Page:Life of Henry Clay (Schurz; v. 1).djvu/168

156 dents in foreign countries, but I shall not pass unnoticed their dangerous influence in our own. Bad examples are generally set in the case of bad men, and often remote from the central government. It was in the provinces that were laid the seeds of the ambitious projects which overturned the liberties of Rome.”

He affirmed that Jackson, going far beyond the spirit of his instructions, had not only assumed, by an unauthorized construction of his own, to determine what Spain was bound by treaty to do, but had “also assumed the power, belonging to Congress alone, of determining what should be the effect and consequence of her breach of engagement;” that then he had seized the Spanish forts and thus usurped the power of making war, which the Constitution had “expressly and exclusively” vested in Congress, “to guard our country against precisely that species of rashness which has been manifested in Florida.” A glowing peroration followed, protesting against “the alarming doctrine of unlimited discretion in our military commanders,” and pointing out how other free nations, from antiquity down, had lost their liberties, and how we might lose ours. “Are former services,” he exclaimed, “however eminent, to preclude even inquiry into recent conduct? Is there to be no limit, no prudential bounds to the national gratitude? I hope gentlemen will deliberately survey the awful isthmus on which we stand. They may bear down all opposition; they may even vote the General the public thanks; they may carry him