| 1131 American, (which follows below) is rather indicative that Mormonism has got into Congress: and, perhaps the great men of this nation, like the Lords of the Philistians, nobles of Babylon, or the mighty of Assyria, have come to a crisis that will open their understandings to see and know that there is a "God in Israel." It is really funny to think how these Gentiles in "Ermine and lace" quote scripture, and apply it. Ah, Lord, this is a sinful nation! The ox knows his owner, and the ass his master's crib, but the great men of the earth have not got as far along in knowledge as that. But to the communication:
From the Baltimore American.
TITLE FROM SCRIPTURE.
Prone as our excellent compatriots are to believe themselves the chosen people, whom providence has substituted for Israel, as the recipients of his special bounty, it is to be doubted whether any of them had believed, until the recent Congressional discussion, that our title to Oregon was based on an express grant from on high. The Hon. John Q. Adams, however, whose extensive acquirements justify the expectation of new views from him on every question, has recently demonstrated our right to "the whole or none" to be celestial as well as terrestrial, and there is besides, a passage in Mr. Allen's speech, which is supposed to hint at the same doctrine-inasmuch as it refers, obscurely, to certain "siderial" centres [centers] of constellations"-the precise meaning of which cannot be arrived at, upon any other hypothesis. We prefer to discuss the question, as Mr. Adams puts it, because we cannot say that we precisely understand Mr. Allen's mode of presenting it, and because moreover, there is always a great deal of importance attached to any notion which is carefully covered.
"With old odd ends, stol'n forth of holy writ"-a species of logic which Mr. Adams has plentifully applied, in support of what may properly be called the Mosaic view of the subject. Let us hear Mr. Adams. Speaking of the Bible, he says:
"If the book was there, he would thank the clerk to read from it what he considers as the foundation of our title to Oregon. If he would turn to the 26th, 27th, and 28th verses of the first chapter of Genesis, the Committee would see what Mr. A. considered the foundation of the title of United States to the Oregon territory."
[The clerk here read as follows: "And God said, Let us make man in our own image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over overy [every] creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image: in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth."]
That, (said Mr. A.) "in my judgment, is the foundation of our title to Oregon, and of all the title we have to any of the territory we possess. It is the foundation of the title by which you, sir, occupy that chair, and by which we are now called on to occupy Oregon."
Now, without entering into any discussion, as to the particular part of the text quoted, which applies to the speaker's chair, and leaving it to the scientific to decide whether that admirable specimen of cabinet makership and upholstery, can properly, be considered a 'creeping thing merely because it has legs, we cannot but admit that it passes our ingenuity to divine the mode in which Genesis can be reasonably connected with Oregon. Is it because we are men and women, and because we are to be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth, that we are proprietors, indefensibly, up to parallel 54 (symbol of degrees) 40? Surely our British friends were created male and female as well as we, and we call the whole "Native American" party to witness, that they increase and multiply and replenish our part of the earth, to an extent which some people have thought both awful and dangerous. Is not the wretched Indian, whose only dominion is over the fish and the fowl, a man as well as we-made like us in the image of his Maker-placed, like us, upon this earth, with rights as potent and as dear as ours? And, if we own the land we tread-as the honorable speaker holds his chair, in virtue only of our occupation as sons of Adam-is not the Flat Head or the Shoshonee a proprietor, under the same title, holding by the same tenure, at the will of the same God? Not only that-but is not the Indian in a state of civilization, much nigher to that of the patriarchs, and still more nigh to that of Adam, than are the citizens of our excellent republic, with all its vaunted institutions? Can Mr. Adams mean, that because God commanded man to 'subdue' the earth, he has therefore a right to all he can 'subdue?' Because, as he afterwards says, it is a 'characteristic' of our people to 'go ahead,' have we a necessary right to 'go ahead,' whenever we can? If these questions be answered affirmatively, what prevents the Briton also
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