"O, I was a madman then, and you know you have forgiven

me."

"Yes; but because I have forgiven a madman, it does not follow that I should trust myself in his power."

"But I am not a madman now."

"Yet may be one to-morrow.

me that

you will not be."

What security can you give

"My word, the word of a gentleman."

"A gentleman! Pray, what are your claims to be a gentleman? No, do not undertake to enumerate them; I know them already. And your word, that is worth-what costs the

breath to make it."

"You are severe, Kate."

"Not half so severe as you deserve."

"Well, I must bear it. But you will think better of it hereafter. You might save me, but you will not, and since you will not when you might, my soul will be demanded at your hands."

"If I rated your soul no higher than you yourself rate it, the demand would not frighten me. But I have wasted too much time in idle words. I once believed you a great man, but I find you not one of whom I could boast. Learn to see yourself as I see you, or, rather, learn to see yourself as God sees you, and then I shall be happy to see you again. Till then, Mr. Morton, I have the honor to wish you a good morning." "Not so fast. You remember I am your guardian.”

"I remember it. Are your ruffians at hand, and your harem prepared? Go, say no more. Go, get a good conscience and clean hands, before you undertake to woo or to threaten." I left very much as I was bidden, not much elated with my success it is true, but far from being discouraged. I was fully convinced of the sincerity of the girl's religious convictions, and somewhat surprised that she had been able to subdue her early passionate attachment to me. But I saw clearly enough, that, if subdued, it was not quite eradicated. Her religion required her to eradicate it entirely, but the habit of many years left yet its traces, and I was sure her love could be revived, and with proper care nursed again into full vigor. "She shall yet be mine," said I. "I feel more sure of it than I did this morning." In the mean time I will look a little into this Catholicism to which she seems to be so devoted. Perhaps, after all, there may be something in it. It has had a strange, eventful history, and the fact that it is now standing, vigorous and active as ever, and counting more adherents, as some say, than at any former period, is almost a miracle. It is strange that I have never thought of examining it.

ART. VI.- The Recent Election. - The Democratic Policy.

THE Country has had enough of political discussion for the last year, and now needs repose. Much has been said and done for which we as a people should humble ourselves and ask pardon of the God of nations. On neither side has the campaign been conducted in a firm, upright, and honest manner. Both parties have occasionally resorted to practices which are unbecoming freemen, and repugnant to the purity and stability of our political institutions. But the struggle has been a desperate one, and almost every thing was at stake. Much also must be pardoned to human infirmity. Men are not saints or angels, and we have no right to expect perfection in their conduct, whether individual or collective. However much there may have been to disapprove on one side or the other, the result shows that an ever merciful Providence still continues to watch over us, and that the God of our fathers has not wholly abandoned us.

For ourselves, in the late election, we have been rather a censor of both parties than a partisan of either. Many of our Democratic friends regretted some remarks we made in the political article in our Journal for October last. If we had supposed Mr. Polk's election at all uncertain, or if we had supposed our remarks could have deprived him of a single vote, we certainly should not have made them at the time we did. We felt called upon, in justice to ourselves and to our readers, to enter our protest against the unsound views advocated, or seemingly advocated, by a portion of the Democratic press on the subject of the tariff. Believing as we do that the protective policy, so called, is deeply prejudicial to the interests of labor, and in fact ruinous to every section of our country, we could not remain silent while any portion of our friends were seeming to advocate it. Our remarks did no harm, and we hope they may have done some good. It is all important in a country like ours that elections should be conducted on strict principle, that the real issues be made up, distinctly presented, and firmly adhered to; for we cannot repeat too often, that it is better to be defeated with our principles than to succeed without them.

But enough of this. Those who have accused us of dissenting from the Democratic party, and of turning Whig, we trust will live long enough to discover their mistake.

no blind partisans, no slavish adherents to any party; but we

approve, and support as well as we can, not all the leading doctrines, but all the leading measures of the Democratic party, and shall most likely continue to do so. The Democratic party is not all we wish it; but it is the only party in the country which it seems to us possible for an honest man and a firm patriot to support. So regarding it, we rejoice in the election of its presidential candidate, and look forward with some hope to the dawn of a better day for our country.

The election of Mr. Polk has settled several important questions, and we hope permanently settled them. We have now, we trust, got rid for ever of the log cabin, 'coon skins, and the like methods of appealing to the good sense of independent voters, of influencing virtuous and intelligent electors! We shall have no United States Bank. The new feudalism will not be consolidated and fastened for ever on the country beyond the hope of redress. We shall have no distribution of the proceeds of the public lands among the States as bribes to an iniquitous policy, and for the purpose of making the States dependent on their own creature. We shall have no assumption of the State debts by the Federal government, and the indebted States will be taught that they cannot run in debt in the expectation that the Union will relieve them. We shall have a divorce between the government and banks, and the business of banking, by the establishment of an independent treasury. This cardinal measure of Mr. Van Buren's administration, we trust, will be revived, with some modifications, and, if reenacted, it cannot fail to become the settled policy of the country. This, if we stop here, will be no slight gain, and sufficient to render Mr. Polk's administration memorable.

But, in addition, we shall have Texas. The reannexation of Texas is a measure of vital importance to this country, and must and will sooner or later be effected, in one way or another. They who oppose it are warring against the interests of their country, the interests of Texas, and even of Mexico. It is remarkable that we have in our country a large party which always acts on the principle, that, in every controversy with foreign powers, our country is sure to be in the wrong. These are opposed to the reannexation of Texas, but they are impotent, and should never be counted. They may be led on by the venerable sage of Quincy, and the distinguished senator from Missouri, but they can effect nothing. They may plead, they may warn, may threaten, may aid and abet the enemies of the republic; but we trust the government will pursue its course without heeding them, knowing that their opposition is

founded on no loftier principle than disappointed ambition, and unwillingness that the interests of the country should be promoted by any hands but their own.

We have no space nor inclination to discuss the Texas question; but there is one point in the discussion which seems not to have received the attention it deserves. In the minds of many of our people, the point we refer to is regarded as of no importance, because many of us hold to the sacred right of rebellion, revolt, revolution, and that the people, without regard to preexisting governmental obligations, have a right to fall back on their primitive sovereignty, and establish a new and independent government, as seems to them good. With these the simple question is, whether the people of Texas have or have not declared themselves independent of Mexico, and established a government for themselves. But, for ourselves, we detest this doctrine. We utterly deny the right of revolution, or the right to resist, for any purpose whatever, legitimate government in the legal discharge of its functions. If Texas were a revolted province of Mexico, as it seems to be widely taken for granted that it is, we should deny the right of our government to treat with it for annexation, or any other purpose, without the consent of Mexico. But the fact is, and this is the point not duly considered, Texas is not, and never has been, a revolted province of Mexico. Texas and the adjoining province, by the Mexican Congress of 1824, was constituted an independent State, with a stipulation in favor of a separate constitution as soon as its population should warrant. It became an independent member of the United States of Mexico, holding the same relation to the Mexican government that is held by Massachusetts to our Federal Union. This fact should be remembered.

Now, the present government of Mexico is a government established by a revolution effected subsequently to 1824, against which Texas has uniformly protested. The Mexican revolution effected by Santa Anna dissolved the Mexican confederacy, and threw each member back upon its own State sovereignty. Texas was absolved by this revolution from all obligation to the Mexican government, because the Mexican government to which she was bound no longer existed. She was then free either to give in her adhesion to the revolutionary government of Mexico, or to declare herself, as she was in fact and in right, an independent government. She chose the latter. Texas has, then, never rebelled against Mexico,has never broken any of her obligations to the Mexican con

federacy. Mexico has no claim to her allegiance, and can have none till she restores the federal constitution of 1824. The consent of Mexico is not, then, at all necessary to be sought, and to annex Texas to the Union can be no breach of our friendly relations with Mexico. Texas is independent of Mexico, not merely de facto, but de jure,-not because made so by the success of her arms, as too many of our people contend, but because made so by the constitution of 1824, and the subsequent Mexican revolution, against which Texas protested from the beginning. This Mr. Benton must know, and, knowing this, he must know that the consent of Mexico is a matter of no more consequence in a legal point of view than the consent of the great Cham of Tartary.

But we trust farther discussion of the question is unnecessary. Some of the Northern States will bluster, and pass furious resolves; some newspapers will foam and rage; some Abolition fanatics will talk largely, and declaim violently, and intrigue with England; but the measure, when consummated, will be peacefully acquiesced in, will be highly popular, and redound to the honor of those by whose agency it is effected.

The remaining question for the new administration to settle is the tariff question. Here we apprehend more difficulty and a less satisfactory result. Unless the tariff is adjusted to the principle of what is called the Compromise Act, the question will not be disposed of. A revenue tariff all will acquiesce in; but a protective tariff will not be acquiesced in. If the new administration contents itself merely with modifying the present tariff, without expunging the protective principle, the question will remain open, and the country will continue to be agitated, to the great detriment of every branch of business. We hope, now that the people have, by so decisive a vote, condemned the father of the American system," the government will have the courage to propose and persist in the only wise and just policy, that of adjusting the tariff on revenue principles, and revenue principles alone.

The naturalization laws, about which there is just now so much excitement, will, doubtless, remain as they are. They were adopted under the administration of Mr. Jefferson, and the Democratic party is virtually pledged before the world to sustain them, and most assuredly will sustain them, unless our naturalized citizens by voting, as large masses of them usually do, for the Whig party, throw the Democratic party into the minority. The Whigs, who have always derived more advantage from the vote of naturalized citizens than does the Democratic