officer of government fails to do his duty, the people have the right to take the matter into their own hands and do it for him.

If a judge fails or refuses to hold court, the people can meet in the court-house and adjudge the causes upon the docket-and should they find a criminal awaiting his trial for some capital offence, then, inasmuch as legal proceedings are mere matter of form, and the punishment is the substance, they will have a perfect right to hang the poor wretch upon the nearest tree. Sir, I do not pretend to say that the gentleman from Adams has, in point of fact, pushed his theory thus far; but I appeal to every sensible man, whether the propositions made by him do not embrace a principle broad enough to cover all such cases. And what is the principle? It is a fearful monster, which has, for the last two or three years, traversed the United States with the stride of a drunken and infuriated giant, trampling down constitutions and laws, and setting governments at defiance. In the city of Baltimore, in its frantic mood, it demolished the edifices of the citizens. In Charlestown, a convent fell a prey to its wayward humor. It is no stranger within our own Stateand, maddened by a southern sun, its footsteps here have been marked with blood. It is the principle of mobocracy, the incarnate fiend of anarchy. For the first time it has dared to present its horrid front in the halls of legislation. The gentleman from Adams has introduced it-and upon his head be the consequences, if, as I fear will be the case, it is received with welcome. Let the gentleman remember the fate of many a necromancer, whose unholy incantations have been of power to raise the devil, but not to control him-and who, while struggling in the choking grasp of the foul spirit, has cursed the day he meddled with the black art of sorcery. A child may unchain the hungry tiger, but if he does, will most likely fall the earliest prey to the savage beast. I told this body at an early period of the debate, that a fearful chasm was at our feet-and, if we waited for a little time, it would be bridged, so that we could pass it in safety. "I will leap it," cries the gentleman from Adams, impetuously. I entreat him to pause, if not for his own sake, at least for the sake of those who have committed dear rights to his charge. Let him

not tempt the fate of Curtius, when the country can receive no benefit from the sacrifice. Richer treasures than the gentleman from Adams must be thrown into that yawning gulf before it closes.

Sir, I do most solemnly believe, that upon the rejection of this resolution depends the prosperity of this State, for many years to come. I believe its adoption will infuse into the legislation of the State a poison which no medicine can cure. It will part the laws from the constitution, and set them adrift, like the broken spars and rigging of a dismasted vessel, which beat against and destroy the very keel they were intended to support.

But in spite of this and all other opposition, the resolution admitting the delegates from the new counties was finally passed by a bare majority, the claimants themselves voting on the question. Thereupon, Mr. PRENTISS prepared the following Protest, which in behalf of himself and twenty-one other Representatives, he obtained leave to have spread upon the Journals of the House:

The undersigned, members of the house of representatives of the legislature of the State of Mississippi, believing that said body has, in certain action which has occurred therein at the present adjourned session of 1837, violated the constitution of the State, the law of the land, and the rules which govern legislative proceedings, by admitting as a component part of the body, ten persons whom they believe, under the constitution of the State, the law of the land, and the rules of legislative proceedings, to have no right to participate in the deliberations of the body, ask leave to protest against such action, as the only mode left by which to express their opinions upon the same.

The undersigned set forth the following statement, as the ground of their proceeding:

1st. They believe that by the constitution of this State, the power and jurisdiction of fixing the number of each branch of the legislature, and of apportioning such number among the

counties, cities, and towns, is given expressly to the whole, and not to either branch thereof.

2d. That the number of representatives which should compose this branch of the legislature at the present session, was fixed by the legislature of 1833, and apportioned among the counties then in existence.

3d. The constitution requires that, in case of vacancy, a writ of election should be issued by the governor.

Now the undersigned set forth the following facts;-1st. That the legislature of 1833, did fix the number of this house at sixtyfour, and did apportion that number among the counties of the State. 2d. This body has admitted ten additional persons as members thereof; thereby increasing its number to seventy-four without any new apportionment by the legislature. 3d. Said ten persons were not elected at any general election, nor by virtue of writs of election issued by the governor, but by virtue of writs of election issued by the boards of county police. 4th. Upon a report of the minority of the committee of elections, denying said ten persons to be constitutionally elected members of this body, a motion was made to disagree to said report, which motion was divided, and eight of said persons were permitted to vote upon every portion of said report. 5th. Before said last-mentioned vote was taken, the question was raised whether said ten persons had a right to vote on said question. Mr. Speaker decided that they had, an appeal was taken, and said ten persons were permitted to vote on the question whether they were entitled to vote.

Upon this view of the constitution, and this state of facts, the undersigned do most solemnly protest against the admission of these ten persons into the house, as an addition to this body, unknown and unauthorized by either the constitution or laws of the State.

They further protest against the mode in which they were adınitted; and more particularly, the power of voting, acquired by their own votes, which the undersigned conceive to be a total and outrageous violation of common sense and common justice, both of which say that a man shall not be a judge in his

own case.

The undersigned further protest against the action of the speaker in the whole of this inatter, which seemeth to them a continued infraction of constitutional, legal and legislative rules. In conclusion, the undersigned feel bound to say, that they conscientiously believe that the action of this house, in relation to the matter above set forth, has been unprecedented and unconstitutional, and that it has the effect totally to disorganize this body, and destroy it as a branch of the legislative department of government.

The late estimable Judge Winchester, then a senator from Adams county, introduced a resolution into the other branch, declaring the legislature to be disorganized, and upon its failure, entered with five other senators a Protest similar to the above.

After passing a bill, incorporating the mammoth Union Bank, the legislature hastily, and in great confusion, adjourned over to May. But Mr. PRENTISS immediately resigned his seat. Thus closed his brief legislative career in Mississippi.

CHAPTER IX.

Recollections of him in the Winter of 1836-7-Letters--Gains the great Commons Suit-Second Visit Home-Fourth of July Speech at Portland-Becomes a Candidate for Congress-His Views on the Question of a National Bank-Mississippi in 1887-Opens the Canvass with a Speech at Natchez-Electioneering Campaign— His Letters describing it.

ET. 28-29. 1837.

THERE was no point, perhaps, in Mr. Prentiss' life, when his physical and mental powers were in finer tune than during the winter of 1836-7. He was the very picture of health, hope and joyous activity. His presence seemed encircled by a kind of charmed atmosphere; it excited pleasurable emotion like the song of birds in spring. One could hardly be with him and hear him talk, without a certain grateful elation of feeling. How shall I ever forget that winter? I cannot recall a look, or word during the whole of it, that was not kindness itself. He seemed a thousand times more interested in forming plans for others than for himself. His literary taste was constantly showing itself. One day, for example, he bought me, at an extravagant price, a copy of Bayle's Biographical Dictionary, and then expatiated, with all the enthusiasm of a bibliopolist, upon the attractions of that celebrated work. In such matters he was

as eager and artless as a little child. He delighted, of an evening, to sit and talk over old times, old scenes and old neighbors far away in New England. He never tired of doing this. Beginning at the old farm, and then passing to