complex idea into its elements, which traces causes to their
first principle, and, by the power of generalization and
combination, unites the whole in one harmonious system--then, so
far from deserving contempt, it is the highest attribute of the
human mind. It is the power which raises man above the
brute--which distinguishes his faculties from mere sagacity,
which he holds in common with inferior animals. It is this power
which has raised the astronomer from being a mere gazer at the
stars to the high intellectual eminence of a Newton or a Laplace,
and astronomy itself from a mere observation of isolated facts
into that noble science which displays to our admiration the
system of the universe. And shall this high power of the mind,
which has effected such wonders when directed to the laws which
control the material world, be forever prohibited, under a
senseless cry of metaphysics, from being applied to the high
purposes of political science and legislation? I hold them to be
subject to laws as fixed as matter itself, and to be as fit a
subject for the application of the highest intellectual power.
Denunciation may, indeed, fall upon the philosophical inquirer
into these first principles, as it did upon Galileo and Bacon,
when they first unfolded the great discoveries which have
immortalized their names; but the time will come when truth will
prevail in spite of prejudice and denunciation, and when politics
and legislation will be considered as much a science as astronomy
and chemistry.

In connection with this part of the subject, I understood the
Senator from Virginia (Mr. Rives) to say that sovereignty was
divided, and that a portion remained with the States severally,
and that the residue was vested in the Union. By Union, I