that, in four years more, all the power which is suffered to remain in the government will not be held by the executive hand.  Nullification will proceed, or will be put down by a power as unconstitutional as itself.  The revenues will be managed by a treasury bank.  The use of the veto will be considered as sanctioned by the public voice.  The Senate, if not “cut down,” will be bound down, and, the President commanding the army and the navy, and holding all places of trust to be party property, what will then be left, Sir, for constitutional reliance?

Sir, we have been accustomed to venerate the judiciary, and to repose hopes of safety on that branch of the government.  But let us not deceive ourselves.  The judicial power cannot stand for a long time against the executive power.  The judges, it is true, hold their places by an independent tenure; but they are mortal.  That which is the common lot of humanity must make it necessary to renew the benches of justice.  And how will they be filled?  Doubtless, Sir, they will be filled by judges agreeing with the President in his constitutional opinions.  If the court is felt as an obstacle, the first opportunity and every opportunity will certainly be embraced to give it less and less the character of an obstacle.  Sir, without pursuing these suggestions, I only say that the country must prepare itself for any change in the judicial department such as it shall deliberately sanction in other departments.

But, Sir, what is the prospect of change?  Is there any hope that the national sentiment will recover its accustomed tone, and restore to the government a just and efficient administration?

Sir, if there be something of doubt on this point, there is also something, perhaps much, of hope.  The popularity of the present chief magistrate, springing from causes not connected with his administration of the government, has been great.  Public gratitude for military service has remained fast to him, in defiance of many things in his civil administration calculated to weaken its hold.  At length there are indications, not to be mistaken, of new sentiments and new impressions.  At length, a conviction of danger to important interests, and to the security of the government, has made its lodgement in the public mind.  At length, public sentiment begins to have its free course and to produce its just effects.  I fully believe, Sir, that a great majority of the nation desire a change in the administration; and that it will be difficult for party organization or party denunciation to suppress the effective utterance of that general wish.  There are unhappy differences, it is true, about the fit person to be successor to the present incumbent in the chief magistracy; and it is possible that this disunion may, in the end, defeat the will of the majority.  But so far as we agree together, let us act together.  Wherever our sentiments concur, let our hands co-operate.  If we cannot at present agree who should be President,