m, in the opinion of some gentlemen, to all civilized society
and all free government). Sir, there are few situations in life where
friendships so strong and so lasting are formed as in that very
relation. The slave knows that he is bound indissolubly to his master,
and must, from necessity, remain always under his control. The master
knows he is bound to maintain and provide always for his slave so long
as he retains him in his possession. And each party accommodates
himself to the situation. I have seen the dissolution of many
friendships,--such, at least, as they were called; but I have seen
that of master and slave endure so long as there remained a drop of
blood of the master to which the slave could cleave.

Where is the necessity of this provision in the Constitution? Where
is the use of it? Sir, what are we about? Have we not been undoing
what the wiser heads--I must be permitted to say so--yes, Sir, what
the wiser heads of our ancestors did more than half a century ago?
Can any one believe that we, by any amendment of ours, by any of
our scribbling on that parchment, by any amulet, by any
legerdemain--charm--Abracadabra--of ours can prevent our sons from
doing the same thing,--that is, from doing what they please, just
as we are doing as we please? It is impossible. Who can bind
posterity? When I hear gentlemen talk of making a Constitution for
"all time," and introducing provisions into it for "all time," and
yet see men here who are older than the Constitution we are about
to destroy (I am older myself than the present Constitution: it was
established when I was a boy), it reminds me of the truces and the
peaces of Europe. They always begin, "In the name of the most holy
and undivided Trinity," and go on to declare "there shall be
perfect and perpetual peace and unity between the subjects of such
and such potentates for all time to come;" and in less than seven
years they are at war again.

GEORGE TUCKER.

~1775=1861.~

GEORGE TUCKER, a relative of St. George Tucker, was, like him, born in
the Bermudas, and came to Virginia in 1787. He was reared and educated
by St. George Tucker, and practiced law in Lynchburg. He served in the
State Legislature and in Congress, and in 1825 he was elected
professor of Moral Philosophy and Political Economy in the University
of Virginia, a position which he filled for twenty years. His novel,
"Valley of the Shenandoah," was reprinted in England and translated
in