"Every memorial of such a man will possess a meaning and value to his countrymen. His tomb will be a hallowed spot. Great memories will cluster there, and his countrymen as they visit it may well exclaim:
"Such graves as his are pilgrim shrines—
Shrines to no creed or code confined;
The Delphian vales, the Palestines,
The Meccas of the mind."
If we mistake not, this young Breckenridge is the nephew of the Rev. John Breckenridge, formerly of Baltimore, and pastor of the Presbyterian Church. If so, he is the nephew of the Rev. Robert Breckenridge, the talented and staunch advocate of the American party. The venerable uncle of this young man, whilst pastor of the Church in Baltimore, was a most formidable opponent of the Roman Catholic religion, and is the man who conducted the debate with Archbishop Hughes, in 1836, which we now have before us, in a large volume of 550 pages. Of course Bishop Hughes will require the young man to repudiate his uncle's views and charges in opposition to the Papal religion; and this, we should think, he will do for the sake of the Catholic vote in America!
From the Knoxville Whig of June 14, 1856.
PROGRESSIVE DEMOCRACY—ITS LEGITIMATE FRUITS.
The following important document we take from the National Intelligencer, of January 22, 1851. It was signed and published by gentlemen irrespective of parties—forty-four Senators and Representatives in Congress. It will be a curiosity to those of our readers who may have forgotten its well-timed and patriotic pledges. How unfortunate it has been for the country, and especially the public tranquillity, that the determination and counsels of these men were, in an evil hour, departed from, and flagrantly violated by the demagogues of the self-styled Democratic party! To the violation of this solemn pledge by the repeal of the Missouri Compromise line, and the reöpening of the Slavery agitation by the introduction of the Kansas-Nebraska bill, intended to elevate that miserable little demagogue, Stephen A. Douglass, to the Presidency, we are indebted for all the scenes of bloodshed in Kansas, to the angry slavery discussions in Congress, and the disgraceful scenes of riot being almost daily enacted there!
Several copies of the following Declaration were circulated in Congress, and obtained a number of signatures in both halls; but no other list was ever published, that we know of, besides this, which, it will be seen, was headed by the illustrious Henry Clay:
"The undersigned, members of the thirty-first Congress of the United States, believing that a renewal of sectional controversy upon the subject of slavery would be both dangerous to the Union and destructive of its objects; and seeing no mode by which such controversy can be avoided, except by a strict adherence to the settlement thereof effected by the Compromise Acts passed at the last session of Congress, do hereby declare their intention to maintain the said settlement inviolate, and to resist all attempts to repeal or alter the acts aforesaid, unless by the general consent of the friends of the measure, and to remedy such evils, if any, as time and experience may develop. And, for the purpose of making this resolution effective, they further declare that they will not support for the office of President, Vice-President, Senator, or Representative in Congress, or as a member of a State Legislature, any man, of whatever party, who is not known to be opposed to the disturbance of the settlement aforesaid, and to the renewal, in any form, of agitation upon the subject of slavery.
| "Henry Clay, | C. S. Morehead, | Robt. L. Rose, |
| W. C. Dawson, | Thos. J. Rusk, | Jere. Clemens, |
| James Cooper, | Thos. C. Pratt, | Wm. M. Gwin, |
| Samuel A. Elliot, | David Outlaw, | O. H. Williams, |
| J. Philips Phœnix, | A. M. Schemerhorn, | Jno. R. Thurman, |
| D. A. Bokee, | Geo. R. Andrews, | W. P. Mangum, |
| Jeremiah Morton, | R. I. Bowie, | E. C. Cabell, |
| Alex. Evans, | Howell Cobb, | H. S. Foote, |
| Wm. Duer, | Jas. Brooks, | A. H. Stephens, |
| R. Toombs, | M. P. Gentry, | H. W. Hilliard, |
| F. E. McLean, | A. G. Watkins, | H. A. Bullard, |
| T. S. Haywood, | A. H. Shephard, | Daniel Breck, |
| Jas. L. Johnson, | J. B. Thompson, | J. M. Anderson, |
| John B. Kerr, | J. P. Caldwell, | Ed. Deberry, |
| H. Marshall, | Allen F. Owen." |