protect her. While giving her assurances that he would do so, and trying to calm her fears, a shot was fired at him, which passed through his cloak and buried itself in the shutter of his window. He retired within the house and adopted every measure to guard it against violence. This was scarcely done, when the irritated and triumphant besiegers assembled around the gate, uttering a wild shout and making a desperate effort to burst it open. They vented their rage in bitter imprecations,-declared that it was the asylum of their enemies,--and made every preparation for a fierce, and probably bloody, assault. At this moment Mr. Poinsett resolved upon his course of conduct. Directing Mr. Mason, the Secretary of the American Legation, to take with him the flag of the United States, they passed boldly out to the open balcony, threw out the flag, and both stood beneath its waving folds. The manliness of the act at once produced its effect,--the upraised muskets were lowered and the shouts were hushed. Mr. Poinsett addressed the crowd-told them who he was—and claimed security for all beneath his protection. He then retired, and having written a hasty note to Zavala, to inform him of what was taking place, proceeded himself, attended by Mr. Mason, to the gate of his house,-had it opened in the face of the dense crowd, which rolled back like a wave, and sent a servant on his errand through the midst of them. A party of cavalry soon arrived for his defence, and he had the satisfaction to redeem his promise of protection to Madame Yturrigaray, and every fugitive who had sought an asylum under his country's flag.

The success of the republicans was complete; they obtained possession of the city; and finally, when the National Congress assembled, the election of Pedraza was declared to be illegal, and Guerrero was announced as the lawful successor of Vittoria, and the President of the Republic. The hopes, however, which the friends of liberal principles had indulged from this event, were not destined to be realized; the new President was soon surrounded by his former enemies, who succeeded, by flattering his vanity, in driving away his old and tried friends,-amongst whom was Zavala,-and finally, in depriving him of command and hunting him to death. With the success of this faction, the attacks on the American Minister were naturally revived, and he found himself again the subject of their slanders, intrigues, and persecution. Nor was it against himself, alone, that they were directed;-the people of the United States were denounced as the bitter enemies of Mexico, and the most violent prejudices were instigated against them. So great was this excitement, that when information reached there, of the death of Mr. Obregon, the Mexican Minister, at Washington, who had put an end to his own existence, it was asserted that he had fallen a victim to the hatred of the American people, and the Mexicans were urged to revenge his death upon Mr. Poinsett. Placards to that ef

fect were posted at the corners of the streets, and even on his own door. As soon as he knew it, he walked through the city and among a crowd which collected around his house. They made way for him and greeted him as he passed;-had he avoided them the

ces might have been fatal.

consequen

It was evident that a residence thus become most harrassing to himself, could not be longer of service to his country. Accordingly, with his own assent, he was, in the summer of 1829, recalled by President Jackson, who did not forget, in his next annual message, to mention his services in a manner that could not fail to gratify him. He had, during his residence, concluded a treaty settling the boundaries of the two countries. He had also negotiated a treaty of commerce, though intervening difficulties had prevented its ratification before the termination of his mission. By the Constitution of that Republic, the advice and consent of both houses was necessary, and they differed in regard to an article, which required Mexico to deliver up fugitive slaves who should seek a refuge within her border. Mr. Poinsett had earnestly pressed this provision as essential to the peace of the two countries, and it had been acceded to in making the treaty. The House of Representatives, however, struck it out, and it was so finally ratified.

tator.

On Mr. Poinsett's return to the United States, he retired entirely to private life, in South Carolina. When, however, the deeply interesting public questions, connected with the rights of the States and the Union, arose there, it could not be supposed, that a man so prominent as a politician and a patriot could remain a passive specOn those events it would be alike fruitless and unpleasant to dwell. It is sufficient to say, that entertaining the opinions of the Union party, in opposition to Nullification, he advocated them with fearless zeal, and vindicated them with consummate ability. Even those opposed to him were not wanting in tributes to his talent, nor in doing justice, when the irritation of the moment had subsided, to his intrepidity, his generosity, and his high sense of personal and national honor. This was strikingly evinced on one of the earliest occasions that presented itself. In the year 1836, while at his mountain homestead, he was nominated by his friends as a candidate for the State Senate, from the district embracing the city of Charleston, where the strength of his political opponents, but a few years before, had formed a decided majority. He was now elected almost without opposition. In that more limited field of usefulness he displayed the same steady democratic principle, and the same devotion to useful business, which had distinguished him while in Congress some years before, and he may be said to have stood, if not at the head, certainly among the first, of those men, who, by their talents, have given to the Legislature of South Carolina a distinction, seldom surpassed in any of the other State Governments.

From this scene of usefulness he was called by President Van Buren, immediately after his election, to a conspicuous place in his cabinet. His previous life had peculiarly fitted him to discharge the duties of the Department of War;—and it may be safely asserted, that none of his predecessors have done so with more general approbation. As a member of the Administration, his long tried and sound republican principles secure for him the confidence of the great party by which it was elevated and is sustained, and his zeal, abilities, attainments, and experience, are a guarantee to his country, that he is able to discharge his trust with usefulness and honor. A life so active, as that which is here portrayed, might seem to have left little leisure for the cultivation of letters or science. To both, however, Mr. Poinsett has devoted no small share of attention. The museums of Charleston, Philadelphia, and New York, have been considerably enriched by collections in natural history and in local antiquities, which he has made in the course of his various travels. The state papers that have issued officially from his pen, are evidences of the clearness and vigor of his style, and the excellence of his arrangement as a thinker and writer-but in addition to this, the published works of which he is known to be the author, have earned for him a just literary reputation. His Notes on Mexico, his articles in various periodical journals,-his pamphlets on many questions of political interest,-and his essays and memoirs, descriptive of his travels, and of the history of countries he has visited, are all marked by research, originality, and an easy but energetic style. In public life, his speeches have been distinguished by the extent and variety of information they convey, while in delivery, they are always concise and clear, and rise, when occasion demands, to passages of finished eloquence and absorbing interest.

SONNETS ON CHARACTER.

1.

WASHINGTON.

From early youth inured to manly arts,

To curb the steed, explore the pathless wood, And court the dangers of the field and flood; In shape, mien, manners, prowess, solid parts, A MAN complete; with choicest gifts endowed,

To guide the battle, and to rule the state,

To bless his country, and to stamp him GREAT,
The world extolled, and kings in homage bowed!
Retired from public cares, serenely wise,

No morbid hankering for departed sway
E'er dimmed the lustre of his closing day;

But ripe in virtue, ready for the skies,

He lived he died. Oh, who his worth can trace,
Pride of our land, and glory of our race!

B. F. B.

II.

NAPOLEON.

Genius, decision, energy, combined

With matchless skill in war's destructive art,
By these, a stripling chief, he "got the start
Of this majestic world; " his riper mind
Law, order, industry, to France restored;

But false to freedom, dead to true renown,

He claims, assumes, and wears a despot's crown;
Discards for power the wife he once adored;
Treads right in dust, makes free-born thought a slave;
And not content with Europe's proudest throne
And fairest realms, for conquest he must brave

Nature herself, within her frozen zone;

And now, just doom, twice exiled, none to save,
Of all bereft, he pines and dies alone!

B. F. B.

OUR NEGLECTED POETS.

No. I.

WILLIAM MARTIN JOHNSON.

(Continued.)

I HOPE the reader will be the more ready to receive this minute picture of East-Hampton with indulgence, when he shall consider the influence the place was calculated to exercise upon the mind of our poet, and that it was here it began to disclose itself most vigorously. When the small stock of money which Johnson had brought with him from his last school speculation, was again exhausted, he made a bargain, which, after the view I have given of the modes of thinking in East-Hampton, it will be seen, must have raised him considerably in the public estimation;-he contracted to pay his board there with a cabinet maker, by working for him two days in the week, leaving the remainder of his time at his own disposal for study. When it was seen with what readiness and finish the young poet schoolmaster could turn out chairs and tables, and all sorts of furniture, it was admitted that the village had never been graced by so miraculous a genius. Every door was opened to him, and he was the pride and the favorite of all, and especially, it would seem, of the young ladies. To his professional studies, however, he gave but little time; and how he could have derived the slightest benefit, even from his miscellaneous reading, seems unaccountable, for though he appeared to make extraordinary proficiency in every branch of general knowledge, he was never known to give more than half an hour to any one book, before he would fling it aside and take to another. Some of the time which was not engrossed by his mechanical labors, passed in acquiring a little French and Italian; but the greater part of it in visiting from house to house, in playing upon his violin, and sometimes in playing upon the hearts of the young girls of the village, which he attacked both in prose and poetry, and, it would seem, not unfrequently with success.

The siege of a heart in the olden time, I believe, was apt to begin with a rebus,—and when affairs grew serious, it would come to an acrostic; for, especially in the latter case, the lady's name must be so unalterably interwoven with the declaration, that there could be no mistake--the lover was nailed, and so was the compliment ;even were the lady insensible, the verses could not be transferred to any new object. Of these rebuses and acrostics, I find not a few