We now approach an epoch in the history of parties which materially involves the consistency of Mr. Tazewell as a politician.  Although he had not been in public life since his withdrawal from Congress, he held no unimportant place in popular estimation.  His course in the House of Delegates during four troublous years, and in the House of Representatives where he had taken an active and fearless part in the fierce strife for the election of a President, had commended him to the affections of that majority which has ruled the politics of Virginia since the adoption of the present federal constitution.  He was the son of a beloved statesman who had fallen while in the innermost councils of that great party, and whose name was held in honor.  His talents had now gained him a position among the ablest members of the bar; and his old political associates looked to him for aid in the crisis which was drawing near; and they looked in vain.  This aspect of his political life it is my office to present before you.

Up to 1805 the administration of Jefferson was floating, to use one of his own figures, on the full tide of successful experiment.  The obnoxious measures of the federal party, where repeal was possible, had been repealed.  The alien act, which Tazewell condemned not only as unconstitutional but to the last degree unwise, as tending to repress the emigration of those who would not only settle our waste lands, but to serve to defend the country during the crisis which he saw was rapidly approaching, and the sedition act, had expired by their own limitation.  The judiciary act, which had been passed and carried into effect in the descending twilight of the late administration, had been repealed.  Economy had been introduced into the public expenditures; and a considerable portion of the public debt had been extinguished.  The foreign policy of the administration had been as successful as the domestic.  Partly by chance, partly by that wise foresight which anticipates the possibilities of the future and provides for them, the administration had acquired from France the vast domain of Louisiana; and thenceforth the exclusive navigation of that mighty river, on which hitherto we dared not lift a sail or dip an oar without the consent of a foreign power, and on the banks of which, since its transfer from Spain to France, we had been vainly begging a place of deposit, became the birthright of every American citizen.

But this flattering prospect was soon to be overcast.  England and France had long been at war; and, at the period of which we are treating, France had become the ruthless bandit of the land, and England the wanton pirate of the sea.  Each desired the cooperation of the United States in the war—­and each determined, in the event of our refusal to take part in the controversy in its favor, to cripple our commerce by all means within its reach.  That commerce, fostered by our accidental position as neutrals when the two great commercial nations of the world were