No, Sir, if the respectable gentleman now at the head of the government be nominated, there will be those who will commend his consistency, who will be bound to maintain it, for the interest of his party friends will require it.  It will be done.  If otherwise, who is there in the whole length and breadth of the land that will care for the consistency of the present incumbent of the office?  There will then be new objects.  “Manifest destiny” will have pointed out some other man.  Sir, the eulogies are now written, the commendations are already elaborated.  I do not say every thing fulsome, but every thing panegyrical, has already been written out, with blanks for names, to be filled when the convention shall adjourn.  When “manifest destiny” shall be unrolled, all these strong panegyrics, wherever they may light, made beforehand, laid up in pigeon-holes, studied, framed, emblazoned, and embossed, will all come out; and then there will be found to be somebody in the United States whose merits have been strangely overlooked, marked out by Providence, a kind of miracle, while all will wonder that nobody ever thought of him before, as a fit, and the only fit, man to be at the head of this great republic!

I shrink not, therefore, from any thing that I feel to be my duty, from any apprehension of the importance and imposing dignity, and the power of will, ascribed to the present incumbent of office.  But I wish we possessed that power of will.  I wish we had that firmness.  Yes, Sir, I wish we had adherence.  I wish we could gather something from the spirit of our brave forces, who have met the enemy under circumstances most adverse and have stood the shock.  I wish we could imitate Zachary Taylor in his bivouac on the field of Buena Vista.  He said he “would remain for the night; he would feel the enemy in the morning, and try his position.”  I wish, before we surrender, we could make up our minds to “feel the enemy, and try his position,” and I think we should find him, as Taylor did, under the early sun, on his way to San Luis Potosi.  That is my judgment.

But, Sir, I come to the all-absorbing question, more particularly, of the creation of New States.

Some years before I entered public life, Louisiana had been obtained under the treaty with France.  Shortly after, Florida was obtained under the treaty with Spain.  These two countries were situated on our frontier, and commanded the outlets of the great rivers which flow into the Gulf.  As I have had occasion to say, in the first of these instances, the President of the United States[1] supposed that an amendment of the Constitution was required.  He acted upon that supposition.  Mr. Madison was Secretary of State, and, upon the suggestion of the President, proposed that the proper amendment to the Constitution should be submitted, to bring Louisiana into the Union.  Mr. Madison drew it, and submitted it to Mr. Adams, as I have understood.  Mr. Madison