afterwards, however, not only justified, but highly approved――as must every good man――his decision.