safe and above par, and that therefore these Amendments can no longer be regarded from their original stand-point, as a nation's guarantee of civil rights and civil liberty to every American citizen, but that they now afford agreeable material for curious scholastic inquiries or the elegant amusement of statesmen, similar to those which exercise the learned in their disputes concerning the Pandects or Jus Gentium.' Thanking the convention for its kind indulgence of his protracted remarks, the polished Athenian resumes his seat, without a voice of applause from the cold and critical audience, who thought, with Bassanio, that the wordy orator had spoken 'an infinite deal of nothing, and that his reasons were like two grains of wheat hid in a bushel of chaff.'"
No sooner had the great intellectual gymnast cut off this mellifluous flow of oratory, than his countenance assumed a more sedate expression, as he said to the student,—
"These gloomy extremes may appear to exceed the folly of any deliberative body, but I assure you they represent the average wisdom of the every-day convention. You can judge as well as I what the chances are of either party's action upon this subject. I have sometimes doubted the wisdom of making light of the gathering political clouds. Although there may be monotony in the repetition of this truth, yet it is always the part of wisdom to keep it before us. Eternal vigilance has been truly said to be the price of liberty, and wise men of all shades of opinion should look well to the political part which the American citizens of African descent are to assume in the coming struggle. But our leaders are often the last to anticipate and act in advance of grave results, which are thus often precipitated upon the country when it is too late to avert their consequences. The people are oftener the alarmists, and, like storm-petrels, give the warning to our fair-weather commanders.
"I think I see a brewing storm," he continued, in a ponderous, meditative way, with his broad forehead and piercing gray eye turned towards the sky. "I think I see a brewing storm, that by its hollow rustling in the leaves, foretells a tempest and a blustering day. When all the party convoys weigh anchor and set sail, new political elements may be loosened in the fierce tempest which follows. Great naval commanders may be trans-
