An Englishwoman in America ... An appendix contains the history of the Emigrant Surgeons' Bill

Appendix

CONTAINS THE HISTORY OF THE EMIGRANT SURGEONS' BILL. LONDON : THOMAS RICHARDSON AND SON, AND 9, CAPEL STREET, DUBLIN: LIVERPOOL : GEO. SMITH, WATTS AND CO. 1848. ARGUMENT. A room in Antonio's House. Enter Antonio and Panthino. Ant. Tell me, Panthino, what sad* talk was that Wherewith my brother held you in the cloister ? Pan. 'Twas of his nephew, Proteus, your son Ant. Why, what of him ? Pan. He wonder'd that your Lordship Would suffer him to spend his youth at home ; While other men, of slender reputation, Put forth their sons to seek preferment out ; Some to the wars, to try their fortune there ; Some to discover islands far away ;+ Some to the studious universities. For any, or for all these exercises, He said that Proteus, your son, was meet ; And did request me to importune you, To let him spend his time no more at home, Which would be great impeachment to his age, In having known no travel in his youth.

Ant. Nor need'st thou much importune me to that Whereon this month I have been hammering. I have considered well his loss of time ; And how he cannot be a perfect man, Not being try'd and tutor'd in the world: Experience is by industry achieved, And perfected by the swift course of time: Then, tell me, whither were I best to send him ? Shakspeare — Two Gentlemen of Verona. * Sad, i.e. grave, serious. ' t In Shakspeare's time, voyages for the discovery of the islands of America -were much in vogue. And we find in the journals of the travellers of that time, that the sons of noblemen, and of others of the best families in England, went very frequently on these adventures. — Noteby Warburton. a to the honourable JAMES BUCHANAN, SECRETARY OF STATE, AT WASHINGTON. My Dear Me. Buchanan, Visited in my household with sickness and sorrow, and surrounded by the deepest gloom that has ever been known in England, daily beholding my friends and neighbours plunged into irretrievable ruin ; it affords me some consolation to retrace my steps through a country which, though like all other portions of the globe it may be occasionally visited with reverses of fortune, yet contains in its robust youth the principle of regenerate prosperity.

The " Englishwoman in America," grateful for your past kindness, has again adorned her pages with your name. I congratulate you on the return of Pennsyl vania to her first love, and I hope her con stancy will prove equal to her good sense. The Journals declare that Ohio is a tie ; and can it happily be true that an inkling of Democracy has crept into Massachusetts ? New York presents a strange anomaly ; with the " most democratic government that has ever existed," that eccentric State has appointed Whigs to the guidance of her administration. There is a tale extant of a certain Phaeton, a son of Phœbus, who for reasons of his own tormented his father to permit him for a single day to guide the chariot of the Sun. The miserable parent having sworn by Styx to grant his request could not retract.

The inexperienced boy, positive in ff his will, unconscious of the speed and strength of the Coursers, and of the weight of Wheels and Fire they dragged along, regardless of the admonitions of the disconsolate God of Day, with unheeding confidence, but with uncertain hand, drove on until the flying horses, becoming sensible of the confusion of their driver, de parted from the track. Already Heaven and Earth were threatened with universal conflagra tion, when Jupiter struck the ambitious Cha rioteer with a thunderbolt, and hurled him into the Eridanus. TNow Jupiter forefend that such a catastrophe should ever happen in TTNew York and the Hudson. The Session before you will be arduous ; and important in its bearings upon the future state of your continent. Mexico and Abolition seem the existing subjects of discussion, and divide the United States into many political factions. a VI But the Ministers of America repose on beds of roses compared with the uneasy couch on which is tost the Government of England.

Eecent Famines, Taxation, Eailway Speculation, Con tracted Currency, the Bank and its Enormi ties, ominous schisms between Church and State, the clamour of the unemployed labouring classes, the deficiency of Eevenue, and con tinuance of the Income Tax, distant, and ex pensive, and interminable Wars, the ruined West India Proprietors, Commercial and Manufac turing Stagnation such as was never known before, aggravated by an entire want of confidence in the commercial capacity of the Administration ; the wrongs and woes and crimes of Ireland, and the perplexities of European politics ; — all these lie heavy on the souls of her Ministers, and weigh down the mighty heart of England to the dust. It is boldly said, that English Whigs, like American Whigs, however learned in the Theory, do not understand the Practice of Government.

As in a Eepublic, the fundamental and dominant party must be democratic, so in a Monarchy, the fundamental or dominant party must be conservative ; when the reverse occurs, it is an experiment, and though a necessary is not always a successful one. Among other important changes, long antici pated and now impending, it seems highly pro bable that the Canadas will assert their Independ ence. The injuries that Province received at the hands of the Mother Country, through the Immi gration of disease and pauperism during the last season, are full and sufficient reasons for declining her protection for the future. I am gratified to see that the accomplished Louis Lafontaine is the present representative of Montreal. The Canadas must very shortly present the interest ing spectacle of a French and Catholic Com munity asserting its Independence in the immediate vicinity of the Colonies of the English Pilgrims ; and soon that noble but ill-used Pro vince will form an additional family in the great Continent of Eepublics.

The Colonial Department in vain issue apo logies for their supineness ; they have overlooked the all-important fact that there are two par ties to a bargain ; and in their anxiety to get quit of the miseries of Pauperism at home, they have forgotten the results of imposing such an infliction upon the Provinces. A separation is however desirable on all accounts, and therefore it cannot be a matter of regret that England has neglected to profit by the lesson she received from the United States. The excellent regulations made for Passenger vessels by Mr. Walker, by reducing the numbers allowed to be carried about one-fourth, will greatly alleviate the miseries of the Emigrant to the United States, and will materially contribute to the safety of your citizens. We are in hopes that such a measure will shortly be enacted by our Government.

They have hitherto been too much and too expensively engaged with measures concerning the Slave trade in Africa to think of their own outcasts. Some English and American Journals are reprobating the reported annexation of the Island of Cuba to the United States. Whether this should ever take place or not, to me, being equally the well-wisher of the white man and the black, it is satisfactory to know that America will never suffer the Cubanos and their slaves to become the spoil of English Abolitionists. X The American demonstrations in favour of their country and their Pope have conferred happiness on the heart of many an Italian exile here. On my desk lies a letter from one who was for three years the inmate of an Austrian Dungeon at Parma, and an exile in England for ten. He begs me to offer to you and the American people his respectful and grateful homage.

But there is a body of Englishmen who feel still more deeply the liberality of the Americans. Many of the most eminent Catholics of this country have expressed to me their high sense of the respect and regard which is paid to the professors of their Faith in the United States. During the past year I have learned the de parture of many from the land of the living ; of several whom I knew. Their absence will be sorrowfully felt by me, when I again revisit the scenes which were graced by their society. With every respectful sentiment, every kindly wish, towards yourself and all those to whom such remembrance will be acceptable, I remain, My dear Mr. Buchanan, Your affectionate Friend And obedient Servant, SARAH MYTTON MAURY. Liverpool, 31st January, 1S48. After diligent enquiry I have learned that the Declaration of American Independence, the Constitution of the United States, and the Farewell Address of General Washington ; have never been published in England.

It is time that these noble Docu ments should be made known to the British Public ; and I cannot too highly appreciate the distinction of being the first to present them in an English garb to my Countrymen and my Countrywomen. In Congress, July 4, 1776- the unanimous declaration of the thirteen united states of america. When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and ecpial station to which the laws of nature and nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of man kind requires, that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident : — that all men are created equal ; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unahenable rights ; that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.

That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed ; that whenever any form of govern ment becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute a new government, laying its foundation on such principles, b and organizing its powers in such form as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate, that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes ; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves, by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security.

Such has been the patient sufferance of these colonies, and such is now the neces sity which constrains them to alter their former systems of government. The history of the Present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these States. To prove this let facts be submitted to a candid world. He has refused his assent to laws the most whole some and necessary for the public good. He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his assent should be obtained ; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them. He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legis lature — a right inestimable to them, and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the repository of their public records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures. He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly for opposing with manly firmness, his invasions on the rights of the people. He has refused, for a long time after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected ; whereby the legislative powers, incapable of annihilation, have returned to the people at large for their exercise, the State remaining, in the mean time, exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within. He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States ; for that purpose obstructing the laws of naturalization of Foreigners ; refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the con ditions of new appropriations of lands.

DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. He has obstructed the administration of Justice, by refusing his assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers. He has made Judges dependent on his will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries. He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers, to harrass our people, and eat out their substance. He has kept among us in times of peace, standing armies, without the consent of our legislatures. He has affected to render the Military, independent of, and superior to, the Civil Power. He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our Constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws ; giving his assent to their acts of pretended legislation : For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us : For protecting them, by a mock trial, from punish ment for any murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these States : For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world : For imposing taxes on us without our consent : For depriving us in many cases of the benefits of Trial by Jury : For transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offences : For abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighbouring province ; establishing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging its boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these colonies : For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering fundamentally the forms of our governments : For suspending our own legislatures and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated government here by declaring us out of his protection and waging war against us. He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people. He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to complete the works of Death, Desolation, and Tyranny already begun with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the head of a civilized nation. He has constrained our fellow-citizens taken captive an the high seas to bear arms against their country, to 1,2 DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. become the executioners of their friends and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands. He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for redress in the most humble terms : our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant is unfit to be the ruler of a free people. Nor have we been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. "We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwar rantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our Common Kindred to disavow these usurpations which would inevitably interrupt our connexions and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity.

We must therefore acquiesce in the necessity which denounces our separation, and hold them as we hold the rest of mankind — ENEMIES IN WAR, IN PEACE FRIENDS. We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name and by the authority of the good people of these colonies, solemnly publish and declare, that these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, Free and Independent States ; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British crown, and that all political connexion between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved ; and that, as Free and Independent States, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which Independent States may of right do.

And for the support of this Declaration, with A FIRM RELIANCE ON THE PROTECTION OF DlVINE Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our Sacred Honour. John Hancock. New Hampshire. Massachusetts Bay. Samuel Adams, John Adams, Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton. Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry. XX Rhode Island, &c. Stephen Hopkins. Delaware. Cæsar Rodney, George Read, Thomas M'Kean. William Ellery. Connecticut. Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntingdon, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott. Maryland. Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, C. Carroll, of Carrollton New York. William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Virginia. George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr. Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton.

Lewis Morris. New Jersey. Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, North Carolina William Hooper, Abraham Clark. Joseph Hewes, John Penn. Pennsylvania. Robert Morris, South Carolina. Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr. Thomas Lynch, Jr. Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, Arthur Middleton. George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross. Georgia. Burton Gwinnet, Lyman Hall, George Walton. CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. PREAMBLE. We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this constitution for the United States of America.

ARTICLE I. — Of the Legislature. Section I. 1. All legislative powers herein granted, shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives. Section II. Of the House of Representatives. 1. The House of Representatives shall be composed of members chosen every second year by the people of the several states ; and the electors in each state shall CONSTITUTION XXII have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the state legislature. 2. No person shall be a Representative who shall not have attained to the age of twenty five years, and have been seven years a citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that state in which he shall be chosen. 3. Representatives and direct taxes shall be appor tioned among the several states which may be included within this Union, according to their respective numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole num ber of free persons, including those bound to service for a term of years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other persons.

The actual enumeration shall be made within three years after the first meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent term of ten years, in such manner as they shall by law direct. The number of representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty thousand, but each state shall have at least one representative ; and until such enumeration shall be made, the state of New Hampshire shall be entitled to choose three; Mas sachusetts eight ; Rhode Island and Providence Planta tions one ; Connecticut five ; New York six ; New Jersey four ; Pennsylvania eight ; Delaware one ; Maryland six ; Virginia ten ; North Carolina five ; South Carolina five ; and Georgia three. 4. When vacancies happen in the representation from any state, the executive authority thereof shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies. 5.

The House of Representatives shall choose their speaker and other officers, and shall have the sole power of impeachment. Section III. Of the Senate. 1 . The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two senators from each state, chosen by the legisla ture thereof, for six years ; and each senator shall have one vote. 2. Immediately after they shall be assembled in con sequence of the first election, they shall be divided, as equally as may be, into three classes. The seats of the senators of the first class shall be vacated at the expira tion of the second year, of the second class at the expira tion of the fourth year, and of the third class at the expiration of the sixth year, so that one third may be chosen every second year ; and if vacancies happen, by resignation or otherwise, during the recess of the legis lature of any state, the executive thereof may make CONSTITUTION XXIV temporary appointments until the next meeting of the legislature, which shall then fill such vacancies. 3.

No person shall be a senator who shall not have attained to the age of thirty years, and been nine years a citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that state for which he shall be chosen. 4. The Vice President of the United States shall be President of the Senate, but shall have no vote, unless they be equally divided. > 5. The Senate shall choose their other officers, and also a president pro tempore, in the absence of the Vice President, or when he shall exercise the office of Presi dent of the United States. 6. The Senate shall have the sole power to try all impeachments. When sitting for that purpose, they shall be on oath or affirmation. When the President of the United States is tried, the chief justice shall preside ; and no person shall be convicted without the concurrence of two thirds of the members present. 7.

Judgment in case of impeachment shall not extend further than to removal from office, and disqualifica tion to hold and enjoy any office of honour, trust, or profit under the United States ; but the party con victed shall, nevertheless, be liable and subject to indictment, trial, judgment, and punishment, according to law. Section IV. Manner of Electing Members. 1 . The times, places, and manner of holding elections for senators and representatives, shall be prescribed in each state by the legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time, by law, make or alter such regulations, except as to the places of choosing senators. Congress to Assemble Annually. 2. The Congress shall assemble at least once in every year, and such meeting shall be on the first Monday in December, unless they shall by law appoint a different day.

Section V. Powers. 1. Each House shall be the judge of the elections, returns, and qualifications of its own members ; and a majority of each shall constitute a quorum to do busi ness ; but a smaller number may adjourn from day to day, and may be authorized to compel the attendance of absent members, in such manner and under such penalties as each House may provide. c CONSTITUTION XXVI 2. Each House may determine the rules of its pro ceedings, punish ils members for disorderly behaviour, and, with the concurrence of two-thirds, expel a member. 3. Each House shall keep a journal of its proceedings, and from time to time publish the same, excepting such parts as may in their judgment require secrecy ; and the yeas and nays of the members of either House, on any question shall, at the desire of one-fifth of those present, be entered on the journal. 4.

Neither House, during the session of Congress, shall, without the consent of the other, adjourn for more than three days, nor to any other place than that in which the two Houses shall be sitting. Section VI. Compensation, &c. of Members 1. The senators and representatives shall receive a compensation for their services, to be ascertained by law, and paid out of the Treasury of the United States. They shall in all cases except treason, felony, and breach of the peace, be privileged from arrest during their attendance at the session of their respective Houses, and in going to or returning from the same ; and for any speech or debate in either House they shall not be questioned in any other place. 2. No Senator or Representative shall, during the time for wliich he was elected, be appointed to any civil office under the authority of the United States which shall have been created, or the emoluments whereof shall have been increased, during such time ; and no person holding any office under the United States shall be a member of either House during his continuance in office.

Section VII. Manner of Passing Bills, &c. 1 . All bills for raising revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives, but the Senate may propose or concur with amendments, as on other bills. 2. Every bill whicli shall have passed the House of Representatives and the Senate shall, before it become a law, be presented to the President of the United States ; if he approve, he shall sign it ; but if not, he shall return it, with his objections, to that House in which it shall have originated, who shall enter the objections at large on their journal, and proceed to reconsider it. If, after such reconsideration, two-thirds of that House shall agree to pass the bill, it shall be sent, to gether with the objections, to the other House, by which it shall likewise be reconsidered, and if approved by two- CONSTITUTION thirds of that House it shall become a law.

But in all such cases the votes of both Houses shall be determined by yeas and nays, and the names of the persons voting for and against the bill shall be entered on the journal of each House respectively. If any bill shall not be returned by the President within ten days (Sundays excepted) after it shall have been presented to him, the same shall be a law in like manner as if he had signed it, unless the Congress by their adjournment prevent its return, in which case it shall not be a law. 3. Every order, resolution, or vote to which the con currence of the Senate and House of Representatives may be necessarj7, (except a question of adjournment,) shall be presented to the President of the United States ; and before the same shall take effect, shall be approved by him, or being disapproved by him, shall be repassed by two-thirds of the Senate and House of Represen tatives, according to the rules and limitations prescribed in the case of a bill .

Section VIII. Power of Congress. The Congress shall have power — 1. To lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defence and general welfare of the United States ; but all duties, imposts, and excises shall be uniform through out the United States : 2. To borrow money on the credit of the United States : 3. To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several states, and with the Indian tribes : 4. To establish a uniform rule of naturalization, and uniform laws on the subject of bankruptcies} throughout the United States : 5. To coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin, and fix the standard of weights and measures : 6. To provide for the punishment of counterfeiting the securities and current coin of the United States : 7 .

To establish post offices and post roads : 8. To promote the progress of science and useful arts by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and dis coveries : 9. To constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court : 10. To define and punish piracies and felonies com mitted on the high seas, and offences against the law of nations : c CONSTITUTION XXX 11. To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make rules concerning captures on land and water : 12. To raise and support armies; but no appropriation of money to that use shall be for a longer term than two years : 13. To provide and maintain a navy : 14. To make rules for the government and regulation of the land and naval forces : 15. To provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the Union, suppress insurrections, and repel invasions : 16.

To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplin ing the militia, and for governing such part of them as may be employed in the service of the United States, reserving to the states respectively the appointment of the officers and the authority of training the militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress : 17. To exercise exclusive legislation, in all cases whatsoever, over such district (not exceeding ten miles square,) as may, by cession of particular states, and the acceptance of Congress, become the seat of government of the United States, and to exercise like authority over all places purchased, by the consent of the legislature of the state in which the same shall be, for the erection of forts, magazines, arsenals, dockyards, and other needful buildings : and, 18. To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this Constitution in the government of the United States, or any department or officer thereof.