OTHER WRITINGS

AND

Gallatin
HON. ALBERT G. BROWN,

Michael

OF THE

A SENATOR IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI.

EDITED BY

M. W. CLUSKEY,

POST-MASTER TO THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES.

PHILADELPHIA:

JAS. B. SMITH & CO., 610 CHESTNUT STREET.

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1858,

M. W. CLUSKEY,

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the District of Columbia.

EDITOR'S PREFACE.

THE publishers of this compilation, with commendable enterprise, having determined to reproduce in an accessible form, the speeches and writings of such of the public men of the country as are of sufficient merit to justify republication, present this as the initial volume of the series which they hope in a reasonable time to introduce to the public. They have honored the compiler with the position of Editor of this new work. He hopes that the manner in which he has thus far discharged the trust, will justify the public in commending the selection of him for that duty. He congratulates himself that the speeches and writings of Albert G. Brown should form the beginning of his labor in this connexion. Having been a constant observer and admirer of the long and consistent public career of Governor Brown, it afforded him a pleasure to be engaged in bringing before the country a compilation of his able and instructive political speeches and writings. The reflection that the subject of a work of this kind possesses true merit, naturally tends to ease the labor of preparing and

bringing it forth. The contents of this compilation constitute a monument of the mind of him whose productions it contains. It cannot fail to insure a ready endorsement by the country of the enterprise of the publishers.

To the people of Mississippi, who have long honored Albert G. Brown, and whom he has so amply repaid by the faithful discharge of every public trust confided to him, the Editor would respectfully dedicate this volume.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH.*

ALBERT G. BROWN was born in Chester District, S. C., May 31, 1813, and is the second son of Joseph Brown, a respectable planter, who settled in what is now Copiah county, in the state of Mississippi, in the winter of 1823. The country was then a wilderness. The white man had not yet taken possession of the "new purchase," and the fire of the red man was at that time smoking, so recent had been his exit from the country.

In indigent circumstances, Joseph Brown had sought this forest home, contented to brave its hardships, in the hope of rearing his children to better fortune than his own. His two sons, Edwin and Albert, then small boys, performed such labor in opening the farm as they were able to endure. Albert, then ten years of age, was a sort of man of all work. It was his business to mind the stock, work a little on the farm, go to mill on Saturday, and attend school occasionally when there was nothing else to do.

If it should be thought by any that this was an indifferent method of opening the way to the boy's fortune, it must be borne in mind that the family was surrounded by the most trying circumstances, and the future promised nothing but what industry, honesty, and the most rigid economy might yield. Pitching his tent in the unbroken woods, not a tree missing from the dense forest, far from the settled parts of the country, without provisions, and almost without money, and not an acquaintance or a friend on whom he could call for help-it will be readily seen that the whole business and cares of the elder Mr. Brown's life were founded on the single word "bread."

After the first two or three years, thanks to industry, economy, and a fertile soil, hard fortune began to relax her iron grasp. Well-stored granaries, sleek herds of cattle, fat hogs and horses, attested the thrift which followed on the heels of retreating poverty. About this time attention was given to Albert's strong inclination for books, and he was kept pretty steadily at such inferior neighborhood schools as may be found in a frontier country-that is, barring the interruptions which

* This biographical sketch was published in the Democratic Review in 1849, with the exception of the record of his life since that time, it being from the pen of the editor of this compilation.