blind-we cannot so shut up our senses, and smother our faculties, as not to see, that in the progress and the establishment of South American liberty, our own example has been among the most stimulating causes. That great light -a light which can never be hid-the light of our own glorious revolution, has shone on the path of the South American patriots, from the beginning of their course. In their emergencies, they have looked to our experience; in their political institutions, they have followed our models; in their deliberations, they have invoked the presiding spirit of our own liberty. They have looked steadily, in every adversity, to the GREAT NORTHERN LIGHT. In the hour of bloody conflict, they have remembered the fields which have been consecrated by the blood of our own fathers; and when they have fallen, they have wished only to be remembered with them, as men who had acted their parts bravely, for the cause of liberty in the western world.

"Sir, I have done. If it be weakness to feel the sympathy of one's nature excited for such men, in such a cause, I am guilty of that weakness. If it be prudence to meet their proffered civility, not with reciprocal kindness, but with coldness or with insult, I choose to follow where natural impulse leads, and to give up that false and

mistaken prudence, for the voluntary sentiments of my heart."

The other members that participated in the debate, were, Messrs. Wickliffe, of Kentucky; Carson, of North Carolina; Barbour, of Virginia; Hamilton, and Carter, of South Carolina; Buchannan, Hemphill, and Ingham, of Pennsylvania; Houston, of Tennessee ; Verplanck, of New-York; and Weems, of Maryland; in favor of the amendments. They were opposed, and the passage of the resolution, as introduced by the committee, advocated by Messrs. Powell and Archer, of Virginia; Wood and Garnsey, of New-York; Brent and Livingston, of Louisiana ; Buckner and F. Johnson, of Kentucky; Wurtz, Markley, and Thompson, of Pennsylvania; and Reed, of Massachusetts.

After a discussion, which lasted from the 3d until the 21st of April, the question was taken on the amendments, in the committee of the whole ; and the vote stood 99 in the affirmative, and 94 in the negative. The adoption of this amendment, in the committee, presented a different question for the decision of the house; and as many members doubted the constitutional power of the house, to interfere in this way with the executive department, they voted against the whole resolution; and it was rejected by 143 to 54. The bill

making the appropriation, was then taken up, and passed, by a majority of 133 to 61. The house having thus assented to the policy of the mission, by making the appropriation, measures were taken to carry it into effect; and orders were transmitted to Mr. Anderson, who was still in Colombia, to attend the Congress, which was, to hold its first meeting in the month of June. In his way to Panama, he was unfortunately attacked, at Carthagena, by a malignant fever, which proved fatal, and deprived the country of an able and useful representative.

The delay that had been occasioned, by the long and protracted discussions, to which this measure had been subjected, in both houses, thus prevented any representation of the United States, in the first meeting of that assembly; it having been found impossible for Mr. Sergeant to prepare, in the short time which remained, after the decision of the house, before the meeting of the congress, for his departure; and the approach of the unhealthy season, having rendered his journey to Panama peculiarly dangerous.

The representatives of Peru, Mexico, Central America, and Colombia, met there on the 22d of June, and commenced their deliberations. Upper Peru, or Bolivar, had not then organized its go

vernment, and was not represented; nor was the republic of Chili ; the concurrence of its legislature not having been obtained to the nomination of the plenipotentiaries, in time to permit them to take their seats in the congress. The governments of England and the Netherlands, though uninvited, sent diplomatic agents, whose influence, no doubt, was felt in that assembly. These agents were not permitted to be present during the deliberations of the congress; but, from time to time, communications were made to them of the most important of their proceedings.

year.

The body continued in session until the 15th of July, and after much discussion, concluded between themselves, as belligerents, a treaty of friendship and perpetual confederation, offensive and defensive, to which all other American powers might accede within the This treaty had for its object the augmentation of the naval force of the belligerents, which was to be carried into effect by Mexico and Colombia, the other states paying their contingents towards the support of the navy. Connected with this, was a provision for the gradual reduction of their land forces. The assembled plenipotentiaries seem to have entertained a well grounded jealousy respecting the large standing armies which had been kept up in

the new states, under the chieftains who still controlled them, as well as directed the civil affairs of their respective governments.

A convention was also concluded, fixing the quotas of the respective governments to the common defence, and an agreement concerning their employment. The treaties between the assembled powers were recognized and re

newed, and the meeting of the congress, annually in time of common war, and biennially in time of peace, agreed upon. The next meeting was ordered to be held at Tacubaya, a village near the city of Mexico, in the month of February, 1827. Its proceedings more properly come within the occurrences of the ensuing year, and will be reserved for the succeeding volume.

At the first session of congress after the adoption of the constitution, an act was passed for the organization of the judicary of the United States. According to this organization, the supreme court consisted of six judges, who were to hold two stated terms at the seat of government in the year. They were also to hold circuit courts twice a year, with the assistance of the district judge of the district in which the court was held; two of the supreme court judges sitting with the district judge, as a circuit court. The United States, by this agreement, were divided into three circuits, and so continued until 1792, when it was found, that the duties of the judges of the supreme court were too burdensome, and the system was modified, so as to allow one of the judges to hold a circuit court with the district judge. This alteration gave them some relief, and the system continued without change, until the judiciary act of 1801; which reduced the number of the supreme court judges to 5, divided the United States into 6

circuits, and constituted circuit judges for those circuits in the place of the old judges, who were released from attending the circuits.

The next session of congress, this law was repealed, and the old system restored with a modification; which provided for a reference to the supreme court, in all cases in which the judges of the circuit court differed in opinion, and gave to the supreme court the power to assign the judges each to his particular circuit.

No farther alteration was made in the judiciary department, until 1807; when a new associate justice was added to the supreme court, for the purpose of attending the 7th circuit, then created out of the states of Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee. This was the first extension of the circuit system beyond the mountains; and no additional extension of the system has been made, notwithstanding the augmentation of population and business in the western states, had rendered some amendment necessary.

In those states, peculiar circum

stances had brought a disproportionate quantity of litigation, before the tribunals of the United States. All their supplies of European articles, both necessary and ornamental, were obtained from the Atlantic states; and the sources of litigation from this intercourse alone, were numerous. The Atlantic creditors, naturally, preferred the federal courts, and a great quantity of the business of those courts, was derived from their controversies.

Another prolific source of their business, was to be found in the situation of the real estate in the western states. The title to all the land in seven of those states, was founded on grants either from foreign governments; from the United States; or from some of the old thirteen states, which formerly claimed a proprietary interest in those lands. In all these cases, any controversy concerning real estate, would be referred to the courts of the United States.

The questions, too, concerning the military bounty lands, and tracts belonging to non-residents, which had been sold for taxes, were all referred to federal jurisdiction.

These causes had crowded the docket of the western circuit court to such a degree, as to materially impede the course of justice, and to produce a delay almost equivalent to a denial of right. They were

causes peculiar to the western states, and the appropriate remedy was a local one. The augmentation of the United States' courts in the west, so as to correspond with the increase of population, and to clear from the docket the cases which had been for years waiting for decision, was the remedy proposed, and the only one

adequate to remove the evil. This remedy necessarily brought with it an alternative, which, in the opinion of many, was an evil of equal magnitude that of augmenting the number. of the judges of the supreme court, or of relieving them from their circuit duties, and substituting circuit judges in their place. To propose to the western states, as a permanent arrangement, that the duties of the federal courts should be performed by district judges, as heretofore, would have been denying their claims to an equality with the older states. The choice, therefore, was between an augmentation of the judges of the supreme court; or an entire change of the judicial system.

In 1819, a bill was proposed, and passed the senate, to establish the circuit court system throughout the United States. This plan, however, was subject to the objections, that the judges of the supreme court, the tribunal for the final decision of all great constitu