more arrogant, from a consciousness that she has the power of numbers to sustain it? Now what was it becoming and proper for the south to have done? Still to demand the doctrine of non-intervention? Well, she did. Look to her first ten resolutions and see if she did not. She knew that it would be refused to her--on every former occasion it had been refused to her. What then? She knew-she felt, that the force and power of the two great precedents of Missouri and Texas would be brought to bear upon her, and therefore she frankly avows her willingness to abide by those precedents, and to be content on the spirit of compromise, and "because she considers it due to the stability of our institutions," to establish non-intervention only south of thirty-six thirty. The voice of the convention is, on this point, the faithful echo of that of the late President, as we have just shown, and the sentiments of both the living and the dead are now blended in perfect harmony for the settlement of these great questions.

And what a commentary is all this on the violent assaults and charges made on it before the convention assembled.With some, its purposes were dark and treasonable; whilst others, more charitable, attributed to it only extreme factious and partisan designs. During its deliberations, every body present and absent seemed to be looking out for some terrible, if not horrible explosion, or at least for some extreme and ultra demonstration, dangerous to the Union and to the country. Well, when it is all over-when they have met, resolved and gone home again, what have they done? Instead of some dreadful plot of disunion-of nullification-of secessionthey have, at the worst, declared in favor of the Missouri Compromise, of which Mr. Clay himself was the putative author, and certainly its most eloquent and powerful advocate; a compromise, re-affirmed by all those wise and good men who lent a sanction to the annexation of Texas-a compromise, which it was the last public and solemn advice of President Polk should be adopted on this very occasion. This, I repeat, is the very worst they have done. And they did not even declare that this should be the only thing with which they would be content-no ultimatum-no extreme proposition-but a further and final declaration that they would acquiesce in any

other adjustment which might give equal advantages to the south.

With all these facts now faithfully recorded, has not the convention a right to ask for its deliberations a fair and impartial consideration? Is it fair and impartial for any man or any party in the south to review it as a hostile assemblage of enemies, whose virtues they would be slow to discover, and reluctant to admit, or whose errors, if any, they would be sure to exaggerate? Is it fair or impartial to overlook or to suppress all public approval of the great truths set forth in the twentyseven or twenty-eight resolutions of that body, and with microscopic vision pick and cull from the address (which is always on such occasions scrutinized with less care) all the real or imaginary imperfections which it may contain? The resolutions of every such assemblage are the real text-authoritive and binding on its members-whilst the address is the mere speech sent out on the occasion-a sort of commentary of less authority, and indeed of such little authority, that it is often directed to be prepared by some individual or committee, after the adjournment has taken place. But these actings and doings of the convention are those of your friends, not your enemies. Leave then the work of suspicious and prejudiced review to your adversaries in the north. They will do it sufficiently, no doubt. In Tennessee especially, how ought this whole subject to be treated and considered? It was made a party question most unfortunately during the last winter, when, as any body can now see, it ought not to have been. Shall it continue so to be? If it shall be so treated here, and in some others of the interested States, no eye hath seen, no mind yet contemplated the fearful destiny which awaits the southall classes-all parties of the south-one as much as the other; and when the fearful time shall come to which I now but faintly allude; when northern purposes owing to our dissension shall be fully accomplished; when nine hundred millions of your slave property shall be taken from you; when nine hundred millions more shall be lost by you in the depreciation. of your lands; when a mortal struggle shall be going on amongst you for the extinction of one race or the other, (for the north is drawing a cordon around you,) then we or our

children on whom these calamities may fall, will look back and curse the hour, the infatuated hour, that ever made this a party question. In Tennessee, I say again, then, no public press ought to make it one. Every man that patronises any newspaper evidently disposed to do so, ought to go direct to its editor and require him to forbear; should demand it of him, especially as due to the safety of his property, to the peace and security of his family.

The whig party of the State owes it to itself to review its former course upon this great and vital question. They now stand greatly separated from their friends in other States, many of whom they saw here, mingling their counsels freely with those of the other party, in a common cause and a common danger. What was the result? They saw Judge Sharkey and others from different States, they saw the Tennessee democratic delegates through Mr. Nicholson and myself, advising a more conservative and conciliatory course then many, nay a majority were disposed to pursue. They applauded and approved, but did not and would not come to our assistance. How then can they be justified in complaining that anything went wrong in the convention; that the resolutions were wrong; that the address was wrong. It does not lie in their mouths to say it, so long as they stood aloof and would not come into convention to help us to make them better. But when the next convention shall again convene, as I greatly fear it may have to do, I sincerely hope that they will be there; both parties in full attendance; to help by their joint counsels and joint wisdom to save the south, the Constitution and the Union. The great work is now begun. There is too much probability that the present bill presented by the Committee of Thirteen being amended and passed through the Senate, will be rejected in the House, and that the House bill, admitting California but composing and settling no other of the slavery questions, will pass that body and be rejected in the Senate. Thus Congress will have adjourned, having rejected both the Missouri Compromise and the present bill. If this should be so then surely all men of all parties will be willing to unite in that great work, at a crisis so imminent as will then exist. If not, then

all is lost; all of greatness or of glory which the south ever dreamed of in her future destiny.

But I must close this letter; my object has been to explain the position assumed by Mr. Nicholson and myself in the minority report, in favor of the present bill pending before Congress, with amendments. A position assumed by us under a full conviction, that such were the sentiments of a majority of those whom we represented. Also to vindicate and sustain the action of the convention in the series of twenty-odd resolutions which they adopted. How far I may have succeeded you and the public must judge. Very respectfully,

AARON V. BROWN.

ADDRESS

Of Ex-Gov. Aaron V. Brown, to the Law Class of the University, at Lebanon, February 15th, 1853.

GENTLEMEN-I salute you as candidates for admission into one of our most learned and attractive professions: one that in every civilized age, has exerted the greatest influence on society, furnishing to human liberty some of her ablest champions, and to religion many of her most eminent votaries. It has stamped its peculiar image so distinctly on nearly every country in Europe, that the bar, without any great hyperbole, may be almost denominated the nation. In England especially, no sovereign ever has been, or will be able to exempt himself, in any great degree, from dependence on this profession. From it must be selected his Lord Chancellors, the equity and common law Judges of his superior courts, his ecclesiastical and colonial Judges, and a long train of other judical functionaries. From it also have come her most eminent statesmen and orators, who have immortalized her Parliaments, and made British diplomacy the most successful in the world.

The influence and triumphs of the legal profession have been scarcely less signal in our country. In the old Congress that framed the Constitution, and in the State conventions that ratified it, the men of this profession stood out in advance, overpeering all others in extent and variety of learning, and in that bold and thrilling eloquence which the occasion so much demanded. If the mind flashes over a few brilliant names as exceptions to these remarks, because they are exceptions, they but confirm the well merited compliment to the founders