Excerpt from Remarks Upon the Controversy: Between the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the State of South Carolina

T will be recorded for a precedent, And many an error, by the same example, Will rush into the state.

This is, truly, an age of excitement. If we may judge from appearances, society seems to be in a fair way to illustrate the truth of the lunatic's remark, that it is the majority of mankind who are mad, and that they have taken the only few rational men among them and shut them up in Bedlam. Religion and morals, literature, politics and trade are all on the same high pressure principle. The man who stops on his way to reflect, is run over by the crowd; and if he ventures to inquire to what point the throng is directing its mad speed, he is pronounced to be behind the age, and'is left to pursue his journey alone. Nothing preserves its temperate pulsations but the clock, and because man cannot hasten its tardy gait he seeks his indemnity by attempting to anticipate it. Evil must necessarily come of this universal haste. But in most cases the evil will cure itself. Religion and morals will recover from the hasty theories which now tarnish their brightness; literature will return to her pure fountains; trade will retire within its proper banks and chan nels, but it is much to be feared that the political excitements of the day will not so readily and quietly seek their proper level.

It becomes the duty, then, of every man to do all he can to allay this preternatural excitement. He is no friend to his coun try who would pour oil rather than water upon its flames. There is more to be feared from doing too much than too little, at the present moment. He who possesses the coolest brain and most phlegmatic temperament is the safest counsellor in times like these. There has been no period since we became a nation, when so many exciting questions have been before the public.

Texas and Oregon, Slavery, and a host of less threatening evils, seem to have gathered themselves into a cloud, and hang upon the horizon with a portentousness and gloom that may well star tle the stoutest heart from its security.

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