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About Google Book Search Google's mission is to organize the world's information and to make it universally accessible and useful. Google Book Search helps readers discover the world's books while helping authors and publishers reach new audiences. You can search through the full text of this book on the web at |http: //books .google .com/I {km to .^iiiriu.i, IE JlOiffi. ;;l--.i..' :i> i.i.'rj , ..,, i, ■ 'Ii;- v. lib; r in ii".i.f ..;.. f .:..,.. ■A -Zfirtft, tee t0 America; THE MODEI EEPUBllC, ITS GMEY, OK ITS FAIL: WITH * «isigw or : \ \:-: ®|t Cfflists of \i gttljnt ani Jailurt THE REPUBLICS OF SOUTH AMERICA, MEXICO, AND OF THE OLD WORLD; THE PBESEST CEISIS IS THE I'SIIED CTATES. NEW YOEK: EDWARD WALKER, 114 FULTON-STREET. 1365. • t Entered according to Act of CongreM, in the year 1856, By EDWAED WALKEE, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York. t)iuixiian. THIS VOLUME IS INSCRIBED TO ALL WHO LOVE AMERICAN" INSTITUTIONS, AND DESIRE TO SEE THEM PERPETUATED DESCEND IN THEIR PURITY TO FUTURE GENERATIONS, ; ^ Vf i " Breathes there a man with sonl so dead, Who nerer to himself hath said — This is my own, my native land V* Scott. *' Of all the disixMltions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain wonld that man claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness— these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens." WASHixaTOJr. PUBLISHER'S PREFACE. Fob some time past, the publisher of this work has enter- tained the idea of presenting to the citizens of the Union, a volume devoted to national interests. Maturing his plans, he laid them before a number of friends — gentlemen dis- tinguished alike for their patriotism, social standing, and wide-spread reputation — and they were cordially endorsed as the promise, if carried out, of supplying a book really needed at this present crisis. The gentlemen selected to write the various chapters, were chosen with reference to their ability to treat upon the subjects committed to their especial charge ; and the pub- lisher indulges the belief that their labor, careful research and investigation, joined with their conscientious desire to accomplish a work of so momentous interest, will be appre- ciated by every patriotic and reflective mind. Ihe subjects treated of concern not only the statesman and politician, but every American citizen, however hum- ble or exalted — ^whether native or naturalized. They ex- tend over a vast range of valuable fiacts and historical illua- 6 publisher's preface. trations pertaining to the rights and inmmnities of citizens under a republican government. The present anomalous state of political parties throughout the country suggests a reason for the appearance of the work; and in the endeavor to meet this exigency it has been carefully pre- pared. As a nation, we are essentially eclectic in character, receiving constant accession to our numbers from all parts of the civilized globe. It is, therefore, of the first import- ance to the integrity and security of our free institutions, * that the balance of power in the republic should be sedu- lously guarded ; that a spirit of nationality should rule in the councils of our government ; and that the element of foreign political faith, as well as foreign manners and cus- toms, be carefully precluded from vitiating om' national morals, — the proud distinction of a free people consisting in its public virtue, which is the animating and sustaining principle of true democracy. It is not enough that we glory in our boasted liberties, — ^we must be jealous of their integrity — ^must learn wherein consists their security, their defences, and their danger. It was a maxim of one of the " early heroes of liberty," that " none could love freedom heartily but good men ; the rest love not freedom but license, which never hath more indulgence than under tyrants." This fact is amply sus- tained by the testimony of all history. The knowledge which we acquire at our own expense is undoubtedly the publisher's preface. 7 most efficacious, but that which we learn from the misfor- tunes of others is the safest, inasmuch as we receive instruc- tion without pain or danger to ourselves. The "Yoice to America" is not the product of any clique ; it enforces the opinions of no one party ; it has not been prepared under the auspices, nor has it received the sanction, of any set of men organized for political purposes ; but the publisher has been cheered on in his purpose, in the confident assurance that, notwithstanding sectiona Ifeeling, and the specious pretences of fanaticism and political partisanship, there is yet a suflScient number of true-hearted Americans, pledged for the defence- and pres- ervation of the inestimable privileges conferred upon our common country, under the aegis of a glorious constitution. The book, therefore, goes forth to the world, claiming only the deference due to honestly-expressed opinions. It relies alone, for success, on the truth of its arguments, and the sacredness of its mission. New Yoek, August, 1855, COlfTEXTS. Pbxfacx H The United States — ^RetB)08feci[ve axd Peo bfel t ive 18 The ANCiEifT Republics — Eaelt Ciyilizatioh 27 SPiiETA AND Athens 85 TsE Fall of Rome 68 Italian LiBEaTr in the Middlb Ages 78 The Anglo-Saxon R^ce and Freedom • 88 Heroes of the Founders of Libertt 97 The Boundaries of Countries, how estabubhed 138 romanisx and freedom 141 Effects of Romanism and Protestantism on Ciyilization 149 The Rights of Conscience 167 Religious Toleration 179 The Bible the Charter of Liberty 191 Principles and Perils of our Common Education 201 The Political Power of the Pope 216 Evils of Military Organizations exclusively of Foreigners -. 229 Demoralizing Influence of Demagogism 287 What Constitutes the Right to Vote ? 245 Fallacy of supposing American Institutions need no Safeguards ... 261 Naturalization Laws of the United States 278 United States and Immigration 288 The Citizen of a Republic 291 Amkbicajt Nationality 299 10 CONTENTS. NsoESSiTT OF Ahebican Habits and Princoples 815 Bight of the Majority to Rule 823 Freedom from Foreign Inflxtence 829 Origin of Political Power 887 Mexico and the South American Republics 845 America the Theatre of the Great Demonstration 855 Secret Societies, their Use and Abuse 868 The American Republic, the Hope of the World 873 APPENDIX. L— Secret Societies and Oaths, 881 IL— Belations of the Pope to the Civil Power, 385 IIL — Foretgners and the Electiye Franchise, 888 lY. — ^Beligioos Toleration— Heretics and Bomanist Graveyards, 891 v.— Military in the Church, 892 VL— American Nationality, 898 Vn.— American Elections, 895 YIII.— What caoses Election Blots, 895 IX.— Golden Maxims of Washington, 897 X— Maxims and Opinions of Eminent Statesmen, etc, 899 VOICE TO AMEEICA. THE UNITED STATES— RETROSPECTIVE A5D PROSPECTIVE " With America, and in America, a new era commeneea in hnman aflkirs. This era is distia- gnldied by free representatiTe gOTwnments, hy eatire reUgiovs liberty, by improred systems ef national intercourse, by a newly -awakened and vneooiiBerable spirit of free iaqniry, and by a dilTa- sion of knowledge through the conmionity, before ahogether unknown and aabeard ot" Djunu. Wxasncs. When the inhabitants of the old Thirteen Colonies arose against the despotic and mercenaiy aggression oi England, they were three millions of people, mostly scattered fiirmers. They inhabited a strip of the Atlantic seashore — a half-wild territory between the Allegha- nies and the ocean — about one thousand miles long, and a hundred and fifty miles wide, and containing only six towns of any size, three of which had less than ten thousand inhabitants, and none over twen- ty thousand. It is true that they were an enterprising, industrious, honest, intelligent community — a happy and flourishing nation in iacij though not in form. But whatever were the p'ecise point of prosperity to which they had then attained, it was in spite of the discouragements of their supreme government that they attained it ; for the agriculture, manu^tures, and commerce of the colonies were capriciously controlled and restricted for the advantage of Engli^ speculators; and the laws and constitutions of the Httle republics were constantly attacked and insulted by the placemen of the English administration, for the sake of enforcing arbitrary schemes of govern- ¥ A VOICE TO AMERICA. ment, fit only for tributajy slaves. Navigation acts, stamp act^ writs of asastance, prohibitions of the manufacture of irou, the manufacture of cloths, of hats, of every thing which Englishmen wanted to manu- iacture, and endless other troublesome and unrighteous enactments, perplexed and annoyed the provinces. Yet the new nation, which, under the name of the United States of America, spoke itself into being by the Dedarstion of Independence, contained all the elements of a healthy, powerful, and vigorous life. With the fervent sympathy of the majority of the people, but with lukewarm aid or timid indifference from very many ; with over- -whelining fears and doubts on the part of some of the wisest and best men of tie day, and even in spite of the venomous treasons and in- testine wars of the Tory population, the new commonwealth agonized through the seven years of the revolutionary struggle, fainting and almost torn iu pieces, and achieved what seemed at the moment to be a fruitless independence. At the end of that war it was indeed a nation in name, and one in form ; but it had little of actual national Bfe. It was Mpealedly on the extreme verge of falling into fragments — into anarchy ; of return- ing to a monarchical form of government. One hundred and seven- ty millions of doOars in money had been actually spent in the war, and that when money was worth nearly twice as much as it is now, and when the nation was not one-twentieth as rich as at present The country had been ravaged through and through : crops had been de- stroyed, towns and houses burned. The inhabitailts were sick, dis- abled, demoralized, tied; manufactures had been encouraged but lit- tle ; commerce was stagnant, or even utterly dead ; disbanded and im- moral Holdiere roamed up and down, unable to obtain work, or to get their wages, even in the good-for-nothing continental money, which was worth sometimes three cents on the dollar, sometimes nothing, and of which one hundred dollars were once ^ven for a mug of cider. The central government was everywhere despised and ahuaed — a beg- garly, strenglhleaa shadow. It labored under an immense home and foreign debt, which it could not pay ; it was an importunate and un- UNITED STATES — ItElTtOSPECTIVE A^l) PKOSPECTIVE. 13 welcome beggar for homo and foreign loans, — unsuccessfully, becaase it could not meet its former engagements ; its requisitions upon tlio States were neglected or refused ; it was even bullied in its own liall by a sergeant's squad of unpaid mutineers dunning for tlieir wages, against whom the militia of Philadelphki declined to protect it, except in case of actual assault and battery. The States quarrelled with each other about lands, or insulted and encroached on the miserable central government There arose in many of them, within a few years after the termination of the war, home insurrections of their own. The whisky insurrection in Penn- sylvania ; Shays' insurrection in Massachusetts, with the risings that preceded it ; a similar mob in New Ilampshire, which, for a time, be- sieged the legislature and courts of that State ; the general disorgani- zation of the western country, and other such tumults, showed the unsettled and anarchic condition of men's minds, as well as their poverty and distress. Wise men, the revolutionary fotliers of the country, communicated to each other their apprehensions of the loss of our nationality, almost at its birth. Despondency weighed upon the best of the patriots of the day, and with painful forebodings they speculated upon the probabilities of many republics — of a monarchy — of a retreat beneath the English power. The native sense of the country, however, was at last aroused to the exigencies of the case, and the people, responding to the call that emanated from the Virginia JiCgislature, deputed that great and wise assembly which created the Constitution of the Unitied States — a frame of government the nearest perfection which the world has ever seen ; by the operation of which the nation was at once in\igorated ; under which it forthwith sprang out into that unparalleled career of growth, whose constantly increasing speed has already made all the world astonished spectators, and which seems to possess an immortal vigor equal to any emergency. Within less than three-quarters of a century of national hfe under this constitution, the United States of America have arisen to a prouder height of physical strength and of moral power, than has over Been I A VOICE TO AMEEICA. ipied by auy olier nation in die world. The allotted life of a mnn iTeM a period equal to the whole exiitence of our miglity empire. Men are ttia day alive aud well who voted, for the adoption of the Coustitutionf and for Washington ia I'ZBO. At the end of the Rovo- 'lutiouary War, we numbered about three milliona of people — as many as now inhabit the single State of New York ; now we are twenty-five millions. Then we had nine hundred thousand square miles of territory; now we have three millions of square miles — half of North America-^ three times as much aa France, Great Britain, Ireland, Austria, Prussia, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Hol- land, and Denmark — a domain as large as the Roman Empire ever was; o territory by the side of which the possessions of the proud- est European dynaatiea are " but a patch on the earth's aurtace."* European distances are steps to ours ; European riveta are brooks. It ia as far across the United States from New York to San Fran- aisco as from London to Ispahan, in Persia ; from New York to New Orleans is as far as from Paris to St. Petersburg, or from Lon- don to Constantinople. TJio Mississippi is twice as long as the Dan- ube; the Ohio is six hundred miles longer than the Ehine; the Hudson is navigated, within the State of New York, a hundred and twenty miles — a distance greater than the length of the Thames. Nor is this vast espanse in danger of falling apart by ite own Weight : it is knit the tighter as it expands, by tlie iron bands of tfie raihoad and the telegraph. Our country estends throagh every healthy climate. Avoiding the inhospitable wastes of the Arctic enow, and the fever-haunted jungles of the tropic zone, it stretches from the cold and bracing mountain air of New England and Oregwi, ■to the everlasting spring of the sunny South. "Within onr limits is found every tree of the forest, from the towering pines of Maine, and gigantic cedars of California, four hundred feet high ; the northern oak, the birch, the beech, and the other hardy woods of its Idndred fbrrata, (o the live-oak of the south, the cypress, and the mag- BoUa, the orange, the cocoanut, the banaua, and tlie palm. We • WebiWr's Lettor to HulBomaiiQ. UNITED STATES — KETROSPECTiVE AKD PROSPECTIVE. 15 grow alike the tjora, flax, and wheat of temperate regions, and the sugar and cotton, the rice and indigo of the south. From the bosom of the eaith we dig all the precious and all the useful minerals : gold comes from California at the rate of seventy-five millions of dollars a year ; pure copper is blasted or chopped out from the mines at Lake Superior by the ton together. There is lead enough in Wisconsin to supply the world ; iron is piled into mountains in Missouri, and ite ores are found in the majority of the States ; and the coal of single States — Ohio and Pennsylvania — is suflicient to furnish all the earth with fuel for thousands of years. Nor are our treasures inaccessible. There is only one of the great divisions of the earth — ^Europe — which has a greater proportion of seacoast to the square mile than North America. The shore-line of the United States, on the two great oceans and the Mexican Gulf, is eighteen thousand miles. The land is pierced through and through with enormous rivers, upon which we possess forty-nine thousand miles of steamboat navigation, together with thirty-five hundred miles of shore on the sides of the great northern lakes. Five thou- sand miles of supplementary artificial navigation by canals com- pletes this most enormous amount of internal water conveyance. Within the single State of New York there are three thousand miles of navigable inland waters. Besides the innumerable ordinary roads, we are netted and woven together by twenty thousand miles of com- pleted railroads, and thirteen thousand miles more, now in process of completion. Upon these inland routes a capital of one thousand mill- ions of dollars is invested in the gigantic transfers of our internal trade and travel. We have not been idle in improving the advantages of our situa* tion. Our wealth and industry — our credit and commerce, both at home and abroad, have enlarged to an inmieasurable extent. At the close of the Revolution we had possibly seven hundred and fifty millions of dollars' worth of real and personal estate ; now we have at least fifteen thousand millions of dollars' worth, besides fourteen hundred millions of acres of public lands — enough to give a large 16 A VOICE TO AMERICA. fann to every man, woman, and child in the nation. Then, oui* am- bassadors were besieging European capitalists and governments for a hundred thousand dollars ; now, the nation distributes at once forty millions of surplus revenue ; bears four hundred millions of debt with- out feeling it, and sells the privilege of lending to her at six and ten cents for every dollar that she will condescend to borrow. Then, we had no manufactures ; now, we have more than five hundred miUions of dollars invested in manufactories, whose annual productions are worth more than a thousand millions of dollars. Our cotton manu- factories alone, while the English millmen confess that the business in Great Britain has reached its very utmost capacity of development, are now employing eighty millions of capital, are using thirty-five millions of dollars' worth a year of raw material, and turning out a yearly product worth seventy millions of dollars, and yet are stead- ily increasing, while we compete with our English rivals in our own market, and all over the world. Then, we had neither commerce nor sliipping ; now, it is not long since we dismantled a national war- ship to send her, laden with the superabundance of our rich fields, to stay the famine in Ireland. Of the same overflowing plenty we have imparted to the starving people of Greece, of Madeira, of the Azores. Our cotton crop, besides supplying the immense home demand just stated, is sent across the sea at the rate of eleven hundred millions of pounds a year, and, after being manufactured, supplies the primary human necessity of clothing to all nations, from the tropic to the pole, from the Englishman to the Chinese. The extent of the shore line of the United States, on the Atlantic, Pacific, and the Mexican Gulf, is about twelve thousand miles. The northern and southern boundaries amount to at least six thousand more ; making, in all, eighteen thousand miles— equal to three quar- ters of the distance around the world. Now we have the largest mercantile marine on earth. Fourteen hundred steamers, measuring five hundred thousand tons, and seven- teen thousand sail vessels, registering four and a half millions of tons burden, besides carrying a portion of our enormous mass of inter- i UNITED STATES — ^RETROSPECTIVE AND PROSPECTIVE. 17 nal exchanges, are bringing yearly from abroad three liundred mill- ions of tons of foreign, and canying away two hundred and eighty millions of domestic merchandise. Tliese vast totals, indicating such limitless resources and such superhuman energy, and demonstrating only the aggi*egate of the resources in territory and riches wielded by our population, consti- tuting the greatest force on earth, yet only refer to physical power, and do not by any means give a comprehensive view even of that power.* However important our pecuniary wealth and material power at this present moment may be, as securing to us a high station and commanding influence in the great commonwealth of nations, there are other departments in our national life, of profoundly greater significance. The state of our intellectual, social, and moral development, after all, is of infinitely more importance than our prop-, erty per head, or our annual revenue. These mere acquisitions may easily depreciate in value. Our vast mass of wealth naturally tends, of itself, to be scattered and lost. It is the mind and the soul which inform and impel the people of our country, which constitute their real character, which alone can determine their lasting prosperity, even in respect to dollars and cents, and which certainly are the only basis upon which can be raised or maintained a collective or individ- ual character which can justify our national pride, or conmaand the respect of strangers. Our condition in these respects — the intelligence and morality of our native population ; the social condition of the nation — is such as to inspire every patriotic heart with an exultation infinitely loftier and purer than any boasts of riches or displays of strength. The right training of our citizens for their duties to God and the State, has ever been a principal object of our government. It is true that the main regulation of this subject, and the direction of the chief expenditure *Thc Btatirttics of the macliinery employed in manufacturing — a very import- ant and significant item — although actually collected, are kept strangely concealed in the Census Office ; nor is there any adequate estimate, yet compiled, of tho total machinery of all kinds owned and uAed in tho United States. A VOICE TO AUEIUCA. for it, resla ia tiie States individually ; yet tlie Federal Goyeniment alooe, doing what it could constitutionally do, haa given outright, for educational purposes, fifty-three milUona of acres of land, which, even at the minimum CrovernmcDt price, are worth nearly seventy millions of dollars. Of pubho funds alone, besides the much greater amount paid by indiidduals, there are paid for education annually, in the Uailtid States, at least seven and a half millione of dollara. There is DO child BO poor or vilo as to be excluded from a good school educa- tion ; and if any children misa it, the fault is that of their parents or themselves. In our schools are taught, not only the rudiments of literature, but pure morals, and the elements of a just and manly cliar- acter. Entire freedom in. true and right thought is encouraged; and the result of onr school systems, which arc confessedly the best eitant, is such as ftilly to uphold their clEum to superiority. In those parts of the country where thoy have reached their oompletest devel- opment, only one native in four hundred is unable to read or write In the far northern State of Maine, there ai'o more children at school, in proportion to the popiilation, than in any other state, iingdom, or country whatever. In the whole United States, the proportion of school-going youth is only exceeded by that in Denmark, where attendance is enforced by law. The lone of our national life throughout is such as to maintdn the intelUgent independence and self-controlling activity, which onr citi- zens learn in their childhood. So policeman, or spy, or uniformed soldier prohibits our people from discussing the measures of govern- ment. We are not holden by force to follow the commands of hered- itary despots. We consider and inquire to our heart's content what wo would have the government do, and then vigilantly watch its exe- eution. No such broad political fieedom was ever hoard of before, either in Greece or Rome, in Switzerland or England. The diffusion of current information, and of intercourse among our citizens, has in- creased to H con'esponding extent. The fecundity and ability of our ;wBpaper press is without parallel. The best and brightest talent of the day is inereasingiy employed ia this business. In 1775, there were CTOTED STATES — RETROSPECTIVE AXD PRC*SPElTIVE. Id thirty-five newspapers in the- whole o«yantr}-. TIi:it numS.-r :> r-'.w more than equalled in each of four single towi.% ar.i in i^r . y.: :L-:ni it is tripled. In the whole country tiier-* are iwe^ry-two Luiir-.-*! newspapers, circulating a hundred and nfty milli.iLs of ciipies ar^ -^ly ; and of periodicals of all kinds, more than tw.rnty-^TeL. L:i:::rc»i. ::r- culating nearly four hundred and thirty miili'.'E^ cf .x-p:-:* a J'"-^- -^ single American monthly circulates more cc-pies than all iL-t zz^g^rirr;^ of Great Britain together. Our Poet-office L^f^irtmei.:- wiSch, np-xi its re-estabhshment after the Revolution, ennmerajc*! aiK-ii SrrVcZiiT- five post-offices, along a few coast-routes c-f some two il>: aarfi nile*. upon which it was thought remarkable that tLe inail canrc "jlt^zA fix)m New York to Philadelphia in three day?, z^.t^ i.zii.:»rr* w-zzJtj- five thousand post-offices, and sends its mai:-l=, Keaal^c^ speed was impossible ; and railroads were not even o.-j-^iTr^i *-a in dreams. Xow our letters hurry along the water, :i* sowiii^l*,*!*, ai twenty miles an hour, and fly across the lani by railroai. a: sny miles an hour. But that is not enough f:r c-ir restl^s I"^-?*'^- ^ will not do to wait for time, or to measure sxiace. S> forrv-two thousand miles of telegraph bring Maine a^d L:uiiiasa — Xew T'ork and St. Louis, within moments of each odier. for the meroL^nLs who cannot Jet their messages lag along on lisrntniEg tra:L.=. Xay, die intervening space of the Atlantic Ocean is to b«3 aiiiJL:i3:e>i The wires are now being prepared for the ocean line, between X^wfoun 1- land and Ireland ; and the imreasonable philosopher, Faraday, l-:*: content that messages will be delivered in Xew York three hours before they are dispatched at Liverpool, is grumbling in England because there is to be an actual delay of two minutes. The same keen and disciplined, but tremendous energy which has driven us so swiftly onward in our career of material pros}>erity, and which is yet surging hither and thither across the continent in accu- mulating waves, has operated alike in all departments of human action. !N'ot only have wo excelled in the mere organization of human industry and the gathering of riches, but Americans have 20 A VOICE TO AMERICA. stood pre-eminent in every domain of original thought, in every sphere of labor, physical or mental It would be too long a stoiy to enumerate the daring of our exploring seamen ; the exhaustless fertility and practical adaptedness of our myriads of inventors ; the triumphs of our mechanics, who have surpassed the worid in making whatever can be made, that requires beauty, strength, or skilful hand- ling. Their enormous clippers dash through the billows of every sea, and their engineers go abroad to construct monster railroads for foreign powers. Their brass clocks tick within the households of every nation, from England to China ; their pistols are arming the oflScers and soldiers of all civilized troops. In science and literature, oven more than in such conquests over the material world, has our career been rapid and our attainment glorious. In all those departments of literary labor which are related to the present needs and future progress of humanity — in theology, ethics, law, politics, political economy, education, natural sciences, history, romance, poetry — we are at least fully abreast of the very foremost Even in the fine arts, hitherto always the latest blossom of civiliza- tions which have been refining for centuries, we have risen up sud- denly to the highest position. Our sculptors and painters are rivalHng the modern masters of artistic Italy, amidst the very shrines of the muses, and the homes of the arts. In all the realms of thought, both elegant and profound, we have quietly surprised the elder nations out of supercilious contempt and thorough ignorance, into admiring acknowledgment. A quarter of a century ago, the assumption was coolly and currently made through- out Great Britain, that English writers were sure of the monopoly of the American market for an indefinite period. Since English authors were good enough, why should we meddle with pen, ink, and paper, as long as we could be busy in raising raw material to support the man- ufacturing monopolies of Manchester and Leeds ? It was taken for granted that we could not write either prose or poetry worth reading. " We have changed all that." The works of Story and Kent, and \ UNITED STATES — RETROSPECTl \ E AXD PBOSPDCTITE- 21 in general our Reports of Decisions in Law. E»|a:tT, zit-i A«imindtT, are authority in English courts. Dwight and EJwards in Tbieolosy, Prescott and Bancroft in History, Sparks an»l Irdng in Biograj-hy, are text-books on both sides the Atlantic, Within the last twenrr years, more than one thousand editions of American books hare been published in England, numbering at least six millions of cc*{^es. and six and a half millions of volumes. Single American books have cir- culated outside of the United States, in ten and twelve languages, in fifteen and twenty and twenty-five successive editions, to the amount of half a million, a million, and a million and a half c^ oc^ies. " Who reads an American book P jeered Sydney Smith, a quarter of a century ago in the Edinburgh Review. The question of the clerical satirist must now be, to have any force — Who does not read American books ? Such statistics tell a proud story for our country. But it is not merely in science, philosophy, or elegant literature, that American thought is moulding the opinions of the world. Ever since the pub- lication of the Declaration of Independence our statesmen have been confessedly, for breadth and depth of thought, and for power of reason- ing, the ablest of the age. Were there three such men outside of the United States as Daniel Webster, Henry Clay, and John G. Calhoun ? Our public policy has put us at the head of the world s progress in international law. We have taken the lead in asserting a righteous equality among the great commonwealth of nations. We compelled England to discontinue kidnapping sailors by her piratical system of impressment ; we first stipulated by treaty not to allow of privateering in time of war ; we have successfully asserted Hhe principle that free ships make fi^ee goods. Austria, at the imperative demand of our Executive, sidkily releases American citizens, imprisoned on suspicion. We first are moving to destroy the stingy monopoly, held by Denmark, of the entrance into the Baltic Sea. Is it not a conceded fact that the European nations, at the very farthest, cannot do better than to take a lesson in government fi-om our Republic ? Is it not our example which is stinging and goading the restive democrats of Europe into 2* 22 A VOICE TO AMERICA. their desperate revolts and crushed, but not conquered, revolutions ? Have the despotic kings and emperors of that Continent more than one thing to fear ? is there more than one ghost at their banquets ? They are haunted by American Freedom — ^if by naught else. Reformers and revolutionists, tyrants and their victims, alike look westward. Kossuth exhausts all the magic of his eloquence to engage us for his dear, fallen Hungary ; Russia is our very good friend — for the time being — and would not grieve us for the world ; Enghshmen look to our administrative forms for examples to be imitated by the imbecile red-tapists of Downing-street. Blackwood's Magazine at last admits that the truth of our power and progress fully equals all the statements which have heretofore been considered " extravagant gas- conade ;" the "Westminster Review terms our Republic " the pole-star to which the eye of struggling nations turns," and, in a long article, compares our effective and economical governmental methods with the expensive follies of Victoria's administration ; the Edinburgh Re- view, which has heretofore spoken so bitterly and scornfully, concedes th§ full reality of our physical prosperity, and our present success in literature and art, and foretells for us a splendid future in each and all. Hitherto, the energies of our republic have been expended in developing the immense resources of our extended territoiy. We have taken no position amongst the nations ; our name, in fact, was scarcely mentioned. But the Russian war has summoned us to Eu- rope ; American diplomacy has made monarchs thoughtful ; the United States have come to be regarded, not merely as a great nation, but as one to be courted and feared — a government capa- ble of arbitrating in the affairs of the Old World, whose public opinion is respected, and whose favorable decision is regarded as a great moral power. Already, Eiu-opeans give us the possession of this entire continent. They apply the term American only to us. A Mexican, a Canadian even, is never, by them, called American ; that name they consider Qurs alone. Europe, in fact, embraces the Mon- . roe doctrine. Every month sees our influence increasing. Steam communication between the two continents has reached an unparal- UNITED STATES — ^RETROSPECTIVE AKD PROSPECTIVE. 23 lelled perfection, and yet is insufficient to meet the demands of our business men. A fortnight, a week, a day, nay, an hour, is too long to obtain information — ere long, the submarine telegraph will put Amer- ica and Europe in momentary communication. All things tend to give our country an immense preponderance in Eiu:opean affairs — a preponderance which is now beginning to be felt, and is deprecated by the despots and tyrants of the Old World. Such have the United States been — such they are to-day. What they will be a century from this time, is a question which it is be- yond the power of human prescience to answer, except by estimate or conjecture. Of our future, some few elements may be considered ca- pable of reasonably reliable prophecy. That every ten years of our future growth will surpass any preceding ten, is proved by our prog- ress hitherto. The last decade of our physical and intellectual prog- ress shows an advance greater than that of the preceding twenty years, and greater than any other fifty years. For territory, within the coming century we may have the entire continent of North Amer- ica ; for population, we shall have one hundred millions of people, not of an effete and overgrown stock, like that hideous monster, the Chi- nese race, but a people of vigorous youth, foremost in the blessings of jfreedom, and still marching onward, in the pure light of civilization, towards the highest human development. The Anglo-American is the king of men. He possesses all the powerful and commanding nature of the Anglo-Saxon, the clear, cool head, the sober, calculating mind, the regard for law, the obstinate ad- herence to justice ; but fused and fired by the pure bright air of America, and yet more by the wide freedom of American life, into the go-ahead and tireless energy, which endures no delay and brooks no opposition. The Anglo-American is the controlling type, the leading element of our future population. America in 1950 promises to be, what the folly of the misproud Celestial so sillily calls his stolid people — ^the Central Nation. Al- ready we stretch forth our hands to Europe and to Asia, and con- trol the commerce of two oceans, and modify the pohtics of two 24 A VOICE TO AMERICA continents. Europe, inspired by our example, already smokes and groans in the rising ferment of revolutions. We have opened the heretofore closed doors of distant Japan. American commerce and American civilization are striding inland, up the vast streams of the great Asiatic rivers and across her tremendous steppes. Even our missionaries among the heathen are driven by the logical results of Protestant Christianity to become founders of States and the promoters of independent political action. The Christianized king- dom of the Sandwich Islands, was converted and liberalized by Pro- testant missionaries. A Christian civilization has gone fix)m us to commence the work of enlightening Afiica, and has made a firm lodgment within the small but vigorous Republic of Liberia. Our missionary stations among the North American Indians, in Turkey and Armenia, in China, have been the centres of a light which has illuminated first tjie souls and then the minds of the barbarians, and which is gradually transforming them into self-governing and dignified communities. We have joined the Atlantic and the Pacific by rail- road ; we shall repeat the junction by telegraph and by canal. Throned between two oceans, wo shall control the mercantile exchanges of the world, and with them the civilization and the welfare of mankind. It is not for us to rule with the barbarous violence of conquest. It is not for us to force a prostrating commercial system upon tributary millions by war, to steal colonies everywhere, to speckle the world with our garrisons, and then to boast that the dnim-beat of our army ever greets the rising sun. For us there is a safer, a surer, a nobler road, to a more desirable and enduring empire. Our destiny is to show the nations what is the greatest amount of national and individual happiness and prosperity which is possible under laws fi'ee and enlightened, and with a people self-governed and self-controlling. In the quiet and unaggressive ful- filment of that destiny we ;vrield the lever which shall move the world. A free and lofty humanity, seeking all that is good by every means that is right — such is the ideal of man and his life, which became UNITED STATES — RETROSPECTIVE AND PROSPECTIVE. 25 practicable in our empire for the first time. That ideal life satisfies all aspirations. Men will come to us to enjoy those privileges un- der our broad banner for a time, but, ere long, they will assert their right to enjoy them at home. Before a century has passed, the United States of America will stand peerless in strength and beauty, the pride and excellence of the whole earth ; the refuge of the oppressed ; the apostle of all truth ; the fi-eest, noblest, happiest, purest among the nations ; the crown and culmination of human progress ; the full expression of human development, under the conditions of a national existence based upon tljie eternal trutlis of Christianity, — maintained by laws enacted by the wide consent of all, restricting not one hair's breadth the rightful activity or happiness of any — invigorated and intensified by the untrammelled play of those infinite powers which God has given to man, and which are as comprehensive as the uni- verse of matter and of thought in which he exists. THE AXCIEXT REPUBLICS A GLA5CE AT lAELT OTIUZillOX. ** Ont of history we mar ^aiber a poBrr no len -wztt -tibMM etenal. Vr Ac tion of other men's farepaR nuMnes wiah ocr rws like erron mad iH-AekerrinpiL " Bxft Waives Kalogm. The records of past ages are the inheritanoe of the present They are a study fertile in interest and ralne. Tbev f>rni the great text- book, to which all make their appeal It is in the classic ages we seek for the most splendid triumphs of art — ^the purest models — whether in sculpture or poetry, in philosophy, scienc-e, ethics, or law. We gaze, through the dim vista of centuries, with d€?ep and solemn interest upon the ruins of those grand and colossal stales and empires which successively swayed the destinies c»f the world — the Assyrian, the Egyptian, the Grecian, and Roman. We are not only amazed at their magnificence and splendor, but we are carious to knofr the secret sources of their rise, progress, and decay. It is thus that "history is philosophy teaching by example.'' The Germans, who are distinguished for their love of antiquarian research, yet &il, with all their zeal and perseverance, to derive all the advantages c^ which the study is susceptible. Their deductions, Coleridge compares to the stem-lights . :-> - t,T. - i. T-erTjes- of lis >:»"l1. liii-i G>i Ln'l li?i Li- lio- it til : •-- Z*::^ "» .--i tem':«esT:j:'ii>"w:.rkii;i3> c»: ilie >:»i:- iinL Jei; n: i^rri-^T^iijir msL-z :Pi_.:.w wLiniLir liTiQiLS, niiirl:* I^u^i ii tLem. Bm iij.eir i*a» I]zi-r Tt's^iL :o liiLir^ who eD countered them in tL*: Li-I ■:»:" Srla^r:. :i: 3. i.r' i-iw •:c itknie. These &naiics brC'Ugbt to cdril &r:i zmriLrr ^---^ 4 * • .- z»r» of juilgment, and .in immutability .-•: ^.^rr-s-r. t-i. -j. *^f wt::^:^ Iiave thouofbt incoit^i-Nriit with their rt-li^l ♦li?' 2r-t_ -.-^ t iaj 'w^cTrr iz. ^c: the ncoessarv clKvts of it* Tb^ ii.:c£L5z~- ■: -j^-jr i— i- -Tr^ :■- c-r subjoin Riado ihoni tniiiocil fr f^rir- r^-r. it* »-.-r- Tv-^^rriz^j 5e:i::men: had subiociei to ::>: ~" - t^ .laii iiinr*-:. uii:'". ■•: sni fr^r. r^Aih had k^: i:> tiTrvrs. azfi -ct--ksrr* -- 110.-1:^. "r" hid their smiles and :he:r ^is^s. :hiir rf.T.ir-.s .tiii -.!it- r t> 'v-. :r not for thinjs of ili> v::'J:. Eiiiliif^^zLi "iiii zujxit*: :j..-::i f ■>. had cleai^ ihrir ^Jil;-^ frr^ crerr t-'^i.' t;!?-: - iii ~r- i.: v. l2 i raised iheni aKve 'Jjr iiiTTire-.-f cc iizo-r izji -c ^- m"::- :^ I: sometimes mi^h; ]ea*i :lcin ::^ T:z^~r :ii.^-j?c rz.i--. ': -i -■-■;? :"* choose unwise means. TIi-j-t ttj^-: :L: .-.i^l :l-ji t:c11 '_Il: >r Ar* tegle's iron man Talus w::h h;s dsil. cr^ir::: in*: n;tr-::Lr^* ". ■-*\ oppressors — ^mingMng with hxiian ':^:rc^, ':-: Lavir:^: ta ::!>;: :.*rt nor lot in human innrmitie? : iiiseiii^iKe to fArc:::^. t .^ r'.eAsuro. ;iVv; :o pain ; not to bo pierced by any weapsrn, no: to bo wi:l.<:vx\l 1 \ s'^y barrier. " Such we believe to have been the character of the l^u it.^u^^ NX o perceive the absurdity of their manners. We dislike t!u^ suUon >iisNiu of their domestic habits. We aoknowkvlj^^ that tho tono of (boir minds was often injureil by straininjj after thinp* too biub t\^* uwMtrtl reach; and we know that, u\ spito of tlioir hatml x\( Po|hmv» tbov too often fell into the woi-st vices o( that b?»d HVMton\ -iulolonmoo and extravagant austerity ; that thoy had ihoir «uoht>ntof» nud tl»«»t»' 34 A VOICE TO AMERICA. •riMarlcft, their Dunstans and their De Montforts, their Dominies and their KMCohare. Yet, when all circumstances are taken into con- Mi/leration, we do not hesitate to pronounce them a brave, a wise, an lionc'Ht, and a as^^ful Ixxly ."* Hut we iuik — Where are the free nations of antiquity ? ''Gone, glimmering through the dream of things that were, A fichool-boy*s talc, the wonder of an hour." It lias been said that no civilized nation has, at any period of its liiiftory, so completely thrown off its allegiance to the past, as the AmI phiI':«5«:-rhT, her arts and civilization, lustrous with the triioipbs and trcphie* of her splendor, has for twentr centuries ceased :o exist, sare in the Int- perishable monuments of her intellectual gl'>nr and a tew bp?ten col- umns of her once superb temples, her ParthenoiL 5c»me c-f the l-*auti- ful creations of Phidias, as well as the cla^c Vale <;( Tempe, the rug- ged defiles of Thermopylae, and the towering heights of Areopagnsw We naturally ask whence did this mighnr people derive the elements of their greatness ? Some, by a fanciful conceit, have suggested that it was in part superinduced by the induences c^ climate and the sce- nery by which they were surrounded ; that the physical geography of Greece — ^a combination of sea and mountains — served to make it the cradle of a bold and free people ; or, as Wordsworth apostro- phizes it — " Two voices are there : one is of the sea, One of the mountains : each a mighty voice. In both from age to age thoa didst rejoice : They are thy choeen music — ^Liberty." Such a theory is, however, manifestly untenable, as the abortive at- tempt, in modem times, to resuscitate Athens sufficiently attests. ** Tls Greece, but living Greece no more ! So coldly sweet, so deadly fair, — We start, for soul is wanting there I"* Leaving the solution of the problem with tiie ingenuity of the curious ♦Byrom 36 A VOICE TO AMERICA. | in such speculative matters, we shall probably content the reader by a rapid survey of the geographical limits of the Hellenic States, together with an outline sketch of their rise, progress, and decay. Greece, bounded on the north by the Cambuman mountains, which separate it from Macedonia, on the south and east by the ^^Egaean, on the west by the Ionian sea, extended two hundred and twenty geo- graphical miles in length by one hundred and forty in breadth. In its salubrity of cHmate, variety and fertility of soil, it possessed ad- vantages unequalled by any other country of similar extent Situated in the vicinity of the three quarters of the world, on three sides wash- ed by the sea, and abounding with commodious ports and harbors, its advantages for commerce and navigation were scarcely less con- spicuous. It was divided into Northern Greece, comprehending Thessaly and Epirus ; Central Greece or Hellas, which included At- tica with its' Marathon, Megares, Boeotia with its Thebes, Plataea, and Chseronea ; and the southern peninsula, or Peloponnesus, containing Arcadia, Achaia with its twelve cities, and Laconia with its Sparta, Its jurisdiction also extended to groups of islands adjacent in the Ionian and -^Egasan seas, as well as more extensive separate islands. Greece was originally peopled by several insignificant races of barbarians : among them two principal tribes claim our notice — the Pelasgi and the Hellenes. These were of Asiatic origin, but of dif- ferent dialects. The Pelasgians settled in the Peloponnesus about 1800 B. C. Although rude in their origin, they are supposed to have made some advances towards civilization, since they founded the ancient states Argos and Sicyon ; and to them are attributed those marvellous monuments termed Cyclopian. They spread to- wards the north, founded Attica, made settlements in Thessaly, and existed as a people for one hundred and fifty successive years. The Hellenes — subsequently so called from Hellen, one of their chieftains — originally the weaker of the two tribes, made their first appearance in Phocis, near Parnassus, under Deucalion. They after- wards invaded Thessaly, expelled from thence the Pelasgi, and sub- so(juently drove tliein to Arcadia. The gi'adual spread of the various SPARTA AND ATHENS. 37 branches of the Hellenic tribe over Greece was effected by several migrations ; after which they preserved the settlements they had al- ready obtained, until the later migration of the Dorians and Herac- lidse, about 1100 B. C. Besides these original inhabitants, colonies at the same early period came into Greece from civilized countries, — fi*om Egypt, Phoenicia, and Mysia. Much of their early attainments in domestic civilization is to be traced to these foreign sources, as well as their mythological and religious rites and observances. These, however, became in their adoption less Egyptian, Asiatic, or Thracian than Grecian. To their religious system, in part, is to be ascribed their progress towards polished refinement. The ancient minstrels or bards contributed to this end, by their dissemination of moral and religious sentiment, diverting them from a love of barbarous warfare to the advantages of civilized life. The oracles of Delphi, Dodona, and Olympia were no less powerful to the same end. The necessity of consulting these sanctuaries naturally led men to regard the oracles as the common property of the nation ; and thus these various tribes, who had been hitherto strangers, met in peace ; and hence arose spontaneously the first idea of a commonwealth and a confederacy. It was at Delphi that the most important and the most protracteS of these political reunions — that of the Amphyctions — occurred. It adopted the principle that none of the cities belonging to the league should be destroyed by the others. We now discover the germ of the chivalric spirit of the nation, and the development of its youthful vigor in the heroic ages. A love of daring adventure and heroic exploit, not only individually but also in confederate bodies, led them beyond the limits of their fatherland. These emprises of valor being rehearsed by their bards, they thus acquired a national poesy such as no other people possessed, and such as contributed to the fuller development of the national genius. At this juncture, when the combined Hellenic nations were ripe for some grand military expedi- tion, came the memorable siege of Troy. The most important result of that war was the kindling of one common national spirit — a spirit 3 38 A VOICE TO AMERICA. which even survived all tlie domestic feuds and animosities. This expe- dition, which lasted ten years, and was crowned with such signal suc- cess, caused the Hellenes to regard themselves ever after as one people. The Trojan war was quickly followed by tempestuous times, — internal strifes, and incursions from the ruder tribes of the North, shook Greece during an entire century. The Doiians with their allies strove to possess tiiemselves of Peloponnesus, and, after repeated at- tempts, at length the Heraclidae succeeded in revolutionizing the Hellenic States. The teiritories of Argos, Sparta, Messene, and Cor- inth were wrested from the Achsaans, who had hitherto inhabited them. The Acha^ans expelled, in their turn, the lonians, and form- ed the settlement called Achaia; while the fugitive lonians were received by their former kinsmen, the Athenians. But among the consequences of this migration of the Hellenic races must be reckoned likewise the establishment of Greek colonies in Asia Minor — an occurrence of the highest import to their national develop- ment. This colonization, commenced by the JEohan Hellenes, was soon followed by the lonians, and even the Dorians. Among the effects of these migrations and wars was not only an interruption to the progress of civilization, but even almost entirely the annihilation of it ; yet in this universal movement the foundation was laid of that constitution of things which aftei-wards existed in Greece.* The tribes which had migrated, as well as those which had been expelled, remained at first under the dominion of their hereditary princes, some for a longer, others for a shorter period. In the two centuries, how- ever, immediately subsequent to the migrations (B. C. 1100-900) republican constitutions took the place of hereditary clanship in all .the Grecian countries, the distant Epirus excepted. These republics continued to exist amid the various revolutions which happened, and the love of political freedom became from this time the national senti- ment. In this newly-constituted order of things, each city with the territory around it formed a separate state, and framed its own con- stitution ; hence there arose as many free states as cities. Although * Heeren's Researches. SPARTA AND ATHENS. 39 thus parcelled out iuto a number of petty states, there existed a cer- tain unity among the Hellenic race, a certain national spirit : this was produced in part by their custom of attending the national festivals and games ; and this union was further promoted by the Amphic- tyonic council, from which originated Grecian ideas of international and judicial law. Even at this early period Sparta and Athens be- came distinguished for their superior constitutions and laws. These two cities in fact constitute a leading essential in subsequent Grecian history. We now approach a revolutionary era in the goveniment of Sparta. The Achseans were previously govenied by princes of the house of Perseus; the royal power was now divided between the fiunilies of Procles and Eurysthenes. Soon the Dorians acquired the conquest of many of the cities of the peninsula, and the Achagans be- came for a time their bondsmen. The Spartans, however, ultimately usurped authority over the whole country, which they continued to retain. The records of the two following centuries, to the time of Lycurgus, are filled with a series of belligerent engagements on the part of the Spartans with their neighbors, the Argives. Lycurgus gave to Sparta about the year 800 that constitution to which she was principally indebted for her subsequent splendor. His laws were not written, but conveyed in apophthegms, which were confirmed by the oracle of Delphi. The principal object of the laws of Lycurgus was to insure the existence of Sparta, by creating and supporting a vigorous and uncorrupted race of men. His grand maxim was, " that children were the property of the State, to which alone their educa- tion was to be intrusted." With the view of equalizing the two extremes of great wealth and great indigence, he divided the lands into equal lots, proportioned to tlie number of the inhabitants. This partition of the territory met with violent opposition from the opulent, as might have been expected ; but such was tlie commanding influence of this great man, that he tri- umphed over all opposition. He also appointed public tables, at which all citizens were enjoined to eat together without distinction. The diet was simple, and each had to contribute his quota for the repast. On 40 A VOICE TO AMERICA. these occasions of public feasting, the conversation was restricted to topics wholly of an instructive kind. Xenophon observes, " they were schools not only of temperance and sobriety, but also for in- struction." Soon after the time of Lycurgus, the Spartans increased greatly their temtory by their wars with the Messenians ; and al-. though a long interval elapsed before the former made any further attempts at invasion, yet on the deposition of Demaratus, Cleomenes, his former colleague, was compelled to bear a part in the Persian war. That struggle, together with the idea of supremacy in Greece, which had now taken its rise, introduced a series of political rela- tions before unknown.* It was at this epoch that the seeds of strife were sown between the rival republics of Sparta and Athens. The history of Athens during this period, observes Heeren, is ren- dered important rather by domestic revolutions, which gradually tended to convert the State into a republic, than by external aggran- dizement. The situation and peculiarities of Attica, rendering it less exposed than other parts of Greece to the attacks of wandering hordes, favored the tranquil growth of national prosperity. The history of Athens, as a State, begins properly with Theseus (temp. 1300 B.C.) ; although certain institutions, such as that of the Areo- pagus, the division of the people into nobles, husbandmen, and me- chanics, may bo traced to the colony of Cecrops. The last king was Codrus, who by a voluntary sacrifice of his life rescued Attica from the inroads of the Dorians, in 1068. The period of the Archons lasted till the year 152 B. C. From that time until 682 no remark- able events occurred, except the internal commotions which were occasioned by the oppressive exactions of the aristocratic party. From this state of anarchy Athens was rescued by Solon ; a man to whom not only Athens, but the whole human race, are deeply in- debted. He effected the happiness of his countiy, by remodelling the constitution of the State. Solon not only aimed to invest the administration of government * Heeren' s Kosearches. SPARTA AND ATHENS. 41 with the best intelligence and prudence of which he could avail himself; but his code for private life was no less desen'ing commen- dation. Unlike Lycurgus, he regarded polity as subordinate to morals. Yet the reader need not be reminded, that the social condi- tion of Greece, as compared with that of the modern ages, had little, indeed, to boast. Plato, Socrates, and other eminent philosophers and sages, not only tolerated, but were even the avowed apologists of polygamy, and its train of vices. The legislation of Solon was soon disturbed by the factious tyranny of Pisistratus, who obtained by force of arras the government of Athens. This usurpation was again succeeded by the return of Alcmseonidoe, who, aided by a Spartan army, took possession of the city in 510. This resulted in a modi- fication of the Constitution. Clisthenes, with a view of quenching party spirit by a new combination of the citizens, increased their elective powers. A struggle vnth the Spartans and the allies, who sought to re- establish monarchy in Attica, soon ensued ; and yet the gloiious suc- cess of the republic, in this her first efibrt in the cause of liberty, gave fresh impulse to the national spirit. It w^as tliat which induced Athens to unite with the Asiatic Greeks in the cause of freedom, and which provoked the vengeance of the Persians ; and yet, but for that daring encounter, Greece would probably never have achieved that greatness and renown which have signalized her in the history of the world. It is, perhaps, sufficient for our purpose thus to sketch the outline history of Sparta and Athens — the two most important of the Grecian States ; the others being of subordinate interest. Greece derives her importance among the nations of gntiquity, not only from her bril- liant successes in arms, her love of art and letters, and her liberah in- stitutions, but also from her numerous colonies. These spread along the shores of the Mediterranean and the Black seas. The history of early civilization, therefore, owes much to the efibrts of Greece, for she carried her influence east and west, far and wide. This gives us the clue to the sources of her opulence, supremacy, and splendor. These 43 A VOICE TO AMERICA. colonies, numbering over a hundred, bad each its own peculiar form of government, — showing a wonderful variety of political views among these people. "Of the Greek colonies, the most ancient, and in many respects the most important, were those along the western coast of Asia Minor, extending from the Hellespont to the boundary of Cilicia. Here, ever since the Trojan war, which first made these countries generally known, the JEolians, lonians, and Dorians had planted settlements. These were the most important for trade. Here likewise, in the native country of Homer, the father of Grecian civil- ization, of Alcseus, and of Sappho, poesy, both epic and lyric, ex- panded her first and fairest blossoms ; and hence, too, the Mother Country herself received the first impulse of moral and cultivated tastes."* When almost all the Grecian States and colonies submitted to the Persian yoke, Sparta and Athens alone boldly resisted it. The ever- memorable battle of Marathon proved not only flie superiority of Athenian heroism, but was also the preservation of Grecian liberty. After the fall of Miltiades, the history of Athens becomes that of emi- nent generals or demagogues : Themistocles and Aristides were the real founders of the power of the Commonwealth. The former, in suc- cessfully accomplishing what Miltiades failed to achieve, made Athens also a mighty maritime power. While the rival State was thus ad- vancing in power, Sparta sufiered fi'om the insanity of one of her kings, Cleomenes, and the arrogance of another, Leotychides. To Themistocles belongs the glory of frustrating the second Persian in- vasion of Greece, under Xerxes. However weak might have been the national leagues, separately, — ^being bound together by common interests and animated by th^ controlling spirit of the Grecian de- liverer, they were irresistible. The great naval victory of Salamis does not reflect greater glory upon the Greeks, than did the gallant action of Leonidas with his three hundred Spartans : yet, as the plan for the conduct of these engagements originated with Themistocles, the pre-eminent merit of their success is to be alone ascribed to his * Ilceren's Ancient Researches. SPARTA AND ATHEXS. 43 statesmanship and militaiy skill. Further successes by the battles of Platsea on the land, and of Mycale at sea, ending in the destruction of the Persian fleet, expelled forever from the shores of Greece that mighty foe. Sparta at this time acquired a temporary ascendency, yet soon the command was transfen-ed to Athens ; and not only was this the oc- casion of jealousy between these States, but it also had a decided influence on all the subsequent relations* of Greece. Then follows about half a century of eminent prospenty to Athens : far different was it with Sparta ; there rude customs and laws arrested the develop- ment of genius ; there men were taught to die for their country, while in Athens they learned to live for it. The loss of Themistocles was supplied by Cimon, who protracted the war against the Persians in order to maintain the union of the States ; while the death of Aristides and the banishment by ostracism of Cimon, concurred in elevating Pericles to the head of affkii-s, who for forty years swayed Athens, without either being archon or member of the Areopagus. His administration was evidently of the democratic character, as that of his predecessor was that of the aristocratic. The idea of a perfect equality among the Grecian States is proved to have been chimerical, since the minor independencies were swayed by the more powerful ; and even between these — Sparta and Athens — an almost unintenupted strife for supremacy existed. Sparta was now doomed to bo abased before the great Theban general, Epaminondas. In her distress, Sparta formed an alliance with Athens ; while Thebes entered into a compact with Persia, A sanguinary struggle between Sparta and Thebes left Greece but an independence proceeding from enervation ; yet at the very time of the growing power of Macedonia under Philip, she madly plunged into another devastating civil war of ten years' duration, known as the Phocian war. " The treasures of Delphi circulating in Greece, were as inju- rious to the country as the ravages which it underwent. A war springing out of private passions, fostered by bribes and subsidiary troops, and terminated by the interference of foreign powers, was 44 A VOICE TO AMERICA. exactly what was requisite for annihilatiDg the sicjanty remains of mo- rality and patriotism still existing in Greece."* The very first advance of Philip was a premonition of the fate of G recede, although the eloquence of Demosthenes warded it off until the second invasion. The battle of Chaeronea was the commence- jneut of the Macedonian ascendency over the Grecian republics. 1'ho history of Greece, from the accession of Alexander of Macedon until the final subjection lo the lloman power, it is scarcely necessary to detail. At the decease of Alexander, Sparta had been humiliated by defeat ; while Athens remained the first State in Greece. Fre- quent revolutions, civil commotions, and State intiigues and crimes, mark her declining career. While Greece was thus passing into her clecadence, Roman strategy and Roman valor were striving for the transfer of the supremacy. Rome, taking advantage of the disorder caused by tlie frequent factions and feuds which occiirred between the Achjeans and Sparta, or Messene, conquered Macedonia ; and at the sack of Corinth, the light of Grecian freedom finally vanished. Of all the great nations of antiquity, none, perhaps, boasts of such a rapid and brilliant career as Greece ; and h'&r decline was as strangely sudden. It may well be asked, whence came the efflorescence of Grecian mind in the age of Pericles ! What w^as the element of power that caused a handful of Greeks to overmaster the proud chiv- alry of the Persians ? what the mighty spell which made the Hel- lenic arms the terror of the surrounding nations, — and won such brilliant triumphs at Marathon, Salamis, and Plata^a, as to fill all Greece with the exultant shouts of Liberty, and blazon the scroll of history with the records of heroic glory ? Yet was her triumph as brief as it was brilliant. In a single generation, Grecian Liberty reached its culmination, and in another century, its overtlirow. The conflicting and diversified character of Grecian society suggests a clue. Hers was a social amalgam : all the gradations of wealth and poverty, as well as liberty and oppression, were among its elements. Hence feud and faction, as well as military despotism, were among * Heoren. SPARTA AXD ATHENS. 45 the difitui'bing causes of the public weal. It Las been eloquently said, that Attic wisdom, Theban hardihood, and Spartan valor, could not combine to save her ; that very army which Greece had bred and nounshed, to reduce oriental pride, was turned, vulture-like, upon herself. Thus Greece, with her battlements and towers, her glorious triumphs in arts and arras, is hurled headlo^ig from her giddy height, — a parricide, — at once the shame and pity of the world ! " When Greece with Greece, Embroil'd with foul contention, fought no more For common glory and for common weal ; But false to freedom, sought to quell the fire, Broke the firm hand of peace and sacred love That lent the whole irrefragable force. And as around the partial trophy blushed, Prepared the way for total overthrow."* The Commonwealths of Greece were generally the scenes of popu- lar commotion, — the tyranny of one part ofMihe people over the other, or of usurping demagogues over the whole. Peiicles, the noblest, perhaps, of his class the world has ever seen, was yet a demagogue. Ho sacrificed the last conservative institution of Athens for the advancement of his own political power, — the dictatorship. " It cannot be denied that the Athenian democracy abused its absolutism, and that the Athenian State made an unjust use of its supremacy over the allies ; and thus viewed, there is some truth in the assertion of Isocrates, that the dominion of the sea was the source of all the misery of Athens and Greece. But it is not fair to confine our views to the abuse : what form of government, or what State, ever effected so much in (ho same space of time for humanity, as Athens and its democracy, during the brief period of their meridian glory ? Peri- cles, Phidias, Polygnotus, Sophocles, Socrates, Plato, Demosthenes, were the children of the democracy ; and truly great must the public spirit of that nation have been, which could foster, encourage, and develop the genius capable of achieviug their mighty deeds." f * Thomson. f Taylors Nnt. Hist, of Society. 3* 40 A VOICE TO AMERICA. Altliougli the ago of Pericles was the age of glory to Greece, yet it w;w tlien, an Pliny rornarks, that Greece lost her freedom; for then hIkj l that almost all the good which nations hrAc- possessed is to l»e attributed to socLil pixwress ; nearly all the t-vil, to luxury. *• It was by the cor- ruption of civilization and the asc^t-nJency of luxuiy, that the fsTi of Greece was caused, — that the armies whioli had triumphevi imdi-r the banners of intellect, were defeated when summoned away from their pleasures. It was because the influence of Lycurgus o\er the small republic of his birth liad banished from it all tlie means of sensualitTt that the power <^ Sparta, her domestic tranquillity, her good oriier and virtues, lasted from the time of hor lawpver till the Acha?«n league ; that, during five centuries, site was paramount in Greece, by her abstinence. It was immediately following die Periolean ag? — which was that of Grecian luxurv — that her moral decline com- menced, in the age of Philip, or corruption, when her fall was com- pleted. By civilization slie made conquests ; by her luxury she waa herself overthrown." Bancroft obsen^es : " The democracy of Athens, with all the imper- fections in every part of its public service, with tlio abuses attending its finances, and the corruption which finally turned the elective fran- chise into a source of personal revenue, maintains its dignity in the eyes of the world; for there the elements of civil Iil)erty were fir«t called into action. No tongue can adequately praise many of the results of that State; and it would also bo difllcult to display tlio de- ficiencies in its organization, and the gross injustice of iU foixMgn policy. Our own confederacy does not more surpass the («rocian in the extent of territory over which its liberties are difiusod, than in the excellence of the details of its laws." The admirable maxim of Isocrates is worthy tlio Hitentiun of mod- * Cbencvix on Nnt. (-Imr., 1832. 50 A VOICE TO AMERICA. era times, because it requires, as the foundation of national prosperity and obedience to law, the establisliment of the reh'gious principle, as the surest guai-antee for both. His advice to Demonicus respecting a citizen was : " First exercise piety towards God, not only in sacrifices, but also in the preservation of oaths ; for the former indeed may be an indication of abundant wealth, but the latter is a proof of integrity of character." The growing influence and contending interests of political parties in their struggles for ascendency, may superinduce the corruptions and treacheries which tarnish our national glory and jeopardize our national stability ; and thus we are in danger of re- enacting the pohtical immoralities and crimes of the ancient repub- lics — repeating the history and calamities of those splendid yet mournful examples of the past. The prerogatives of the Federal government must be maintained inviolate — the majesty of its author- ity supreme. In the multiplication of its constituent States there is great tendency to a reduction of the central constitutional power. In the desire for increasing territorial acquisitions, and a thirst for mili- tary renown, the haraiony of the confederacy may also be fatally dis- turbed, and anarchy usurp its place. An instance of this we have seen in the history of the Grecian republics. Severe and onerous military services were sustained by the warlike and heroic citizens of those ancient States, in consequence of this fostering, by the govern- ment, of an. excessive desire for militaiy power and conquest. A military despot is surely no friend to national or civil liberty ; and wherever the demagogue can take advantage of such social disorder, he is sure to do so. It may be well to repeat the warning given to us in the brilliant but terrible example of Athens, — it teaches us that an insatiate lust of territory marks the overthrow of a free State. According to the political creed of Aristotle, the Grecian State was antecedent to the individual citizen. He therefore possessed no inhe- rent personal rights, and was only allowed such immunities as were conferred by the State itself. Our commonwealth acknowledges an opposite rule. Both extremes are equally fatal to the liberties of a SPAKTA ^VND ATHENS. 51 democracy; tlie one tending to an oligarchy, the other to lawless despotism. Bulwer remarks : " As in despotisms, a coarse and sensual luxury, once established, rots away the vigor and manhood of a conquering people, so in this intellectual people (the Athenians) it was the luxury of the intellect which giadually enervated the great spirit of the victor race of Marathon and Salamis, and called up generations of eloquent talkei"s and philosophical dreamei-s from tlie earlier age of active freemen, restless adveivturers, and hardy warriors. The spirit of poetry, or the pampered indulgence of certain faculties to the prejudice of others, produced in a whole people what it never fails to produce in the indiWdual : it unfitted them — j«st as they grew up into manhood exposed to severer struggles than their youtli had un- dergone — for the stern and practical demands of life ; and suffered the love of tlie Beautiful to subjugate or soften away the common knowledge of the Useful. Genius itself became a disease, and Poetry assisted towards the euthanasia of the Athenians." The fundamental essentials to the security of a free State, are reli- gion, virtue, and intelligence in its individual citizens. This is the .palladium of her strength, and the augury of her greatness and glory. These three great weapons of our strength will form the surest bul- wark of our defence against the evils which may menace our national security, arising from the incessant influx of foreign immigration and foreign political influence. Before the vestal purity and celestial light of virtue, the shades of ignorance, superstition, infidelity, and crime will flee away. With the true light of Divine revelation for our guide, and the ample experiences of the past for our instmction, we may, and we assuredly ought to present to the world, not a mere problematical experiment, but an accredited and actual illustration of the great fact of a mighty nation of self-governed freemen — a specta- cle " grander, vaster, and more majestic than any thing ancient states- men ever dreamed of." Is such a brilliant immortality to be conferred upon these United States ? With the lapse of centuries, the lustre of Grecian intellect has 52 A VOICE TO AMERICA. lost none of its splendor. It still towers in Olympian grandeur over all the boasted achievements of intervening ages. Her proud tro- phies have defied the assaults of time ; and, whether in sculpture, eloquence, or in song — in military prowess, heroic virtue, or in her love of liberty — her name has ever been a watchword on the earth. Not only was Greece the home of the graces, but it was here that Freedom first erected her mountain-throne. It was the triumph of mind that gave the pre-eminent glory to Greece ; and Greece was the glory of the earth. What a galaxy of great men she gave to the world — Pericles, Epaminondas, Socrates, Aristotle, Demosthenes, Ho- mer, Plato, and Alexander — Titans among the race ! What a wealth of learning have they bequeathed to mankind 1 Classic Greece was the great academy of science and song — our storehouse of philosophy, ethics, poetry, sculpture, aesthetics, and architecture, as well as civili- zation and refinement. She was the first of the nations of antiquity to assert the supremacy of intellectual empire. It is not surprising, therefore, that her very name should have become talismanic, and that her sages, philosophers, and poets should still be regarded as our models, and their wisdom deemed oracular. Poetry still recognizes her great high priest in Homer, Philosophy her Socrates, History her. Thucydides, Eloquence her Demosthenes, Art her Phidias, Justice her Aristides, and Heroism her Leonidas. While, therefore, we do hom- age to Attic models in art, poetry, ethics, and philosophy, shall we neglect the warning which her political errors and immoralities sug- gest? Tfii J-Lii : I irii " lir..Tg T iT '77. world. — the laosc tcgsh cti: iui±r jols: ir^nLcnr n: lie i:;ntiT7T- andquitT. — wiin is- sc^is lag^mr:^ -Ufr xrJcr^itiS' ^-tttt.^-^ trimnphal arc^ifs. hs" CfZJ^ssim. if? Jmrr. mtL uL jcsr r-. achievemaits in ars ami imy-. s in7nr:*^q*L tzhl -zitt iias^ _r. remains of her essizia:: zxrj. 3 i. -ctt^iuiiL ma. — i nuni-^ miL Her toweriiig gtr^airiE^ "vriL iir lhhi-sC «?izr=:i:inLniL ^rziM=r aur crimes, lives only cq iLr sitjI of isc^jr' — i 5iu»im**: UnsmiiiJL a Imman power a&i Lttajt ^v^cixot^ It i*l hh: "^j*!!** it liit lac Rome's eTentfol sctjcr s iL* siDs: z:ar^*ili:iis. "iitt: tu-jst ni^nimiiiftb. and the most ekqusi. 3f ecially as the power of the popular leaders was now not only renewed, but even augmented — ^the only limit to their authority being their unanimity of decision. New dissensions arose between the Patricians and Plebeians, one of the causes of which was the exclusive participation of the former in the consulship, of which the Tribunes demanded the abolition. This right of admission was not, however, extended to the Plebeians till after a struggle annually renewed for eighty years. Meanwhile, Rome was engaged in petty wars with the neighboring federate cities. These contests continued almost uninterruptedly, and arose out of the oppression, real or imaginary, which she practised upon them. The cities sought every occasion for asserting their independence; and the consequent struggles must have depopulated Rome, had not that evil been diverted by the policy of increasing the complement of citizens in admitting the freedmen, and not unfrequently even the conquered, to the enjoyment of civic privileges.* Little as these feuds, abstractedly considered, deserve attention, they become of high interest, inasmuch as they were not only the means by which the nation was trained to war, but they also led to the foundation of that senatorial power, whose important consequences will be exhibited hereafter. The last of these wars was that against Veii, the richest city in Etruria. The siege of that place, which lasted nearly ten years (404-395 B. C), gave rise to the introduction, among the Roman military, of winter campaigning, and of pay. Thus, on the one hand, the prosecution of wars more distant and protracted became possible ; while, on the other, the consequences were, increased taxa- tion. About this time, Rome was reduced to ashes by the Gauls, who pressed out of Northern Italy through Etruria, and possessed themselves of the city, the Capitol only excepted. One of the chief heroes of this period was Camillus, the deliverer of Rome, who laid a double claim to the gratitude of his native city, by overruling, after * Heeron. • 58 A VOICE TO AMERICA. his victory, the proposal of a general migration to Veii. Scarcely was Rome rebuilt, ere the former feuds revived, springing out of the poverty of the people, induced by the oppressive military taxation. Licinius, the Tribune, at this juncture having decreed that no indi- vidual should hold more than a certain amount of the national lands, the people became eligible equally with the nobles to the office of consul. The dictatorsliip, censorship, prcetoi'ship, and even the priest- iiood, quickly followed, as a matter of course. Thus political equality was conferred upon the Plebeians, with the Patiicians ; and the differ- ences between them ceased, for a time, to form opposing political parties. We now approiwh the true heroic age of Rome. This was intro- duced by the Samnite war — an engagement far more important than any in which Rome had previously been involved. In former con- tests her object had been to sustain her supremacy over her immedi- ate neighbors ; but in these latter wai*s, which continued for half a century, she opened a way for the subjugation of Italy, and laid the foundation of her future greatness. In this period commenced the practical illustration of the leading ideas of Rome upon the political relations in which she placed the States and cities she subdued. After the subjection of the Samnites, Rome, wishing to confirm her dominion in lower Italy, became entangled in war with the Taren- tines, who secured the alliance with Pyrrhus. In the first two battles with this foreign prince, Rome was unsuccessful. In a subsequent engagement at Beneventura, he was defeated, and compelled to evac- uate Italy, leaving a gan'ison at Tarentum. That city soon afterwards fell into the hands of the Romaas, whose dominion became thereby extended to the extremity of lower Italy. The early expedient of Roman colonization served the double pur- pose of relieving the capital of its pauper population, and of peopling her captured cities, as well as forming garrisons. This colonial sys- tem took its rise in the Samnite war, and ultimately embraced the whole of Italy. Connected with it was the construction of military highways, of which the Via Ajypia^ constructed B. C. 312, was one, ^- JI _.' in. ; T «i;> -- -*- ' • ■■' „y» i. 1 'IS r.^L,. :■ ■-■'1" u: «^T-^ «^n— -— ..^^ tee Tfi-r.'- .^> t . h& ^tf I'iT" — iiif i" ^ :..-.: .. - 11. .'f r-;:_.t>:. 60 • A VOICE TO AMEKICA. pendent States of antiquity ; but the love of conquest was the pro- curing cause of her ultimate overthrow. When the Carthaginians resolved to have provinces instead of factories, and garrisons instead of colonies, a large force became ne- cessary in order to keep possession of the conquered lands. From the time that a nation of merchants becomes a nation of princes, and exchanges commercial pursuits for territorial possessions, it abandons its proper strength for alien weakness, and fixes the limits of its own duration. The spirit of party and faction scarcely appeared in Car- thage, until after the Republic had yielded to the trial of conquest, and the passion for territorial aggrandizement. The strength of Car- thage in the war with Rome depended merely on its mercenaries and its money : it was founded on sand and gold-dust ; when the tide of fortune turned, both were swept away. There were, how- ever, other elements of social demoralization among the Carthagi- nians, which tended in no small degree to their overthrow. Their religion allowed the horrid rites of Moloch : they attempted to pro- pitiate their deities by human sacrifices. The immolation of infants was carried to a fearful extent, even by their infatuated mothers. To a flagrant and undisguised disregard of female honor has been ascribed this frequency of infanticide.* The conquest of Carthage inspired the Romans with arrogance, and although, ostensibly, her constitution remained unchanged, by it the power of the Senate acquired an undue preponderance. An illustration of this was seen in her invasion of Sardinia, in the midst of peace. Rome's maritime power was also extended in the Adriatic, and at the same time she formed her first political relations with the Grecian States. In the mean time Carthage was endeavor- ing to atone for the loss of Sicily and Sardinia, by extending her Spanish dominions. Rome at this time numbered, in all Italy, an army of eight hundred thousand men. While Hannibal, who had the command in Spain, was meditating a descent upon Rome, the preparations she made for defence show that it was not believed * Dr. Cooke T^jlor. THE FALL OF BOXS. «?I possible that he coald execute his euterprifie b\r the p^ute which he took. The results of this war were, ihe •i'=scra\n:ioa ot die nav^I p«?wer of the Carthaginians, anti, nocwiLbscnii trustrate the powertid alliances formed against her. The Roman Senate at this epoch usurped almost unlimited control — despotic and oliirarchical — and yet it was the embodiment of the highest political wisdom. Xotwith- standing the remonstrance of the Tribunes, war was declared against Philip of Macedon. The Roman arras were led to conquest in the east, by T. Quintius Flaminius. He gained his victory more by strat^y than by feats of arms. As he had already gained over the Achaean league, this brought Greece into a state of dependence upon Rome. A system of espionage was carried on by Rome, not only in the West, but also in the East, over Greece, The ftdl of Carthage and Macedonia suflBciently exemplifies the political rapacity of Rome. The ambassadors or Roman commissioners were skilful in diplo- macy and intrigue. By an artful policy, Rome procureil the ban- ishment of her most formidable foe, Hannibal, from Carthage, and thus prevented his projected league with Syria and Macedonia. A contest then arose between Rome and Antiochus, who, at the bat- tle of Magnesia, was compelled to accept conditions of peace, and which reduced him to a state of dependence. Within ten years, Rome had laid the foundation of her sway in the East, and she soon Ibecame sovereign arbi tress of the world from the Adriatic to the Euphrates. The internal condition of Rome liad now become grossly immoral, and her political system no leas cor- rupt Venality and perfidy obtained the mastery, and with reck- 4 62 A VOICE TO AMERICA. less disregard of honor, she devastated all the States that opposed the way to her universal dominion. The civil broils under the Gracchi, to " the first use of power which the emperors made," Mr. Merivale observes, " was to control the fiscal tyranny of the proconsuls and publicani. The revolution of Drusus and the Gracchi opened the spoils of the world to the Italians ; but those of Julius and Octavius closed them again, and restored them to their rightful owners. The luxuriance of Koman oppression flourished but for a century and a half; but in that time it created, perhaps, the most extensive and searching misery the world has ever seen. The establishment of imperial despotism placed in the main an effective control over these petty tyrants ; and notwithstanding all the crimes by which it won its way, and the corruptions which were developed in its progress, it deserves to be regarded, at least in this important particular, as one of the greatest blessings vouchsafed to the human race." Sallust forcibly remarks that the Roman manners were precipi- tated at once to the depth of corruption, after the manner of a resistless torrent. The era from which the rapid degeneracy is to be dated, was the destruction of Carthage ; yet, it cannot be doubt- ed that the atheistical tenets attributed to Epicurus, tended in no small degree to accelerate the subversion of Roman virtue and Ro- man liberty. A firm belief in the Divine superintendence of affairs is the true guarantee of public and private virtue as well as of lib- erty. It was Atheism that slew a million and a half of people dur- ing the first French Revolution. It was not Voltaire alone who blighted all France with the curse of infidelity; France had pre- viously ignored the Sabbath, desecrated her temples, and banished her priesthood. It is evident from the lessons of all history, that the Supreme Governor of the world holds nations as well as individ- uals to a strict moral accountability. The historical student, in comparing the Athenian Republic with the Roman, will at once perceive the characteristic differences of the races. The polished Greek preferred the polite arts of life, while the THE FALL OF ROME. 63 sturdy Roman yielded to the instinct of his nature in love, of mar- tial exploits. With the former, genius and learning were the cyno- sure; with the latter, the ensanguined trophies of war. Except during the age of the Republic, the records of Roman history boast of few illustrious names in literature. It was then that public vir- tue was sustained by public education ; it was then that the heroic fame of the Roman matrons passed into a proverb. No wonder that rhetoric and poetry should then have attained such rare excellence ; or that the populace even should have been fired with emulation of literary distinction ; or that Sallust, and Cajsar, Cicero, Lucretius, Virgil, Horace, and Livy, became the master spirits of the age. It will be also remembered that the laws of the " Twelve Tables" of the Decemvirs or ten Commissioners, were the product of the Repub- lican intellect of Rome. Though the temples of Rome are in ruins, these " Tables," which Cicero declared, " contained more wisdom than the libraries of all the Philosophers," are preserved intact, through the lapse of twenty centuries, since they form the basis of the law and the jurispru- dence of the civilized world. The fate of the Republic seemed now to depend upon the success of her Liberator — the elder Gracchus. In his eflfort to establish a yeomanry — the last expedient for reconciling the ceaseless discords between the politicians and plebeians — he became the victim of the brutal fury of the former. " The election day for tribunes was in mid-summer ; the few husbandmen, the only shadow of a Roman yeomanry, were busy in the field, gathering their crops, and failed to come to the support of their champion. He was left to rest his defence on the rabble of the city, and though early in the morning great crowds of the people gathered together, and though, as Grac- chus appeared in the forum, a shout of joy rent the skies, which was redoubled as he ascended the steps of the Capitol, yet when the pa- tricians, determined at every hazard to defeat the assembly, came with the whole weight of their adherents in a mass, the timid flock, yielding to the sentiment of awe rather than of cowardice, fled like 64: A VOICE TO AMERICA. sheep before wolves, and left their defender, the incomparable Tibe- rias, to be beaten to death by the clubs of senators. Three hundred of his most faithful friends were left hfeless in the market-place. In the fiuy of triumphant passion, the corpse of the tribune was dragged through the streets, and thrown into the Tiber."* The deluded no- bles flattered themselves into a belief that they had accomplished a victory ; that the senate had routed the people, but it was the aveng- ing spirit of their fearful wrongs, that had struck the first deadly wound into the bosom of Rome. The blood of their victim, like that of other martyrs, but cemented his party. A succession of fearful' in- surrections ensued, and the soldiers of the Republic became the cap- tives of their bondsmen, whose numbers had prodigiously increased. Such were the horrors of this civil war in Sicily and Italy, that it is paid a million of lives were sacrificed, and that Sicily suffered more from its devastations than during the Carthaginian war. Two evils seemed to have resulted, unbridled license apiong the wealthy, and the most degrading servitude of the bondsmen. It was now that Ro- man citizens, by their own vote, consented to the degradation of be- coming paupers, their extreme poverty requiring that they should be fed from the public table. Discarding the pursuits of agriculture «nd the industrial arts, the public treasury had to be supplied by plunder of foreign countries, and thus Roman virtue and Roman valor were exchanged for piracy and pillage. At this crisis the demagogue Marius became the chieftain of the oppressed poor. The streets of Rome and the fields of Italy again became the scenes of massacre, and the oppressed bondsmen witnessed the fearful destruction of their oppressors. They triumphed over Sylla, the leader of the opposite party, who, to gain influence, conferred freedom upon ten thousand of their number. The subsequent insurrection of Spartacus failefl, however, of its pro- posed result, for, when in sight of the Alps, the immense emigration, which had already defeated the armies of four Roman generals, fell a snare to its lust of plunder, and was thus overthrown. Tlie defeat of * Bancrofb^B Misoollanios. n«-iri. : v.: ■;■■ 11 ['*'-• 1'..-'^.'' - • II.' !'"".' ■ ■ • — Til Li '•■ - '.:.■ c iii.:";^-; ■ •■ ■■•■■ 111- ir.*- ■ •■" J^ J> .. 1 t k " '_ ■— 7"*r. •»■■. ■.l*" 66 A VOICE TO AMERICA. rule is proved to have been fraught with ruin. The same cause will ever insure like results. " The universal record of history teaches that all republics which have risen and fallen, owe their destruction to foreign influence — un- seen at first, — permitted till too strong for resistance, — at last fatal."* During the greatest successes of Caesar, just after his defeat of Pompey at Pharsalia, the Senate was crowded with aliens and soldiers, instead of Koman citizens. Michelet remarks, the victory of Caesar bore all the character of an incursion of barbarians into Rome, and into the Senate. In the commencement of the civil war, he had given the right of the city to all the Gauls between the Alps and the Po, and he raised to the rank of Senators a whole host of Gaulish Centurions in his army, as well as soldiers. Thus the conquerors of Pharsalia came to stammer out Latin by the side of Cicero. Thus that body, once so august, was now under the control of the thrice- elected Dictator. This Senate decreed a general celebration of his various victories, during forty days. A bronze statue of him was to be set up in the Capitol, inscribed " the demigod ^ His triumphant processions, one for Gaul, another for Egypt, a third for Syria, and a fourth for Numidia, bore him four times, in the highest state which mortal could sustain, up to the temple where his image testified to inunortality, while to all classes of the people, revellings, games, and fastings, were continued with unsparing prodigality. His fifth and last triumph was that obtained over the sons of Pompey, of Munda. The Senate still continued to lavish upon him every kind of extrava- gant homage, even acknowledging liim as the Julian Jupiter, and or- daining a temple and a priesthood to be consecrated to his worship. So fell the liberty, and so trembled the religion of Rome. There was now but one man for those " that talked of Rome,'' to praise as their sovereign, and to confess their deity .f Thus by their vices were the Roman people brought to seryitude, not as they were unwilling, but as if bondage had become more ac- ceptable to them than liberty. * Gov. Gardner of Mass. t Elliot's Liberty of Rome. TTTK FJlLL Cff* BOKK. fS^ **Bkni iriiMi uMKf afi il izKHouf c^pwt ooctiitil AiiC rr T^tBir x-ism "urourin ir semrniift. Tbac *i> ipvt iMmdaft niort zniii. iii«eTr r" The almoss sizpadninaa: mfineii!**- vLrji C^sar ^ssns^z »? Eam«pwr and ^wiiaac* i^-i oeitsei siii ii-:^ liir r^^rininuiiiai :c PrTrj5aii» -ir«ffe to foBow. Hae starr c^ ii*- sE':»5eriHii.i iir*er ::• is^ «n£ » iire»5r fiimiliar to i3>e reader. Wiib :Lr ap^^ssJcoi cd" C^.TisTiiB OKsac -w^ assomed ^he isde ci JLiigTBnaf^ cii Esrr^^cc, miT !•* skii ijv hxf9 ended the grestesi ^ammccrwejihli tbe ir:«rji L» tvar swol jtai i^ eommenoemeiit of xht gr^s::*?: idmatcLx. 1^ r^zarc* of E.^:c=ie wim extended orer the whole p>l*e : in E::rco*, :i ciL-xiraed Ihjt, GasI, Spain, Lositania. Grcieoe, iLyr: :-:n2- p«ars c^ Brracs aad G«TMaT ; in Asia. Armenia. Sjria, iLdia. Asa Mia^r. M^^r-pccama. and Me- dia ; — in Afiica, E^ypt- Xram-iia, ManriiaEia. ar^i libra. B«jt h wim under the tyranny of her praei.?nan ffaard* iha: tiw Ifbertr of Rome was sacrificed. There is a voice which je: speaks to us from Xlariics^ and Sylla, and Philippi. The ruin of the free classes of Rome, and the consequent depopu- lation of the empire, appears to have heen the specific malady of the state, and under which it suffered dissolution.* Gihhon forcihly portrays the skepticism and its usual accompaniments^ which ob- tained among the higher ranks of Roman society. ** It was indiffer- ent to them what shape the folly of the multitude might choose to as- sume, and they approached with the same inward contempt, and the same external reverence, the altars of the Libyan, the Olympian, or the Capitoline Jupiter.'' The Abbe Lamennais asserts, " that in such a frame of society, the human mind had nothing to rest upon. Despoiled of iU fnith, and even of its opinions, it was drifted upon an ocean of uncertainty and doubt. There was no more of paganism — no more of j)hil(>Hopliy, un- less you call by that name those idle vagaries with which the Kuinatm amused their leisure in the gardens of their villaw, or under the portl* * Micbelot. 68 A VOICE TO AMERICA. coes of their palaces, but from which proceeded no guide to the con- science, no fixed rule of conduct. They descanted upon their gods only to doubt their existence — on their duties, to elude them — on death, to determine how life could be enjoyed most ; and the whole was termi- nated by abandoning themselves, heedlessly, to the current which car- ried, pell-mell, the wrecks of social order, men, institutions, and the empire itself" Montesquieu, and other reliable authorities, do not essentially differ in their opinions. Last, but greatest of all the causes that rendered the Eoman peo- ple incapable of existing any longer as a Republic, that made their subjugation to the rule of some military adventurer inevitable, was the universal spread of irreligion and profligacy.* This is disguised, or lightly passed over by some modern writers ; but no one can be- come femiliar with the classics, without having it perpetually forced upon his notice in a thousand different forms ; no mistaken delicacy should prevent us from dwelling and reflecting on the facts. They teach the great moral, that, to preserve freedom, piety and virtue must not be suffered to decay. The Romans, whose foreign conquest and domestic concord Polybius witnessed, believed firmly in a future state of rewards and punishment ; hence, as Polybius remarked, came the probity that honorably distinguished their nation. The Romans of Caesar's time had learned to look on such ideas as vain and ridiculous. Among the Roman virtues, not the least conspicuous, was her sub- lime patriotism. It was this that added such august dignity to the Roman character ; but, with the loss of her virtues, came the fall of the great commonwealth. No people has ever been destroyed unless internal division has first prepared the way for an invader. NationaHty is of too strong a power to be seriously affected by external attacks: its foes are in its own household, and cliques and feuds are its most dangerous enemies. The armies of Joshua foimd the Canaanites an easy prey, for that ancient people were split up into numerous principahties and tribes, * Merivale. THE FALL OF KOM£. 69 though of common origin, language, and customs. Their several kings or chieftains could resolve on no settled action against the in- vader ; internal jealousies prevented a united action, and the several nations were annihilated in detail. Carthage, the mistress of the world when Rome was yet in its in- fancy, flourished peacefully so long as concord and unity influenced her citizens in the common good, but faction wrested victorj' from her brow, persecuted and banished the immortal Hannibal, and left; her palaces in ruins at the feet of her conquerors. Rome, eternal Rome herself, felt the terrible evils of division. Against such treason to the Republic, Cicero thundered in foaiful elo- quence, denouncing the Catilincs and anarchists of the ago who sought to divide a united people. It was by such divisions that Ciesar and Pompey destroyed the Republic, and left it the prey of emj^erors. Feuds and civil war delivered Italy to the barbarians, and the rival houses of the Arsini, Colonna, Medici, oge. In 809, during a war with Pepin, they made ciioice of the island of the Rialto as their capital, and, twenty years later, transjwrted thither the body of St. Mark, whom they chose as their patron saint. In the south, the republics of Gaeta, Amalfi, and Naples had snccessfully resisted the attacks of Lombards and Saracens, and cov- ered the Levant with ships of merchandise. To Amalti is duo the glory of the invention of the mariner's compass, the establishment of the order of the Knights Hospitalers of Jerusalem, and the preser- vation of the pandects of Justinian. Naples and Amalli both suc- cumbed to the Normans, under Koger II., in the beginning of the twelfth century. "When, towards the end of the eleventh century, the Western world took up the dispute with the Saracens for the sepulchre of Jesus Christ, Venice, Pisa, and Genoa had already reached a high point of commercial power. These three cities had more vessels on the Mediterranean than the whole of Christendom besides. They seconded the Crusaders with enthusiasm. They provisioned them when arrived oft* the coast of Syria, and kept up their communica- tion with the West. The Venetians assert that they sent a fleet of two hundred vessels, in the year 1099, to aid the first crusade. The Pisans aflSrm that their archbishop, Daimbort — wdio was aftenvards Patriarch of Jerusalem — passed into the East with a Imndred and twenty vessels. The Genoese claim only twenty-eight galleys and six vessels. But all concurred with equal zeal in the copquest of tlie Holy Land J and the three maritime republics obtained important privileges, which they preserved as long as the kingdom of Jerusalem lasted.*'* Such was the prosperity of the Italian Republics when Frederic Barbarossa determined to abolish their freedom, and render Italy an * Sismondi. 76 A VOICE TO AMERICA. integral part of the German Empire. The small towns quickly per- ceived that their only safety was in joining some one of the great cities, and making common cause against their oppressor. Thence arose the Guelph and Ghibeline parties, which distracted the penin- sula with civil war during several centuries. The two party-cries, which seem to us insufficient to account for the sanguinary proceedings which desolated Italy, represented two important principles. The Emperors of Germany were determined to vanquish the democratic institutions of the Italians, and, by grant- ing certain immunities to diflferent cities, obtained their assistance against the Guelphs, who asserted their independence of the Emperors, and found a wilhng ally in the Papacy, then in the height of the struggle to rid itself of the temporal power. Notwithstanding the civil commotion which threw the entire coim- try into one camp or the other, Italy presented a magnificent picture at the close of the thirteenth century. The authority of the popes and emperors having become suspended, numerous petty independent republics had arisen : the country was filled with cultivated plains and valleys, the proprietors advancing capital and sharing the har- vests ; immense canals were constructed for purposes of irrigation, of which the Naviglio Grande of Milan still bears testimony to the sci- ence and perseverance of seventy-eight years. The cities began to construct and perfect those wonderful works of art, which the l^pse of six centuries still sees drawing the steps of travellers to Florence, Ge- noa, and Venice : the towns were surrounded with fortifications, and the streets paved with flag-stones. Magnificence and taste combined to raise and beautify tlie palaces of Italian citizens, at a time when the nobles and princes of the rest of Europe thought but of security and defence. Sculpture, both of bronze and marble, flourished under the chisels of the forerunners of Michael Angelo; the "Gates of Heaven" of the Baptistery at Florence were cast, whilst Ciraabue and Giotto revived painting, Casella, music, and Dante gave to the world his glorious poem. History was studied, and written with elegance and truth by Giovanni Villani and others, whose records bear testi- - - - *■ ^ .« li..S>. _ _: I ■ L, ii.t _Li :;TL l:ii: L: _ " - -' .1. -u : - 1:11". :.C Il:lIL:Lr-"> T-:"- I. : .-?-. -•-■ ■ V".V",a" .V I ,,. C-ST'ICS Is '- ''^ • ^i'liin 1.1' _ "_1- _-rl_ . . fn'c^I. '-""rl'r.'i LZ-'l -^".;^'- "^-_'. ". ''II". -ll'i'l trefc C. 1.^.^^ .-..•r. ... ._r r-T ;i.. . >, .i... . ...i.» «,.'^ .... llllili*r£>»4rii,.'.v jTt;:i.t- ■-.r;J7-r.- •. . ..■. •«...... ...'«..« ... ..i > » else wLe.-e. V^l: . r tr^s :.n c '.: :riT /. t . \\ :. ■. '. >: ;; 10 « v : :', : '. :i '. *. >: .\ : :'■ .* v predominate*! iTxZre cr less in i:.:- ^"'.\:r :or;;*.'".".v<, '•Florence was the At:ier.s 0: l::rv. Tao ircr.iv.s ^'.;st\:i\ o.l b\ mm\»o « X k « t of its citizens, — the talen: and iuioliicronoo in br.sinoss to Iv \\^\\\u\ even in the mass of the people, — the gououviity >\hioh sivinoil il\o national character, whenever it was nooossary to protoot tho opprosM^l It I ^ ^.^ ^. w V,. ..^^.., ^ V... »''*■' Discord broke out, however, iu 1378; tho K>wor o\\\o\>^ »lom.'ni.lini; a more complete equality with tho hijjfluT rlassos. Th** ron'tiiiuiioii became at this time entirely democratic; tlu^ po»»pl»^ >\ovo MM\oirii»ii, and the nobles were excluded tVoiu tlio ^oviTiinuMit. Tlio m-iMh nl" anarchy and oppression were, howover, in ln'i' uiidM, llii« iili/,i»iw 78 A VOICE TOr AMERICA. were divided into twenty-one different corporations of arts or trades, from seven of which, termed arti maggiori, the magistrates might alone be chosen. From these sprung the Albizzi and Ricci, rival houses, and eventually the Medici, who, from popular leaders, became the absolute sovereigns of the republic. The disputes between the higher and lower orders of the citizens broke out with renewed intensity in 1378. The poorer classes of arti- sans flew to arms, and made themselves masters of the city. A carder of wool, Michele Lando, marched at the head of the people, carrying in his hand the gonfalon or national standard, when suddenly the citizens proclaimed him gonfalonier. He restored peace and se- curity to the State, and ordained that in future the chief magistracy should consist of three members of the major arts, three of the minor, and three of the ciompi or wool-carders. But this state of order and freedom did not long exist: in 1381 the people were deprived of power, and the family of Albizzi then directed the republic for fifty- three years. This house governed the State prosperously ; Florence attained an unexampled degree of prosperity, setting a limit to the ambition of the powerful Gian Galeazza Visconti, Ladislaus, king of Naples, and Filippo Maria, duke of Milan. " No triumph of an aristocratic faction ever merited a more bril- liant place in history. The one in question maintained itself by the ascendency of its talents and virtues, without ever interfering with the rights of the other citizens, or abusing a preponderance which was all in opinion."* The family of the Medici having obtained the leadership of the people by advocating popular doctrines, now intrigued to build up the fortunes of their house, and Cosmo de Medici became the rival of the Albizzi. Driven from the city in 1433, he was recalled the following year, and the Albizzi expelled. Had there been any patriotism in the Italian nation at this period — had any common coui*se of action or policy existed, or union of the different republics been effected — Italy could have cleared the Penin- * Sismondi. ITALIAN LIBERTY IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 79 8ula of foreign armies, and driven the French, Germans, Spaniards, and Swiss, with countless Condottieri, beyond the Alps. The great republics of Milan, Venice, and Florence, could not, however, con- sent to this forgetftilness of rivalry, and the two latter refused to ad- mit Milan into such a union. Italy, therefore, soon became a prey, not merely to foreigners, but to her own citizens, and the various re- publics fell into the hands of those rich famihes, whose only object was self-aggrandizement. Cosmo de Medici resolved to effect that, in which the family of the Bentivogli had been successful in Bologna, — the subjugation of the State to his rule, and that of his descendants. In this he eventually succeeded, and hen^forward we can no longer regard Florence as a republic, but as a duchy, — glorious, magnificent, and powerful, it is true, but a State in which democratic liberty did not exist, even in name, where the pride of a dominant family was the first, the only consideration. Florence had been the least selfish of all the Italian republics : she had opposed the oppressive power of the German em- perors, assisted her weaker neighbors against their tyrants, and been the guardian of liberty, generally, in Italy. But she fell, because in an evil hour she followed a selfish policy, and forgot the good of the whole in her private jealousies. There was a gleam of hope, however, when, in 1494, Florence ex-^ pelled the Medici, after they had governed the city during sixty years. Three parties aspired to power. The Piagnoni^ headed by the famous Savonarola, a monk, who demanded a democratic constitution ; the Arabbiati, who as{)ired to hold the same aristocratic p?>wer as that formerly held by the Medici ; and the Bigi, the partisans of tlie Medici, who kept studiously in retirement. These three parties became so evenly balanced in the halia or national council of 1494, that "Sa- vonarola took advantage of this state of affairs to urge that the people had never delegated their power to a balia, which did not abuse their trust. ' The people,' he said, * would do nmch better to reserve this power to themselves, and exercise it by a council, into which all the citizens should be admitted.' His proposition was agreed to, and a 80 A VOICE TO AMEBICA. general council was formed, and declared sovereign on the 1st of July, 1495 ; it was invested with the election of magistrates, hitherto chosen by lot, and a general amnesty was proclaimed, to bury in oblivion all the ancient dissension of the Florentine republic."* But the popular voice proved inconstant, and Savonarola's influence quickly gave way to that of the Arabbiati, who arrested him, and put his partisans, the Piagnoni, to flight Pope Alexander VI. dispatched messages to Florence, ordering the monk to be put to death, with his two disciples, Buonvicino and MarruflS, and they were accordingly burned alive, after suffering those excruciating tortures which pre- ceded their execution. With the aid of the Spaniards, in 1512, the e^led Medici returned to Florence ; but they had lost every republican feehng, and all sym- pathy of the Florentines. Their only object was to raise money for themselves, and for those Spaniards who had assisted them in regain- ing their tyrannical power. In 1569, Pope Pius V. granted the title of Grand-Duke of Tuscany to Cosmo de Medici, a youth of nineteen : seven grand-dukes of that family reigned in Florence, the last of whom, Gian Gastone, died in 1737. Thereafter, Florence, once the first on the scroll of liberty and fame, was scarcely mentioned in Europe. The httle republic of San Marino, which has existed as an inde- •pendent State since the fifth century, contains, at the present day, but four thousand inhabitants. Whilst her once powerful and magnificent neighbors no longer exist, and, what is remarkable, under the very eaves of the Vatican, she still preserves her laws and freedom. San Marino has its nobles and plebeians, from whom the legislative coun- cil of sixty members is chosen by universal suffrage. There is also an Upper Chamber, called the Council of Twelve, two-thirds of whom are renewed every year ; and two capatini, who form the executive. A supreme magistrate, who is invariably a stranger, administers jus- tice, and is elected for three years. The revenues aie about $6,000, and the armed force consists of forty men. The RepubHc pays great attention to letters, and supports a college which contains some fifty * Sisraondi. ITALIAN LIBERTY IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 81 students. The Italian traveller, M. Valeiy, iDloniis iis the usual com- plaint is heard about the aristocracy, for it appeai-s that a few rich families have managed to keep all political power in their own hands. Another complaint is of a still more serious character — non-resident strangers, unnatm-alized, have become possessors, by purchase, of the greater part of the little State. The republicans of San Marino must obviate such a crying treason, or they will soon cease to exist as a separate nation. Florence, the brightest gem in Freedom's coronet, fell from her high estate, because she kept not guard over hberty. It was an easier struggle to vanquish the' aristocratic Venice and Genoa, with the many minor States, which followed their baneful examples ; but all ahke are now fallen, and the mailed hand of foreign despotism holds Italy in chains. In looking back upon the glorious era of the Italian republics, the mind is almost lost in admiration of the power exerted by these small commonwealths ; of their intense love of liberty, when the rest of mankind were sunk in comparative slaveiy, and their glorious monuments in literature and the arts, at a period when ¥ai- rope was in mediaeval barbarism. But a foe existed in their midst, and the very principles which have worked the ruin of all other re- pubHcs compassed their destruction. Shall not Italy bo a warning to other lands ? Neither the militaiy hordes of the German emperors, the feai*ful thunders of the Vatican, the impetuous onset of the Gallic knights, nor the ceaseless ravages of the marauding Condottieri, could have prevailed against Freedom, had the ItaHans remained true to them- selves. But union did not exist — union had almost become impossi- ble : the sacred name of Liberty was used as a mere party-cry, and every man's hand was against his fellow. History declares with all the majesty of divinity, for her voice is but the fulfilment of prophecy, that conflicting principles and ceaseless agitation cannot exist in a community without destroying its vitality. Nay, the language of inspiration speaks in tones that man dare not gainsay — "A house divided against itself cannot stand.'* THE ANGLO^AXON RACE AEd FREEDOM. "If there be any thing in the supremacy of races, the experiment now in progress will develop it."— Daniel "Webster. Next to the divine instinct of religion, and scarcely less holy, is love of country and of the family to which we belong. Blood is the first and closest bond of life, endearing us, not only to our brethren, but to the generous soil which is our common heritance. We know not how it attracts us in sympathy, feeling, and disposition ; but its potency is none the less indisputable. It has been correctly remarked that the family is the first state. Next to occuppng the same land, the best guarantee oiTfellowship is speaking the same tongue. Further bonds of union are established when our brethren share the same be- lief with us, worship at the same altars, meet at the same time and places to perform the ceremonies of religion and settle the graver affairs that agitate the whole community, and, generally, when they feel and act as the members of one family or race can alone feel and act if they would strengthen the circumstances of blood and com- mon language. A people that is a stranger to such emotions, occupies no position in the world's history, but becomes merely an instrument in the hands of other and more earnest nations. A distinct and sacred nationality is essential to the development of patidotism, as the latter is essential to the growth of virtue and freedom. The American is a branch of the great Anglo-Saxon family. This we hear every day. It is one of those trite definitions which trip firom the tongue on the smallest provocation. How many are there who know any thing at all of the Anglo-Saxon family ? How many 8-i A VOICE TO AMERICA. are there who appreciate to its full extent the truth and glory of the assertion ? The number has been small, we beheve, but it \s swell- ing into magnificent proportions. The day is at hand when twenty millions of free-bom sons of America shall rejoice in the boast that they are Anglo-Saxons; — that day when the surging of turbulous foreign races shall provoke dignified and decisive reprimand. Where there are many conflicting elements of discord, it is not easy to mention a subject of national importance without ehciting ridicule and sarcasm. Anglo-Saxonism is particularly successful in this respect It is a theme which can scarcely be broached in general society, without calling forth some silly sneer. Surrounded on every side by a mixed population, the American almost loses his own iden- tity ; but it is for a moment only. The " time that tries men's souls " leads him instinctively back to the great fountain-head of his being, and he feels at once the race to which he belongs. We purpose in this chapter to devote ourselves, firstly, to a consideration of the Anglo- Saxon race en masse, and secondly, of that branch to which we be- long. We will preface our remarks with what a wiiter* of the 5 th century says of the Anglo-Saxons of his day f "They overcome all who have the courage to oppose them ; they surprise all who are so imprudent as not to be prepared for their attack. When they pursue, they infallibly overtake ; and when they are pureued, their escape is certain. They despise danger ; they are inured to shipwreck ; they are eager to purchase booty with the peril of their lives. Tempests which to others are dreadfiil, to them are subjects of joy. The storm is their protection when they are pressed by the enemy, and a cover for their operations when they meditate an attack." It will be per- ceived how little the characteristics of the race have changed, and how much we inherit in this present day from our early ancestors, especially in the particulars of overcoming oi)position, despising dan- ger, and laughing at the fierce threatenings of the ocean. The Anglo-Saxon race is undoubtedly of Scythian or Gothic origin. A portion of this gi-eat family invaded Britain early j^s 300 yeai-s '■■ Sidonia.<, Bishop of C'lcniioiil. THE ANGLO-SAXON liACE AND FREEDOM. 86 before the Christian era, whilst it was iu possession of the CimmeriaDs or Celts. The Anglo-Saxons of that early day, who were called Bel- gjB, from Belgic Gaul, w^honco they came, did not assimilate with other tribes more readily than they do now. The Celts had to aban- don Uieir advantage, and at the time of Julius Caisar's invasion it was the stem courage and inflexible braveiy of the Gethai's descend- ants, not the Cimmenans, that opposed his imperial legions. Pink- erton supposes that tlie iuterior of the island was still in tlie posses- sion of the Welch or Biitons, as they were called. All memory of the Celts or Cimmeiiaus who preceded the Welch in their occupation of Britain was unknown to the Roman and Saxon wntei*s. The genuine Anglo-Saxons, however, whence the present race is descended, did not ti'ansport themselves to Biitain until the fifth or sixth century. They came from the Cimbric peninsida (now Den- mark), and were branches of the great Saxon confederation which had extended itself from the Elbe to the Rhine, The Anglo-Saxons, Lowland Scotch, Normans, Danes, Norwegians, Swedes, Grermans, Dutch, Belgians, Lombards, and Franks, have all sprung from this great Saxon confederation,* and may all be distinguished by the terms Scythian, German, or Gothic. Their first appearance in the world's history was in that cradle of nations — Asia. Here they multiplied and extended their area of operations for several centuries.! Amongst themselves their general appellation was Scolati ; among the Greeks, Scuthoi or Nomades. They are better known, however, as Getae or Goths. The more advanced of the tribes were known to the Romans as Germans. We will here deviate for a moment to explain tlie meaning of these various designations, and whence they are derived. Pliny speaks of the Scythians as Sacassani, which was probably a corrup- tion of Sakai-suna, or Sons of the Sakai, afterwards abbreviated into Saksun or Saxon .J The name is supposed to come from the same root as the Anglo-Saxon word seax^ a sword. In the Persian book of Kings the same people are called Ssakalib, or Ssaklih — sword- • Pinkerton. t Herodotus, Strabo. % Miss Chandler. 5 86 A VOICE TO AMERICA. lips ; — the name being suggested in all probability by the Saxons' fondness for that weapon, a fondness which the Anglo-Saxons of the present day do not fail to manifest whenever they have an opportu- nity of getting to close quarters with an enemy. That they were a warlike people is beyond doubt ; for even the Roman name, German, is derived from the old German ger^ a spear, and mann, a man. After leaving Asia the Saxons adopted a new name and abandoned their Scythian one. They called themselves Teutons, from Teut, Tuisto, Tuisco, or Thiusco, who is said to have been one of the found- ers of the race, and who was worshipped after his death as a god. The modem name Deutsch is derived from this, having passed tlirough the modifications, Dutsch, Dietsch, and Teutsch. A Scandinavian branch of tlie family settled in Scotland about the same period that the Belgoe emigrated to Britain. The mem- bers of this section of the Saxon stock are known in histoiy by the name of Picts, or Caledonians. Thej are said to be the ancestors of the Lowland Scotch and the Northern Irish — traces that are distin- guished from their Celtic countrymen by superiority of intelligence, industry, and firmness of character. We have thus briefly traced the origin of the Anglo-Saxon family, and have shown whence it came. We will now prove that from earliest time to the present it has been the consistent champion of freedom, loyalty, and devotion. It cannot be disputed that the Anglo- Saxons were from the first, and are to the present day, fond of what is delicately termed " annexation." They were ever ready to pur- chase booly, as the learned Sidonius remarks, with the peril of their lives. A brave people cannot resist the temptation of adventure, and the peril which it involves is, perhaps, its greatest attraction. A notable illustration may be found in Jonathan's love for Cuba. If that island could be acquired quietly and as a matter of course, no one would trouble himself about it. But it is otherwise ; and the Anglo-Saxon principles of overcoming diflBculties and vanquishing opposition manifest themselves. Those writers who recommend Jon- athan to wait until Cuba, like a ripe pear, falls into the lap of her THE AXGLO-5?AXOX ILVCE AND FREEDOM. 87 American lover, ilisplay but litilo kuowloJgo <.»f the Anj^lo-Siixoii character. In«K'penilently of this resiles-; force of ehanu-tor, how- ever, there is the moral element, which i^nvrns and eouiivls its actioD. If the Anglo-Saxon were a mere maiiukler. he would ivst eon t em •with acquisition and pillage. But he dcM?s not do s*\ The land he has fought for, he cherishes. It is tliereafter his land ; a j^jirt of himaelf^ and to he regarded from the elevation of liis freeilom-loving, noble mind. He may have acquired it by the sword, but he retains it by the law, and by a man-tt>-man faith and atlection. AVheristK-ver the Anglo-Saxon pioneer goes, he tiglns tirst ; then bniUls his chaivl, his courthouse, his schools, and his stores. He dcvs not laUvr to forget cinlization, but to exclude barbarism. All the lioman writci-s expressed their astonishment at the moral sternness and rectitude of the Teutonic character. The reverence with which thev treated w«>- m man was even a matter of sur|^rise. Tacitus says : ** They think their women possess something inherent and foreseeing." Is it not just occasion of pride, that in our day this cliivalric finding still r^Miiains, and forms a proverbial characteristic of the American character? "Wherever Freedom is found, there is woman emancipaleil. Kuglautl is the freest countiy in Euroix?, and there the jxisition of woman is little inferior to what it is in our own land. Among the ancient. Britons (or Celts) maniage was miknown. Men and women lived together promiscuously, like beasts of the ficltl. The AngK>-Saxons on the contrar}', viewed the custom with abhorrence, and wer« strict. in the observance of the marriage vow. Some of their earliest laws, at least the earliest of which jmy record is luiown to exist, relato especially to the crime of adultery. It was looked upon as nu»si. heinous, and received the severest punishment of the Angl«)-S;ix«)n code. In religion, the same wide difference existed lK*tweon tlu> two races. The Celts adhered to their I>ruidic woi'ship, and aban- doned their souls to the charge uf the priests. Hie Anglo-S.-ixdns, on the contrary, prayed to their mythological gods with individual 88 A VOICE TO AMERICA. fervor, and were content to manage their own conscience, and let others do the same. For a while the Romish religion gained the ascendency in Europe, and Celt and Saxon alike obeyed its tenets. But later, ere the voice of Luther shouted sternly through the dark- ness of Popoiy, the Anglo-Saxon Wickhffe had proclaimed liberty of conscience. The Celts, on the contraiy, adhered to the old tra- ditions ; and even in this day of generally diflfused theological know- ledge, the Celtic races are obedient to the bhnd dictates of the Holy See. Thus we perceive, that to the earliest Anglo-Saxons we are in- debted not only for the lasting characteiistics of our race, but for that inherent reverence for the gentler sex, and toleration of religious opinion, which characterize the American people of the present century. But this is not all. The Anglo-Saxons loved fair play, and could undei"stand no trial that was not based on general principles of equity and justice. In the reign of Ethelred, the following law was passed : " Let there be gemoto in every wapenlace ; and let twelve of the eldest thegres go out with the gerefa, and swear on the relics which shall have been given into their hands, that they will condemn no innocent man, nor screen any that is guilty."* In other words : " Let there be courts in every district, and let the sheriff summon twelve men to tiy all prisoners ;" our own prized trial by jury ! If we had inherited nothing but this boon fi-om our ancestors, it would be suflScient to endear the race to the present and to all after generations. If our space permitted, we could dwell on the memorable deeds of famous Anglo-Saxons. But we have proved suflBcient to satisfy the skeptic, that Freedom is not a new word, but an old idea, derived and retained from the earliest pages of their history. We will add to these remarks the final sentence of King Alfred's will. It needs no comment. " It is just that the English should forever remain as free as their own thoughts." Turning to our own history, we find that the Anglo-Saxon clement * Sharon Turner. si:»*j£. "riii"^' ■■'»-::.' " -i "it* iJt-^'yi >": n. '.:?^ '»•,■■ t i!.!! •..■ . J :,'■!:;■:■:■■- ^.-ri.*.- > ii. '-i . ■.■■ .*.. n.-i.x lai. T 111- vi.:.":i -■? ■" ■ :■■ .ltuI- ••>■-'■ * **' .'i.'. w •, is: '»..v- ien:a^ & I'.c-.. -'t'" !.:•: i. '■.•■. ▼■..'. *. ■".■it/.^*.*. V'"'"'! ••••t,. v.-.j*,.?- iL liLTjiii.':^ -■; --^ :. ::> >-..•■■;» T.w.^\ •..■•:■-',• *v-r> v'tf,x; ai£iflciB 1 mzj 1 "•'*.*. . .-•: '..:..'••: T'i«r>"'". r. .r; vr .:•;■ ■;.■•-,■>*.■ t . ^7\\ lit iifcs Tni*» : CI- i e i :■ . cl- '.• ■. ti;- . '. •. *\ ,s ; » v. ' r.": ?; •?,■•:: ■■« - V'.' -,■ ^ x '•i I* KuiiL'trf T-.:"7 '.-:.-;;•■. "; j >^;>. r.vr. ; >:■.'•": a>".>^ r,* Xw "^PT* "if— t-**- •.'•'T-' < ■■. " .-:■".•.■ •■•" ' ^l.■.•- <»■•-'' <*'■ * •*■•»■.■■«* J •Itk-inii^ri ■ j= ■■■■ — — .-1 ■- •■ ■ — :-.• v. •■i •■ •. ■ ■•■*•■■> •■ *"■"■■. »■*.-•• •■■■^"■*v •*"v"Wk* "«"•■•'* ■*.-~s^ ' ' ■ -■ ■ ' ■ ■■* *** ' ■ ■ ^\-" "•••■■< t*^* \ '."■•' •.i*'iv m T<«»:Ue- 'JL^T: (I'M E::;r ;,r..'.. - T:;o r..v.r.c* tVr.tui in a jow ivii^vs ot" ^i paper, if «'!i:r»rirod w::h :l:e scvrao luimlvr ct' KssjrliNh r,;'.v.*.i"^^ !,*lt« eqnUly at random, wi:l show tho tar jrroAtor |^r\^}vniov, ^^c' .\v,i;:K^ SaxA Eames wiih us."* Aiwrviinjr to an otuinont historiniu* \\w olJPur!:a3 >:ook loavons :ho r.a;iiMi,Ml oharnotor to il;o o\ton: ot' t\\o- thirds of its rggreijiuioii, Tho oihor third ivuKK wo opiiu\ iv (cuxsi to the sfimo Aiisflo-Saxoii tluintnin-hoaii. it' luvossjivw The beaJing of this chapter iminiaios tl\at tlio Aiut^oS;»\on is 'ho • Miss ChauJlor. f tV^non^V 90 A VOICE TO AMEBICA. only race capable of sustaining freedom. We base that opinion on the facte we have adduced, and on the additional one, that America is the only country in the world that has sustained institutions perfectiy free. The history of the Anglo-Saxon race affords abundant material for the reflective mind. It exhibits in an imusual degree the feet that the national characteristics of a race do not change. It may be objected that scarcely any modern people has not been modified or changed by amalgamation vidth foreign blood, whether by conquest, immigration, or otherwise ; and in confirmation of this the English are sometimes cited. But the truth is, the Anglo-Saxons never settied among the Celtae — as the Franks among the Gauls — but drove them out, and, receiving continued accessions of their countrymen from the shores of the Baltic and adjacent islands, repeopled the conquered territory. The unhappy Britons (Celtae) in their memorable appeal to JEtius, the Roman patrician, forcibly de- scribe the kind of settlement the Teutons were making. " The bar- barians," they say, " on the one hand, chase us into the sea ; the sea, on the other, throws us back upon the barbarians ; and we have only the hard choice left us of perishing by the sword, or by the waves."* The Danes in the reign of Egbert and later, to the accession of Canute, were but tribes of the Angles or Saxons, differing only from those already settled in England in the fact of being more civilized. To the same race also belonged the Normans ; but these latter never intermixed with the conquered in the same manner as the Dan^s. Introducing the feudal system into England they became a species of easte^ and kept themselves aloof from the mass of the vanquished. Eventually the Norman stock became much thinned during the long and bloody wars of the Roses. What remains of it in the English aristocracy has become so softened in ite characteristics by contact with the people, that, except in the class distinctions of the feudal system, it is no longer a separate element of the population. Even this last fragment of Norman caste spirit is rapidly passing away. History assists us in drawing certain conclusions from the ex- * Bede. , . • k- 1: r ::. ■. " IN. V "N. .' 1 ^- • . ■N'. ' '« \ :.. .'■■..* ■ A ■ # .•.'..> ,\*v**v rs3s:c : .Lz EJI Zlrtn^ w < . s « ....... . ^ < ^\ -4. ...a .. . ^«- — *^~."«''j^— ~ - y*" ■ •!'•'» "'nc''* n'"*\ "■■ * " *.* » ■«• »•> \«\ % "l ,>^ >^\ ■ • \ ■ t i« V ■ ■ nl£ X ■ ■.- -- — -^- *.x». ..• «* ... «ij»«x»«v. »'i •.•».V» 'lV» I'kk reas-i'C :li: :hr vV ' , l * >: >v '. ,; ^ x'. : .^ :>.v *^ ot* v* 1; .-;*. .u- , *• v » V. r* \ o K vu •, *s* Tie ScI:, Frouo ■'.. IV/.v'i JL^II.i'.v.r.-sV »V:.\» hnxo iW \i\\u>\\\ ojks^U* in the wotMV li:>:ory in:i^io siKoo>cit*ul attojui^is cu N«'ii!ni); x»u xi)ti;)t\( shores, but afior the siiull o:ul of \\w ^^o^lJ;^» lus Ivou »ummusK \\\\\ leverage lia-^ been thrown awav hv n vloji>»noi,ifo intt(:iuvlioin \\w\ f.onlo»l. Iho Anglo-Saxon stands alono in (hat roivUoul toivo uliioli, oi>noouhoil \\\ itself throws off all intorior Unlios, Imt i»\or x\Mi»n«i wiili i»|«|'oiiuuiiv to embrace what is ma»it tioMrablo anil aiixMiilMi^iMoci. In «» wmil, \\ looks forward, novor backward ; upward, b\il mo\ w di»\x ww md. W Iml. is beneath it, it passes by; what is abovo il, it M'tpiri*D FREEDOX. 95 race in history has had any ihiiisf simihir to this rijjht. Tlie republics of ancitfnt tinies were mervly the aristocracy gvnvniinj* the }4t^ The nearest approach to it, liowovor, was toimJ iu the iiuniuuities enjoyed by th«» citizens ot the Free-iowus o( Euix^pe iu the uiiddlo ages, as An:weq>. Bremen, Lubeck, «S:c. ; but ovou hen* the sutTra^ was limit e«l. aL«l lav in the iumds of a few. And, lasilv. an American should demand from even* foreisruer, jis an equivalent for tlie hospitality extended to him, a full rei.\^\ition of the sapremacy of this same Anglo-^ixon nice. Tlieix* is nothing degradins* in the admission, tor it is justifieil in the existence oi^ the very freedom lie comes hither to enjoy ; and it is essential, becausje until he d^y^ acknowKxlixe it, he is scarcelv likelv to imitate its vir- tues, its hen>(i4xu and its veneration for the institutions i}( freeilonu Every man who c«jmos to Ameriea with tin* intention of cherishing his own nationalitv, is an enemv to the Constitution, and abus»»s « hospitahty which shouKl bo sacreil. The existence of a |x^pulatioii thus disposed must be pernicious and dangerous. It is calculat<.Hl to lessen the love of the American for his own home, and to remk*r iiio nation less imposing and distinctive in the eyes of foreign powers. There cannot be a dou})t that Providence has selected the Anglo- Saxon race to spread the blessings of liberal institutions throughout the world. It is the only one, of modern times, which has K^n able to colonize with success, and firmly establish its character, its lan- guage, and its customs upon the new temtories. What the English have gained by the rights of discovery, or the aggiessions of war, America seems destined to organize and perfect. It is tlierefore tliat our country displays to the world a power and a success characteristic of no oilier age or clime ; a liberty, of which the (Jrecian and Ro- man pliilosopliers never dreamed, and which, next to Cyhristianity iu eftulffence, shines throuirh the earth as the lifjfht of sutrerinu: hunianitv. Uut this freedom is the victory, the hard-eanieua1]t msr-ifescesi, « i-r.: ihrv^ii^::^! :V.o i^]*\-ftil we have l^een al^r :•:• ^l;^o:'Vor, ir* :ii::::or.r.jr a tow prsyor^ sovvn'spa- nied whh some ihesrrioAl ox:-rer.^or*:o!^ in Tv:i;m tor \\hioh ;l)o rvvij^i- cut was eiq^e^rt-ed to rcaio l^Wral gTsr.:s of monoy ;fttHi l^nd — a ocmzQon sort of exohantre in davs of h^i>Med suivrsilion, Ktlu^lwolf, Alfred's &ther. retumeJ to Enirland to f.nd his kinc>iom torn tx^ fragments ty the ravagx:^ of tho Panes. The inonrsion? of ihoM' desperate marauders continiu\l with unaKste^i fury to tho day ^^ hi* death. If yon can ima^ne a nol^lo stoovi pursneii hy » l>and of remoiseless wolves, somoninos ijivinsj them l^attle with suoivs^ al others fleeing from them with approhonsion, yon will have a j^Hxi idea of the condition of Ensjland in the voar 800, Ethelwolf dioii, and was succeeded rather sunimarilv hv his svmis, Ethollv^ld, Ethel- bert, and Ethelred. It was ilurinij tho reiin^ of the latter that Alfiwi gave the first indication of his patriotism. EtholriHl had unjnstly deprived him of a large patrimony, and Ivsido this, kept hint fiXMU a throne which had been Wquoathed to him by tho will of his father, Ethel wol£ Either of these reasons was sufficient, in tluvso day^ to attract a band of eager waniors to his standanl. Tho nationnl dan- ger, however, was from the continued irruptions of tho I >nnos. To put a stop to these, Alfi-ed eagerly seconded all tho eiVorts of Ida brother Ethelred. The nation's welfare, and not tho individualK right, was consulted for the first timo in tlmt rudo age. Reading and writing in thasc days were accomplishmont'* of a high order, and were seldom essayed except by members of tho priesthood. It is said that Alfred's enthusiasm for learning was fii-st. nrous7 This important document, to which the Anglo-Saxon race owes eo much of its fireedom, renders it necessary for us to introduce that con- temptibly weak prince, King John, to our readers as one of the heroes opular freedom. The lives of these men afford ample material for the biographer, and instructive lessons tor the world. Our limits prevent any special reference to these worthies. Details must bo sought in the contem- porary wOTks of liistory. To the dispassionate republican, there will alwavs be an attraction in the lives of men who have striven for hberty, even if the means tliey adopted were erroneous, and provoked by hate and party zeal. William Wallace, Jack Cade, Monmouth, Wat Tyler, and others, were men who raised a bold fix)nt against oppression, and thus achieved a niche in the many-colored Pantlieon of Liberty. Notwithstanding the concession of the Great Charter, Liberty had two fundamental difSculties to contend with for a long time. Firsti the feudal despotism of the nobles; and secondly, the gradual increase of the Papal power. As an illustration of the former, we may refer to the well-known incident of Lord Warren, who, when questioned as to his title to certain lands, drew his sword, and said that was his title^ let who would dispute it. As an illustration of overspreading Papal power, we have the exhibition of a great emperor,* clothed in sackcloth and barefooted before the palace of the Pope, standing there for three bitter winter days, suing for mercy. These incidents furnish us with an insight into the real possession of power in those days, and indicate quite clearly the shoals and quicksands on which the frail bark Political Liberty was likely to strand. Against these two evils then. Feudal and Papal power, the popular energies were long directed. Men's thoughts invested them with a thousand hideous shapes, and made them more horrible and momentous thdn they really were. In process of time it became quite plain, that whatever advanced the authority of either was, on the whole, unfavorable to the interests of mankind. Any thing of a contrary tendency was watched and examined with the greatest anxiety, for it gave the hope of future improvement. It is imnecessaiy to dwell on the evils of an aggravated feudal ♦ Heaiy IVw of Germany. 6 110 A VOICE TO AMERICA. system, or how they were slowly removed. It is suflScient for us to mention the establishment of privileged or free cities, communities, and corporations, which, in course of time, fostered a thriving com- merce, and benetited the poorer class of the people, by drawing them off from the retinues of the nobles. As these towns and cities in- creased in importance, so did the inhabitants. They became mate- rially leagued with the Crown, and the power of the Barons was thus assailed from without. In addition to this, the number of retainers being diminished, their absolute power and political importance began slowly to crumble.* In the war of the Holy Sepulchre, and after- wards in the wars of the Roses, the feudal Barons were decimated and nearly exterminated. As they disappeared, the lower and mid- dle classes obtained more importance and consideration. As for the Papal power, that melted slowly but surely away in the brightening light of knowledge. In the interval which we are now bridging, liberal ideas were be- ginning to be entertained vdth some earnestness. There was a con- stant struggle between prerogative and privilege, for the people be- gan to entertain a dim perception of their rights. Many concessions were already made, and society settled down into well-defined limits, to break beyond which would be dangerous. Burgesses were sum- moned by Leicester, at the close of the reign of Henry III. (1265), to attend a parliament in London. These burgesses were selected from an order of men who, up to that time, had been always regarded as too mean to enjoy a place in the national councils. It was Leicester's policy to anticipate this concession, which the urgency of the people had already made inevitable. In the reign of Edward the III., the knights of the shire and the burgesses emerged into a separate house, and became what is now called the House of Commons. A vital prin- ciple began to animate the mass — the principle of self-government. Intelligence, spirit, and dignity inspired men with a knowledge of their own importance. In the reign of Elizabeth (and indeed in several earlier ones), we Smithes Wealth of Nations, 8d Book. THE HEROES OF THE FOUNDERS OF LIBERTY. Ill find the monarch jealous of the privileges of the Commons, and claim- ing a royal prerogative m matters which the latter had taken under their especial charge. Whatever concerned the royal prerogative was considered by Elizabeth as forbidden ground, and she included with- in this description every thing that related to religion, to her particu- lar courts, and to the succession to the crown ; she insisted, in her own words, " that no bills touching matters of state or reformation in concerns ecclesiastical should be exhibited."* Pretensions of this character were not likely to pass current with men who already had a clear perception of their own rights and their own power. It was evident that a collision must sooner or later take place between the queen and her " faithful commons,'' for notwithstanding Elizabeth's remarkable popularity, there was a stem class of thinking men who remained proof to her blandishments, and thought more of liberty to the people than gallantry to the queen. Such' a man was Peter Wentworth. In this uncompromising but loyal old Puritan, we have a perfect type of the stock which peopled the Eastern portions of our own country. Fearless, clear-headed, honest, and loyal, he was not only capable of asserting the privileges of •the house, but of impressing others with the exactness of his definition of them. The event which drew Wentworth out was a commission issued by the queen, directing the speaker to stop a discussion in the house, and giving ordei's that in future " no bills concerning rehgion should be preferred or received into that house, unless the same should be first considered and approved of by the clergy." This interference on the part of the queen ehcited a speech from Wentworth, in which he maintained that the house was assembled to make or abrogate such laws as were for the surety, safe-keeping, and enrichment of the no- ble realm of England. It was necessary for this puipose to preserve such advantages by fi'ee speech : without this it were a scorn and mockery to call the parliament a place of free speech. It was noth- ing but " a very school of flattery and dissimulation, and so a fit place to serve the devil and his angels in, and to glorify God and benefit . * Cobbett. k 112 A VOICE TO AMERICA. the commonwealth. Waxing still more bold, he went on to say, "that to avoid everlasting death and condem nation, with the high and mighty God, we ought to proceed in every cause according to the matter, and not according to the prince's mind." In a similar strain of independent protest and argument, the patriot dwelt on the message of the queen, ^ving the house and her majesty some sound advice and admonition. It Tvaa not altogether acceptahle to either, for, before Wentwotth had finished, the house stopped him. He was sequeBtered for said speech, and had to answer for it before a special committee. All that passed is singularly noble. " 1 do proimse you all," said the intrepid patriot, " if God forsake ma not, that I will never during life hold my tongue if any message is sent wherein God is dishonored, the prince perilled, or the liberties of tbe parliament impeached." Wentworth was committed to prison ; a fate which did not surprise him. In his examination before a committee, he observed ; " I do assure your honors, that twenty times aild more, when I walked in my gi'ounds, revolring this speech, to prepare against this day, my own fearful conceit did say unto me that this speech would carry me to the place whither I shall now go, and fear would have moved me to pnt it out. Then I weighed whether in good conscience, and the duty of a faithful subject, I might keep myself out of prison, and not to warn my prince from walking in a dangerous course. My conscience said unto me, that I could not be a faithful subject if I did more respect to avoid my own danger than my prince's danger : herewithal I was made bold, and went for- ward, as your honors heard ; yet when I uttered these words in the house, that there was none without fault — no ! not our noble queen ; I paused, and beheld all your countenances, and saw plainly that those words did amaze you all. Then fear bade me put out the words that followed, for your countenances did assure me tliat not one of you would stay me of my journey. But I spake it, and I praise God for it." Wentworth was committed to the Tower, but Elizabeth waa far too politic to allow such a man to become a martyr to the cause of THE HEEOES OF THE FOUNDERS OF LIBERTY. 113 popular freedom. After a month's incarceration she remitted the sentence. The toadies of the house held forth hugely on the divine leniency of the queen, with which Wentworth may or may not have been impressed. Certain it is, that eleven years afterwards he was so dissatisfied with further encroachments on the piivileges of the house, that he prepared in writing a series of tough queries, which he handed to the speaker. One of these was couched in the follow- ing words : ** Whether there be any council which can make, add to, or diminish from the laws of this realm, but only this council of parliament." It was reserved for another century, in which other men of Wentworth's calibre were the actors, to answer this vital question. Much trial and tribulation were undergone before the people's indignant negative was recorded in the bloody scrolls of history. To that period we will now hasten. The most momentous political occurrence of the sixteenth century was that which provoked the document called the Petition of Rights. This was the commencement of that memorable epoch, since denom- inated the English Revolution, and which, resulting in the execution of Charles the First, and the Protectorate of Oliver Cromwell, effected in a remarkable degree the early characteristics of this country. It was in this epoch that the word Puritan was first used. It stood for the appellation of three parties, all of them opposed to the intoler- ance of King Charles's reign. There were the pohtical Puritans, who maintained the highest principles of civil liberty ; the Puritans in discipline, who were averse to the ceremonies and Episcopal gov- ernment of the Church ; and the doctrinal Puritans who rigidly de- fended the speculative system of the first reformers.* During two preceding reigns, the English people, as we have seen, had been gradually imbibing sentiments of enlarged political and religious freedom. EHzabeth, with a tact for which she was remark- able, conceded what was necessary. But imbecile James lacked the talent and the inclination to appreciate the wants of his people. In the midst of diflSculties, dissensions, and civil commotions, and at a * Hamc 114 A. VOICE TO AICEBICjL time when practical common sense was especially demanded, lie wroUj and published an elaborate work on the divine right of kings. The obj*;ct of this ridiculous production was, to prove that kings could do no wrong ; that their prerogative was from Heaven ; and that any encroachment on it was flagrant heresy ! Jameses par- liament «^x;n became refractory. Public disapprobation increased with fearful rapidity. Tlie king endeavored to get on without a parliament, and succeeded for a while in raising funds for the State exchequer. But there was great indignation, and the grievances of the nation were all converging to a crisis. King James died on the 27th Marcli, 1625. Under his weak rule, the spirit of liberty had grown strong, and had become equal to a great contest* Charles I. succeeded to the throne. He was unlike his fether in many res[>ects; but he was false, imperious, obstinate, narrow- xninde^J, ignorant of the temper of his people, unobservant of the •igns of the times,f and firm in the determination to protect what he conceived to be the prerogatives of the Crown. The spirit of reform had grown strong and muscular, but he thought he could strangle it with his weak hands. Failing in this, he tried, as the next best thing, to chastise it. Parliaments were assembled at the king's pleasure, and dissf^lved the moment they were found to bo intractable. In conse^|uence of the extreme diflBculty with which the king raised fiupplicMt, he dctemiined to resort to the illegal process of imposing a fbrce^l loan on the kingdom, thus subverting the entire object and usefulness of the House of Commons. Great numbers resisted this unjustifiable imposition, for which they were immediately thrown into prison. Foiled in his purpose, the king had once more to assemble parliament, and as a ncjcessary consequence, one of the first discus- sions was on the late illegal proceedings of the Crown. The result of tlieir discussions was, the document called the Petition of Right, HO called becaust), although drawn up in the usual strain of a humble petition, it had all the force of a law on the king's endorsement of his concurnuico. This document, which is justly considered the * Macaulay. t Ibid. THE HEROES OF THE FOUNDERS OF LIBERTY. 115 second Great Charter of English liberty, was drawn up by Sir Ed- ward Coke in the eighty-third year of his age. It was the last act of a brilliant judicial career, and is a lasting monument to Coke's patriotism and genius. It provided that no tax or loan might be levied except with the concurrence of parliament; that no man might be imprisoned but by legal process ; that soldiers might not be quartered on people contrary to their will ; and that no commis- sions be granted for executing martial law.* A few days after the receipt of the petition, the king returned an evasive answer. A dis- cussion inmiediately ensued in the House of Commons. Among the eminent men who took part in it were Sir John Eliot, John Hamp- den, and John Pym ; heroic names that adorn the brightest pages of political history. Sir John Eliot spoke with dignity and fervor. " His mind," says Lord Nugent, " was deeply imbued with a love of philosophy and a confidence in religion, which gave a lofty tone to his eloquence." The effect of the debate was so seriously damaging to the king, and particularly to his pampered minister, Buckingham, that he could no longer withhold his consent to the Petition of Right. He gave it with surly remorse, but with a mental reservation that he would be avenged on the men who had extorted it from him. He again dia- solved parliament, and determined to rule in his own right, without their aid or assistance. Two days later, he committed Sir John Eliot and other members to the Tower, on a charge of high treason. Servile courts sustained him in this flagrant breach of privilege and violation of the Petition of Right. But he was inexorable, and Eliot remained in prison — doomed to die a martyr in the cause of political liberty. After two years of wearisome confinement, his health began to fail He petitioned for the privilege of a temporary release, that he might recuperate his sinking energies. But the king demanded concessions from him which, as an honest, high-purposed man, he could not make. Another year, passed in suffering and cruelty, ter- minated his life. He died in November, 1632. The vengeance of * Goodrich. 116 A VOICE TO AMERICA. the king contimied even after his death. One of Sir John Eliot's sons petitioned for the privilege of interring the body in a distant county. The king replied, " Let him be buried in the parish where he died." Truly, Charies was one of those monarchs destined by Divine Providence to hasten revolutions. All the promises of the king were violated ; the Petition of Right forgotten; persecutions and exactions of the worst kind inflicted, particularly with regard to the Puritans. The king, who was a zealot for Church discipline, looked upon the Puritans with all the concen- trated bitterness and hatred of his treacherous nature. They were forced to fly from the country. They were whipped, imprisoned, scourged, and mutilated. " But the cruelty of the oppressor could not tire out the fortitude of the victims. The mutilated defenders of liberty again defied the vengeance of the Star Chamber, — came back with undiminished resolution to the place of their glorious infamy, and manfully presented the stumps of their ears to be grubbed out by the hangman's knife."* John Hampden was a member of the House of Commons, and, like others before referred to, opposed the assessment of the forced loan. That he did so from the highest patriotic motives, is beyond question. The sum at which he was assessed was a mere trifle, and he was a man of wealth. For this contumacy he was imprisoned. After the passing of the Petition of Right, he was released ; and we do not find him taking an active part in public affairs, until the gov- ernment — that is, the king — ^again attempted an unwarrantable exac- tion. A writ was issued, commanding the city of London to man and equip ships of war for his service. Similar writs were issued, not only for the seaboard counties, but the inland ones. This exces- sive abuse of authority created the greatest excitement. No prece- dent could be found, in the legislation of any other king, for such an oppressive system of taxation. Buckinghamshire — of which county Hampden was a native — was assessed for a ship of the value of four thousand five hundred pounds. * Macaulay. THE HEROES OF THE FOUNDERS OF LIBERTY. 117 The individual portions of this assessment were necessarily small, but every shilling subscnbed towards the aggregate vfixs the recognition of a pernicious principle. Hampden at once refused to pay his por- tion, and determined at all hazards to bring the matter to a crisis. Before this time, " he was rather of reputation in his own county, than of public discourse or fame in the kingdom ; but then he grew the argument of all tongues, every man inquiring who and what he was that durst, at his own charge, support the liberty and prosperity of the kingdom."* Hampden, as the representative of the people, tried the question of the illegal assessment, in the Exchequer Chamber, before til the judges of England. The fear of court displeasure possessed the bench ; only four of the judges had sufficient courage to declare in Hampden's favor, although the law was clearly on his side. The remaining eight were in favor of the writ. Thus, so far as the law was concerned, justice was denied to Hampden, and, through his per- son, to the people. The result of this decision was, to place at the disposal of the Crown the whole property of the English nation.f A defeated man receives but little consideration from a despot. Hamp- den was not long in discovering that his person was scarcely safe from the fury of the king. Opposed to violence, and desiring, of all things, to save his country from the miseries of civil war, he determined to flee to a distant land, where, at least, he would be beyond the reach of oppressors. Beyond the Atlantic ocean, a few persecuted Puritans had founded a settlement, in Connecticut. Thither he determined to flee. He secured passage in a sailing vessel, and completed his arrangements for permanently vacating the land of his birth. Among others who arrived at a similar determination, were Oliver Cromwell and John Pym. This illustrious trio, so soon destined to convulse society, were on the point of sailing, when an order from the king intercepted the vessel. It seems that, although the king did not care to crush Hampden whilst public feeling was in its present state, he was yet unwilling to let him escape. He had sufficient penetration * Clarendon. t Macaulay. 6* 118 A VOICE TO AMERICA. to know that the fearless nature of the man would soon display itself and he was content to wait. In the next parliament, Hampden took his seat for his native shire, and thenceforth devoted himself entirely to the affairs of the nation. He was now unquestionably the most popular man in England. The king aftected respect for him, but hated him bitterly. A message was sent to the House for fresh supplies. It was couched in the usual language of •promise. Redress for grievances was the boon. The Commons had experienced the king's treachery, and were de- termined, in this case, to get what redress they needed first. On the next day, with an angry speech the king dissolved parliament. Such an act indicated, with very impolitic clearness, that the king expected the Commons to do precisely as he wished, or he would not allow them to sit at all. The necessities of the king, after a most inglorious campaign in Scotland, compelled him to assemble parliament once more. On the 8d of November, 1640, the Commons met. It is a memorable day in history, being the first of what is now universally known as the Long Parliament — a parliament which, as Macaulay forcibly ex- presses it, was destined to every extreme of fortune : to empire and to servitude, — to glory and to contempt ; at one time the sovereign of its sovereign, — at another time, the servant of its servants, and the tool of its tools. The first session of this memorable parliament was spent in actively redressing public grievances. All those who had assisted in subverting the laws, including the judges who had oflSci- ated on Hampden's trial, were tried. The prime minister, Strafford, was executed ; and other prominent characters, to escape a similar fate, fled the country in alarm. The conduct of Hampden during this crisis was moderate, manly, and peaceful. He was opposed to extreme measures, apprehending a reaction. He seemed disposed to soothe rather than excite the public mind.* The king, humiliated and crest-fallen, had taken re- fuge from obloquy in Scotland. H/ npden was dispatched by the * Clarenc n. THE HEROES OF THE FOUNDERS OF LIBERTY. 119 parliament to visit him there. During his absence, measures of an extreme character were enacted, and what Hampden had wisely dreaded came to pass. A reactionary party sprung up, formed of men who thought that enough had been done, and that possibly too much might be attempted. Encouraged by these new manifesta- tions, Charles returned. All that was now necessary for the perma- nence of his crown was, that he should abstain from treachery, from violence, from gross breaches of the law.* This was expecting too much from a man so abject, cowardly, and treacherous. With his usual volubility he promised every thing, and with his customary duplicity, violated all his promises. Without the slightest intimation of displeasure, he impeached several of the leading members of the house. Hampden and Pym were of course among the number. Such an instance of perfidious tyranny was unparalleled. The House of Commons refused to surrender their members, maintaining that the impeachment coming from the House of Peers was unconstitutional. Not to be defeated in his purpose, the king, accompanied by two hundred soldiers of his guard, made a descent on the house with the intention of seizing the contumacious members by force. They had been previously warned of their dan- ger, and had fled to a populous district of London, where they were sure of the sympathies of the citizens. A proclamation was issued by the king, directing that no person should harbor the fugitives, but it came too late. The spark had been ignited, and the explosion followed with fearful rapidity. The tramp of armed citizens was heard in every corner of the great city. All the societies turned out in battle array. A careful watch was kept on every approach leading to the neighborhood in which Hampden and Pym lay. Every one, from the youngest ap- prentice to the oldest merchant, was on the alert to avenge the insult offered to their liberty. After a short delay the members were in- vited, in defiance of the king's proclamation, to attend their seats in the House of Commons. The immense population of London turned * Maoaulay. 120 A VOICE TO AMEKICA. out en masse to escort them in triumph past the windows of the palace. "On the 11th January,'* says Macaulay, " the Thames was covered with boats, and its shores with a gazing multitude. Armed vessels, decorated with streamers, were ranged in two lines from Lon- don Bridge to Westminster Hall. The members returned by water in a sliip, manned by sailors who had volunteered their services. The train bands of the city, under the command of the sheriffs, marched along the Strand, attended by a vast crowd of spectators, to guard the avenues to the House of Commons, and thus with shouts, and loud discharges of ordnance, the accused patriots were brought back by the people whom they had served, and for whom they had suffered." On the day preceding this great demonstration, the king fled. The excitement was not confined to London only. Through- out the provinces the people were agitated in a like manner. Buck- inghamshire dispatched a deputation of four thousand freeholders to defend the person of their beloved representative, and other coun- ties did the same. The crisis had indeed come. It was evident that the king could no lonijer be trusted. The only way to prevent his doing injury to the liberal cause, was to de- prive him of the power. A fearful struggle was inevitable. The king was already in the field with a numerous retinue. Hampden was a man who loved peace, so long as peace could be honorably maintained ; but he was not a man to be daunted by the flashing of hostile swords. He had been the consistent advocate of moderation. Whilst the laws could be appealed to for redress, he was content to depend on their efficacy. Finding them utterly use- less, he prepared to leave his country. Foiled in this endeavor, he boldly faced the evils of the day. Almost exacting a representative privilege, he took on himself the grievances of his countrymen, and battled for them with unflinching valor. Thus when recent events had made civil war imperative, we find Hampden stepping into the foremost place with unconscious activity and bravery. He placed a large portion of his fortune at the service of parliament ; raised, armed, and, at his own expense, equipped a regiment of Buckingham- THE HZBOES OF THE FOIXI'EKS OF LIBERTY. \Jl shire cavalry, aiid t-x-k Li- j-'.^-.--^ :.: ili-rir i.-a'i a^ o-i.-ii- i. M.i !;irv discipline — usu:ii!y >j ol?:. .x; ■:••.;- :.■ ..i^iliii:. — till «'!i liim lik*- a jrar- menL He was ev^r ol ::.'? ^i'-:*. :i:ii ii \«.t ir.i-N^- ■ .-.n ii|i|ii>;-tiiiiiiy that micriit l»r iuir»!ov..-.i iv iLti..;»i ii;v r::.i .'.iiiviiv. I: i- ini! la-v to do full jus^iiv f* XL'.' a in: ::■?/:•!■.• iM'iii'.y i-i' ]I:u?»jt«:. n** in.iv« iih ui\. H« vas coiistar.tiv in ;:j'- >:imu.».'. M:J :• ..l.v H-«-infii wi.i|ui;ii;i».. A lampoon aime».l at liiiii by .1 jr'-iliii.-al «■].].. -i.r:: -^ iiKiHi-UM ly Wiuuy nt his incessant journeys l.»etv»v».';j ^Viiiu^^r ;iii'l iij«* I].»ii-' i»j'< 'iiiitiMi»ii». He was con^lnTiilY Lurmuir tVoiu ti;«.- li.-M to i!i'; ii'Hi^-. It would Ix; an endless Ulm; t'» ix<;;i|iiiulaii* i!i«'S4- «\«»ijt»» nl' iIm- civil war in wliicliHiiiiJj»']eii i-.Kjk a (•<.»n»ij'i<.'U«:*s ni-rk, Ur HHin faintly from the field of battle. After .sevr^ral days of inli iim- |i]iyhi«'nl suffering, the shadows of death thickenwl mnnd his pilI«)W. Willi invincible fortitude he dispatched whatpubliij buKJncsH iiid his attention. When his last national dutioH were. diHciiar^nd, ho calmly prepared himself to die. He a.skcd for tho ronMihilidn of tint Holy Sacrament, and it was administered to him. Wlum llm I wind of death lay coldly on him, ho murmured short pray 122 A VOICE TO AMERICA. ford, and at an early age received an appointment in the office of the Exchequer. He was distinguished for his eloquence, and knowledge of the common law. He served in several parliaments during the latter part of the reign of James I., as member for Tavistock, and in all those held in the reign of Charles I. He distinguished himself by his zeal in defending the rights of the people against the aggres- sions of royalty. In 1626 he was one of the piincipal managei-s of the impeachment against Buckingham. After the opening of the Long Parliament, Pym took an active part in the vigorous legislation of that tribunal. He classed the grievances of the nation under three heads : Privilege of Parliament, Religion, Liberty of the Subject. The termination of this consideration resulted in the impeachment and execution of Strafford. The latter was at one time attached to the popular side, but became an apostate to the court. When he had determined on acting thus treacherously, he sent for Pym, and endeavored by specious arguments to win him to a similar line of conduct. Pym listened to him impatiently for a while, then turning on him fiiriously said, " You need not use all this art to tell me that you are going to be undone : but remember, that though you leave us now, I will never leave you while your head is upon your shoul- ders." He kept his word too. To appreciate the services of Pym, it is necessary to realize the peculiar characteristics of the age in which he lived. Government was subverted by the treachery of the king, and the unscrupulous co-operation of his minions. Li the effort to restore the privileges of parliament, and thereby the liberty of the subject, great personal courage and invincible integrity were demanded. By intimidation (X by corruption, all the refonners were silenced, that were capable of ignominious silence. Only those who entertained genuine senti- ments of patriotism, — men who recognized danger as an element of their success, — were able to withstand the alternate bullying and flattery of the court. A conspicuous member of the House of Com- mons, like Pym, excited peculiar hatred. His life was in constant danger. Any one of the many high-handed outrages of the king THE HEROES OF THE FOUNDERS OF UIBKRTV. 128 isight have p?aced Ptin's hoa^i ujhmi ibo bUx^k. l>«l ho did iH>t swerve tori the pa:h c»t duty. Threats and brilvs >voi\^ alike unavMl- ing. With fearless ener^ and buniini: oK\jikmu\\ ho donouiuNHl tho oppressor — never onoe lookovi back, but wiih o\\ni stonily iKihI on the future, righted what was wrong. The im|x\aohinonts of iho l^m^f Parliament wt^re conduotop(uirH to hav(» been wild and roystering during the youthful portion of his life. In 10'20 be returned homo, was married, and took up his position as the re- / 124 A VOICE TO AMERICA. spectable head of a household. About this time he became oppressed by convictions of conscience almost amounting to insanity. He sat about retrieving some of his former errors ; made himself bankrupt by paying back sums of money he had formerly won at play ; and declared that he was ready to make restitution to any whom he had wronged. The persecuted Puritans found a welcome refuge beneath his roof. In the third parliament of Charles I., he sat as the repre- sentative of his native town ; and although not a prominent actor in the events of that period, was a keen and anxious observer of what transpired. After the parliament had been dissolved, Cromwell returned to St. Ives (a town in the vicinity of Huntingdon), and for five years was a grazing farmer. His demeanor was characterized by religious severity. There is now no reasonable doubt for supposing that it was insincere. " He had certainly materials enough for reflection. Not to speak of the inward conflicts of his own mind — conflicts arising from the views of truth he had been recently led to take — deep, earnest, heaven-born impulses — society round him was raging like a volcano. * * * * The writs of ship-money had been issued, and Hampden had stood resolute in its refusal. The thunder-storm was rising."* The moment for action arrived, and Cromwell, feeling himself in- spired for great actions, did not longer hesitate. When the attempt to seize the five members was made by Charles, he inished at once to the rescue. His influence, his purse, his sword, were at the nation's call. He was appointed captain, and, soon after, colonel of the sixty-seventh troop of the parliamentary forces. But he was dissat- isfied with the troops, " They were," he complained, " old decayed serving-men, and tapsters, and such kind of fellows." To organize a diflferent corps was with him a simultaneous thought and action. The members of this corps were men who, stimulated by similar religious zeal as Cromwell, were prepared to understand and appreciate his acts. " I had rather have a plain russet-coated captain," he said, * TriaU. THE HEROES OF THE FOU>T)ERS OF LIBERTY. 125 " that knows what he fights for, and loves ^vhat he knows, than that which you call a gentleman, and is nothing el^e." The terrible "Ironsides" was the c^rps thus raised. It is impossible for lis to follow Cronnvell in his military expeditions against the royalists and other enemies of his country. "Wherever he appeared, victory crowned the day. His activity and decision were marvellous, and in every kind of military tactic, it is doubtful if England has ever had his superior. Charles was decapitated, and Cromwell appointed Protector. Under his administration, popular freedom received much invigorating support. Indeed, it must be a matter of surprise with all dispassionate thinkers, how he could have accomplished so much, surrounded as he was by jealousies, hatreds, and intimidations. He appointed for judges the most upright and distinguished men, — among others Sir Matthew Hale. He never in- terfered with the courts of justice. In religion, he was as tolerant as any man living in that age, and belonging to the Puritan party, could be. He promoted the arts and sciences, and helped, by deci- sive Jegislation, to lay the foundation of a great nation. Usurpers must be tyrants, but whilst they tyrannize, they tr}' to conciliate. If Cromwell were " a scourge of God," Charles had prepared the nation for its infliction; and if Charles was a mild tyrant, Cromwell was moderate as a despot.* Charles was beheaded to insure justice to the people, and Cromwell would have met with a similar fate, but for^ his superior justice, vigor, and forethought. Tht*. liypf)criKy of Cromwell has been a standing theme with historians. J Jut tli«r« Ih no reasonable ground for supposing that he acted otherwise than fi'om conscientious conviction. The pubhcation of his most private letters indicate clearly, that what he professed in public, he Ixilioved in private. A charge of hypocrisy is a common way of aKsailing the reputation of a Puritan, particularly by men who believe in the |Km- sibility of wearing religion like a garment, for decency's sake. He must be strangely constituted who, while reading Cromweirs l^itters, and there viewing his private life, can discern nothing in Jiim but * History of Democracy. 126 A VOICE TO AMERICA. unmingled dissimulation.* The present age is doing him justice, spite of kings, queens, and houses of lords. His memory is cherished, and he may yet be invoked when the country which gave him birth is convulsed in the throes of civil war and revolution. One of the sincerest republicans of CromwelFs epoch, was that illustrious man who afterwards wrote the sublime poem of " Paradise Lost'* John Milton was Latin secretary to the new council of state, and in every official act proved that he was the consistent advocate of political liberty. To an extent he was a hero in the cause. That sad calamity with which he was afflicted in the latter years of his life, is said to have been produced by the severe devotion with which he applied himself to the composition of a work entitled " Defensio pro Populo Anglicano." Salmasius had written a defence of monarchy, and particularly of Charles L, under the title of " Defensio Regis." Milton's work was a reply to this, and exhibited so much learning and fervid eloquence, that his opponent was completely overwhelmed. Close application, midnight toil, and intense study were necessary for the composition of this able defence of popular rights against monar- chical pretension. Milton was frequently told by his physicians that it would result in blindness, but he was far too earaest to heed their warning advice. Total loss of sight was the result. He was not cast down even with this calamity. The moment he had recovered from the first shock of its intensity, he set about writing another de- fence of the people of England, On the death of Cromwell, Milton employed his pen with great vigor to check the prevalent feeling in favor of the Restoration. Un- able to do so, he sought refuge in the house of a friend. In the act of indemnity which followed, his name found no exception. With many others he was given into the custody of the sergeant-at-arnis. After a while he was released. In impoverished circumstances, he sought the tranquil pleasures of poetic studies. To his withdrawal from the political arena we are indebted for that lasting monument of , sublime geniu«, the " Paradise Lost." * TriaU. THE HEROES OF THE FOUKDERS OF LIBERTY. 127 Before quitting this prolific periooard the M;iy flower, l^efore landing, unit^jrl uf»r;n a e<;mf>aet in whieh they futh\inu\y covenanti;d witli awh other to eombine into a eivil borly p/;litir,, for their lif;tt>!r ordering and prot/jetion, and to enar,f., ef,n.Htit.uf;H, a/;t^, eonntitution;*, an/| offK-'i?, from time U} time, an hhould Uj thought me,et and futuvtuhiul fm tho general g^^xl of the eolony. Th^-w? just and equal laws won hi f^f.nm: ]y lie r:/;nsidered so in the prew:nt day, but they ha/| theen hy>ked ujkiu as an fixtra^irdlnary d^/^jurn/jnt. It mark e/ 1 with W/lnl'5'. of jttstiee and equality. The cfovemment of the eolonists ni.s'/jmbled a the/^'-j/V, / in lU fonn. Kvery thing wjis suWrvient fo the ChurrJi. hefiei^nei^-s in the legal /j^^Je wfrre avowedly t/; Uj rerne/lie/l by "th'*, Word of 0///I," and public quest,i/;ns were more fAtur* det/frm ined from the pulj/it th/m •« 111- i«ei ^' ■_;'••: ■ -.T --TJ- •_-::.:- • 7^- ■• ■ • ■ I • k ' f 1^- r. f Ill: 180 A VOICE TO AMERICA. When they had concluded to do so, they published an ordination prohibiting all unseemly or disorderly demonstrations of joy. In a theological point of view, we find strange contrarieties in the history of America, not the least being the palpable intolerance which, for neariy a century, tyrannized over the hearts and minds of its inhabitants. But, on the other hand, this same history is the most consistent in the worid, so far as unhesitating resistance to royal pre- rogative was concerned. The settlers looked on their various charters as the fundamental justification of all their acts. "They contented themselves with the powera conferred upon them by their respective charters, without looking beyond the seal of the royal parchment for the measure of their rights and the rule of their duties.'** Th«y would on no account consent to an appeal to England, not even during the Commonwealth. All they would consent to, was to send out commissioners to explain why they had not paid their debts. They preferred settling every other difficulty amongst themselves, "on consideration that if we should put ourselves under the protection of parliament, we must then be subject to all such laws as they should make ; in which course, though they should intend our good, yet it might prove very prejudicial to us."f No kind of political concession was ever made by the Puritans, either to the king's commission, when headed by Laud, or, subse- quently, to the commissioners sent out by the Long Parliament. In 16*72, when a custom-house was attempted to 'be established, the Bostonians quietly evaded its exactions, and refused, in the most con- temptuous manner, to pay any kind of attention to Kandolph, or his customs either. The ridiculous dilemma in which the latter found himself compelled him to return to England. He returned later, armed with greater powers, and encountered the same resistance — as, in turn, did the colonial governors appointed by the home govern- ment The Puritans were, from first to last, thoroughly intractable. They denied the justice of English prerogative, and fought for every inch of privilege in the sternest manner. They would not admit that * John Quincy. t Winthrop. THE HEROES OF THE FOUNDEES OF LIBERTY. 131 England had any thing at all to do with them, and distinctly asserted that there was not the shadow of pretext for her interference m American affairs. The same spirit, in the American Revolution, inspired the courageous hearts of the citizens of all the colonies ; and the result was — the triumph of freedom in the New World. The sacrifices suffered, and the blood spilt by the Heroes of the Founders of Liberty had, at the appointed time, produced their fruits. THE BOUOT)ARIES OF COUOTRIES-HOW ESTABLISHED. " Westward the Star of Empire takes it way, The four first acts already past,— A fifth shall close the drama with the day ; Time's noblest offspring is the last." Bishop Bebkblet. Nature fixes her limits to all things. Her laws are too deeply engraven on thfe world, to be transcended by any power less than her own. Man may be impelled by ambition to compass certain ends, but these impulsive sallies are harmoniously governed by the require- ments of Nature ; and what at the first promised only antagonism and consequent confusion, is found in the end to be tranquilly obedi- ent to the most comprehensive and beautiful laws. To one who will sit down reflectingly, with the world's map before him, it will be apparent that Nature has from the beginning %ed boundaries to every country ; and furthermore, that these boundaries are unalterable. It is useless attempting to set aside her suggestions ; they are immutable. Whatever hint she has thrown out, carries with it all the authority of a law. Her finger points to no great &ct in the formation of the world, that is not of itseL^ sufficient to give shape to all human histories, and color to the events of a long pro- cession of centuries. The countries of Asia lie separated, either by long chains of towering mountains, stretching away from point to point, until one is completely walled in, and the rest walled out ; or by vast deserts, uninhabitable by man, trackless, bare of vegetation, destitute of animal life, and altogether desolate. Across these wastes, invading forces in any great number would hardly come. Surrounded by them, a nation m^j 134 A VOICE TO AMERICA. repose in all the security of massiye walls and armed forts. They are as fixed boundaries for a country, as if the population had caused them to be placed there. Large inland s«as oflfer a like security, as, for instance, the Persian Gulf, lying between Arabia and Persia ; the Red Sea, between Arabia and Africa ; the Caspian, between Circassia and Tartary ; or the Japan Sea, dividing the peoples of two mon- strously overgrown empires. Asia, however, is thoroughly cut up into principalities and domin- ions by her lines of mountains — the Great and Little Altai, separating the colossal power of Russia from the vast Chinese Empire ; the Himalaya, keeping the Chinese Empire in turn distinct from India ; the Beloor mountains, lifting their shoulders between the same em- pire and Tartary the Independent ; and the Hindoo Koosh, drawing the line between Tartary and Afghanistan. The whole face of that quarter of the world, has been thus accurately parcelled out to those who dwell upon it • In Africa the truth is no less plain. The Barbary States can extend no further south than to the great Desert of Sahara ; Soudan, beginning with the southernmost limit of the desert, stops at the bar- rier interposed by the Mountains of the Moon ; the countries along th^western coast reach into the dim confines of Ethiopia, where all is unknown in that land of the Sun. Europe, peopled by a great variety of races, obeys minutely these physical laws. Her nations are so many, that smaller boundaries are necessary, and become objects of grave political consideration. As civilization advances from the East, it seems to grow correspondingly jealous of its rights and privileges ; rivers, lakes, channels, and moun- tains are impressed into her service. Behold the Alps, lofty and grand, walling in the independent little region called Switzerland, a name that invariably summons the word Liberty to the tongue. There are the Pyrenees, eternal bounds for both France and Spain ; the Scandinavian chain, parting Norway and Sweden as naturally as if that were the single puipose of their erection. There stretch along the Carpathians, hemming in Austria from Prussia and Russia. BOUNDARIES OF COUNTRIES. 136 We need but to glance at the course of the immortal Rhine, to believe, with the great Napoleon, that nature intended it for the eastern limit to France. The Danube, with its numerous mouths, forms a natural boundary to Turkey and her Principalities against Russia and Austria. The Rhine again performs its part in dividing one petty German kingdom from another ; and the Tornea completes the work for Sweden, against Russia, which the Gulf of Bothnia seems to have left unfinished. A narrow channel alone separates England from France — two nations whose boast it is that they combinedly stand in the front of the world. Denmark is hemmed in by a couple of channels, from both Norway and Sweden. Sweden, in turn, rests secure against Russia, with the Baltic and the Gulf of Bothnia inter- posed between them. In all these national divisions, the hand of Nature is but too apparent. Her suggestions must everywhere be obeyed. Whoever deliberately opposes them.^ thinking by the force of his own will to change these natural limits, is surely throwing himself upon a stone that will in the end grind him to powder. Poor Poland ! she has no boundaries at all ! An open plain, she became the prey of nations stronger than herself. She has no moun- tains to keep imperial Russia back ; none to hold in check the rulers of Prussia ; none to shut out the cru^l forces of the more cruel House of Hapsbui'g. She encamped on a broad plain ; and there was she stealthily surrounded and set upon by three robbers with crowns upon their brows, and her nationality, bleeding and dying, torn limb from limb. Yet let us hope that Poland has a future^ and that the morn- ing of her resurrection is approaching. " Plains are the proper territories of tjrranny. There the arms of a usurper may extend themselves with ease, leaving no corner unoc- cupied in which patriotism might shelter or treason hide. But moun- tains, glens, morasses, and lakes set hounds to conquest ; and amidst these is the impregnable seat of Liberty." This is lamentably true in the case of Poland. On the other hand, the freedom that has lived through the storms of so many years, amidst the mountain-heights of 136 A VOICE TO AMERICA. Switzerland, proves the justice of the observation. And where have men, single-handed, as it were, oflfered such bold, resolute, and defi- ant opposition to all the usurpations of tyranny, as in the moun- tains of Scotland ? The tales of her heroes make one's blood tingle "with admiration. The names of Wallace and Bruce, engraven on the heart of every real lover of freedom, will live till the " last syllable of recorded time." Their examples will never die, but the spirit of Freedom which breathes through them, will move forward in silence, but with power, till the whole globe is finally encircled in its blessed embrace. On this Western continent, nations have as yet hardly settled them- selves in their natural positions. As it is a comparatively new field of operation, so must many things that are esteemed fixed in the Old World, continue for a long time in a state of transition. Princi- ples may be established, yet, from their very nature, they may keep all persons in a state of pei'petual activity. Such are the principles of popular liberty — offering freedom to every man, opening grand ' fields for the exercise of his various powers, and inciting him to con- tinued exertion. The original thirteen States lay stretched along the Atlantic coast. In their front was a vast ocean; in their rear an almost impenetrable wilderness. Little did the early settlers think that small beginning was to result, least of all to result so speedily, in the subjugation of a broad continent to the purposes of a high civilization. Their fii-st thought was for their own protection. They sought to command an independent subsistence. In industry, in heroic resolve and action, in energy and persistent endurance, no people ever lived who were their superiors. In taking wise thought for themselves, they seem never to have foi'gotten the great and distinctive principles on which their polit- ical system was founded. It was self-preservation ; but that involved something far more lofty than mere selfishness. Periling their lives and fortunes in defence of their convictions, they did not forget, in the flush of success, the cause on which their very lives depended. To men actuated by such principles, ordinary natural boundaries BOUNDARIES OP COUNTRIES. 137 could offer but trifling impediments in the work upon which they were engaged. The spirit of their principles was expansive, perpetu- ally enlarging its limits. Our fathers settled the whole of the im- mense tract extending from Maine to Georgia. Every imaginable tie held together the people at the extremes of the Union, equally with those who were neighbors. The purpose that pervaded all hearts alike, and cemented the union which a common interest had been instrumental in forming, was one that readily leaped the widest streams, and found its way over the highest mountains. It was no more to be controlled by the limits of natural bounds, than the silent and mysterious passage of light could be checked by the impotent ordering of man. If now we direct our attention to the map of the United States, we shall see that Nature had apparently set no Hmits to the growth of this nation, save perhaps the Mississippi River, the Rocky Mountains, or the Pacific Ocean. Our march was still westward, in obedience to the inexorable law. Forests fell, as if by magic, before the ringing axe of our sturdy pioneers. Broad fields lay extended in the sunlight, where, but a short time before, wild beasts found their coverts and hunted their prey. Acre after acre waved with the bending wheat and rye, and gleamed with the yellow gold of ripening com. Cabins dotted the hillsides, and mill-wheels flashed in the running streams. Hamlets grew and thickened. Villages everywhere gave a new life and light to the landscape. Towns and cities sent up their busy* hum, and the air was alive with the sounds and voices of intelligent and independent industry. In an incredibly short time, State after State was added to the confederacy, wheeling into the ranks with all the order and precision of a military manoeuvre. Each remained an independent power, yet materially contributed to the strength of the confederacy. The trou- bles that were so readily imagined for us, as a consequence of such rapid and unexampled growth, all dissipated like dew before the morning sun. Those who watched our course with critical eyes, could not understand that the very spirit of our institutions begat 188 VOICE TO AMERICA. harmony^ and not discord; that it had no relation to conquest, nor even to a selfish ambition, but that it exerted itself rather upon the convictions and feelings of men, than upon either their will or their power of resistance. It appealed only to men's volition, never to their obstinacy. It sought only to win over, never to compel. The first finiit^of such a spirit could not fail to be peace. We kept growing at the same unparalleled rate continually. We reached the Mississippi, and the Mexican jGrulf. Here, said some of our wisest statesmen, we will rest. " Thus far, and no farther." But the great coil of events in our national history was only beginning to run out It would be a long time before we should come to the end. The spirit of enterprise, the highest characteristic of the American people, was nowise content to rest here. The great Mississippi poured itself into the Gulf; but why could it not wash States on both shores as well as on one ? Was that turbid current a suflScient limit for the energies of free culture and free institutions ? The indomitable men of the nation said No, and forward went the work of settling and civilizing an entire continent. Texas was with us, and became a part of us. We founded a great and powerful State on the Pacific shore, as if to be a new inducement to draw us over the mountains and deserts that lay between. Oregon claimed a place by our side, her people and ours being one in sym- pathy, as they were in blood and education. And the great Western and Northwestern Territories were finally partitioned out, receiving their names and fonns of government. The inquiry was next made, — Are not the Rocky Mountains a natural division for the country ? But the question seems suddenly to have answered itself. Already we have crossed the Rocky Mountains. We have conquered them. They are no longer impassable. We have friends, neighbors, sons, brothers, who inhabit that far-off" land. The very ideas of boundaiy, which they once so naturally excited in our minds, have fallen away upon a nearer acquaintance with them, and now hardly exist at all. This age of steam and lightning, of discovery and perpetual appli- cation, is performing incredible things in bringing distant places and BOUNDAKIES OF COUNTBIES. 139 people tc^ether. It seems almost to keep abreast with sympathy itself in the race. The spirit that vitalizes it, tunnels mountains, bridges our widest rivers, leaps deserts at a single bound, and stops oqly with the vast ocean itselt Our brethren in California and Oregon are not more distant from us to-day, than were the early settlers of Ohio but thirty years ago.* Nothing could have worked such a revolution but a radical change, or progressiveness, in ideas. Distance itself has not diminished, but its effects have been reduced in estimation. We are put in closer communicatic>n this day with our brethren on the &r-off Pacific shore, than we formerly were with the pioneers on our Western frontiers. Nothing has wrought this great change but our own efforts. Our energy and enterprise have accomplished all. And what yet remains undone, the coming years will certainly behold completely realized. Perhaps with different institutions, some such natur^ barrier as the Rocky Mountains present, would fix a final limit to their progress. Under forms of government that hold men as mere subjects, such an obstacle might prevail^ but under ours, wherein eiach man is consi- dered a citizen, such a chain of mountains but creates an additional spur to enterprise. Educated to the most liberal and comprehensive habits of thought, our minds seem only to expand with the contem- plation of these things, and our ideas sympathize with the geographi- cal magnitude of our rivers, plains, and mountains. Freedom may perch upon the summits of that rocky chain, and descend th^ce into the broad valleys on either side ; but monarchy would be unable to breathe so pure and bracing an atmosphere. They may stand as landmarks, — scarred, whitened, and time-honored ; but never need they stand as limits either to civilization or the living spirit that holds us together as a mighty people. On to the ocean ! There can be no natural boundary but its shore. There this great Republic rests ; there its ships anchor. We are ready to accept no confines, save those vast oceans that wash with their never-sleeping waves our eastern and western coasts! In time, greater things are destined to be accomplished. New 140 A VOICE TO AMERICA. Mexico is ours ; shall not the whole empire of Cortez be ours, not by force, or conquest, or fraud, but in obedience to the same laws that have extended our institutions across this continent ? Will not that enfeebled and enervate nation in time awake to the real blessings of self-government, of industry, of enterprise, and of free institutions ? And Central America, — is there any hindrance to her many petty powers throwing aside their differences, and coming peacefully and hopefully under the influence of this large family of States ? Cuba was plainly intended by nature as the key fo the great valley of the Mississippi, and will yet be knocking at our doors, for the day cannot be far distant when she will be/ree. On the north, we see no reason why the great lakes interpose any boundary between ourselves and Canada. We see not why all will not yet become United America. We are not able to understand why an imaginary parallel of latitude should keep the spirit of free thought back, dooming it to a tract that has been bounded and sur- yeyed by the dictum of a purely arbitrary power. The new recipro- city treaty is a long step in the direction desired. The Provinces on the east are separated only by lines that may be easily wiped out, but not at all by any such great and deep differences in sympathy as divide nations. Their natural interests are in common with our own. Their modes of thinking continually assimilate to ours. Their pur- suits require the same perseverance and courage in order to attain like results. And it can hardly be questioned that the logical coui-se of events will in due time bring them also, peacefully and voluntarily, into this extended federal compact. Our boundaries are wide apart, and contain territory enough to sustain a countless population. Under free institutions like ours, all may rise to the level of their true destiny ; individual selfishness and usurpation cease, and nothing but wishes for the common good be in the ascendant. Who can clearly predict the condition of our countiy in the far-off future ? We are alive with hope, — a hope that blazes with a brighter and still brighter illumi- nation, lighting us along on the broad pathway of realization. ROMANISM AND FREEDOM. '• By the patriot's hallowed rest, By the warrior's gory breast, Never let our graves be prest By a despot's throne." PlERREPOITT. The advocates of Romanism claim that she is the patron of learning and of freedom ! — the encourager of free thought, free opinion, and free expression; and there are some favorite examples quoted to maintain this monstrous proposition. The Magna Charta, the very groundwork of freedom, is held up as the fruit of Catholic liberality, and so continually announced in our Legislative Halls, from the stump, and in flaming editorials. Unfolding the page of history, we find that John, king of England, engaged in a controversy with the Pope, which resulted in the king's yielding up his possessions to the Holy See, and receiving them back as a vassal. The proud Barons, who at the time possessed no defined rights, could not brook the in- sults and degradation which were heaped upon them through the weakness of their king, and solemnly demanded, for their protection, what is now known as the Magna Charta. In the struggle between the lords and the crown, the Pope took part with John against the Barons, and brought the whole of his temporal and spiritual power to defeat their demands. Against them Pope Innocent, from the Coun» cil of Lateran, thundered his bulls of excommunication : — " We will have you to know, that in General Council we have excommunicated and anathematized, in the name of the Father, and the Son, and 'the Holy Ghost, in the name of the Apostles Peter and Paul, and in our own name, the Barons of England, with their partisflns and sbettorii 142 A VOICE TO AMERICA. for pei'secuting John, the illustrious King of England, who has taken the cross, and is a vassal of the Roman Church, for striving to deprive him of a kingdom, which is known to belong to the Roman Church." The example of France, which has in modem times shaken off a tyrannical monarchy, and made approaches towards republican insti- tutions, has been held up as a testimony that Romanism favors liberty. The French people always resisted, more perse veringly than those of any other Catholic country, the assumptions of Popery ; to France, the world is indebted, not only for Catholics imbued with a true spirit of Christianity, but also for some of the most powerful writers against the assumptions of the Holy See. The Kings of France ever contended for the right of appointing their own Bishops, and it was only under monarchs most deeply imbued with Romanism that France found her greatest tyrants. Of late years, as the light of true liberty has made encroachments upon the domain of despot- ism, it has modified the illiberality of darker times, and one of the first fruits of the late popular revolutions in that country was the separation of Church and State, and protection to every religious belief. But France, liberal as her people naturally are, is yet too much under the influence of Roman supremacy to bo quoted as an example of religious toleration. It seems but yesterday that Rome herself woke from her long night of slavery, and declaring hei'self free, her spiritual and temporal despot, the Pope, fled from her walls, and took refuge in Gaeta. The regenerated Romans offered to receive the Pope as their spiritual head, but resolutely insisted on the abolition of his temporal power, and that of his tyrannical cardinals. The overture was scorned, and the work of their subjugation to despotism was assigned to France, and, in spite of her Republicanism, the lingering slavery of priestcraft was so wrought into the blood and bones of her rulers and her sol- diery, that she accepted the work, marched her armies on Rome, bombarded and carried the city by assault, and crushed the new Republic and the liberals of Italy in the dust. Maryland, settled under the auspices of Cecil Calvert, a Catholic, ROMANISM AND FREEDOM. 143 and by its charter granting popular liberty and religious freedom, has been held up as an example of Catholic toleration. The wily Bishop, the innocent layman, and the designing politician, can never suflS- dently eulogize the liberality that characterized that Colonial govern- ment, where, in times of universal intolerance, men could live unmo- lested in the enjoyment of the rights of conscience. If this were the result of the direct interference of the Roman Church, liad it been voluntarily suggested by Lord Baltimore, then it certainly would have been an illustrious example, and would have stood out a monu- ment of light iiom among the accumulated darkness. But history shows, that neither the Church nor its adherents in any way favored the cause of liberty, so far as the early settlement of Maryland was concerned. If Lord Baltimore had been a Protestant nobleman, a Protestant prince would have granted him a charter for a Protestant province. K the king had been a Catholic, a Catholic proprietary would have procured a charter for a Catholic province. This course of action characterizes the history of the period. The luminous and beautiful exception of Maryland to the spirit of colonization of the seventeenth century was owing to the ha])py coincidence of a wise and energetic statesman receiving a charter from a Protestant monarch jealous of his faith, and both statesman and monarch compelled to pay defer- ence to the progressive doctrines and political strength of the Inde- pendents of England, who were then preparing the way for successful revolution, and the final triumph of universal liberty, in these Ameri- can States.* The claim that Romanism is in favor of free thought, free expres- sion, and free opinion, is never urged by her votaries out of the United States ; the policy of doing it in this country, however, sometimQS becomes insupportable, and the leading Catholic presses occasionally break forth in the following natural language : " No good government can exist without religion — and there can * See History of Democracy in the United States, Maryland, p. 199. 144 A VOICE TO AMERICA. be no religion without an Inquisition, which is wisely designed for the promotion and protection of the true faith."* " For our own part, we take this opportunity to explain our heai-ty delight at the suppression of the Protestant chapel in Rome. This may be thought intolerant ; but when, we ask. Did we ever profess to be tolerant of Protestantism, or to favor the question that Protestant- ism ought to be tolerated ? On the contrary, we hate Protestantism — we DETEST it with our whole heart and soul, and we pray our aversion to it may never decrease."f In the United States toleration is claimed as a Papal virtue, be- cause it is known to be harmonious with public sentiment. Upon ihe Continent of Europe all is different, and Romanism becomes the strong right arm of despotism, and the enemy of every thing that is free. Not the supporter of tyranny by inference of its enthusiastic devotees, but by the powerful precepts of its written laws, sanctioned by all the solemnities of tradition, and all the massive machinery of ihe Church. Of the doctrines of the Council of Trent it is decreed, ** If any one shall presume to teach, or to think differently from these -decrees, let him be accursed." As late as 1832, the Church, through Gregory XVII., in its famous Encyclical letter, pronounces, " From that polluted fountain of indifference flows the absurd and erroneous doctrine, or rather raving, in favor and in defence of liberty of con- science, for which most pestilential error, the course opened by that entire and wild liberty of opinion, which is everywhere attempting the overthrow of civil and religious institutions, and which the un- blushing impudence of some has held forth as an advantage to re- ligion." " From hence arise those revolutions in the minds of men, hence this aggravated corruption of youths, hence the contempt among the people of sacred things, and of the most holy institutions and laws; hence, in one word, that pest of all others most to be dreaded in a State, unbridled liberty of opinion." The establishment of the Inquisition fn the sixteenth century was ♦ Boston Pilot. t Pittflburg Catholic Visitor, 1848. BOKAJSriSM AND FBEEPOIC. 145 for tlie avowed purpose of putting down free thought, free expression, and free opinion. Under its sway, enormities were committed which make humanity shudder. Under its administration John Louis Vivis, a Spaniard of great learning and reputation, bewails the fate of mode- rate and charitable Catholics even in Spain ; what must have been the fate of avowed Protestants who came under its condemnation ? Says Vivis, in a letter to Erasmus, dated May 18th, 1534, " We live in hard times, in which we can neither speak or be silent without danger." In the forty-three yeai-s of the administrations of the first four Inquisitors-General, which closed in the year 1524, they com- mitted eighteen thousand human beings to the flames, and inflicted inferior punishments on two hundred thousand persons more, with various degrees of severity. It was this work of the Inquisition in Spain, with a knowledge that the Spanish and French monarchs meditated the extension over all Christendom of the Inquisition, that seated Elizabeth firmly on the throne of England, and secured that poKtical toleration that led to the brightest triumphs of the Ref- ormation. Popish devotees are made to believe, and Protestants are constantly told, that the Inquisition was not established by the Catholic Church, and therefore the Church is not to be held accountable for any of its acts; yet we find Saint Liguori, one of the most reverend of the Fathers, says, — " Pope Paul in. established the General Inquisition at Rome, in the year 1542, by his Bull 34, commencing with the words * Licet ab initio,' " — {Ligor. de Frohib. Zibro, p. 238.) "In the General Con- gregation," continues the Saint, " of the holy Roman and Universal Inquisition, held in the Apostohcal Quirinal Palace, before our most HOLY Lord, Lord Benedict, by Divine Providence the fourteenth Pope, and before the most eminent and most serene doctors, the Car- dinals of the Holy Roman Church, specially deputed by the holy Apostolical See, General Inquisitors against heretical prayity."— (Ligor, de Rom, Pont,, Dec. iii, p. 85.) The fact that the Romish Church assumes to be infidlible, of neces- 146 A VOICE TO AMERICA. sit J makes her intolerant. Her arrogant claim of supremacy above all governments of the earth in things spiritual, must also of necessity make her an enemy to free thought and action. The truth of this position is clearly set forth in the Rhemish Testament, which urges that " the blood of heretics is not called the blood of saints, no more than the blood of thieves, man-killers, and other malefactors, for the shedding of which, by order of justice, no commonwealth shall suflPer." — [Rkem. Test., Annoi, upon Rev. xvii. 6.) " Experience teaches," says Cardinal Bellarmine, " that there is no other remedy for the evil but to put heretics to death ; for the Church proceeded gradually, and tried every remedy. At first, she merely excommunicated them ; afterward she added a fine ; then she ban- ished them ; and finally she was constrained to put them to death." — (Bellarm. de Laids, lib. iii. c. 21.) Finally, as an utter refutation of the claim Romanism makes to free thought, free expression, and free opinion, we quote the language of the General Council of Lateran, which says, " Let the secular powers be compelled, if necessary, to exterminate to their utmost power all heretics denoted by the Church." — [Oen, Coun, Lat, A. D. 1216.) Such are the assumptions of this mighty religio-political organi- zation, which, under the mild aegis of our Republican institutions, sends forth both its deceived and its knowing disciples, to teach the people of America, that it cherishes the fundamental principles of Republicanism, denying for the time its most ancient doctrines, deny- ing its practice through centuries, and seemingly holding in contempt the intelligence of the American people, by claiming attributes so utterly opposed to its practices and precepts. That the Jesuitical foreign priest who was bom under the system, nursed in its iniquities, who has no home, no ambition, no future, no glory that does not centre in Rome, should be willing to load his conscience down with mental reservations, or being so utterly corrupt, from his early education, to know nothing as right but the building up of his Church; — that such a man should claim any thing and everv thing for Papacy, that ROMA^OSH AND FBEEDOIC. 147 would palliate the opposition of the American mind to its despotic and liberty-crushing requirements, is not strange ; but the terrible influence of Papal power is more awfully illustrated than in any other case, when it can make a free and independent native-bom citizen, educated and enlightened, and accustomed in his early life to think and act for himself, suddenly cease to have a mind of his own, suddenly deny the truths of history, suddenly discard the lessons of his own experience, and the accumulated testimony of ages, and de- clare that in the Romish Church there is free thought and free ex- pression, and support it by sophisms upon history, that upon exami- nation by the light of truth are dissipated, and leave the advocate in the condition of a person who willingly lends himself to deceptions of the grossest kind, or who, if sincere, must be passed upon as in- capable, from ghostly influence, of announcing the truth. No historical fact can be produced which will show that the Pope of Rome has aided in any cause that might properly be termed one of freedom, or that any of his oflBcial councils, or any acknowledged councils of the Church, have ever done any thing to enlighten the people, and encourage thcra in the principles of self-government The present Pontiff" may be presumed to have as enlarged views as any of his predecessors, yet he is as far removed from encouraging republican ideas as the most bigoted prelate of the dark ages. He represents, in this matter, not himself, but his Church ; and acts only in accordance with the spirit and dictates of the great religio-political institution of which he is the head. Pius IX. blessed the Czar of Russia, and the newly made Emperor of Austria, because they aided in restoring him to his throne, from which he had been driven by the republicans of Italy. At the same time he cursed Piedmont and Bel- gium, because they asserted that the civil power was superior iu civil matters to the power of the priests, and attempted to escape from some of the galling usurpations of Rome. Pius entered the hospitals, filled with wounded republicans who had fallen in the attempt to give liberty to the people, and poured out upon them his especial maledic- tions. To the wounded French — those hireling troops who had been 148 A VOICE TO AMERICA. employed to stifle liberty — he dispensed his blessing, and loaded them with rosaries, medals, and crosses of honor. Such was his treatment to the men who had cruelly shot down his own subjects — his own people ! The bones of the martyrs of hberty were left to decay upon the surface of the ground ; and, in this nineteenth century, travellers were disgusted in witnessing this savage cruelty, allowed almost under the very walls of the Vatican. We repeat, that Pius IX., in these enormities, represents the principle of his Church ; and were he to act more liberal — more in accordance with the spirit of the age — he would cease to be Pope ; for Romanism and freedom will ever be at war. EFFECTS OF ROMANISM AND PROTESTANTISM ON CimEATION. " The prosperity of a conntry is founded upon the intelligence of its inhabitants. This intelligence is dependent upon an enlightened religious belief; for the highest civilization is the result of tba purest Christianity." Three centuries ago, the people of the continent of Europe became divided by the Reformation ; those of the North embraced Protestant- ism, those of the South remained Romanist. The great powers sided with Rome ; the second-rate embraced the new faith. The former held command over the most fruitful domains of the Old and New World, and swayed the sceptre of ocean. Literature, science, and the arts were theirs. The latter, in comparison, had received but little from Nature, and commerce and manufactures were scarcely known amongst them. Such was the position of aflPairs in the sixteenth cen- tury. Let us now examine the transformation which these respective coui^ries have undergone. At the period of the Reformation, Spain was the first among the nations of Europe. By comparing its former with its present state, we shall discover how much it has lost ; and this loss is owing, if not entirely, at least in part, to its religious faith. Never was a nation so completely under the influence of Romanism as Spain. She pre- sented a brilliant picture in the sixteenth century ; * for the conquest of Grenada had raised her to the pinnacle of wealth and prosperity. While the nobility gave themselves up to the profession of arms, the other classes enriched their country by assiduous labor. On all sides, irrigation, canals, and reservoirs distributed water over the remotest and most ban'en tracts. Agriculture was especially honored, whilst 150 A VOICE TO AMERICA. industry and commerce added to the general prosperity. The devel- opment of trade was equal to that of industry. A minister of Philip the Second, asserted, in an assembly of the Cortes, that at the fair of Medina del Campo, in 1563, business was transacted to the amount of one hundred and thirty-two millions five hundred thousand dollars. A multitude of trading vessels set sail every year from various ports, conveying to Italy, Asia Minor, Africa, and the East Indies, the pro- ducts of the national industry. Sculpture, architecture, painting, and music were enshrined in her midst. The drama, epic and lyric poetry, and history found worthy interpreters, names which will live forever. The palaces of the Spanish ambassadors were in foreign countries the resort of the most elegant society ; and France, Italy, England, and Germany sent their youth to Madrid to acquire Castilian manners and politeness. Towards the close of the fifteenth century, Spain, victorious over the Moors, became the discoverer and mistress of the New World. What a magnificent present ! What a glorious future ! All peoples looked to her as first amongst the nations, and sovereigns trembled at her power. What was the condition of England at the period of the Reforma- tion ? One-half of the land was the property of the clergy ; the remainder belonged to the nobility. Sixty-five thousand priests and monks supported immense establishments by the moneys levied on the people. The land was cultivated to a comparatively small extent, the gross agricultural product being under forty milUons of dollars. Her trade was^small, compared to that of many nations on the conti- nent, and commerce was scarcely known in her ports. Manufactures were obtained from other countries, and education of the people had not yet commenced. Everywhere feudalism and priestcraft were tri- umphant, and divided the nation for their mutual benefit. England, under the benign influences of the Reformation, from a fourth-rate power, soon took her station at the head of the nations of the earth ; and peoples once her superioi^s became dependent upon her for protection and aid. Her ships whitened every sea, and her ROMAITISM AND PROTESTANTISM. 161 drum-beat greeted the rising sun ai'ound the world. Her capitalists have covered Europe with railroads, and she has made laws to mil- lions in Asia. She has her colonies in Africa, America, and a rising empire in Australia. What the United States are efi'ecting in the Western Hemisphere, she is accomplishing in the Old World. Within eleven years, Spain eflPects the subjugation of Grenada, discovers and conquers America, and establishes the Inquisition ! At the summit of prosperity in the fifteenth century, behold her in the nineteenth ! See that spectacle of agony which cannot come to an end ; that all-pervading confusion to which no term can be assigned ; the certain and progressive ruin of a nation that, for a whole century, dictated laws to Europe ; that inhabits the richest and most fertile soil, perhaps, under heaven — but a nation so disheaitened that it feels itself perish, and watches its own decline with the resig- nation of a fatalist ! The clergy possess nearly one-third of the entire surface of Spain. As a consequence, one-twelfth of the inhabitants earn a livelihood by smu^ling, robbing, and begging; and it has been estimated that three million Spaniards wear no shirt from want of money to pur- chase one. There are forty classes of vagrants, each class with a specific, recognized name. There is an assassination for every four thousand of the population. Education is scarcely known, and there is but one pupil to every three hundred and fifty inhabitants. Internal navigation, agriculture, and manufactures are at a stand-still. Such is modem Spain, once the first, now the last of nations ! What is the cause of this? what the origin of such utter misery and help- lessness ? Tyranny, answers the politician ; Romanism, says the Pro- testant ; the Inquisition, replies the historian. But these three are one. Tyranny and the Inquisition! — foul oflPspring of blighting Romanism ! During the past year, the Queen of Spain having presented to the Pope a magnificent tiara of diamonds, the Pontiff returns an allocu- tion to the "Catholic Sovereign," and the gift of the body of St. Fe- lix ! Thus has it ever been. Spain parts with her wealth to Rome, 152 A VOICE TO AMERICA. and receives in return bones, putre&ction, and rottenness ! But Eome has borne sway there too long. The Spaniards are now rising against this frightful spiritual and civil tyranny ; the dupes and tools of the priesthood have fled the country like malefactors, and the sov- ereign herself obeys the dictates of her subjects. Kome is no longer to hold Spain as her property, to farm and pillage it to benefit the Papal treasuiy. She has fattened on it too long, and has left it, poor, weak, uneducated, superstitious, low in civilization, the prey of count- less factions. But Spain is ridding herself of the cause of her misery — may we not ho]^, forever ? We address to the reader's conscience this twofold question : First, is it not true that Spain, favored with the finest climate, placed at the head of Europe, enriched with a world, but remaining Romanist, has continued to decline and grow poorer, sinking at last into ignorance, misery, and immorality ? Secondly, is it not true that England, with a sterile soil, a cloudy sky, af d starting from the lowest rank among European nations, but having embraced Protestantism, is now prosperous, enlightened, moral, and at the head of the civilized worid ? We find the relative influence of the two creeds fully developed in the Republic of Switzerland. The Protestant cantons are more pop- ulous than the Romanist, and caiTy on a far greater trade. The latter are obliged to keep many holidays besides Sundays, and thus agriculture is much neglected.' The Cantons of Zurich, Basle, Ge- neva, Glaris, and Neufchatel, all Protestant^ are distinguished above the rest for their industry and manufactures. The people are not so well educated in the Romish as in the other cantons. There are but twenty-two presses in the former to eiglity in the latter. Ten Protest- ant journals are printed to three Romanist. In the Papist cantons, ignorance and misery go hand in hand, and distress the eyes of the traveller. The taste for processions, pilgrimages, and other acts of devotion introduced by the monks, hjis encouraged a spirit of idle- ness which is the bane of trade and agriculture, and augments the numbers of the poor. In the cantons where the peasants bow the neck to the yckx: cc the -liic:^, iDca hive losi jlH ;beir ^i>erinr, ^dl efendoQ of miiid. Sarile szkd xsciisni as sl^Tes. iLey bare foTgvHt^Ni their ligius, ai^d kaov nouiiiig beroD-i ihe ]:ierfc*rD3aiiee of a nieohan- ieai and nDPeasomii^ oc-edienoe. Hie Caaiun du. Valais is cek-bxated throi^oiit Eorope for m filth, suj^eistition, and wpetobedoesiiv ** Mange pas les paces el ies Pretres" (eaien up by lice and priesisk is ihe pn&- veib applied to its inhabitants tbrooghont Europe. The peculation 15 behind the other cantons even in legaid to agricultund operations and the maAag^^ment of cattle. They are inferior in education, knowledge, and science : and are specially idle, n^igent, and dirty. In the villages, at every door are seen horrible cretins, sickly, wretcluyd, languishing, with an en(»]nous head, lost in an immense goitre, tlieir &ces swollen and hvid, the eyes sunk under the thick and heavy lids; the flabby cheeks, the half-opened lips, with the tongue hanging out^ and a filthy saliva round it. Some, scarcely covered with raga, lie warming their limbs in the sun ; others, seated on the lajw of half- cretinized old women, resign their beards and heads to their ins|H*c- tion,or moodily count their beads, muttering Aves and Pater N esters. Medical men are decided that the causes of this deformed idiocy, cretinism, are moral as well as physical ; the neglect of education leads to their imbecility,* Children are left to themselves, and exist like beasts. They wallow in the mire, seizing and devouring all thoy find there. In winter they pass whole days stretcheil in a room warmed by a stove. Drunkenness is the prevailing vice, and the population is universally superstitious, insensible to their own inter- ests, intractable and obstinate. Romanism had a hard battle to fight in Germany at the time of the Reformation. The North, represented by Prussia, became Pro- testant ; the South, under the influence of Austria, romaiuod Ro- manist. In the latter, two powei-s, the government and the clergy, have united in working the nation to their mutual advantage. The clergy, at firet, strove to govern both the people and the noblcft ; but ♦ Eaoul Rochette, Vol. III. p. 892. Lautior, Vol. II. p. S04. 164 A VdlOE TO AMERICA. these resisted, and took the place coveted by the clergy. The civil power is therefore master, only it reigns in the nation by the means and tutoring of the Church. A compromise exists ; the Church is the instrument^ the Government is the hand ; but the instrument acts according to its own aptitude, so that a harmonious concurrence exists between the two powers. Kome has fashioned Austria, although Rome obeys Austria, and the two forces have successfully enthralled the nation, by depriving it of liberty and education. Freedom of thought does not exist : there are twelve oflBces for tile revision of books, and as many censors, at Vienna, Prague, and Milan. The advance of industry is stopped by an exaggerated prohibitive system ; her commerce in nowise answers to the extent of her monarchy, and her internal trade is scarcely half developed. There is no individual liberty ; the subject is a simple tenant ; he cannot be more. The lords judge between their own subjects ; they may even judge in their own cause. Up to 1846, except in Hungary, no peasant might emigrate, buy, sell, make a will, or marry, without authorization; he was, in fact, a minor, kept under by perpetual legislative guardianship. Gallicia, a country possessing all the elements of wealth, has re- mained barren, and frightful indigence bears sway. In the wretched and repulsive-looking villages, narrow huts, formed of branches of trees rudely kept together with osier bands, and covered with straw and clay, surround a church. The other provinces of the empire are in similar condition ; religion and misery go hand in hand. There is, as we before observed, no liberty of thought, no liberty of com- merce, no individual Hberty ; but instead, drudgery for the peasants, beating for the soldiers, humiUation for oflficials, and a villainous sys- tem of secret police. The different professions are enrolled to serve as spies, as also are the hackney-coachmen. Servants are called upon to tell what they know of their masters and households ; door-keepers, tradesmen, and clerks render the same service. One-half of the people are spies upon the other half. ROMAKISM AND PROTESTANTISM. 165 Thanks to this abominable tyranny and vile superstition, Austria is falling daily in opinion ; the distrust and discontent which the govern- ment excites, germinate like fertile seeds, and will one day bear bitter fruits. Whilst Austria extinguishes the light of knowledge and forbids liberty of thought, Prussia, on the contrary, governs by me^ns of that light and liberty. Prussia is a state in which instruction is very generally diffused and watched over with the greatest care : the number of schools in- creases annually. There is no country where science and learning are more encouraged, or cultivated with greater success, and the in- habitants have reached a high degree of moral and intellectual at- tainment. The government pays the greatest attention to public education, and the advancement of the arts and sciences. Freedom is granted to all religious denominations. The result of Luther's reformation in Germany was liberty of. thought and opinion. No distinction w^ made between theological and philosophical truth, and public disputations were held on all subjects without opposition. Nowhere has the human mind been permitted to expand or express itself more freely than in Northern Germany: Liberty of thought and Protestantism are there united by strong ties, and German Philosophy is the daughter of the Ref- ormation. The language even has felt the benefit : Protestants were the first to write it with intelligence, and this pure style is, in the countries subject to Austria, called Lutheran German. Agriculture is improving, manufactures increase, and trade flour- ishes. In fifteen years, Prussia has expended a capital of fifty-four million dollars in roads and railways. Throughout the country, beautiful villages spring up on every side ; the houses are well built, and almost concealed by the thick covering of vine leaves. The villagers universally wear bright, happy countenances, and their courteous manners and picturesque costumes all bespeak the con- tentment and comfort which reign among them. Such is Germany. In the South, Austria and her band of Rop 166 A VOICE TO AMERICA. States career in the darkness of material despotism, without conscious- ness -of th^ noble destiny of man. In the North, Prussia, and her company of Protestant nations, blessed with increasing liberty, bask in the bright light of knowledge, in ceaseless speculations after God and immortality. Romanist Belgium and Protestant Holland having been alternately united and separated, cannot be so entirely different from one another as the coimtries we have already compared. During the last half century alone, Belgium has been successively under the rule of Infi- del France, of the Protestant Netherlands, and of its own Roman- ist government These powers have each left an impression, and thus have modified the contrast which strikes us so forcibly else- where. In the eighteenth century, Belgium passed under the dominion of the French, then much irritated against priestcraft ; Belgians must in a measure have shaken off the same yoke, and lost some of their prejudices. K this were not an advance in good, it was at least a step out of evil. But it was especially from 1815 to 1830, under a Protestant gov- ernment, that Belgium received abundantly the treasures of freedom and civilization. Agricultural colonies were established, and flourish- ed; institutions for the poor were founded; a general increase of population and comfort ensued, and commerce received a great development The advantages on the Romanist side, as regards soil and cli- mate, are very considerably in favor of Belgium in comparison with Holland. The former has a fertile soil, generously endowed by na- ture ; a ray of sunshine covers it with abundant crops ; it possesses mines of lead, copper, iron, alum, sulphur and calamine, quarries oi marble, freestone, limestone, est features, until now it is, like all the rest, merely an adjunct of despotic |X)wer ; a great machine, from which are turned out ready-made subjects — not PRINCIPLES OF OUR COMMON EDUCATION. 207 ready-made men. The reading-books of the schools of the Austrian dominions are arranged to teach submission to tyranny. In them the children read, in so many words, that subjects must behave towards their sovereign like faithful slaves towards their master, be- cause their sovereign is their master, and has power over their prop- erty as well as over their lives. Intelligent consideration of political matters, or any consideration of them, would shake the seats of the kings ; and for self-preservation's sake, therefore, they carefully keep such matter of investigation as much as possible out of the peo- ple's hands. More than that : lest they acquire too free a habit of thought elsewhere, they not only prohibit a direct training for the duty and habit of governing, but they prevent the study in a free manner of any thing else. Lest scholars should learn the intelligent study of politics, they are prevented from the intelligent study of any thing. They are not taught to think for themselves for their own good, but only to believe what is taught them, in order to subserve the bad puiposes of others. Intellectual debasement always bnngs moral and social debasement along with it The victims of this edu- cation for ignorance are not only miserably besotted in mind, but brutishly savage and heathenish in manners. Their whole character is the natural consequence of such training in youth. Mutual confi- dence and helpfulness, the reliance of our citizens upon the kindness and honesty of others, the social friendship and good fellowship which are the very texture of so much of our daily life, are things unknown in Europe, and strange and incomprehensible to Europeans travelling here. • In Europe, everybody distiiists everybody. It was a principal reason for the transitory insecurity of the many constitutional govern- ments established in Germany and elsewhere, in the years 1848-50, that, of the numerous little cliques of politicians and theorists who were at work, none trusted any other ; nor did any man trust his fellow. There is none of that feeling which causes our minorities to submit peacefully to the measures of the majority, and even to assist, in good faith, their support and full accomplishment. A Eu- 208 A VOICE TO AMERICA. ropean nation would almost necessanly pass from the excitement of our Presidential elections, into an aimed revolution. The eagerness with which the Irish and Geimans gather into exclusively national armed bands in this country, their promptness in rising into mobs, their bnital fights among themselves, are plain indications of the pas- sions which boil in their minds, very near to overflowing. Thus far it has been shown : 1. How our peculiar American education is the basis of our pecu- liar American nationality and freedom. 2. How the aims of American education and European educatioai .1 i are diametrically opposite. It remains to consider : 1. What the actual influence of foreign population is upon our schools; and, 2. What measures are needed to secure our schools in their proper condition. 1. The actual influence of foreign population upon our schools. Considering the character of most European training, and its influ- ence upon the minds of its victims ; considering also their besotted subservience to their Komish priests, or else the rampant infidelity and lawless, riotous, and licentious tendencies of those not so subservient, it is easy to see how little community of thought and feeling can sub- sist between the two classes of people, European and American. The Europeans are studiously kept ignorant and servile, and are deformed with the vices which accompany servile ignorance. They are bigoted, false, selfish, cunning, and revengeful. They are governed by fear ; and, like passionate children, they seize every occasion to violate laws which are only kept over them by force, and to indulge the passions which are only subdued by terror. How can such men coalesce with our law-making, law-abiding, and self-controlling men ? Our laws are so free that only such men as ours can properly use or safely endure their freedom. Our thoughtful people see that their own self-con- trol must make up for the absence of stringent laws, a standing army, and the heavy pressure from above of despotism and an armed and PRINCIPLES OF OUR COMMON EDUCATION. 209 discipKned aristocracy. Liberal laws, and a correspondingly careful self-government hy the individual, are the distinguishing dignity and prerogative of our freemen. But the very freedom which we use to increase our moral power of governing ourselves, the foreigner seizes as an opportunity to indulge his ingrained antipathy to law, his fero- city, and his appetites. Our population is so intelligent as to recognize the necessity of a universal Christian and democratic education, with- out regard to sects. The foreigner, under the control of Romish priests, regards it even as his duty, to insist upon the exclusive propa- gation, in all schools where he can secure it, of his special sectarian- ism, or his own atheism, if he has renounced the Romish Church. The character of the actual educational operations of our foreign population has, in fact, been precisely such as we have shown that it must be. In Detroit, in Cincinnati, in New York city — wherever they could muster strength enough to hope for success — they have begged, bargained, and bulhed to get their hands upon the money of the State, for the propagation of their religious dogmas. FaiHng in that, they have, by the hke means, attempted to destroy in our national schools their national significance and value, by driving out from them all religious instruction or influence. The demands of the athe- istical Germans have been of a similar character. More than one meeting of these people has formally resolved that the legal enforce- ment of the observance of the Christian Sabbath, and the giving of any religious instruction in schools, ought to cease ; and with besotted blindness, while making these absurd demands, they have also called upon the Government to provide everybody with property and labor. This is a like treachery with that of those villains who ask a night's lodging, and then set fire to the house, for the sake of plunder. The liberal grants by the British government to the College of Maynooth, while they have had no efiect in mollifying the Irish priests' opposition to popular education in Ireland, have acted as a stimulus to the preparation of Jesuit priests for this country, who, headed by Bishop Hughes and his confederates, are, as we all know, constantly interfering with the operation of our school-i 210 A VOICE TO AMERICA. endeavoring, under the plea of religious scruples, to secularize them and destroy their usefulness. We also suffer from the outside influ- ence of Austiia, where, in 1829, was instituted " the Leopold Founda- tion," the direct object of which was to supply money for the support of foreign teachers for American children. From this propagandist society have been received the immense sums of money that have been paid for Romanist teachers, and for schoolhouses, in communities entirely Protestant ; and to Austria we must look for the solution of the oft-repeated question among our Protestant rural populations, " How do the Romanists manage to get funds to pay for their build- ings and support their priests ?" What the result of the success of this speckled army of disorgan- izers and bigots would be, it requires no prophet to foretell. Every professedly religious body, would grasp at the State funds with the intensely bitter, selfish, and spiteful rivalry of sectarian quarrelers. The strongest would snatch the most, and would try to secure aU. American free common-school education — that invaluable institution which has been, and is, the hfe-blood of the Union, the nucleus and source of all our liberty and all our happiness — would be bandied about, like a bone in a pack of snarling curs. The keystone of the State would be knocked out of the arch ; and the solid architecture of the iron men who founded our commonwealth would be demol- ished, to make room for the crude fancies and foggy dreams of infi- del German metaphysicians — the most visionary and unpractical of men — or for the cunning machineries of a subtle priesthood, striving to rear the Inquisition and convents of the Romish Church on the ruins of our State. At the very best, our young men and young wo- men would have passed the forming years of their lives in a disci- pline calculated to develop intellect, but to smother morals and reli- gion together. All the strength of our republic would be sapped. Like the image in Nebuchadnezzar's dream, whose feet were part of iron and part of clay, w^e should totter upon a failing and incongruous basis. The first stone thrown at us, would prostrate our couutiy in irremediable ruin. PRINCIPLES OP OUR CO;*MON EDUCATION. 211 2. What measures are needed in order to preserve our schools in their proper condition ? Only the religious belief underlpng and interweaving all the thoughts and habits of our people, co-operating with intellectual ele- vation and habits politically discreet, have held us together hitherto. The elements of disunion are to-day fermenting more deeply and dan- gerously than ever. Questions of policy, and of sectional prejudice, have agitated the nation quite enough for its health. If these ques- tions are to be determined without any other judges than cunning intellect and unbridled passion, the death of our Union is at hand. If they are to be determined by men believing and seeking to prac- tice right and justice, the Union may yet endure. But if they are to be so determined, it can be in no other way than by the graduates of our common schools, brought up under an education based upon Christianity, and teaching freedom of body, heart, and mind, democ- racy, and, above all, Christianity, without sectarianism. There is no doubt what is necessary for the security of our edu- cation and of our country. It is high time that the distinctive Christianity of our State polity, and the Christian and pohtical char- acter of our public-school education, were re-established and restored to their former footing, there to be maintained. Trial by jury is an excellent custom. Taxation according to representation is a veiy true principle. Popular election and the ballot-box are the best possible mode of choosing rulers. But neither custom, principle, nor ma- chinery will help a rotten nation. Unless we are able to handle our instruments, we shall turn out but a bungling piece of work. These good things are only good by virtue of skill in the hands of the user. Unless we know how to use our blessings well, we shall turn them ittto curses. Our common schools are the only medium of the requi- site education. These must be kept American in spirit, American in practice, American thoroughly, everywhere and always. The fanat- ics or the fools who would destroy our liberties by ousting from our schools the sources and preservatives of those liberties, with a wisdom like that of a man who should bum his own home over his head to 212 A VOICE TO AMERICA. • warm his fingers, must be rebuked and silenced. Our schools must remain public, free, democratic, unsectarian, and Christian. There is room for no hesitation about the matter; the case is urgent. As surely as we trifle with this bhnd giant. Ignorance, he will repay us with such a destruction as Sampson brought upon the Philistines. He is even now feeling about to grip the pillars of our State. Hav- ing them once in his grasp, he will overthrow our national edifice^ and crush us among the billing fragments. Perhaps the most significant, comprehensive, and useftd measure which could be taken in order to the accomplishment of the purposes- set forth in this chapter, would be an educational qualification for voting, — the requirement that every voter should read intelligibly, in English, our State and National Constitutions. This single require- ment, of reading, is probably the best, although, of course, very im- perfect, as all such tests must be. Any such test must be capable of quick and easy application, and must also determine the possession of an essential requisite. Reading is a ready mode of estimating a man's literary acquirements. A more elaborate inquiry would be so tedious in the application, as to be practically inconvenient. Ability to read can bo proved in a moment. And one who can read, is able to use the most extensive and important source of information in the world, namely, printed matter. The enforcement of such a rule would be attended with many advantages. It would shut out from the polls the most degraded and dangerous class of votei*s, native or foreign. The men who are most easily bought or fooled would not then be worth- buying. Im- migrants would be under a strong temptation to learn English, and to learn to read ; of which two attainments the first would be of great value in assimilating them to our own people, and the second as a main step forward in their progress towards intelligent freedom. A most important benefit, also, to be derived from the operation of this educational test, would be its efiect upon our schools. The children of foreigners, now the most ignorant and inaccessible of our youthful population, would at least learn to read. Their fathers would also PRINCIPLES OF OUR COMMON EDUCATION. 213 learn, in order to vote ; and as much as they learned themselves, so much it is safe to conclude that their children would be greatly benefited. Education, Bifereover, would thus once more be definitely recognized and significantly honored by the State ; and the posses- sion and exercise of pohtical power would once more be publicly declared conditional upon the possession of the ability to use such power. The declaration would not be very perfect ; the test proposed is not. But probably it is the best that circumstances will admit o£ Its. adoption would, at least, make a renewed and important public assertion of our hereditary State policy, namely, the restriction of the governing power to those fit to use it The principle of demanding that religion, though free from secta- rianism, should be carefully excluded from our common-schools, is not of American origin. " Education, without religion," says a great authority, " merely transforms an ignorant brute into a clever fiend." True religious feeling is the basis of all useful education. It is the wholesome check upon that power which man acquires through the acquisition of knowledge. " Knowledge is power, but it is neither wisdom nor virtue ;"* and these two qualities, so necessary to the very existence of society, can only be implanted by religious faith. The prevalence of the Epicurean philosophy dia much to destroy the Roman Empire ; and, in later years, the teachings of Voltaire and Rousseau removed the only check which restrained the French nation from those frightful excesses which form so dark a picture in the his- tory of mankind. The " Goddess of Reason" has ever been insuflS- cient to direct either individuals or multitudes; and the first step towards the restoration of order in France, was the recognition of the Divine power in the government of the world. As the cherished sentiments of thousands of our naturalized and alien citizens become known to the American people, it is discovered that we not only have the Romish priest, industriously at work to suppress the Scriptiu'es, but that we have organized societies of avowed infidels and atheists, who openly proclaim that there is no ♦ Aliflon. ■1 214: A VOICi? TO AMERICA. liberty where even moral, much less religious, restraints prevail, and that the perfection of society is accomplished, when the unregenerated passions of the heart alone control human sMon* The experience of other nations presents warnings to the American, of the necessity of constantly insisting upon the moral training of our youth. We want no dogmas, no " isms," but we want the Scriptures free. That they might be so, our forefathers made a home in the wilderness, and left the heritage to the present generation. Shall we, in the prosecution of our school-system, allow it to be emasculated of its chief strength, because of the demands of the priests of a cor- rupted religion, or because we are required to do so by foreigners who openly declare war upon religion itself? It is for the Americans who truly love their country to decide. ♦ See published statements of tlie principles of various Gorman Societies throughout the Union. THE POLITICAL POWER OF THE POPE. *' The Bomish Church has always ranged herself on the side of Despotism," — GmzOT It has lately become the fashion for party men and journalists to assert that the influence of the Papal See on political affairs no longer exists; that history proves her power to have been on the wane during many past years ; that the march of intellect and spread of education have forced her to relinquish coercive power ; and that the resumption of her former influence is impossible. We are constantly told by prefates, priests, and poHticians, that the supremacy of the Pope in temporal affairs " is not an established doctrine of the Roman Church ; it is simply a sententia in ecclesia — an unadjudicated ques- tion, without positive authonty, and incumbent upon no one's faith ; that a Romanist may believe what he pleases on the subject, and be a good Churchman still." Those, on the contrary, who, relying on the authority of the Fathers of that Church, receiving the declara- tions of the priesthood themselves, and accepting the explanation of the Roman press, maintain a different opinion, are accused of bigotry and intolerance, or stigmatized as enemies to liberty. It becomes us, therefore, to examine these pretensions, and, having seen their import in other ages, to inquire if they have been relinquished, or, as is strenuously urged, become obsolete. In order to a full appreciation of this momentous question, a glance at the origin and progress of Papal assumption is necessary, so that a full idea of the arrogance of Rome may be realized. Systems which are longest in their growth, are most lasting in their effects. This is peculiarly the case with that politico-religious organization — Romanism : commencing in the first centuries of the 216 A VOICE TO AMERICA. Christian era — a period when the whole known worid was in a state of transition — it has steadily progressed from infancy to robust man- hood : accurately observing cause and eflfcct, it quickly learnt to coa- trol events, and mould men and monarchies to its will. "What was originally conferred as a favor, it quickly arrogated as a right ; and, when princes remonstrated, or jurists denied its claims, forgery was resorted to in defence of its usurpations, and absolution and prefer- ment were the rewards of assassins who removed its opponents. In the struggle between the Eastern and Western Empires, the See of Rome early rejected the Byzantine yoke, thus asserting a right to resist governments. In becoming temporal princes, the Popes de- clared that a union could exist between the temporal and spiritual ; and, at the election of Pepin to the throne of France, arrogate^ the power of umpires in political disputes. Thus, gradually establishing^ authority by precedent, tlie Papacy matured its policy, until Hilde- brand placed a climax on the growth of six centuries.* This famous Pontiff is regarded by all historians as the master mind of his age, and the architect oT the Romish Church. His great antagonist, Henry IV., Emperor of Germany, found the armies of tKo empire powerless against the Eternal City, and was compelled to listen to the Pope as he fulminated interdicts against his kingdom, and excommunication against himself. Nor did tlie Papal emissaries confine their operations merely to Germany. In England, they im- posed and collected taxes without the consent of the authorities, and frequently raised insurrections by their extortions. So extravagant became their demands in France, that the civil power was forced to interfere, and St. Louis decreed the " Pragmatic Sanction," curbing the power of the Papacy in his kingdom. In fact, monarchy was in rebellion, and what could not be acquired by force, Rome resolved to gain by wiles. The thirteenth century saw the struggle commence between the people and Feudalism. But the Papacy early understood that Lib- erty would be death to its pretensions, and therefore allied itself with * Gregory VII., A. D. 1073. POLITICAL POWER OF THE POPE. 217 Tyranny. The Barons, who had extorted Magna Charta from John, were excommunicated by the Pope, and a war of extermina- tion commenced against the Albigenses. This people, in the enjoy- ment of political and religious freedom, were under the protection of the Count of Toulouse, who,, on his refusal to abet the designs of the Papacy, was excommunicated, and his destruction resolved upon. Every expedient was resorted to in order to detach their protectors from this unfortunate people ; .. and the Pope showed the policy of Rome towards her opponents, in the following memorable words : " We advise you, according to the precepts of the Apostle Paul, 10 use cunning in your dealings with the Count, which, in the pres- ent c^, should rather be deemed prudence. It is expedient to at- tack those separately who have broken the unity of the Church ;-to spare the Count of Thoulouse for a season, treating him with wise dissimulation, in order tliat the other heretics may be more easily destroyed, and that we may crush him at our leisure when he stands alone."* But treachery was not the only weapon which Romanism found useful to adopt. Henry VII., Emperor of Germany, was assassinated by order of Pope Clement V., poison being administered to him in the Eucharist, from the hands of his Dominican confessor. But crimes become virtues in a creed which asserts the maxim — " The end justifies the means." Religion has always given place to policy when Romanism has been forced to an alternative. The Duke of Guise was assassinated by order of his sovereign ; yet, notwithstanding his opposition to i}iQ Huguenots of France, and his being the leader of the Romanist party, the Pope justified the assassination on the ground of political expe- diency. But the most memorable instance of Papal duplicity is shown in the treatment of Philip H. of Spain, one of the greatest sup- porters of the Romish See that history can produce. Rome, how- ever, feared his power, and secretly sought the alhance of Elizabeth * Pope Inntcent III. to the Abbot of Citeaux. 218 A VOICE IX) AMJiKICA. of England, advising her to assist the insmgents against Philip's authority in the Netherlands. When this sovereign had resolved on war with England, the Pope sent information to Elizabeth of the plan forming for her destruction, together with copies of letters he had recdved from the king relative to the Armada. The whole history of the Papacy is full of such instances as these ; and neither suc- ceeding centuries nor the progress of civilization have produced a change. The history of Westphalia, in 1649, was the triumph of Protest- antism and free opinions. The Papacy then ceased to have any direct political influence in the affairs of Europe ; henceforward it was no longer to maintain authority by the aid of arms and the civil power ; but to struggle for present existence and prospective influence by craft and cunning. It may be said of this system — ** It was not for an age, bat for«all time." Romanism has weapons suited to every cycle. It adapts itself to every people ; it conforms to and supports every government ; but in despotism, monarchy, and republicanism, its aim is still unchanged. Tyrannizing in barbarism, fawning in the sixteenth century, intriguing in the nineteenth. Tolerant where forced, it persecutes where possi- ble. Liberal in England and America, autocratic in Spain and Aus- tria. Truly, " tout chemin m6ne a Rome."* The weapons which the Papal hierarchy now wields in free coun- tries, are admirably suited to the organization of its ministers. Celi- bacy of the priesthood gave power to the Papacy, and maintains its influence. Family and country have no ties on the Romish clergy, and the Popes have always been convinced that celibacy is the great bond which unites all portions of the Papal dominions. Rome there- fore enjoys exclusive possession of every feeling which can render her ministers good subjects or good citizens. Pius IV. comprehended the immense value of an unmarried clergy. Though he violently con- demned the administration of the eucharist in both kinds, ho relaxed * " Every road loads to Rome." POLITICAL POWER OF THE POPE. 219 the prohibition, at the instance of the Emperor Maximilian, and per- mitted the cup to be given to the hiity in Germany. But on the point of celibacy he was inflexible ; for he was justly convinced that it was the great bond by which all the portions of Papal domination were united, and that, if it should be relaxed, the entire edifice would fall in sunder. A very necessary element of success, is the command of funds; and here the Romish Church is aided by the celibacy of her priest- hood. " The cleigy is a family which can never perish ; its wealth therefore remains with it forever ; and, as it is not a family to increase, government should restrict its power of acquiring additional wealth." (Montesquieu.) Rome shows her appreciation of such restrictions, by treating them as sacrilege ; and governments, in asserting their independence of Papal tyranny, have found it necessary to first curb its financiering proclivities. A government which neglects legislative enactments on so momentous a subject, will eventually find the Romish Church capable of any resistance, and bidding defiance to the laws. We are at a loss to understand how men, otherwise far-seeing, can speak of Rome as powerless for evil. Are any of her means of action restrained ? Is she less wealthy ? Are her followers materially dimin- ished, or less devoted ? Is her alliance with governments perilled ? Or has she become meek and lowly, and forgotten her former arro- gance ? In every country we see her bishops and priests leading a strong party, whose alliance is sought, and opinions pandered to, by party-men of difierent shades of opinion. In England, the Popish Parliamentary lea^e is feared and hated by every ministry. In France, their alliance is gained by the government, in return for almost supreme ecclesiastical power. In Germany, Rome educates in the schools, and Jesuits bear sway in the cabinet She attempts to arrest the march of fi'eedom in Sardinia, and strives to stifle its rise in Spain. Is it egotism which induces Americans to deny her influence in this republic, and are they blind to passing events in their own country ? What, then, is the explanation of demagogues flattering the Papal hierarchy ; what the meaning of tbe riots of our 220 A VOICE TO AMEKIOA. foreign population ; and for what purpose is so much property in the hands of the priesthood, and in their hands alone ? The fact is obyi- ous, that the means Rome formerly possessed, she has not parted with. She is as powerful for evil as in the days of Innocent III. ; and, when the situation warrants it, she will know where to find another Hilde- brand. We are not alone in this conviction. The historian, Maoaulay, holds the same opinion, in the following language : " The Papacy remains — not in decay, not a mere antique, but full of life and youthful vigor. The Catholic Church is still sending forth to the furtherest ends of the world, missionaries as zealous as those who landed in Kent with Augustin ; and still confronting hostile kings with the same spirit with which she confronted Attila." There is a fundamental mistake made by would-be philosophers of the present day, which may lead to very disastrous consequences. Viewing the want of education in Romanist countries, and the unin- tellectual character of their inhabitants, they imagine the Papal priests to be participators in this ignorance, whereas the contrary is the case. The Romish priests, as a body, are educated, scientific, and refined. They number men among them eminent in every branch of literature, and esj>ecially in political philosophy. This fact is one which should cause them to be regarded with greater fear, since they are prepared beforehand for every emergency. Their education is instilled into them with, and becomes a part of, one great controlling aim — the supremacy .of their order. Rome formerly worked by what may be termeJf physical means. She was a species of equipoise — a political umpire between contend- ing governments. But this influence has departed, and Rome adapts herself to the age. She educates her ministers to meet the times ; and her followers are trained to make every action of their lives, every phase of their existence, subservient to a fixed policy. Seated in the midst of the civilized world, accurately marking every change of the political horizon, Rome awaits her moment, and, when the success of one or other political party is wavering in the balance. POLITICAL POWER OF THE POPE. 221 she throws in the immense weight of her followers, and bears down all opposition. Politicians laugh at our fears, and deride our asser- tions ; yet these same men are courting that party whose influence they deny. Why is it that public men are so courteous to, and apologistic of, the Komish Church ? It is because they know it to be an undivided power, — ^no two policies there, no factions, no North and South, but a party one and indivisible. Whigs and Democrats may contend, " isms" may come in contact, and a " National party" be rent by fanatics, but Rome is unchangeable. There are no divisions there ; she commands, and countless thousands obey. No wonder, then, our pubhc men are so deferential to such a power, though at the same time denying its existence to the country. Will America thus be treated by her representatives ? The oft-repeated assertion of the Papal See not claiming temporal supremacy, is one calculated to bring about the most disastrous results. Legislators in this, as in other countries, are unceasing in the propa- gation of this error ; and even Romanists themselves assert a doctrine which is entirely opposed to the spirit and affirmation of their hie- rarchy. From the ninth century to the nineteenth — from Gregory VII. to Pius DL — the doctrine of that Church has been, the elevation of the spiritual over the secular. This nght is not asserted as a jconse- quence of the spiritual power, but as of divim origin. Thus Hilde- brand, in excommunicating Henry IV., uses the language, "-£'« parte omnipotentis Dei,^^ The same Pontiff asserts that " kings and princes are bound to kiss the feet of God's vicegerent. He has a right to depose emperors. His sentence can be annulled by none, but he can annul the decrees of all." Successive Pontiff were unceasing in maintaining this doctrine, and constantly asserted that governments held their authority from the Romish See. Pope Boniface VIH. addresses Philip le Bel of France in the same arrogant language : " We would have thee to know that in things spiritual and temporal, thou art subject to us." In fact, throughout the whole range of the Papacy, from Hildebrand downwards, such has been the declaration of the so-called successors of St. Peter. If 222 A VOICE TO AMERICA. In A. D. 1414, the Council of Constance declares : " The laity have no jurisdiction and power over the clergy." And the Council of Trent, in 1545, asserts: "The exemption of clerical persons has heen instituted by the ordination of God, and by canonical institutions." {Sess. 25, chap. 20.) It was in the eai-ly ages of the Papacy that Rome found her most critical moments ; and such decrees as the above were necessary, not merely to acquire additional power, but to retain what she already possessed. Many national Churches were almost independent of Rome, particularly that of France. Under the leadership of such men as Bossuet and Fenelon, backed by the enormous power of Louis XrV., France successfully resisted the encroachments of the Romish See, and even gave a name to all such opposition, namely, Oallicanism, But this independence of Rome is now only history ; the Papal hierarchy of the present day is ultramontanist throughout, and the Church recognizes the Pope as infallible and supreme in all matters. Even France herself owns to the annihilation of her national Church. The Count of Montalembert thus speaks, in 1852 : " Let us all labor, according to the measure of our meekness, to maintain her (the Romish See) in this dignity, in this sovereign inde- pendence. We are entering upon the age of the regeneration of Catholicism, which will console us for all the outrages, all the defec- tions, it has had to endure since the revival of paganism, four liundred years ago." The ultramontane doctrine, as enunciated by Bellarmine, and defended by the Jesuits, is now, in fact, the faith of the entire Romish clergy and Church. Bellarmine thus illustrates his posi- tion: "The Pope, as Pope, although ho has not any merely temporal power, hath, nevertheless, in order to a spiritual good, the supreme power of disposing of the temporal concerns of all Chrisliaiis." (^Bel- larmine^ chap, vi.) Again : " The clergy cannot be punished by political judges, neither bo in POLITICAL POWER OF THE POPE. 223 any way brought before the judicial chair of the secular magistrate. , . The Pope has redeemed the clergy from the obedience due to princes ; therefore kings are no more the superiors of the clergy." {^Bellar- mine, chap. 28.) Another of the Fathers of the Romish Church is even more explicit. Baronius, in speaking of the supremacy of the Papal power, ob- serves: " All those who take from the Church of Rome, and from the See of St Peter, one of the two swords, and allow only the spiritual, are branded for heretics." (Baronius, Ann. 1053, §14.) Political partisans* and unscrupulous demagogues may assert that the march of civilization has caused Rome to relinquish these claims, but there never was a time when her pretensions have found more numerous or abler champions than at present. The doctrine is tri- umphant throughout the entire Papacy, and in Protestant countries it is pertinaciously asserted. To be convinced that this ultramontane power of the Popes is truly the belief of every faithful Romanist, we need only look to the writings of Brownson, in our own country. The opinions of his Review are endorsed by the Romish hierarchy throughout the States, and he therefore speaks the creed of his Church. " There is, in our judgment, but one valid defence of the Popes, in their exercise of temporal authority in the middle ages over sove- reigns, and that is, that they possess it by divine right, or that the Pope holds that authority by virtue of his commission from Josus Christ, as the successor of Peter, the Prince of the Apostles, and visi- ble head of the Church." "As the denial of the spiritual au- thority soon leads to a denial of the temporal, so the denial of tho temporal soon leads to the denial of the spiritual. When we found democracy even by nominal Catholics embraced in that sense in which it denies all law, and asserts the right of the people, or rather of the mob, to do whatever they please, and making it criminal in us to dispute their infallibility, we felt that we must bring out the truth against them, and if scandal resulted, we were not its cause. The re 224 A VOICE TO AMERICA. sponsibility rests on those whose obsequiousness to the multitude made our opposition necessary." " The Pope has the right to pronounce sentence of deposition against any sovereign, when required by the good of the spiiitual order." (Brownson^s Review, vol. i., p. 48.) " The power of the Church exercised over sovereigns in the middle ages was not a usurpation, was not derived from the concession of princes, or the consent of all people, hut was, and is, held hy divine right, and whoso resists it, rebels against the King of kings and Lord of lords." {Ibid., p. 47.) " She "(the Church) bears by divine right botff swords, but she ex- ercises the temporal sword by the hand of the princes or magistrates. The temporal sovereign holds it subject to her order, to be exercised in her service, under her direction." (Ibid,, p. 60.) " The spiritual is not only superior to the temporal, but is its sove- reign, and punishes its law." (Ibid.) We consider this the most open-mouthed, bare-faced assertion of the temporal supremacy of the Popes over free governments and uni- versal suffrage of which it is possible to conceive, and this asserted too in a country which has separated Church and State, fearing the encroachments of the spiritual power. Has this man sworn to main- tain the Constitution of the United States ? Can Jesuitry reconcile his words with such an oath ? But this doctrine is developed in its utmost elaboration in the Eternal City. The Civilta Cattolica is a journal published at Rome under the auspices of the Pontiff, and its views and opinions are received by the Romanists throughout the world as the effusions of the Holy See. In the course of a late article, this paper thus speaks : " What are the limits of the power of coercion ? There are but two, which, in fact, comprehend all others, namely, means and aim. . . . What then are the limits of the Church's means ? There are nond except^ the limits of human power, and of the divine assistance by which the Church is comforted. As the Church commands the spiritual part of man directly, she therefore commands tlie whole POLITICAL POWER OF THE POPE. 225 * man, and all that depends on man From the darkness of the Catacombs she (the Chm'ch) dictated laws to the subjects of the em- perors, abrogating decrees, whether plebeian, senatorial, or imperial, when in conflict with Catholic ordinances Did the Christian em- perors become insolent ? The Church armed against them their very electors. To every rampant heresy the Church knew how to oppose the power either of the peoples or of their princes ; and when these supports seemed at last to have been snatched from her by a univer- sal rationalism, behold ! there is a sudden turning back of both ; — of the nations, fearing an unbridled royal power, and proclaiming the necessity of a supreme spiritual power ; of the princes, beginning to understand, at the light of a bloody communism, that the princi- ples of the Church are a firmer foundation for their thrones than bayonets, which must always he intrusted to a part of the people, . . . The conclusion is, therefore, that there are no limits to the exercise of the coercive power of the Church, either in view of her means or of her aim." {Civilta Cattolica, No. cxi., 2d Series, vol. viii., Nov., 1854, pp. 2*73-282.) This, we take it, is proof positive of the assumptions of Kome in regard to the civil power, but lest our readers should suppose these would not be enforced, we will give a further extract from the same article : " Petty politicians may conclude that the Church has lost her power, because she does not enlist artillery, cavalry, and infentry ; but the truth is, that the artillery, cavalry, and infantry of the Catho- lics are in the hands of the Church, inasmuch as in her hands are the mind, the reason, and the power of every true Catholic." (Civ. Cat., ibid.) Such is the arrogance, such the declarations of the Sec of Rome in the nineteenth century ; nor is it probable that she will surrender pre- tensions which have been successfully asserted through ten centuries. It was by this authority, Paschal II., in 1099, deposed Henry IV. of Germany; Innocent III., in 1210, deposed Otho IV.; Gregory' IX., in 1239, excommunicated Frederick IL, and absolved his subjects 226 A VOICE TO AMERICA. • from their allegiance; Inoocent IV., in 1245, pronounced sentence of deprivation against the same Frederick; Boniface VIU., in 1302, thundered forth against Philip le Bel of France the famous bull JJnam Sanctaniy containing the most extravagant assertions of the power of the Holy See ; Paul UL, in 1536 and in 1538, deposed and danmed Henry VIII. of England, and absolved his subjects from their allegiance ; Pius V., in 15*70, uttered a bull against Queen Elizabeth, in which, " out of the fulness of apostohc power," he deprived her of " her pretended title to the kingdom," and released her subjects from " all manner of duty, dominion, allegiance, and obedience." In virtue of this same power, Spain is now impeded in her progress of reform, and Sardinia is expecting shortly to be excommunicated. A bull of the Pope was the death-blow to the revolution of Poland in 1830 ; like interference caused mischief to the Republics of Flo- rence, Genoa, Venice, and was the origin of the wars of the Sonder- bund in Switzerland in 184*7. No struggle has ever taken place in favor of popular hberty, in any Romish country, but it has invariably met with opposition from the priesthood. We are at an utter loss to understand how Americans can be mis- led by assertions in their own country relative to Rome, when events of such magnitude are passing in Europe. Spain is stiiiggling to throw off the overwhelming influence of the Church, yet Rome abates not one of her pretensions. Sardinia, too, is entering upon her own regeneration and that of Italy, but the Eternal City is straining every nerve in opposition, and the country is daily fearing to be laid under interdict. It is the duty of Americans to keep pace with these events, and the favorers of the Papacy would then meet with small considera- tion at the hands of our citizens. The Sardinian government, having become enlightened by the spread of education and free opinion, entered upon a course of benefi- cent reform under the auspices of the late king», Carlo Alberto. His benevolent designs were frustrated by Austria and Rome, and him- self compelled to abdicate. His son, Victor Emanuel, has steadily pursued the policy of his father ; but, as is invariably the case, the POLITICAL POWER OF THE POPE. 227 Romish Church places itself in opposition to the movement, and Sar- dinia is all but racked with civil war. The property of the clergy- amounts to eighty milhons of dollars a year, but is so unequally dis- tributed, that the government has been obliged to pay two hundred thousand annually for the support of the lower orders of the clergy. Between eight and ten thousand monks and nuns, inhabiting more than six hundred monastic establishments, enjoy an annual revenue of nearly half a million of dollars. Such enormous ecclesiastical wealth is felt to be a drain on the prosperity of the country, and the govern- ment finding it in the way of reform, has lately legislated upon it This calls forth the fierce opposition of the clergy, and the Pope thus speaks of the decrees of the Sardinian government : " We reject and condemn not only all and each of the decrees of that government, hurtful to the rights and authority of religion, of the Church, and of the Holy See, but likewise the law lately proposed. We declare all these acts to be absolutely null and void." {Allocu- tion of Pope Pius IX,^ in Jan., 1854.) At the close of the Revolution, the Established Church of England still held ecclesiastical sway over the Episcopalians of America, and John Wesley had direction over the rapidly increasing denomination of Methodists. But the members of these Churches being Protest- ants, at once followed the example of the government, in separating fi-om "foreign influences," and the spiritual power of foreign ecclesi- astics. This was done without injuring the cause of true religion, and was in strict accordance with the spirit of our institutions. The communicants of the Romish Church have alone persevered in their foreign allegiance, — an obedience at war with good citizenship, and, although denominated spiritual, is Tor all practical purposes a politi- cal despotism. We appeal to our readers. Is it patriotic, is it right to abstain from binding this enormous, this ever-increasing power, simply from fear of being accused of religious persecution ? When we find the sceptre and the crosier so bound together, that we cannot tell where one begin** and the other ends, is it not the duty of every true American to crush il f I 228 A VOICE TO AMERICA. (1 ' such a fearful hierarchy, such an overwhelming influence? We are- surrounded by countless thousands of foreign Romanists, who, in their superstition, believe the priest to be a demigod ; the priests, in their turn, have no volition apart from their diocesan ; and the bishops rev- erence the Pope as God's vicegerent, in temporal as in spiritual mat- ters. The mind fails to conceive a system more suitable to attain power, and yet we are told that we should not fear the Pope. . While we are thus unconscious of danger, Rome is ever working ; her clergy throughout the different States are amassing untold W^th ; Il they are alljdng themselves with various parties, and rendering assist- ance to demagogues ; they are studying the weak points in our politi- cal fabric, and the defects in our constitution ; and when they are strongest and we weakest, they will strike with a force, teUing us but too strongly, that while we slept, Rome was ever watchful. \ \ Note. — See Appendix, " Relations of the Pope to the Civil Power" — a Letter '. : from 0. A. Brownson, the chosen champion of Romanism in America. EVILS OF MILITARY ORGANIZATIONS EXCLUSIVELY OF FOREIGNERS. ** An arm J, to be efficient, should have bnt one purpose, encourage but one object. This makes the mass invincible— the individuals, heroes."— A2(THo:fT Wat.he. Of the many evils arising from the want of a proper appreciation of the peculiarities of our institutions, one of the most pernicious is the formation of foreign and unnaturalized citizens into military com- panies savoring of the nationality of the countries from which they Jiave emigrated. Although the tendencies of our government are eminently republican, giving free liberty of action and of conscience, still there are certain obligations, tending to its maintenance untram- melled by a foreign proclivity, which are due to the people at large, and to the laws under which this liberty is guaranteed. The mould- ing of the minds of our citizens on an American basis, through Amer- ican surroundings, and by American examples, should be the aim oi every one who desires to retain the material which shall insure the perpetuity of our institutions. That material is founded in veneration for habits and customs of a purely American bias, irrespective of the individualities of any other country, and without regard to the senti- ments of any other nationality. The organization of foreigners int6 separate regiments, and even companies, is entirely subversive of the fundamental principles on which this republic is established. It was in order to annihilate all foreign influence and tyranny, that our country asserted its independ- ence, and took its rank among the governments of the world, not merely as an assemblage of free and independent States, but as one indissolubly united people, bound to each other by the same hostility 11 Ii : I! 230 A VOICE TO AMERICA. I to tyranny and love of liberty ; and actuated by the same principles and motives. It is only in this union, that our republic can hope to exist ; and every thing that does not tend to preserve this unity, is disastrous in its nature, and should be resolutely discountenanced. Can it be said that organized baftds of armed men unacquainted with our language, will produce the desired result ? regiments having foreigners for their component parts, their officers drilling them in a foreign language ? The object for which the militia is formed is, to protect the country from foreign invasion, and from internal riots. Is it likely that in time of war these regiments of foreigners would be of the same ser- vice as when all speak the same language ? Would they be likely to take up anns against the country of their birth, in the event of onr • becoming involved in a war with that country ? It is well known that numbers of the German population of Williamsburg, New York city, and elsewhere, have threatened to arm themselves, in order tq prevent the enforcement of a law which was distasteful to their feel- ings and opposed to their supposed interests. Would the German companies of those localities obey the summons, if they were ordered to put down this armed resistance to our laws ? It is possible that the very men who have made this threat, are those who belong to some military organization, and depend upon the muskets which our authorities have placed in their hands as citizen-soldiers, to enable them to carry their threat into execution. Thus it will be seen that, if a foreign military organization be inimical in a national point of view, it is positively destructive on social gi'ounds. The peace and order of our country, so long as they exist, are ever at stake ; nor caifit be otherwise, in the nature of things. The interminable hordes of emigrants who seek our large cities, con- stantly frequent the same localities, which renders them exclusive ; so that an American entering certain neighborhoods, would fancy him- self in Germany or Ireland. The denizens have little communication with the outside world, — ^have their own papers, clubs, and gather- ings, — and are practically a distinct people. Laws may be enacted, MILITARY ORGANIZATION OF FOREIGNERS. 231 affecting, as they believe, their rights ; these laws they refuse to obey. The municipal authoiities order force to compel obedience ; but force can be met by force, since military companies exist, composed of the rioters themselves. Thus bloodshed may ensue. We have had pain ful examples of this fact in late years. It was only on the last anni-* versary of St. Patrick's Day in New York, that such a probability was freely discussed in the papers, and looked for with forebodings by our peaceable citizens. Is not this sufficient to open the eyes of our legislators to the ciying evils of such organizations, and to induce the authorities to constitute them illegal ? Let us, for a moment, strip the subject of its dangerous results, and view it as a matter of taste. The plea of emigration to this country is, tyranny. The tools of power, whether through compulsion or choice, are the soldiers, — ^who are pleasing to the rulers by their pliant subserviency — and hateful to the people by their uniforms, their badge of office. Accustomed to view the soldier, and his constant presence, with a feeling of dread, — uncertain at what moment his power might be exercised on him, — the foreigner has little of ease or security associated in his reminiscences of their tinselled trappings. In the hovel, the dwelling, or the palatial residence, they are always present ; in village, town, or city, they are ever tramping. Their acts are servile, and their impulse tyrannical. Associated in the minds of the people with cruelty and oppression, — bearing on their persons the livery of tyranny^, and enforcing its mandates with an undisguised zest, — the foreigner is happy to flee their presence, and escape their power. And yet, in spite of these associations, and the dread inspired by Ihem, they form themselves into volunteer companies, on their arrival here, and adopt the very unifonns which have oppressed them with fear, thus wilfully assuming the badge of tyrants. The folly (we might use a stronger expression) of this taste must be apparent to all who think about the matter, and is one of such peculiar import, that we seek in vain a reasonable excuse for its adoption. It is so much at vaiiance with all our conceived notions of the impulses wliich govern the human breast, and is so glaring in its inconsistency, that " .1 232 A VOICE TO A3JLEBICA i we are forced to reflect upon it with some d^ree c^ appreheiisi bitrery, and the people to be subjects. It belongs only to iiistitutionA that aie democratic in their nature, and to states of society in which men are the arbiters oi their own rights and fortunes. For the possession of such prerogatives there certainly shouUl bo some rigid and absolute quaUfications. To put one*s self in direct relation- ship with the moral and social interests of a great nation, it should bo insisted that there exist certain preliminar}' conditions. Such a rela- tionship should not be rashly entered upon, nor without serious thought of the mutual result to both the individual and the mass. Tlio gov- ernment, reljdng on the intelligence and understanding of oncli one of the vast number that contribute to its character, it nuwt \w wH»n that no single violaftion of the conditions of such a conin'ction cnw pass without its proper share of wrong to the whole. If the individ- ual forgets his duty as a party to the general compact^ the n^Ht are defrauded of that moral and political secuiity for which tlu^y had a perfect right to hold him responsible. If he neglect the ol)ligati()nn of his oath and pledge, tfie rest are so far losers by hin act of r««pudi- ation. If he be a tool in the designing hands of thow) who inl.ri^;iiM for the overthrow of political freedom, the entire nation m to that, de- gree involved in the web of fear and insecurity. The origin of all government is propf^rty ; the mnutwr hi wliicJi that property is held determines its fonn. If the Inudn (ff a commu- nity have but one possessor, it is an auUx'Ttuiy ; if partition*«l by ////•//', an aristocracy; if the inherent right of the wMe /^^y///?, thin fttrtm a democracy. Hes^epublica^ cf/mmfmrWMiUh^ r^j/r«9<^nf, ri//f, mt'ftAy the form, but the basis of government. Iklan is entitled to sustenance and proU'Al'um from that wcietjr \n which nature placf^ him at birth. Tliere ar*^, how^^vcr, ('tjrium CM which may compel him to foT?iake one ///mmunity for another. *? relation do his acrjuired privlieg^^ f><;af tA the ^^hfs of the ni cietv ; A stranger can only fif:f\mTf: property in a foreign eomm permit on of th-j owners — that is, the state/ [■) I 250 A VOICE TO AMERICA. is ho necessarily entitled to all the privil^s of the natives ? Because he has forsaken the land of his birth, is the land of his adoption com- pelled by any law, human or divine, to place him on a perfect equality with her own children ? By the political constitution of the new so- ciety ho may enjoy all their piivileges, but, in the nature of things, he lias not, and never can have, such a right to them as the sons of the soil. That which is granted as a favor, can never be asserted as a right In a republic the power is in the hands of the whole people, for the entire land is theirs. For convenience in legislation they appoint men to represent their interests, hence the representative is the servant of the represented. This is obvious : no man can represent the interests of others unless delegated so to do ; this power conferred necessarily subjects him to the will of those who bestow the office. Hence no man has a riffkt to office, which it may be in the power of others to refiiseu Representatives having to be chosen, there arises a momentous question — What gives the right to vote? We have shown that where the right to property belongs to all, power is universal ; there- fore, suffi'age must be universal. But we must define this, in regard to men who have not a born-right in the country, but simply one of tolerance or permission. Government takes cognizance of the entire property of the country, that is to say, the land and its products belonging to the sons of the soil — the entire community decide (by representation or otherwise) in the general interest. Strangers arriving in their midst receive as a gift a certain portion of that which is the right only of the native- bom. Is it logical to assert that this gift carries with it the right to vote, or, in other words, to legislate for those who have just granted what it was in their power to refuse ? Such an argument is mon- strous, yet it is one which we hear constantly asserted. Escape from the then existing systems of European government, as well as from its religious hierarchies, prompted our forefathers to set- tle what were termed the American colonies. In process of time they achieved a separate nationality in regard to other countries, a WHAT CONSTITUTES THE RIGHT TO VOTE? 251 fedf^atiDii of states to themselves, in which each state was independ- ent of the others. ** The character of our people was admirably calculated for setting the great example of popular govenmient They were accustomed to representative bodies and the forms of free government ; they un- derstood the doctrine of the division of power among different branches, and the necessity of checks on each. The character of our countrymen, moreover, was sober, moral, and religious."* This portraiture forms an obvious opinion on claims set up by dem- agogues and others in favor of the so-called rights of our foreign pop- ulation. The entire body of emigrants to this country for many years past, with but few exceptions, never exerted the slightest control over any government whatsoever : are we then to be told that such men can appreciate and properly wield the electoral power in a country, the political constitution of which is so difficult to understand ? Besides, is the moral character of these emigrants calculated to remove any fears we may entertain relative to the uses to which they will put this novel power ? We take it experience is very much inclined to a negative. There is no principle in the American Constitution which guaran- tees land or political power, by vote or otherwise, to foreign citizens. These men do not leave Europe as did the first settlers of this conti- nent ; they are, in fact, dissimilar in every respect Europe disgorges a surplus population — people she can best afford to lose : they arrive in forma pauperis, and our authorities permit them to reside. In process of time they begin to have a stake in the country, and maybe lose their ancient prejudices; they are permitted to vote at elections. But they have not, and never can have, the same right, either to one or the other, which a native-bom citizen possesses. At various periods in our history laws relative to naturalization have been passed, exacting, in some instances, but two years of residence in the country. Circumstances might then have justified so short a pro- bation, but, at the present time, not merely has the class of a" mtg * Webster. 252 A VOICE TO AMERICA. changed, but ilia country itself liaa been radically modified : it has, ii^ fact, assumed a nationality ttat it did not formerly possess. Demr agogues enunciate a monstrous proposition in asserting thie republic to be one of composite races. It ia not. The Republic of tbo United States is Anglo-Saxon in all its bearings: other peoples may arrive, but they muat be graduiJly absorbed, and, in process of time, become amalgamated with, and lost among, the predominant race. Ethnolc^ and history both assert this tact, and the senseless opponents of it ara merely perpetuating the evils of caste, in pandering to the prejudicea of various nationahties. It is the province and duty of the patdot to discountenance such endeavors. The objection is freqnenUy advanced that in thus debarring a whole class, men are kept out, whose aim in adopting American lAtir zenship is to enjoy a political freedom, which experience tells theqi can only be found here. But it would be scarcely po^ble to enur- merale all these exceptional instances ; suffice it to say, the leg^daturo might be permitted to admit such cases to citizenship, espei^allj' where servicea have been rendered to the country, or additions to ite glory. This is fully consonant with the democratic principle ; but, in any case, it is much better for the country to lose the advantage of such instances, than te receive with them the immense masses who are &at making universal suffrage a mockery and delusion. The hordes of emigrants who yearly crowd our shores, seek us, not to obtain a voice in government, but a certainty of life, food, and per- sonal freedom, which they never before enjoyed. I^ like llio adder warmed into life by the peasant, they get prosperous, and turn upon their benefactor ; or, listening to the voice of vile demagc^es and designing politicians, they raise tumult and civil discord in the land, then surely native-born citizens have a natural and a constitutional right to curb such disorder, and to legislate so as, in future, to pre- vent any doubt as to whether an American have a nationality < In America, no man becomes a citizen through the influence of eiliter money or titles. It was a wise act of our forefathers, they abohshed titles, except such only as might be the expres«on ot I WHAT CONSTITUTES THE RIGHT TO VOTE? 253 simple respect ; and it has conduced more effectually to the complete political equality of all classes of citizens than many measures about which vastly more has been said. It taught the people the truth, that there was in America twthing* greater than citizenship itself; and weaned them rapidly from the foolish inclination, that is no part of a high and self-reliant manhood, to bestow honor upon the emptiest of human pretensions. Citizenship, if it involves the serious responsibilities that exist along with its possession, presumes — or, at least, should presume — certain fixed qualifications. If the elector be ignorant of those responsibili- ties, assuredly he cannot be supposed to assume them ; and if he fails to assume them, it is proper that he be refused the use of the elec- toral franchise until such time as his ignorance has yielded to a more profound understanding of his obligations. Nothing can be plainer than this. And yet there are Americans, who should know better what is the priceless worth of our institutions, who seek to throw open every means of access to a privilege that should be guarded with so watchful a care, and affect indifference to qualifications of fiuch momentous importance, — men seemingly careless of the true character of the liberty which we profess, and ignorant of the certain consequences of licentiousness and misrule that are to follow close upon any laxity of electoral obligations. Such men need to study more thoughtfully the meaning of our government, and the true spirit and character of its institutions. Any native-bom citizen, on attaining the age of twenty-one years, and having taken the oath of allegiance to the Constitution and fidel- ity to the laws, is admitted to all the privileges of the electoral fran- chise. He has the right to vote on all questions affecting the common interest, and by the deposit of his ballot throws his individual influ- ence into the scale of political affairs. He is licensed to assist in the regulation of the highest and the lowest interests that pertain to the welfare of the nation. He may make the power of his influence felt throughout all the affairs of state. Law and order are intrusted to his hands for preservation. The general intelligence will either 12 p ^ 354 A VOICE TO AMERICA. advance or retrograde, according to the power of hia vote & pie. The public peace and prosperity depeud upon tiie tx which hJB privilege as nn elector is exercised. The national characlM- 1 IB elevated or depressed, as his own chaFader is made to impreas itself 4 ■npon its existence. Gaining so exalted n right on such eaay terms, unless some stepB I he taVen to secure the elector's intelligent appreciation of his privi^ leges and responsibilities, his individual gain must of necessity be ti country's loss. An ignorant and degraded citizen can be only a bi ffltizen ; and a bad citizen, assuredly, is worse than none. Wa had better ,all reraain peaceful subjects, than become irrespoodble and I licentious citizens. What, then, should those qualifications be for possessing and enji^ j isg the electoral privilege t This is the impoilant question that so ■ immediateiy concerca all the free citizens of America. It presents 1 ileelf to ua at this day, demanding a thoughtful but speedy a That there should be certain fundamental qualifications, of a general and discipUnary nature, attached to the privilege of voting, we do not see how any intelligent American can doubt. The more extended the reeponsibilities, the greater should be the precautions to make them appreciated and understood. The more valuable the character of the possession, the more positive the need of its being impressed on the mind of every one wlio is admitted to it as a participator. In the firat place, it seems necessai'y to insist on some degree of farailiaiily with the principles and working of our constitutional f< of governmoot. The native-born citizen acquires this ia the course of his education from his youth up. Even if not much given to refleiition, and to the habit of tracing results back to their oi'ig oauses, he nevertheless is placed and kept within the circle of t «ver-reouning events which mark the movements of our pohtical sya- tem-; and even imperceptibly, and unconsciously to himself, ha i taughi tiy them lessoiw of the highest impoitanee to the better un ' Ivea 258 A VOICE TO AMERICA. lo the elevation of a few over the many ; that it has for its scope the welfare of every citizen, however degi'aded and however humble, with- in its territorial boundaries ; that its object is purely tlie elevation of the masses, who, in turn, must reflect tlieir character and its varied influences upon its name and institutions ; that the perpetuation of truth, and not of falsehood, is the natural result of its manifold op- erations; and that its works will not cease from their living and spreading influence, till that influence shall have made the peaceful circuit of the world. These are grand objects to» attain, and must excite both the admira- tion and enthusiasm of all who possess the capacity to comprehend them. And if they belong, of such a plain necessity, to the govern- ment that has true freedom for its permanent foundation, what a weighty responsibility attaches to every individual who is permitted a share in the transactions of that government ! How earnest ought all to appear in hastening forward purposes which are fraught with such beatific consequences to the whole human race ! What a neces- sity rests on all citizens alike, to see that these grand aims are not perverted by either the ignorance or wilfulness of any, who seek to be admitted to the same free privileges with themselves ! That the true worth of the electoral franchise too often suffera from degrading uses, it is impossible to deny. Proof of it is offered us on every side. It is bestowed where it should have been withheld : it courts the acceptance of the incompetent, instead of demanding that tliey first qualify themselves for being invested with its inestimable gifts : it is losing its character for dignity, by being literally thrust upon men in no wise fitted for the performance of any of its func- tions. The high characteristics of citizenship must manifestly relax their claims to general respe(3t, when ignorant foreign immigrants are made votei"s before they can so much as understand their relations to the laws or to the people at large. Wo are undeniably going back- wards, when we admit men to be electors, who cannot distinguish he- reon a blind and sullen obedience to statutes, and an active and I WHAT CONSTITUTES THE RIGHT TO VOTE? 259 intelligent co-operation with the principles on which proper restiictive enactments are founded. It is a dangerous policy to make votei-s of men who think that freedom from European servility should be marked by an irresponsible delirium of license here. It degrades the general standard to which the condition of electorehip should aspire to hold itself fixed. Such men grow suddenly exhilarated in the free atmosphere into which they have come, and contract exaggerated ideas of liberty, that are never borne out by the reaUty of their sub- sequent experience. Demagogues flatter these naturalized votei^s, and j:hey are delighted ; — i^ affcerwards, honest men should tell them the truth, they could neither endure them, nor the institutions in whose name they profess to speak. la itself considered, and setting aside these multiplied abuses to which so piicefess a gift as the electoral franchise is subjected, Amer- ican Citizenship is invested with a dignity that transcends in intrinsic importance, any and all the titles that foreign courts have it in their power to bestow ; there is, in reality, no condition that may success- fully claim to be its equal. From the citizen, in his individual character, emanate influences that reach alike the government and the world. By his power, is circumscribed the welfare of associated masses and multitudes. He feels the glory and the shame of his country, for that country has the sources of its existence in him ; he stands the immediate representative of the government and the citizen, and happily illustrates the nicely adjusted relationship of each to the other. By the very name Citizen is fairly implied both honor and hon- esty, purity and morality. He should fear only what is wrong, and aspire to nothing but what is right. He must be impressed with the number and magnitude of his responsibilities, feeling the weight of the trusts he has received, both from his country and from God. He cannot fail to see that his own free system of government, that de- grades none, but seeks to exalt all alike, is the light and illumination of the worlf* * '^. truly represents the cause of freedom and fis selfishness, and has within the reach 260 A VOICE TO AMEBICA. of its influence the wel&re of the entire human race. He must be deeply impressed with the greatness of his mission, knowing it to be the mission of the government in which he is 'an active participant. 'His reflections can be in no manner allied to levity, for they must tell him perpetually of a work, whose mighty results are to be carried steadily forward to the end of coming time. FALLACY OF SUPPOSING THAT AMERICAN INSTITU- TIONS NEED NO SAFEGUARDS. " Eternal yigilance is the price of liberty." It appears to be an almost universal truth, that those who are in possession of the full desire of their hearts, betray extreme careless- ness in securing for that possession an adequate protection. A severe experience seems needed to discipline men into habits of prudence, self-control, and precautionary foresight. Any advantage, if not ac- quired by personal sacrifice, generally fails to carry with it those im- pressive lessons of discreetness which are the surest securities against either its invasion or decay, Americans of the present generation have been peculiarly liberal in relation to their political privileges. Holding them in a measure cheap, because so easily attained, they have hitherto failed to see the need of dispensing them to others with a prudent hand, or of hedging them about with such restrictions as would place them out of reach of questionable influences. Liberty has a tendency to make men's heart's large and generous, and to give the utmost latitude to thought. With a practical knowledge of the manifold blessings of freedom in- grained in their very natures, it is hardly possible for them to desire less ample endowments for those whom they find deprived of them altogether. The actual aim of our free institutions is universal brotherhood. Whether acknowkdised or not as the purpose of our political organi- zation, this, mm*^ >x>irit that imparts all power and energy. ^ as a consequence of this .^•^■^. 262 A VOICE TO AMERICA. truth, -that so grand an attainment will be reached any the sooner, or that its blessiugs will be secured in any greater degree, by laxity in the caic of these institutions, and a mistaken generosity in extending the power of directing their operation. By indiflference of this sort, their character must suffer degradation; and when that result is reached, the true end of their existence is perverted, if not entirely destroyed. Free gifts are assuredly evidences of large possessions ; and multiplied acts of generosity are proofs of deep sympathy with those who are so unfortunate as to be destitute. But there are always limits to such deeds, beyond which they cease to be bene- ficial, and become means of injury or mischief. If absolutism feels the necessity of protecting itself ag^nst the inroads of men who deny the lawfulness of its claims, how much more sensibly must that necessity be felt by the friends and supporters of constitutional freedom. The former feara conspiracies, machina- tions, and the outbursts of rebellion. The latter have to guard con- tinually against indiflference to privileges, — an* indiflference which soon is followed by licentiousness and riot, — eventually leading to a tyranny far more fearful than that of any one-man power. Liberty is apt to be careless, from its very inclination to generosity. Unspar- ing in favors to all, it dreams not of ingratitude from its recipients. The law seems to be entirely in its own favor, removing all thoso sources of anxiety in which absolutism is so prolific ; and yet other causes of fear are known to spi-ing up plentifully under a certain complication of circumstances, which nothing but the utmost pru- dence and firmness can hope to remove. There is nothing that Americans should guard with so watchfiil an eye as their country's liberty. They cannot be too jealous in its care. They cannot hope to enjoy freedom and slothful ness together. Lib- erty has its own unchangeable price, which is vigilance unceasing. It is good to dilate on the blessings of freedom, but the reflections are idle and the words are empty harangues, when freedom has no sentinels on its farthest outposts, and careless defendei*s in its citadel. If they who hold priceless possessions are indiflferent to their preser- NECESSITY OF INSTITUTIONAL SAFEGUABDS. 263 vation, where shall men be found to volunteer protection for that upon which they set, as yet, no value ? If the free are not watchful, how can we hope to find a guardian for liberty among the oppressed ? None ought to be so capable of understanding what freedom is worth, as those to whom its riches have fallen by inheritance. A proper estimate of its value is not to be expected from others. To them it is still an unreal speculation — a dim and far-off vision. They have heard, perhaps, of its reality, and come to settle their calm con- victions upon its truth. Still, it is practically unknown to them, and from it they have never been able to derive any personal advantage. But Americans have no excuse to plead for their ignorance. Under the protection of free and constitutional laws they are secured in the possession of both hfe and liberty. Themselves the original power in the State, they impart character and direction to all the operations of government. Holding certain inalienable rights, they are free to attain happiness after their own desires. All pursuits, of a proper character, lie wide open to their ambition in every direction ; and they may boast that theirs is the noblest country and the freest nation on the feoe of the earth. There are, therefore, no reasons why such large privileges should ever suffer from diminution. If they unfortunately do, the fault lies at the door of those who should have been their most ardent cham- pions. They must rehearse their misfortunes to none but their own ' ears, and brood in silence over the loss that might have been turned to their immeasurable gain. Facts are imposing authoiities in the disposition of theories and suppositions. Nothing is better calculated to open the eyes of the blind, or to unstop the ears of the deaf, than these most stubborn and irresistible things. Upon them, all reasoning is based ; and from them logical conclusions are unerringly deduced. From them alone wo are able to undei-stand the real position, both of our free institutions and the dangers by which these are surrounded. They will tell us the plainest truths of our national welfare, and enable us, better than all else, to comprehend the chart by which our national course is guided; MiH'Kfwrn »»' iwi'lWWiiHiii HU'^kMiUMlu n vulii'O.wlu'i^xlioll MlHt I'M nmtKl l< 1 '" 1 wiiWi iii",v ■>"'■. "• y'l "" •'"'""' " ' OM w«b")>'i 1^. (1ml n (Tdi'-ti-i" 1. ■ 1 ' ^^1 Kowi Mt((l>f 1'. im ••■ ■ w«rlh, *» lh«"> *'■ wti'"" H yropsr Mtim*'" '•' i" ""' ■ ' V Amitoofiil " ■ bom Iwnnvl, r>' •teti«M lipnn ■'■ M lrmit^l~. M ft».li«iil»» 1 *'-"~"~ '■ V 264 A VOICE TO AMERICA. In dealing with this subject, we do not propose to enter very deeply into statistics, yet it may be well to illustrate the points to which we wish to call general attention. We desire to establish three distinct statements ; and from their tenor may be inferred the particular dangers to which our free institutions are at this day moBt threateningly exposed : I. The foreign voters, who are proved to be ignorant and in every way incompetent, are admitted to the enjoyment of the electoral franchise. We, who never knew what a blind and passive obedience to law is, can form no adequate idea of the recklessness and delirium which seize hold of so many foreign immigrants the moment they put foot upon our shores. We admit that some of them are men of intel- lectual culture, while it will not be denied that too many are persons of the most degraded character, and destitute even of the most meager attainments. The ignorance, however, from which Americans experi- ence the greatest cause for distrust, is that which relates to the nature and spirit of republican institutions. These they do not seem either able or inclined to comprehend. They scout all ideas of obedience, because they claim that here they are free. Liberty and lawlessness are with them one and the same thing. Hitherto, they have never borne any intelligent relation to the existence or execution of law, but have occupied the places of unreflecting persons, accustomed, in passive silence, to bear the burdens with which they were weighed down. Coming to a country like America, and hearing the most exaggerated and extravagant stories of its ample freedom for all men, without a thought ol' their responsibility to the nation sustaining the fabric of this glorious freedom, they conclude that here the field of license lies open, and that any sort of restraint is powerless and ille- gal against unbounded indulgence. Heretofore, all their feelings have been marshalled against govern- ment ; for it was established upon their oppression, and never exercised its functions for their interests or welfare. They have lost tliat high and self-reliant sense of manhood, under its operation, which gives to NECSSSTTY OF INSTITUTIONAL SAFEGUARDS. 265 men the dearest ideas of true ficedom, and enables tliem to under- stand their relation to freedom. The result naturally £)llows, that these same feelings of antagonism to government and law are brought with them to the land which thev have chosen as their fiiture home. They breathe the same spirit of hostility as before, to whatever has a tendency to impose upon their careless action a healthy restraint. Not comprehending the meaning of self-government, they know nothing of the spirit of conservatism by which our free system is upheld, and are ready to enter with recklessness upon any changes Xvhich demagogues hold out as beneficial. Lacking religious sentiment of any description, they l)ecomo the easiest dupes, as they are the most dangerous fanatics. Ti^ey are ever ready for change, nay, for revolution, rather than continue in peaceful quiet, obedient to law, and evenly pursuing their own highest inter- ests. As are their sympathies in the lands of their birtli, so are they here : as are their hatreds there, so do they betray themselves hero. All ideas of law are confounded with mere physical force, and they have no definite conception whatever of the true aim of legal enact- ments. Such are the people flocking to our shores by tens of thousands, and admitted, even welcomed, to the privileges of citizenship. Tho direct tendency of such an addition to our roll of voters, is the unmis- takable degradation of the electoral franchise. Such gross ignoranoo could produce no other result. We have a large proportion of such voters in the country, answerable for the operation of our political in- stitutions, and directly concerned in the character of their influence, both at home and abroad. In 1832, at the time of tho Presidential election, thero were sup- posed to be fifteen thousand foreign voters in America ; in 1840, they were computed at fifty-four thousand, comprising one forty- HJxth of the whole number of electors; while in 1852, iha foreign vot, and the publication of its own creeds. Untbaritableness belongs not NECESSITY OF INSTITUTIONAL SAFEGUARDS. 267 to the spirit of our system. Interference with the convictions of con- science, is sternly forbidden by the whole history and tenor of our political customs. But when religion forgets the holy caiise of its mission, and, in the name of designing men, is inoculated with selfishness and ambition, and a spirit of arbitniriness in direct conflict Avith freedom, both of conduct and conscience — when it lays off the unsoiled robes of peace in which it has been clad, and girds on the sword in order to wage worldly conflicts — ^it seems then as if, with its own pure character, it had divested itself of its former claims to our reverence, and entered the field with all the greedy desires, deceits, artifices, and hot passions, that disfigure the character of man. If the devotees of the religion of Christ once give over the single- ness of their calling for the sake of compassing ends which are purely ambitious and worldly, they deserve to be met with the prompt re- buke that such conduct so richly merits. No reproofe can be too severe for their hypocriticaj practices. No opposition can be too un- bending for their attempted usurpations. They are to be checked at the outset in a career that promises nothing but danger to the freo government that affords them its indulgent protection. That there are truly and devotedly pious members of the Romish priesthood in America, we shall not take it upon ourselves to deny ; still their zeal bums only for the Church, whose faithful servants they are, wliile the tenets and practices of that Church are undeviatingly hostile to freedom. These facts are well supported. The professions of the temporal head of that Church are openly at war with free in- stitutions. His words are swift witnesses of his hostility to any polit- ical system that secures liberty of conscience to the worshipper. He insists that the Church, and the Romish Church alone, is the source of all temporal as well as spiritual authority, and tlmt to its tyranni- cal behests and decrees the State should bow in "^ In America, the people form the State ; and hew' brought beneftth a yoke tliat takes <^ freedom, and offers in retom v 268 A VOICE TO AMERICA. On such conditions, no free State could ever hope to stand. Its history would pass out of the light, into a darkness that would en- shroud it from the eyes of the world, forever. The rock on which it sti'anded would always be marked, but, in the wide waste of the seas, no fragments of the noble structure would afterwards be found. It would be ingulfed in a vast whirlpool, that never gives back to the eye any tokens of the ruins with which its voracious appetite is gorged. It would bo easy to extend beyond the limits of our work, exam- ples of this hostility of the Romish Church to Hberty ; volumes of confessions might be collected from the lips and pens of both priests and press, all going to establish beyond question their undying hatred to the freedom of the individual. The great writer and defender of Romish doctrines in this country, in his Review, frankly confesses as follows : " I never think of publishing any thing in regard to the Church, without submitting my articles to the Bishop for inspection, approval, and endorsement." And after this important admission, he declares (with the Bishop's authority, of course,) that " Protestantism of every form has not, and never can have, any rights where Catholicity is tri- umphant."* Daniel O'Connell, in one of his speeches in parliament, gives like testimony : " I declare my most unequivocal submission to the head of the Church, and to the hierarchy in its diflferent orders. K the Bishops make a declaration on this bill, I never would be heard speak- ing against it, but would submit at once, unequivocally, to that deci- sion. They have only to decide, and they also close my mouth ; they have only to determine, and I obey. I wish it to be understood that such is the duty of the Catholicsyjf * Brownson's Review. t Spotskniskay, recently a Eomish priest, officiating in Paterson, was de- nounced as a heretic, and excommunicated by Bishop Hughes, of New York city, because be went to hear a Protestant minister lecture on Popery, a thing the priest declares ho could do in Poland without censure, "but could not do U in this land of liberty without expulsion from his Church." jiKCJeaai T y op instttutioxal safeguardsw 269 By this kind of evidenoe of the proecription of all kinds of indi> yidnal liberty in the individual, the spirit of animosity to American institutions, that directs the action of Romish priests, is liud open to public inspection. It is bitter and deadly in its operation, to the last conceivable limit. It affects to be qoiet^ when quiet is for its interest, yet never hesitates to trample ruthlessly on all law, and all liberty, when its increased power permits it so to do with impunity. By a process of astonishing accretion, it builds up a power within the State, the ostensible purposes of which are to overshadow every combina- tion of opposing influence, and to subvert and defy all the hrces of the civil government It demands of its votaries a pledge totally vitiating their solemn oaths as freemen, and offers their united politic cal influence to that party which shall show itself most supple to its insinuating address. Against such a power there is great need that Americans should secure proper protection. Wliether it seek to effect its objects by fraud or force, by stratagem or violence, it should be resisted in sea- son, and resisted energetically to the end. The existence of such a power, aiming to reach political advantage under the professions of devotion to reh'gion, is both alarming in its tendencies, and incompat- ible with the spirit and character of free institutions. ni. We stand in great danger of losing our liberties, from a growing indifference to the exercise of our own rights as voters at the polls. In itself considered, this point is not strictly to be regarded as of an aggressive nature ; but when viewed in connection with the other two, it assumes a magnitudo and importance calculated to arrest the attention of the most careless and unreflecting. It implies a state of things within, in perfect co-operation with the dangerous designs from . without; a previous preparation, that promises more certain success to the destructive plans by which republican liberty is besieged. It is not necessary to our present purpose, to speculate ou the causes of such supreme indifference, on the part of froenien, to the * safety of their high privileges ; onoiigh that a truth so melancholy is forced on our attention. The fact is palpably plain. The resv' 270 A VOICE TO AMERICA. betray themselves on all sides — in an inferior grade of public func- tionaries ; in the impudent presumptions of demagogism ; in the greater abundance of examples of intrigue ; and in the general dete- rioration of that healthy influence which properiy belongs to a nation of intelligent freemen. Many of the best men of America refuse to go to the polls, while the worst never fail to avail themselves of their privilege. It is im- possible that this should long remain so, without a gradual change, for the worse, in the character of our government What is most needed at the polls, is the constant expression of the opinion and will of the discreet and temperate portion of the community. It is only upon the sentiments of the more intelligent and sober citizens, that a republic like ours can hope to build a reputation for extended useful- ness ; or a renown that will bear its name, Lke a blessing, to every quarter of the habitable globe. Their common country has a right to demand their most zealous services in her behalf. She appeals to them in the name of that ample protection which her laws afford ; she warns them by considerations of fear, of comfort, of happiness, and of obedience to their sincerest convictions of duty. If they, give over their efforts on her behall^ what will all other efforts be worfli ? If they are careless of the safety of her noble institutions, to whom can she look with the hope of ever finding for them either advocates or defenders ? We do not claim that the complete vote of our more intelligent citizens would be capable of paralyzing the force of that ignorance which has of late years been making such astounding progress at the ballot-box. We would not venture, as yet, to hope as much ; but the influence of that vote would give an impulse to the cause of enlight- ened freedom, such as has not been felt since the days of the heroic founders of tlie Republic. It would awaken loftier resolves in the breasts of many who now but help to confirm the secret decrees of •demagogism. It would inspire the masses with more noble senti- ments respecting liberty, with the wand of whose living spirit they have hardly yet been touched. It would shake off drowsiness and NECESSITY OP INSTITUTIONAL SAFEGUARDS. 271 indiflference to matters of the highest concern. It would put the plotting eneniies of freedom to rout, and her guilty and silent betray- ers to shame. It would work a mighty miracle of renovation in all branches of government — ^in its character, in its policy, in its influ- ence, and in its world-wide reputation. Unless the better class of citizens do step forward with alacrity, to preserve our institutions from the fearful evils to which their supine- n€»8 may expose them, there can remain but little hope for us in the future as a nation of intelligent freemen. Unless they interest them- selves individually in all the elections, from those of the highest importance down to thos#of the lowest, it may not be long before their interference may come very sadly too late. They should see for themselves, what are the fearful penalties of supineness in the cause of their own liberties. They should understand what a crime they are guilty o^ when, in disgust with the low party tactics of the day, they relinquish their right to trample the obnoxious system under foot They must be made to feel that safety was never yet known to be found in inaction ; that it is intelligence and virtue alone that can preserve the State ; that the ballot-box— so powerful both for good and for harm — carries within itself the most eflfectual rem- edy for all evils ; and that if they cease to wage perpetual warfare against tyranny, ignorance, and usurpation, there will remain to them but a share in that general misfortune, of which they have been the equally guilty authors, and in which they must abide as silent and uncomplaining sufferers. It behooves the American people to make seasonable provision against their external dangers and internal fears. Every human heart beating quick at the name of Freedom, calls on us to guard with sleepless vigilance the high trust that is committed to our hands. Untold generations, in the far-off future, implore us to relax no effort, and to forego no exertion, in order to secure its priceless blessings to the people of all coming time. THE NATURALIZATION LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES. " Then the chief captain came and said unto him, * Tell me, art thou a Roman ?' He said, * Ye*.' And the chief captain answered, ' With a great stmi obtained I this freedom ;' and Paul said, * Bur I TTAS FRBE BORN.' "— ST. PaUL. It is clearly necessary, in order to the preservation of the laws and institutions of every country, that its own citizens, who love and obey those laws, should reserve to themselves the exclusive power of modify- ing them. If, however, they choose, they may of course admit to the participation in that privilege, any persons bom and educated in foi> eign lands. The obvious condition of such admission is the possession of such qualifications for citizenship as are required of the natives ; namely, a good moral character, a certain amount of habituation to the laws of the land, and such a love and respect for those laws as will make the new-comer a citizen not in form only, but in heart and soul ; not merely a receiver of favors from the country of his adop- tion, but a true and faithful adopted son. In monarchies, where the mass of the people have no influence upon the conduct of the home or foreign affairs of the nation, there is often no mode of admitting ahens to full citizenship ; and wherever there is such a mode, it is tedious and formal. Even in England, the freest of European governments, an alien can only be naturalized by a special act of Parliament in his favor. The United States of America, on the contrary, as if with a benev- olent, generous trust in the good-will of the human race, has ever extended the right hand of fellowship to all the world, and has opened the doors of her temple of freedom to all comers, with a liberality wholly without precedent or parallel. The only delay necessary, before admission to the enjoyment of all the privileges of our intelligent and 274 A VOICE TO AMERICA. educated native freemen, is that of a five years' residence ; the only forms are the reasonable declaration of intentions of naturalization, the obviously indispensable one of abjuring all foreign allegiance, and swearing to be a faithful citizen of this country. We proceed to give a careful analysis of the Naturalization Laws of the United States, and also of the several States. There is no Constitutional guarantee to aliens of any right to naturalization, al- though such an impression extensively prevails. The Constitution only says, that Congress may establish a uniform rule of naturaliza- tion. It is, therefore, of course, entirely practicable to refuse, if we please, the privilege of citizenship to ahens on any terms, and thus to confine their political capacities vrithin the United States to the exercise of such rights of State citizenship as the several States may choose to give them. But, as has been before remarked, a contrary and very expansively liberal policy has uniformly prevailed in this respect The first Naturalization Act for the United States was approved in 1790 ; and was so hberal in character, as to show the desire then pre- vailing to attract population to our unsettled territories. It demanded for admission to citizenship, proof before any court of record (that is, any court having a clerk and oflScial seal), of good character, and of residence in the United States during two years preceding the appli- cation, and residence in the State where it was made during one year so preceding. In 1795, however, a more stringent law was passed, requiring, " the usual oaths," proof of good character, a declaration of intentions three years in advance of admission, five years' resi- dence in the country, and one year in the State, and also, that the applicant is " attached to the principles of the Constitution of the United States, and well disposed to the good order and happiness of the same." In 1*798, the terms of residence were again lengthened to fourteen years in the country, and five years in the State, and the intention of naturalization was required five years in advan 1850, even by the imperfect returns gathered, was over one million four hundred thousand dollars. The paupers so relieved were sixty--eight thousand five hundred in number, while the number of paupers of American birth relieved in the same way was sixty-six thousand four hundred ; namely, one sev- enth as many in proportion to the entire number. Of the expenses incurred in repressing or punishing the crimes of immigrants, only an extensive and laborious search could supply any account. But criminal proceedings are expensive, and many crimi- nal prosecutions are brought against foreigners. Of the whole numr- ber of criminals convicted during the year ending June 1st, 1850, twelve thousand eight hundred were natives, and thirteen thousand seven hundred foreigners ; about, as before, seven times as many in the hundred as those of our own population. That these items of public expenditure, together with the draw- backs already stated, would exhaust more than any amount which immigrants may have brought into the country, is very ceilain. Lastly, a few numbers showing the educational comparison between the foreigners and natives, are indispensable in order to a due com- prehension of their tendencies and capacities, when domesticated with us. Of the whole number of native whites in the United States, then, one in five is attending school ; of the foreign population, only one-third as many — one in fifteen. Of natives, of school age, viz., be- tween five and fifteen, eight in ten are at school ; of foreigners of same age, only five in ten. Of the whole number of native whites, about four and a half out of every hundred cannot read or write ; of foreigners, nine out of the same number — twice as many. Of natives over twenty years of age, eight and a quarter in the hundred cannot read or write ; of foreigners, tburteen and a half in the hundred. 988 A VOICE TO AMERIOA. • The prospect of tiiture immigration, however, demands some con- nderation. There seems to be no reason why the exodus from fknope to America should not yet grow and continue. Even if the remainder of the Irish population should stay at home, there are mil- Kons and millions on the Continent who will complete the yearly number of immigrants. So far as material interests are concerned, greater and greater inducements are offered by the increa^g wealthy enlarged capacity, and demand for labor within our own country. We have abmidance of room and <^ riches. Such inducements have already operated upon so many of the over-crowded and poverty- stricken European nations, that it is quite certain that they will con- timie to operate. And on the other side of the Atlantic there are not wanting impulses to co-operate with the attractions here. The future of the European nations is stormy and dark. Revolutionary princi- ples are seething under the apparently smooth surface of her politieid «q>eGt^ and before long, despotism, anarchy, and liberty will be strug- gling together; wars and rebellions exert their disorganizing and unhappy influence, and increasing crowds will flee from the home misery to the foreign peace upon our territory. Europe then, crowded with people, oppressed with poverty, containing much sterile land, and doomed to the horrors of complicated and obstinate ware, will long send vast and vaster yearly bands to share our free peace, our rich and boundless lands, and our quiet wealth. We shall, apparent- ly, also continue to receive the refuse of almshouses, and the felon gar- bage of prisons, shipped hither wholesale by European governments and sodeties. During the periods often years, from 1810 to 1850, the successive totals of immigration have arisen from one hundred and fourteen thousand to two hundred and four thousand seven hundred and eighty thousand, and lastly, one million four hundred and forty thousand. Within the ten years now passing, viz., from 1850 to 1860, all the fEtcts and probabilities indicate that we shall receive four millions of European immigrants of the poorest, and most worthless class of the population. What the increase will be beyond that time, we have UNITED STATES AND IMMIGRATION. 289 no means of estimating. But this number is suflficient to show the vast and increasing importance of the movement, and the certainty of the speedy operation of such a mass of humanity upon our own peo- ple in some way, either for good or evil. We have not here the time nor the space to consider fully the sig- nificance of this great movement of the European population. But none can foil to see that an annual irruption into this country of half a million people, who are shown by the merest arithmetical compu- tation to be twice as ignorant as we are, and (perhaps in consequence) seven times as lawless, and seven times as helpless and sick, is a move- ment of great power. Whether its results are or will be good or evil, of what modifications they are susceptible, what means should be used to modify them, are questions which we discuss in another place. There is, however, one single phenomenon of such vast importance, and so closely connected with our subject, that it may properly bo alluded to in this place. This is the suicidal political action of nat- uralized immigrants. Whatever may be the object of foreigners en- tering our country, and our nation — whether they come for peace, for freedom, or for wealth — it is beneath the protection of our national- ity, our Constitution, and our laws, that they seek that object. The whole febric of that Constitution and those laws was erected, and has been and is maintained by free political action, by the intelligent voice of our people, appointing what they thought good. The laws 60 established and sustained have raised us to a position of such strength and wealth, that we are able to offer an asylum to the op- pressed of all nations. This has been freely accepted, and accepted in the majority of cases, imtil lately, with thankful hearts, and a pro- per acquiescence in the established institutions of the land. But, within a few years, an ominous change in the demeanor of our foreign beneficiaries has appeared. They seem to be steadily seeking to overthrow our own institutions, whenever those institutions happen to conflict with the prejudices or hatreds engendered in their own minds in the darkness of their native despotisms. The wise Sabbath laws which are so general in our commonwealths, are a 290 A VOICE TO AMERICA. liviDg evidence of the intimate connection of Christianity with their fundamental policy. That connection is the very basis of their strength and durability. But a band of atheistical Germans, think- ing that in this country there is no need, even outwardly, either to fear God or to regard man, get together and call upon the govern- ment to abrogate all laws enforcing the observance of the Christian Sabbath. Our established, wise, and unsectarian mode of distributing State money to public schools, without regard to any religious denomina- tion, is a great obstacle to the Jesuitical views of foreign priests, who desire to control the education of native youth, and unsuspectedly to prepare the way for the complete supremacy of the Romish Church over our free State. All the open and secret arts of the most in- triguing class of men in the world are set in motion to secure the discontinuance of this practice, and to effect the distribution of pub- lic money to schools distinctly Romanist, for uses wholly sectarian, anti-republican, and anti-American. This is not the place to enter into any extended exposition of the necessary tendencies and results of such conduct But the broad fact stands plainly out, that the masses of our foreign population are determined to move steadily forward in a line of their own, without regard to the laws or feelings of the people who have sheltered them. Armed rebellion or secret plot — ^bribery or bullying — all modes of action or coercion, however wicked, or unconstitutional, are to be unscrupulously seized and remorselessly wielded, to complete their foolish and disorganizing purposes. This suicidal and unaccounta- ble course of conduct, if allowed to be carried through, will sink the vessel that canies themselves and their fortunes. It is the sense- less fury of the maniac who attacks his best friend with the same tiger-like ferocity which he displays to his worst enemy. It would necessarily terminate our present glorious and happy era of consti- tutional law. It would substitute for it one of two things — either an utter anarchy, such as they have striven to create at home, or a centralized despotism, which they have escaped by fleeing hither. THE CITIZEN OF A REPUBLIC. The elements So miz'd in him, that Nature might stand np And say to all the world, ''This was a man.'' Shakespeabk. Republicanism, the noblest form of earthly government, demands tha exertion of the highest moral and intellectual faculties of man. The establishment of a Republic is a work of comparatively easy accomplishment, its maintenance is a struggle of immense magnitude : the fonner requires but the hand of a warrior or legislator ; the latter necessitates the heart and arm of the entire people. Autocracy may flourish with a nation sunk in ignorance and slavery ; Monarchy fearlessly surrenders the destinies of an empire to the guidance of a few ; but Democracy is the vox populi, vox Dei, and only acts when every citizen has spoken. As FEAR is the controlling principle of Despotism — honor of a Monarchy, — so virtue is the mainspring, the life-blood of a Republic. This vital principle of democracy is the individual influence of each citizen upon public afiairs : it is not the mere exercise of political power, but the every-day walk and conversation of one whose ex- ample causes others to do well ; for, " No deed of a good citizen is useless ; for even by his attention, his appearance, his nod, his silence, or his step, he may avail something." This political virtue, so necessary to a good citizen, and without which no republic can long exist, includes patriotism, integrity, and self-denial. In proportion as these principles influence a democracy, the commonwealth is prosperous ; but when they are forgotten, the 293 A VOICE TO AMERICA. State becomes a prey to selfish passions, party feuds, and civil com- motion, and is fast travelling the road to anarchy and despotism. Patriotism is not the mere love of country, nor its object the tinsel of present glory. Far nobler are its aims, for its visions are prospec- tive, and its aspirations invoke the future. The patriot hves not for himself, but for posterity; he works not to aggrandize, but to establish; he sacrifices the chances of success, if trammelled by the possibility of failure. He gives " his hand and his heart" to the defence of the republic, without regard to ties of blood or kindred, and never lends his countenance to any, who, through ignorance or passion, propose measures at variance with freedom, or inimical to the peace of the country. He is the uncompromising foe of demagogues. " An honest man's the noblest work of God." Where shall we find a better illustration of this maxim, than in the citizen of a Re- public ? Clothing himself in integrity, he cares not if rulers threaten or the masses rage ; emulating the virtue of an Aristides or a Cato, neither the eulogies of the multitude, the charms of popularity, the threats of enemies, nor the entreaties of fiiends can move his decision. His firet, his only thought, is for his country : personal motives cannot sway him ; patriotism has told him how to act, no consideration can induce the contraiy. He refuses the emoluments of office as an inducement to venality ; titles and honors he scorns, for he looks not to outward applause, but to inward satisfaction. His aim is, his country : his motto — Incorruptible. " Luxury is the death of a Republic."* This vice is utterly op- posed to the spirit of democracy, for it is the deification of self, and forgetfuluess of the general good. The Carthaginians, unconquered by the Romans, fell before the luxuries of Capua. Athens flourished when wealth increased and manners remained virtuous ; but the Republic of Solon, Aristides, and Plato, fell, when her citizens sought their individual pleasures, and forgot their duty to the State. Not the immortal eloquence of a Demosthenes, nor the terrors of Philip at her gates, could relight the flame of patriot- * Montoaquieu, THE CITIZEN OF A REPUBLIC. 298 ism, which had shone so triumphantly at Salamis an3 Marathon. Athens, the beautiful, the glorious, the mother of the arts and literature, the soul of that Greece whose fame will flourish through admiring ages ; even Athens, adjudged the penalty of death to those of her citizens who proposed devoting the moneys of the theatres to the defence of the Republic. Rome, the republic of Bnitus and Cato — that empire which has given the world the brightest examples of patriotism, integrity, and self-denial — fell through luxury. As Demosthenes in Greece, so Cicero in Rome, found his eloquence powerless against the ambition, the selfish passions of the aristocracy. The empire of the Csesars inaugurated luxury, and the masculine vigor of her Horatii, her Codes, and her Cincinnatus forever de- parted. Well might Tacitus depict the energy, the sobriety, the manliness of the Germans, and describe the certain fall of his country, unless she returned to the ancient virtues of the Republic. Luxury had destroyed every bond of sympathy between provinces and indi- viduals, and Goths, Visigoths, Vandals, and Franks only completed what the Romans themselves had begun. What then shall we say to those of our countrymen, who, in spite of the warnings of history, the testimony of philosophers, the antece- dents of their country, nay, of their allegiance to the Republic, are seeking to introduce the luxury of an aristocracy in our midst! What means this aping of the exclusiveness of courts, this creation of a factitious, privileged class ? Does mere wealth confer social supre- macy ? is the falsity of caste consonant with the truth of democracy ? The abhorred relics of feudalism, leading America back to the medi- geval ages, should meet with the undying hate of the true citizen, and their partisans should be consigned to universal obloquy and reproach. Perish forever such arch-treason to the Republic, for our existence is only possible in equality ! Luxury is not necessarily associated with trade and commerce : a country may safely foster the latter, if due precaution be taken to avoid the former. The mere fact of becoming rich, will not affect the virtue of the citizen, if he still view as a principle above every other 294 A VOICE TO AMERICA. consideration the well-being of the community at large. But, when men amass large fortunes, and, retiring from their fellow-citizens into a species of luxurious cliquism, attempt the formation of an upper class in the midst of that equality without which democracy is an impos- sibility, the aegis of patriotism must be raised against the treason, and hydra-headed oligarchism be met with that hostility which can alone insure the safety of the Republic. The true citizen purges his soul of all selfishness, and lives and labors but for his country. The true, the only check to luxury is in religion, education, and public opinion, inducing men to seek the welfare and prosperity of the country rather than their own profit and interest, more especially when these two are in opposition. Memorable are such examples in all ages, and bright the instances in our own history. It is disinter- estedness which gives the superiority to republicanism over every other government ; only in republicanism does this self-denial exist^ for there alone is it possible. The object of all religion, whether true or false, is to govern human passions, to mould the human will. Armed with the authority of its divine origin, its province is to sub- due human nature — finding mankind in a state of warfare, it seefes to harmonize the discordant elements and bless the world with peace. Society, the association of man with his fellow-man, is the offspring of religion. Education inculcates the laws of this association, those checks which society has imposed for its own safety. Religion must, therefore, be a necessary part of all education, since man's passions are as inimical to the peace of the State, as they are hurtful to his own happiness. But religion and education are insufficient to pei'petuate unity, peace, and concord. History gives many instances of agitatoi"s, honest, but misguided in their intentions : such can only be withstood by the force of public opinion. All attempts, therefore, to control this free expression are hurtful to the freedom of a country. The citizen must avail himself of this power, whenever the national liberties are assail- ed ; his animadversions upon agitators and their measures are the power of VETO, exerted in right of his sovereignty. When the citizen THE CITIZEN OF A REPUBLIC. 295 comes in collision with such, he must freely upbraid their fickleness and expose the fallacies of their opinions ; nor will he be intimidated from boldly lifting up his voice against all rash or perilous public measures, no matter how mifch odium he may incur, nor how many outrages he may have to face. " Neither the depraved fury of a threatening populace, nor tlie frown of an angry tyrant, can move the firm purpose of a just man, who is established in his opinions." The citizen should beware of all those measures which beget divi- sions in free States, and endanger harmony and prosperity. He must be in continual remembrance that he is a freeman, and scorn to ally himself with any who have not proved themselves firm friends of the Republic, or shown themselves unwavering supporters of the Consti- tution. Despising factious opposition, he will yield on minor points, so as not to refuse his aid to the party which, in essentials, is clearly in the right. Socrates was explicit on this subject: "The citizen should endeavor to persuade his countrymen of the views he cherishes himself, if he can ; but, if this be impossible, let him follow their com- mands." The very perpetuity of a Republic depends upon the con- cord of those in whom the legislative power is vested. The citizen will submit himself unreservedly to the magistrates. '* To show honor to others is often more praiseworthy than to be honored one's self:" he will recognize the power of the common- wealth in the ministration of the judge ; and, so far from withholding obedience, he will esteem it an honor to obey. Nor should this rev- erence be paid from regard merely to the oflSce, but, if possible, through esteem for the excellence of personal virtue, which has ele- vated the magistrate to power. Therefore, should the magistrate be wise and virtuous in order to be reverently obeyed. "Obedience prepares naen for empire." There are certain acquirements which it is the duty of every citi- zen to possess. Such is a knowledge of history, for by this he learns the dangers tlirough which his own and other countries have passed, and observes how certain policies inevitably lead to certain results. From history, he finds examples of the good and great in all ages, for- 296 A yoios to amsbica. tififis hie soul with their virtues, and leaves their memory ^*a rich hg- Mcy unto his children." Most especiallj should he apply himself to the study of the resources of the Repuhlic ; acquiring every detail relative to her agriculture, manufacture, Iknd commerce — ^the capabili- ties and deficiencies of the State — ^her relations with foreign powen^ the numbers of the people, and the popular feeling on public sub- jects. These acquirements the citizen will find indispensable, since other- wise he cannot legislate in the general good : he must reflect that when the Senate assembles, he is responsible for their decrees. Armed with these acquirements, he will be enabled to select those who are most capable of legislating beneficially, and will be prepared at all times to meet and controvert the designs and sophistries ci traitora and agitators. There is no higher glory on earth than in a dtizen faithfully serving his country : in the eloquent language of Cicero, ^* Of all things human, there is nothing more glorious or more excel- lent than to deserve well of the Republic." "The acquisition of honors is to be esteemed praiseworthy," yet should offices not be sought for, nor refused, unless they exceed the citizen^s merit. He must not disdain companionship and counsel in them, nor fall into the mistake that his duty to the country is dis- charged when his term of office expires. Aristides and the Eomau Cato were seldom in office, yet their republican virtues ceaselessly in- fluenced the citizens. Self-denial is the highest effort of moral courage. The citizen is as likely to err in false modesty, as in following the dictates of ambi- tion. Ho should, therefore, accurately weigh the advantages which may accrue to the State by his accepting office, and no consideration of self-interest should induce him to refuse that which his country- men require him to assume. In this respect, he will model himself upon the examples of Cincinnatus, Brutus, and Washington — heroes, who lived but for their country — in whose breasts ambition found no place — men who on their brows bore the proud boast of the Roman orator — " J/ejw conscia rectiP THE CITIZEN OF A BEPUBLIC. 297 How shall we suflSciently reprehend the conduct of those of our countrymen who forget the glorious traditions of their native land, and become courtiers in foreign climes ? Ansaldo Ceba, the illustri- ous citizen of the Grenoese republic, observes : " With foreign princes we think the citizen will be wise not to cultivate much intimacy. When he happens to meet them, he should certainly show them aQ honor, by signs of respect and reverence ; but this should suffice. Nor should he hold any other language with them, than courtesy or necessity may require. But, at the same time, if accident bring them together, or he be in any manner provoked by them, let him with noble resentment give such gentlemen to understand, that his republic loves liberty, and that he is ready to oflfer his property and his life to preserve it" Far different is the conduct of many of our countrymen, when surrounded by all the pomp and circumstance of kings and aristo- crats. Unmindful of their antecedents and the precious reminiscences of their distant land ; ignoring the slight which they are thus casting on the republic ; unobservant of the obloquy which the titled valets of Europe rejoice to cast on democracy, when Americans are thus seen worshipping that system which their ancestors fought and bled to throw off, — these republican-trained courtiers, these bourgeois- gentilshommes and Potiphars, bedeck themselves in the livery of mo- narchical servitude, and, hke Themistocles at Persia, almost turn traitora to their country, quickly losing even the appearance of repub- lican virtue. Returning to their native land, they retain and move in a European atmosphere. Claiming the friendship or acquaintance of this or that noble lackey or aristocratic debauchee, they affect an air of superiority, establish in their salons the etiquette of courts, and smile with ineffable contempt on democratic institutions. Our paint- ings and sculptures are false to art, because, forsooth, these travelled coxcombs have lounged in the shadow of the Louvre^ or played the minion at Florence. Music has lost its charms, since here it is obtain- able by all. Our literature may possibly be tolerated, but it becomes secondary to the productions of other people. America is voted vul- 998 A YOIOX TO AKSBlOk. gar by her own children, and the honible pntresoenoe of Eiirop0an decay is mocnlated into oar democraitic system. Not so acted the first envoys of this Republic. In refusing court to monaiohs, they gained respect for themselves and alliance for their country. In the utmost simplicily of dress and manner, they d^ manded and obtained more true esteem than the proudest nobles of Eunqpe — and 1^ bdiind them the manory of their ample virtuei^ which our modem dipl(«naits seem careful not to copy. Americans 1 will you thus deny your birthright, defiune the meoft- ory of your Others, and inspire c(mtempt for their country in the hearts of your children) Oh, distant^ immeasurably distant^ be the day when such principles shall become general I Where is the divine afioHu of those heroes, who, inspired by universal democracy, roae migestically with the people, and towered, giant like, amidst their aristocratic foea^ Where are Franklin and Adams — meteors^ flash* ing across the blackness of European diplomacy! Where thooe ancient senators, whose eloquence, echoing through the fbmm, found emphasis in the hearts of the people ? Where those citizens, who loved the Bepublic above property, &mily, yea, life itself; whom agi- tators dared not use — ^before whose inflexible honesty, demagogues feared and trembled? We must recall the ancient days. We must return to first prin- ciples, and study models of former years. Our children must be prepared with more than Spartan care, and taught how bright and glorious IB their inheritance, — ^how hollow the joys which are but the gratification of the senses. The standard of republican virtue must everywhere be raised — selfishness be uprooted fi'om every spirit — ^pat- riotism no longer remain a high-soundiug name ; but the maxim be written in every breast — My country, everywhere and at all times, — the Republic, one and indivisible, — ^America, above all things. AMERICAN NATIONALITY. " It is true we should become a little more Americanized."— General Jjlcksok. The national characters of the leading nations of the world are clearly defined and understood. The sturdy, thoughtful, grumbling Englishman — the lively, fickle Frenchman — the proud and grave Spaniard — the reflective and metaphysical German, are as well dis- tinguished by these titles, as the Indian, the Arab, and the European by their complexions. This nationality is stamped on the individuals of the nation and on its policy. As are the inhabitants, so are their rulers and their measures ; and the home and foreign operations of the government usually take more or less shape from the character of the people who support them. In the United States there is a distinct individual nationality. The leading characteristic of the Anglo-American is energy : he is the energetic American. His energy is not only continuous in operation, but wise in its aim ; his enterprises, whatever they be, are admirably contrived, energetically commenced, obstinately adhered to, and per- severingly supported. There are other qualities which assist in forming our national char- acter. Of these we need only enumerate, — first, shrewdness in busi- ness, enterprise, and skill ; the results of which, surpassing the slow business methods of the Old World, lead strangers to stigmatize us as mere money-getters and speculators. Secondly, romance and ideality, which are not merely evinced in our literary pursuits, but have given impetus to the actions of our citizens to no inconsiderable extent A sentiment of romantic enterprise has, fi-om the first, deeply 300 A VOICE TO AMEKICA. imbued the minds of our people, especially those pioneers of civiliza- tion — the hunter and backwoodsman of the West Thirdly, hope. Other nations may glory in the Past, but we are the people of the Future. To ftitunty we look, and as time unfolds the mysteries of promise, surrounding countries behold Avith astonishment our progi'ess, and even we ourselves are compelled to wonder. Such are a few of tlie principal characteristics of Americans. Our nationahty is distinct and strong, but, hitherto, it has impressed but little of itself upon the policy of our government. There is no nation of any considerable importance on tlie face of the earth, that has not its own distinctive policy. Circumstances may give that policy a shape, but it is the native energy of the nation vrhich gives it emphasis before the world. Great Britain has her policy, which is called British, and France has long entertained her own. The policy of Russia has been traditionary from generation to gene- ration. Even Austria understands the significancy of the term, and puts forth her policy in a shape which puzzles all Europe's diplomacy. The policy of Germany is to keep aloof from a war which threatens to become general. Spain is sullenly determined not to loose her hold on Cuba, and thus her policy is known. All announce their public purpose buC America. With her, the national opinion does not yet seem to have become sufficiently de- fined to take expression. It has not yet so strongly centralized its many elements, as to assiyne a name. We are drifting abSut on an open sea, without national compass or rudder. Circumstances alone define the national character; a predetermined sentiment neither governs it, nor gives it shape. AVe exist but to study the purposes of other nations, having none to contemplate of our own. A great people, we are unwilling to announce ourselves a peculiar nation. In the front of the world in power, we are yet behind all others in a published policy. Fortune seems to guide us unresistingly on her own course, w^hile we merely profit by the temporary and irregular favors she sees fit to throw in our way. We rather thrive by the mistakes of othors, th.in by any fixed resolutions of our own. AMERICAN NATIONALITY. 301 The pictui^ is none too broad for truth. It has been repeatedly drawn by the course of our rulers, and as often silently acquiesced in hj the people. The popular mind has loug been so wrongly bent, that tlie question has come to be seriously debated, whether America shall be American^ or shall become an indescribable fusion of all the nationalities on the face of the earth ! Designing and ambitious men, whose care is for themselves before their country, declare that America is for the world ; that the sentiment of an enlarged and comprehensive humanity is to put aside and replace the glowing and vitalizing spirit of nationality ; that while other countries have been bigoted, illiberal, or^tyraimical, there is no room on the soil of America for sentiments like these to flourish; and that we are to announce no particular affection for our country simply for its own sake, and the sake of our fellow-citizens, but to consider that all the world has both equal rights and equal affections here with ourselves. This is a most specious and hollow-hearted doctrine. It would give but a negative character to any country, and make it the dupe of despots, and the football of the nations. It implies nothing less than a complete abnegation of individuality for a State, and insists on the formation of a composite national character which is neither one thing nor another. They who advocate it with such ignorant zeal, forget that its foreign beneficiaries are armed with a national spirit that refuses through life to be dispossessed of its position. They are insensible to the truth that the emigrants who arrive here never give up their love for their native land, and are never expected to make so unnatural a sacrifice ; and that one of the most notable provi- sions of our noble Constitution, forever shutting out the possibility of a naturalized citizen's reaching the Presidency, was an honorable tribute, on the part of its framers, to a sentiment everywhere to be respected. It is a false and baseless plea, that if America's mission is for humanity, it cannot, therefore, sustain a separate and distinct nation- ality of its own. Except through an individual organization of all its various elements, a nation cannot in the first place enjoy any per- 14 302 A VOICE TO AMERICA. mancnt existence ; and except, again, through the projectile force of that separate orgjuiism, it cannot hope to make the influence of its existence anywhere perceived. Without energy, no nation can even keep its phice in liistory. There must needs be an earnest con- centration of all the faith, all the hopes, all the affections, and all the ambition of its people around some particular objects, or the nation falls away from its orgjmic strength, and the desires and hopes of humanity must turn elsewhere for their realization. From a truth so apparent there is no possible escape. That nation only is the truest to humanity at large, which never forgets to be true to both liberty and humanity in itself. It may not go abroad in search of objects for its beneficence, until it has first acquired for its own people the power to bestow the coveted blessing. In the conflict of parties, and confusion of tongues of this present time, there comes to the ear one voice, louder than all others. It speaks with an emphasis, and a meaning that is unmistakable. Every syllable i>romises the inauguration of a new era. Every word inspirits our faltering hopes. It seems undeniable that the period has arrived in our history, when we are to make a stand for a character and a policy that shall be entirely American. It is indeed a happy omen, and we hail it as we daily hail the L^lonous advent of the mornincr sun. The national mind is fully awake. The popular heart beats high and healthily. Patriotism rouses itself from its long sleep of forget fulness, and liberty once more smiles serenely on her votaries. This sudden uprising of the popular sentiment, strikes vigorous blows at the slothful inefficiency of character, which our country has succumbed to, under the long-continued lead of partisan administra- tions. It insists on the establishment and perpetuation of a spirit of true nationality, above the reach of political factions and juntos, and removed from the influence of either fawning or flatterv. Sometliino' like this was certainly needed. America v»'as rapidly becoinino- a mark for the opposition and intrigues of other nations, rather than the steady director of an im])Osing and self-sustaining power of her own. Her hberahty was fast degenerating into a patient and good-natured AMERICAN NATIONALITY. 303 suflferance of all evils, instead of asserting that inherent force of resist- ance, which at the very first Hfted her to rank among the nations. Her generosity was relapsing into a disease, whose ulcerous spread threatened the final health of the entire body politic. Under these circumstances, any movement on the part of the peo- ple to destroy and put out of sight the effete existence of a corrupt- ing partisanship, is one which appeals with an eloquent tongue to the heart of the nation. It must command the profoundcst attention, and excite the deepest sensibilities of those whose desires are patriotic. The sentiment of nationality demands, at this juncture, a more strenu- ous advocacy than it has ever received since the days of the Revolu- tion. There exists an urgent need for impressing it on the hearts of the whole people. This day must we assert an American origin, an American spirit, and an American policy, or the opportunity may bo gone forever. In the first place, we cannot treasure too carefully all those peculiar features whether of character, custom, or opinions, that are so distinc- tively our own. That which lies around us, we ought to incorporate into our being, so that it may do its natural work. Even our various idiosyncracies of national character are worth preservation, if only because they are American. The recollection of them, may some day suddenly fire a train of patriotic impulses, which ^vill terminate in the most noble deeds. But, above all, our opinions should receive the tincture of a truly national tone. They should all tacitly refer to the existence of a country, whose grand characteristics we each of us seek to reflect. An EngHshman will remain an Englishman as long as he lives ; and not more in his habits than in his expressed opinions. France, and her glory, is the touchstone to which Frenchmen undeviatingly apply their thoughts ; and these give it a shape and color that characterize it all over the world. So it is with the people of other countries uni- versally. No matter how the national sentiment first took form ; it exists, and works by a process as secret as it is diflScult of analysis. And so it should be with ourselves. A true American cannot ca^ 301 A VOICE TO AMERICA. sistently hold similar political opinions with an Englishman ; nor ought ho at any time to entertain the idle hope of bringing about their reconciliation. Between Hberty and any form or degree of ab- solutism, there is fixed an impassable gulf. It must remain so for- ever. If the American's opinions borrow their tone from the institutions of his countiy, they will be large, generous, and comprehensive, while they lose none of that local spirit which should give them both life and energy. They will stand as the representatives of humanity every- where, yet never put off the national vestments in which they are clothed. They may belong to the world, and still remain rooted in American soil. They may strike boldly for universal liberty, and still consecrate themselves to the welfare of that particular country whose existence they represent. In all respects they will be onginal and peculiar, free from the taint of old political systems, and clear of alliance with tyrannies and despotisms. In estimating the true extent of such a national teeling upon the basis of the records of our more recent political histoiy, the results at which we are forced to arnvc are almost too astonishing for belief. If it be seriously inquired whether there is any real need of reviving the sen- timent of nationality, our only reply is — "Come and see!" And what do we see? A people patiently submitting to the control of men, who, long ago, have sunk the sentiment of patiiotism in the slough of partyism ; rulers ambitious always for themselves, but rarely for their country ; the government kept artfully in the hands of those whose sworn fidelity to political cabals and factions outweighs the thought of duty to that land, within whose limits all parties and all opinions are tolerated ; public men holding high oflSces of trust from the people, abusing their trust without a blush of shame, and con- verting the administration of government into a game of chance, in which the playei's are incited by passion, by unworthy ambition, by lust for individual power, and even by malice and revonc^e ; the wishes of the people forgotten and neglected ; the hoj)es of the na- tion unnoticed, and the name of America receding from that heiglit AllERICAN NATIONALITY. 306 influencd to which it onco attained, and losing tlic bnght lustre ioh once radiated in every direction over the civilized world. Dnr politics have degenerated into quibbles and pei-sonal quarrels. dfted motives do not enter as an element into their direction. The jj^try has fallen a long way behind the party in the race. Indivi- iccess is paramount to the general welfare. The triumph of a I through the election of its candidates, is considered before the the nation. Measures receive their full share of discussion, great principles of national existence never. The future ["to be unregarded, and the past is wholly blotted out. It has be supposed, that public men may be never so selfish, never of any great national idea with which to inspire their and never so devoted to the single interests of the political tion to which they have promised allegiance, — and still the take abundant care of itself. Under a popular form of lent it cannot be so : a deep and strong national sentiment jt, combine, and subordinate all other sentiments, or it will [j fidl back into a secondary position, to bo shaped and con- [fty them. There is no help against so serious a catastrophe, but to become attentive observer, to discover that there national sentiment in the breasts of Americans, God-given existence. But it is, as yet, hardly more than the germ of lid long ago have exhibited the proportions of a vigorous It is scarcely more than the love of home, with the untold ions that cluster about its name. It exists, but it needs cul- must be drawn out, developed, strengthened, and healthily Hitherto, opportunities have not been offered. Circum- li-liave been extremely unpropitious. The sentiment has bn upon objects unworthy of its attachment, and been fa r-syoophants to whom patriotism is a forgotten word. 1 [dressed by politicians who failed to comprehend its ohai 3ly deluded by the appeals of those who 80?''»*»* ^ id unholy ends. Ustorted and misused as it has beeir 806 A yOICB TO AHEBIOA. inherent vigor and virtue. Its surface has been sallied, but with time the taint will wear away. . The original sentiment remains intact As we remarked before, it needs only more propitious circum- stances and influences to give it character and definiteness. Such names as Jackson and Clay possess the power to draw it out into expression, because no men have lived who were more American than they. They knew no country save their own. They were of ourselves, — the natives of our own soil, — ^firesh, large, and original ; and to such men the American heart will instinctively attach itself because in their very persons they worthily represent our country and its noble institutions. This impulsive attachment^ therefore, betrays the existence of the national sentiment, and tells too plainly what is required to impart to it energy of action. When this great national idea takes complete possesnon of a people, rooting itself so deeply in their hearts as to defy dislodgment, it will not brook even the most trifling opposition on its own soil. It is a power dwelling with the masses, that cannot be provoked or insulted with impunity. It claims an imperial sway, and exacts the deference demanded by despotism. Nothing is so large that it can- not embrace it ; nothing so trifling that it cannot invest with undying glory. It stands for its own right, and feels itself strong enough to be secm-e. Those who underrate its consequence, must fall beneath its power ; those who seek to bring it into contempt, shall themselves one day be held up to universal scorn and detestation. It has been claimed that, as we cannot expect our foreign popula- tion to forget the ties that hold them to their native land, and to enter into close relationship with a sentiment for which they possess no qualifications, we ought therefore so far to submit to a modifica- tion of our national preferences as to accommodate ourselves to their unfortunate situation. This is the doqtrine, though it is not, perhaps, quite so plainly announced. But, by what authority are we bidden to put off our own nationality, and go peddling it about to aliens, strangers, or outcasts? "Who commands us to exchange the im- mortal memories of Bunker Hill, of Trenton, of Saratoga, and of AMERICAN NATIONALITY. 307 Yorktown, for the mess of pottage which they bring from other shores ? "What power is it that dares to exercise such authority — but the shameless and irresponsible power of party, that forgets country, that forgets all things, save only its own selfish success ? Our foreign population, as a body, were never induced to come to American shores from the simple love of liberty, or its institutions. It is no deep attachment to us, or our principles, or to the spirit and gefiius of our government, that brings them here. They can confess to but one motive ; and that, the hope of bettering their fortunes. They come to receive more money for their labor, to provide more liberally for the necessities of their families, to hoard wealth, and to be beyond the reach of tyranny. And is it not enough, then, that America offers them the free enjoyment of all these privileges ? Is it not enough that each family may have a fanai«in the heart of our rich domains, on the simple con- dition of their taking possession ? Is it not enough that our laws are as eflScient to protect their lives and their property, as to protect our own ? Is it not enough, that we freely open to them all the avenues to wealth and happiness that lie open to our own citizens ? Is it not enough, that we do all this for them, and do it, not in a grudging spirit, but out of a deep sympathy with their past misfortunes and unhappiness ? — ^that henceforth we stand between them and want, — between them and their former oppressors, — between them and all the world? Must we be expected to surrender our entire nationality to them, and to allow them to inoculate it with their customs, tastes, opinions, manners, and prejudices ? Must we be asked to give up all that we hold most dear, because, forsooth, in the nature of things, it cannot be as dear to them ? Must our hospitality become the means of its own destruction, and our generosity prevent the jioble objects for which it is put forth ? A thousand times, No ! We may say to our foreign population, both in sympathy and sincerity, that they are no more than our guests ; we neither compelled nor invited them to come among us, them. U ^ ioirit: latS ^* 308 A VOICE TO AMERICA. ■ and we do not inaat that they aliall remaiii ; we ofter them equsf protection with that given to our own cidzenB, and eqital opportnni- ties for imjffovioff tlieir condition. But it ia tor them to assimilate their ways of thinking to ours ; not for ns to go over to thera. U , they are dissatisfied with our opinions, they are free to return a whence liiey came. Bat they shall neTM assun of our public affairs while they are yet foreign to us in spirit; ttaS we will insist on exercising the i^t of passiug upon their qualifica' tiona to a citizenship so frai^ht with high responabilities. Short of this point, it is idle to think of stopping. To pause midway, is to invite nntold disaster. In this country, the predominating race 13 the Anglo- American. It was that invigtwating blood, which reddened the battle-fields of tha Bevolntton. That race has stamped its mind upon tlie nation, and given it permanent (^aracter. That mind has bnilt up our hberol itt- Btitutions, through which passes the course of all onr national thonghtL It is the same heart that sends the life-giving blood through all the members of tlie vast poJitical body. If other races have onited with it, they have, of necessity, merged their individualities in its overpower- ing current ; they have forgotten themaelves, and fallen, in with th& -wide stream of American hfe and manners. It remains for the original Anglo-Americans alone, therefore, to go forward with tie woii of im- }»essiag all national sentiments with their own bold and free pecu- liarities. They are the dominant race, to whom the possession of the continent has manifestly been delivered. Their native t^iirit bolcsigs to tlio soil. It has been strengthened through the stonns of war; and it will be nuitnred in the long sunshine of peace. Its sceptre will not depart ; and it steadily refiises to acknowledge on its own ground any power coeqaal wilh its own. The national pohcy of oiir country mnst, above all thifigs, be do« 1 cided and strong, since the nature and objects of our commonwealAi are so widely distinct from the policies of other nation*. As a lonely Httlei among savages must fortify his home, and keep watch and ward against the insidious Ibe, so must our Republic preserve itself with 4 I i AMERICAN NATIONALITY. 309 scrupulous care against the infectious assaults of foreign elements, incompatible with its prosperity or even ^vith its existence. America demands the careful preservation of whatever has given us our na- tional prosperity. Americans must be Americans ; Americans must govern America. Under ordinary circumstances, a truth so obvious as this would hardly need assertion. But the true basis of our national existence and success, has for some years been studiously ignored and kept out of sight by a set of wily politicians, who, reckless of the means em- ployed, have only sought their private advantage. These agitators have pandered to the violent and lawless tendencies of a brutal for- eign immigration, for the sake of their votes. To win them, they have loudly proclaimed that America is the great receptacle for all fugitives ; scarcely making a distinction between fugitives from jus- tice, and fugitives from oppression. They have sought to convince these strangers that they had legislative rights in this country; and by such delusive appeals have, to a very great extent, suc- ceeded in managing the foreign vote, which, in the balanced condi- tion of parties, became a preponderant power. These operations have resulted in preposterous assumptions on the part of the immigrant population, in the degradation of the average character of our own rulers, and, to a lamentable extent, in forge tfulness of the true char- acteristics of our nationahty. But a true nationalism, although not inconsistent with the broadest philanthropy, is altogether opposed to this spurious cosmopolitanism. The laws and foundations of our American freedom are peculiar and separate ; nor is any man fitted to govern under them, without an experimental training in them. This fallacious pretence of political benevolence, which studiously avoids mentioning either nationahty or patriotism, and which enlarges with many windy generalities upon the human race, tlie equality of man, and the brotherhood of nations, is the merest sophism. Eveiy man has some equal rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. But these must be sought by means not inconsistent with the general good. Nor has 14* 810 A yOIGB TO AKSBIOA. the criminal equal rights with the kwful citizen. He has IbriEeited them. Nor has the beggar, who does not own a foot of land nor a suit of clothes, in fact, equal rights with the millionaire. He has not the right to use as much money or estate, until he gets them. He has the right to earn them, if he can, and then to use them. His attempt to use them without that pireliminaTy, is robbeiy, or swindr ling. Degrees of intelligence and morality also determine what extent a man's rights shall have, in practice. What rights he is fit to uae, he may have. This fiilse cosmopolitanism which would grant equal rights in all respects to the ignorant and the wise, the barbarous and the enlightened — ^which would at once confer equal political privil^pea upon the educated, intelligent, and law-abiding American, and upon the foreign pauper and foreign criminal — upon the Grermah, the Iriab- man, and by parity of reasoning upon the Croat, the Turk, the Chineae, the Hindoo, the Hottentot, the Australian, the Andaman Ishuader, who crawls on all-fours like a beast, and has neither clothes, langoage, nor God, cannot meet with too severe a reproof, or too summary a condemnation. As well talk of equal liberty to the philosophic statesman or the lawyer, intrusted with the destinies of millions of men or the interest of millions of capital ; and to the idiot, who can- not put his food into his mouth, nor hide his nakedness. Such dangerous principles have been so industriously inculcated, and have been so greedily accepted by the foreign population ; such a criminal apathy in regard to the preservation of political purity and the election of good men has prevailed among native citizens ; and foreign emissaries, lay and clerical, are pushing such extended and powerfully contrived enterprises to grasp the control of our educational centres, our political organizations, all the springs of our national Kfe, by schools, hierarchies, and the filthy dregs of European prisons and almshouses, that a great question is this day up before the people of the United States for determination — new at least in form, if not in substance. Under the guidance of a truly patriotic feeling we must answer it. * Clear-minded and true-hearted Americans are to-day called upon to decide a question tlie most momentous that has ever AMERICAN NATIONALITY. 311 stirred the heart of the nation, since tlie struggle at its birth. It is no minor question of dollars and cents, no dispute between sections of the country, no dreaming discussion of abstractions or political theories, no question whether this, or that, or tHe other political measure will benefit the State ; but a question that underlies all these, the decision of which might possibly obviate any necessity of examining them — it is, Are we to have a policy at all I Shall our American Empire, as established with its broad and deep foundations and its noble superstructure, cemented with the blood and the prayers of so many great and good men, yet exist ? Or shall It be mangled and corrupted, perverted and defiled, to suit the diabolic ends of lay and priestly plotters, either native or foreign bom ? Here is a duty sublime enough to gratify the desires of the noblest The appeal is made to the true sons of America. Shall our native land become a sink for the pollution of the civilized world ? Shall our government, organized with a most complex and delicate ma- chinery, expressly to be directed by the highest grade of intelligence, be controlled by the bungling hands of the foreign boor, or the med- dlesome cunning of the foreign priest ? Shall its wheels be clogged and embarrassed by shipments of men, sent hither, apparently, for no other reason than the deliberate intention of at once relieving Europe, and embarrassing us ? Let our fi'eemen reflect. The pure stream of our nationality may perhaps endure the infusion of a little foreign matter without percepti- ble injury. Yet there is some injury; and a continuance of this may corrupt the whole. Our power of resisting such influences is doubt- less great, but that is no reason for the wanton abuse of it. What then does the Republic now demand of Americans ? The answer is easy. It is not any new or strange doctrine ; it is only to restore the principles of action which heretofore have guided our best and greatest men. It is to rule our own countzy as Wuhinfftoo and the Revolutionary Fathers would have it ruled; 1 velop that strong and good nationality whioh ht so nobly onward as a nation — to Amdrioi" I 81S A yOIOB TO AHSBIOA. What were the opinionB of the Faiher of his CouBtry » to ihe bharaoter of foreignen, and the probable ooBsequenoes of emplojiig them here! He spealn as follows: ^These men have no attachment nor ties to the countiy, furthw than interest binds theuL" ^I do most devoutly wish that we had not a single foreigner among nsy.except the Marquis do La Fayette." ^My opinion with respect to immigration is^that except useful mechanics and some particular descriptions of mea ct profesfiionB, there is no need of encouragement" ** It is not the policy of this country to employ ahens where it can be well avoided, either in civil or military walks of lifa" ^ It does not accord with the policy of this jgovemment to bestow offioes, civil or military, uppn foreigners, to the exclusion of our own citiaeBB.'* Even for outpost service, among the rank and file of the army, Washington could trust none but Americans. ^^ He therefore ordaa^ reads a general order dated Cambridge, Headquarters, July 17, 1775, ^ that, for the foture^ none but natives of this couDtry be placed on guard as sentinels on the outposts." Can any one doubt what Washington would now say, were h^ alive, as to the demands of an enlightened and nationalized patriotism in the present juncture ! And it is well known that his sentimentf and apprehensions were shared by his venei'able coadjutors in found- ing this RepubKc. The profound and wise intellect of Daniel Web- ster perceived the same dangers, when he said, ten years since, "There is an imperative necessity for reforming the Naturalization Laws ai the United States." There is, then, urgent occasion for the re-assertion of a strong and distinctive nationality by all true citizens of our Republic. In de- spite of tlie certain and venomous opposition of the demagogues, whe will struggle violently, when " their craft is in danger ;" in despite of the anger and bull-headed resistance of the ignorant foreigners who have been trained by demagogues to imagine that the cherished fran- chises of American freemen are equally theirs ; in spite of obloquy and invective, the time has come for the sons of America to stand AMERICAN NATIONALITY. 313 shoulder to shoulder in the defence of her free and enlightened Con- stitution, in opposition alike to the open and to the concealed attacks of ruthless foes. First, and chiefest of all, we must keep the privilege of citizenship as a precious and honorable gift only for those approved worthy of it« Let us not confer it upon the ignorant or the vile. Let us not cast pearls before swine. Why should we lavish upon the rude and vicious stranger the birthright of our free citizens ? In so doing, we nourish in our bosoms the viper that prepares to give the fatal sting. When the immigrants are fit for citizenship, then let them have it. Up to that time, let them rest secure in the refuge which we will give them, and be satisfied with their safety. We must educate them first, na- tionalize them next, but naturalize them only, last of all. We are also called upon to select and to elect as our rulers, not the men who bluster and prate of their principles and their devotion to the country, or the professional politicians who want oflSce, but the purest and best men, without regard to their situation or business. They cannot, without dishonor, refuse the voice of their country. We can have them if we will. In the exercise of the powers of govern- ment by such men, we should soon see the safety of our institutions replaced upon its accustomed basis. Ameiicans would again rule America, as in days gone' by ; and while our great distinctive politi- cal beliefe would mark the character and conduct of our empire, we should continue to offer protection and fi-eedom to all, and citizenship to the best. We must maintain the peculiarities of our social and civil life. We must maintain our Christian character as a nation. We must still enforce the observation of the Christian Sabbath. We must continue sc«-upulously to preserve the ChurcJt and the S**^ from each other. We must again avow and maintaiz* anity of our public education. Shall children be ta heathen schools ? Shame on the defenders of such a n ] I NECESSITY OF AMERICM HABITS AND PRINCIPLES. " This lovely land, this glorious liberty, these benign institutions, the dear purchase of our fathers, are ours ; ours to enjoy, onrs to preserve, ours to transmit. Generations past and generations to come, hold us responsible for the sacred trust. Our fathers from behind admonish us with their anxious paternal voices, posterity calls out to us from the bosom of the future, the world turns hither its solicitous eye,— all, all conjure us to act wisely and faithfully in the relation which we sustain." Webster. Americans are frequently reminded that national sympatliies are not to be eradicated ; that the Scot cannot be expected to bury those recollections which the songs of Burns so sadly recall ; nor can the exiled German shut out from his heart the feelings that will rise and swell at the mention of Fatherland, or the Swiss forget his wild mountain-home. These appeals come with irresistible power to every mind, and with none do they plead more loudly than with an American. We freely concede the force of these appeals j for our heart would be false to its own instincts if it did not acknowledge their power. We would never ask our foreign friends, who seek amongst us an asylum from tyranny, or a home in which they may better their con- dition, to forego and keep out of sight any of those endeared associa- tions which give life its chief sweetness, and throw around it the highest charm. These recollections are sacred. They can never be torn from the human heart ; and that would be but a wretched pro- fession of liberty which allowed itself to interfere with their existence. Rather would a true liberty feed and foster these deep emotions, underlying, as they do, natures of the finest quality and the noblest capacity. • But is it conceded, as yet, that such sentiments as these ought to fiupplant principles that embrace the happiness of a world in their I nmvQiiefid} Do those who plead so touchingly for the exile, 816 A YOICS TO AMSBIQA. believe that he is to make no sairender of any of his feelingSy nor even of any of his prejadices, in exchange for the inestimable piivi- l^;es he here seeks to enjoy ? Why has he left home, kindred, and friends, if not to avail himself of an advantage that is to outweigh every other! And are we to expect that such advantages are to be put aside for the sake of ministering to the pleasures of memory t-^ that our fundamental principles are to be held as nothing, in order that emotions which stir an individual heart may have free conne, even to the building up among us ci new nationalitiea? With all due respect to the feelings by which our new foreign fiienda profeaB to be so deeply moved, such a course is absurd on their part^ and inimical to our interests. We might, very naturally, discourse of the duty of naturalised dtixens to adopt our habits and principles, before we thought of what the advantage would be to them. But our address is not now 80 much to those foreigners who come into our midst simj^y for a home and its many untold comforts, as it is to that portion who have become what is termed " naturalized ;" that is, who, like plants re> moved to another soil, are there to take root and thrive in common with all things else which that soil produces. They deliberately declare their intention to throw oflf all allegiance to, and connection with, foreign potentates, and bind themselves with a solemn oath so to do. As soon as the requisite period of probation has elapsed — which is, indeed, a most indulgently brief one — by complying with certain forms, they are admitted to all the rights, privileges, and im- munities of American citizens. From that hour they stand on just the same footing with a native of the soil. Our laws throw around them the same sufficient protection — which, indeed, they did not feiil to do before— the same opportunities lie before them for bettering thoir woridly circumstances, and the same field is allowed them in ■\vhicli to expand and develop their individual character. Our richly endowed public schools are thrown open to their children, that they may go in with the sons and daughter of our citizens, and become, them, candidates for any of the public tnists which may in after AMERICAN HABITS AND PRINCIPLES. 317 years be imposed upoa them. They find no restraint thrown upon their accustomed modes of worship, but are at liberty to do exactly as their consciences may dictate. In eveiy direction, they find lib- erty in its largest sense. The single restraint upon it is, that what they enjoy shall in no wise conflict with the enjoyments of others. It is upon this simple principle of concession, of regard for the rights and privileges of our fellow- creatures, that all government exists ; and without such mutual concession, a government could not stand for a day. Such being the position of naturalized citizens, and such the lib- erality of the gifts bestowed, it may well be inquired whether their very first duty is not to put themselves in the way of acquiring our habits, and obtaining the most intimate knowledge of, and insight into, our principles. The inquiry seems most natural. Indeed, the wonder rather is, why it should be made at all ; for, were it not for the strange course that popular events have taken, within a few years in this country, in reference to naturalized citizens, it would seem egregious to ask such a question at all. When an alien relinquishes his obedience as a subject, and puts on the allegiance which we owe our country, he in fact becomes one of ourselves, and is supposed, by the very act, to declare that he admits his duty to be the same with ours. What else can this declaration which he has made, and this oath which he has taken, be supposed to mean ? If it have no meaning, then what the necessity of going through such a ceremony at all? But if the forms are invested with any thing like a purpose ; or any intention is thought to lurk within their limits, what can that purpose and intention be ? How shall we know, except by means of the very plain language which the alien, who is about to become naturalized, takes voluntarily upon his lips ? We should regard with the utmost aversion a native citizen who openly, or even by his conduct, professed to set at naught the solemn oath by which he bound himself to-pflcfbfm the duties of a citizen. We should brand such a peiwm tf # Bntrjr and its 318 A. VOICE TO AMEBIOA. interests, and he would receive nothing but the anathemas and ex- ecrations of every true patriot. Naturalization is not simply a one- sided case of promising ; it is a matter of mutual obligation, wherein a citizen receives quite as much as he gives. It is a contract which cannot be dissolved except with the consent of both the parties con- cerned. Those two parties are — the great public on the one side, and the individusd man on the other. No man understanding the rights and duties of American citizen- ship, ever could have thought he was at liberty to slight or overlook the requirements of a citizen. To imagine he may proceed so &r as he finds it for Ids interest, but that when he is called on to make some few sacrifices for the sake of duty, he will retreat within his own self- ishness, disregard all the demands of the common interest upon him, and still call on government — which is with us but the expression and execution of the common welfare — to protect him intact from harm, is impossible and preposterous. No popular government could ever exist for a day on such a basis. The ground on which our polit- ical institutions rest is, that the general interest ought to take the place of that merely individual. Every citizen, freely agreeing to this, is most certainly assured that his private interests will be abun- dantly protected ; and whatever concessions it may bo needful for him to make in view of the public benefit, will be sure to return with large interest. All piivate rights being merged in those of the many, the former acquire a new strength, are able to sustain themselves, and never fear conflict with those of any individual. We are hardly able to conceive how the majoiity of our natural- ized citizens look at these things in a different light from this. Those of them who may not do so, have yet the alphabet of political free- dom to learn. They have still to be taught, perhaps by hard exi^e- rience, that each individual can be free only where all are free ; that respect for others' rights by no means implies a loss of one's own piiv- ileges ; and that mutual concessions, instead of depriving any of indi- vidual liberty, are i-ather the means whereby that liberty may become larger and more expansive. AMERICAN HABITS AND PRINCIPLES. 319 When a foreigner, for the first time, styles himself an American citizen, he feels that he has come into possession of certain privileges that were never his before. He is a new man, in more respects than one ; he has cast oflf old alliances, and put on broad and new respon- sibilities. Henceforth, our schools are his schools ; our public halls, our rights at the ballot-box, our claims upon the protection of law, — all are his as much as they are our own. It is but fair to suppose that he has come into this new arrangement, not with the sole idea ot personal and selfish advantage, but rather out of love for the princi- ples of our system. He must have an aflfection for those principles, because they allow him, as wel/ as others, to pursue his own highest happiness without hindrance of any description. If this, then, be the case — and it most assuredly ought to be with every honest naturalized citizen on our soil — how obvious are the ad- vantages that will grow out of the immediate adoption by those citi- zens, of our peculiar habits and modes of thought ? What a bless- ing it is to them, to come at once into a close and hearty realization of those principles for which they have professed so much affection ! How much richer, and broader, and deeper will be their share of our common inheritance, if they acquire an early possession, undivided by the lines of any selfish reservations, and retained with all the single- ness of feeling which belongs to the native born ? Taking the case of our common schools, for example, every natu- raUzed citizen must feel that there is open to him a privilege which no other nation has ever offered to its people. In these schools, so amply endowed at the public cost, he finds instruction from well-qual- ified teachers for all his children. There they may be taught the ne- cessary branches of an education, which in after-life they can expand to any limit. They sit on the same benches with the children of our most worthy citizens. No ideas of quality or rank are allowed to throw up the least barrier between them. They study from the same books, and are placed in the same divisions and classes. They com- pete for the same rewards, and are alike honored by the commenda- tion of instructors and the appreciation of the pubUc. i 890 A YOICE TO AHEBIGA. Coald any edocatioiud system be devised that would give wider freedom, or more extended priTileges than this ? Is there the least room for any man, however bigoted, to find hxdt with a plan of such generous comprehensivenesB ? If a naturalized citizen honeetl j wish to enjoy the boasted privileges which our iuBtitutions extend him, and bringing his children to the same enjoyment with himself to have their minds educated and adapted to the realization of all our national advantages — ^both civil and social — by what more easy and diveot method can it be done, than by taking advantage of our common schools ? If the fbreign-bom parent was first led, through pure admi- ration for onr country and its institutiona, to leave the place of his birth for our more favored land, assuredly he must be doubly anxtooB to secure for his o£fepring every one <^ those inestimable privil^^ which, till now, he has never enjoyed. He will be watchfol, lest some of them may be accidentally overlooked. Every thing that lies <^n for the common benefit, he will be specially strenuous to have a share in. Intellectual advantages he will bo particularly earnest in his endeavors -to obtain ; and all facilities for better comprehending the principles and working of our system of government, he will not only take quick advantage of in his own person, but will likewise introduce his diildren to, at the earliest moment within his power. So far, we have only looked at the manner in which a natural- ized citizen should show himself consistent with the professions made at the time of his assuming citizenship. There is a point beyond this ; it is the way in which such a newly-made citizen can acquire an absolute advantage, by instantly conforming to the spirit of our institutions, and to our peculiar modes of thought. K the foreigner have had the sagacity to recognize, previously, the advantages of our system, it certainly cannot be very necessary, at this late day, to re- liearse to him what he already knows. Of course it must be sup- posed he had pondered this matter well before he took the first step ; but having once joined the bands of brotherhood with us, he cannot be too forward or too earnest in adapting himself, wholly and heart- ily, to those institutions, the high blessings of which he seeks to enjoy. AMERICAN HABITS AND PRINCIPLES. 321 It would seem, too, most natural that a stranger who had deter- mined to cast his lot with oure, should throw all his sympathies into the same channel \v'lth our own, — should closely scrutinize our habits, our principles, our institutions, — and show himself behind no other citizen in transfusing the spirit of his new nationality into his own individual feelings and thoughts. He must remember that ours is a government of the people ; of that large community he counts but one. All public affairs rest, for their maintenance and security, upon the popular will. If the people are fiivolous, thoughtless, guided by any less seiious motive than the single one offered by a sober and deliberate judgment, then the general interest must suffer accord- ingly. As one of the people — as a citizen among his fellow-citizens — our naturalized friend cannot fail to perceive that whatever is done by the popular voice, directly affects himself. Hence he is interested in all our laws, our customs, our habits of thought, and our institu- tions. ' He cannot remove himself away from our midst, and delib- erately declare that whatever may transpire, is all the same to him. He cannot conscientiously hold himself aloof, and say that he cares neither for this nor that law. As a citizen, he must care for every public transaction that bears upon the general welfare. Having once adopted certain responsibilities — invested at the time of his acquiring citizenship — it is out of his power, so long as he remains a citizen, to lay them aside on any pretence whatever. The sooner, too, he enters with his whole soul into the spirit of our American life, the sooner he will learn to love the new possession that has become his own. It will be easier for him, then, to note and undei-stand the practical working of many things that before were little better than enigmas. As his interest increases, his affection will deepen. As he feels his own share of the common responsibility enlarge, he will likewise find the eonfidtiifia of his new fellow-citizens abounding. Instead of being swipi ide or overlooked, he will find himself openly welco ids of generous hearts respond to the anxious b But let the natoralisfM^ baneous im- 8SS A YOIOB TO AKBBIOiu pubeB of his better nature ; let him say to himself ^ I will enjoy the fall protection of their laws, but never will I subscribe to their sjnrit tft principle,'' and matters immediately assume a f ery di£ferent aspect. Adopting such a course, he cuts, himself off from his own rights, and forfeits every further claim, either to the protection or the respect of all true Americans. If such a one league with others similarly disposed, and plaoe himself at the direction of any man, or body of men, to compass meaa- ures that are calculated to subvert the &ir and open workings of our political system ; if this new organization, stretching from city to dly, and from State to State, bind together its cords, and weave over and over its network of conspiracy, till it is thought that no human power, social or political, can break it in sunder ; if these men attack, stealth- ily, our commouHschool system, determined, by cajolery, by suppliea- tion, by art, or, finally, by force, to overthrow this bulwark of liberty, — we are necessarily compelled to look about us in absolute dismay, hardly prepared for a demonstration of such magnitude and power, and perfectly at a loss to understand what may be the object aimed at But the reaction will inevitably arrive. It must come, where all men are free ; nor can it long be delayed, where the people are the watch- ful and jealous guardians of their own liberties. It is but the fulfil- ment of the old law, that " they who sow the wind shall, in due time, reap the whirlwind." This it is that has called into life the active and repellent spirit of Americanism which is to-day sweeping, with the power and majesty of a tempest, over the length and breadth of our land. Such unnat- ural and underhanded demonstrations were the only ones that could summon forth this giant resistance to the enemies of American lib- erty. The naturalized citizen should read the lesson carefully, and ponder it with diligence; for it teaches him but too emphatically what is the deep meaning of those principles which Americans pro- fess, and how completely ingrained they are in every true American heart. THE RIGHT OF THE MAJORITY TO RULE. "And sovereign Law, the world's collected will, O'er thrones and globes elate. Sits empress — crowning good, repressing ill." Man was created for society: the necessity of laws for governing his relations to his fellows is, therefore, co-existent with his nature. No community ever existed, however savage or degraded, which did not acknowledge some of the elements of government. The products of the chase — the earth-hole used as a habitation — even the rade knife and spear, have their acknowledged owners, and any infringement of these rights, results in personal conflict. A little reflection leads us to the conclusion, that we have no individual rights which can be separated from our relations towards others ; for if selfishness could swallow up the whole being, then self-government was the original law, and man, in the enjoyment of the purposes of his existence, should live alone, and exterminate those about him ; yet this is not the case. The practical efiect of such an assumption would result in destruction of the individual ; he would be outlawed even by savages, as quickly as he would 'be arrested and imprisoned among civilized people. A desire then for government grows out of the necessity of our being : it is an appetite as positive as that for food. The time necessarily occupied by the individual members of every community, in procuring subsistence, suggests, as a matter of economy and exj^diency, the delegation of the management of government to one or many ; and upon this necessity arise, not only the first forms of organized society, but, from the manner in which this authority is delegated, springs every possible form of government Numberless absurd theories, sanctioned by ''great nsaniOB/' hi 824 A yOICB ID AM£BICA. been proposed to account for the first formation of gOTemment. Some dedare it to be of Divine origin, and consequently a compact between the people and divinely appointed rulers. Opposed to this proposition, are those who believe it to be simply an agreement among the people themselves. To say that government exists by Divine power, is true in the gen- eral sense of all things existing by the same cause ; but we are not to stop at the threshold of inquiry by such a misapplication of a tru- ism. We are to consider how far that same Divine Authority decreed that man should be left to choose and fashion his political relations. The advocates of the Divine origin of government have always been the idolatrous worshippers of absolutism, and no outrage has ever been committed by tyrants upon the people, that has not had the profiuie endoraement — ^Divinely chosen rulers can do no wrong. But the wis- dom of those £Eithers of our country who established the American Bepublic rejected such a theory, finding no Divine sanction for op- pression and wrong, and therefore set vigorously to work to extend the blessings of rational freedom, and to build up fortresses against encroaching power. In the history of nations and individuals which have passed away, the idea that the only legitimate end of government is the public good, was confined to the breast of the philosopher, or an- nounced at the sacrifice of life by the patriot and reformer. The or- ganized power of the oppressor was more than equal to the undis- cipled assertors of so great a truth; but in our day, the example the American people have set of the beauty of the practical work- ings of this truth, has already had the effect to make its adoption almost universal, not. only among reflecting minds, but among the governed of the great bulk of every enlightened population. To the people the importance of cherishing this idea, that government is an implied contract, and not a Divine right, can hardly be esti- mated. Its simple conception is the beginning of political wisdom : a clear and comprehensive idea of it in the mind of each individ- ual, is one of the best safeguards of our own free institutions. THE RIGHT OF THE MAJORITY TO RULE. 325 Having decided that government is a compact, its operation, if consistent, must be to effect the greatest good to the greatest num- ber. Hence it is evident that the rule of the majority is the clear- est expression of the cherished principle. To say that this rule is an imperative necessity, is harsh and unsatisfactory; but to say that to pursue some determinate plan for a general happiness among the contradictory interests, opinions, and feelings of society — this rule of action is the most admirable, and most in harmony with those great general laws which bind together both the physical and moral world — then we shed light upon the reason of the rule, for that the principle grows out of the very nature of the best form of political existence. The rule of the majority is the only one calculated to secure the happiness of the whole, for there is rarely an exception in an intel- ligent community where the majority is not competent to take the best possible care of its own interests ; and the minority, having the full benefits of the prevailing laws, will be found, on examination, rather to sacrifice opinions and feelings than things of vital impor- tance. In the practical working of this principle in our govern- ment, it is noticeable that however the people may be agitated upon any question — however, for the moment, the minority may feel aggrieved — the majority never becomes permanently fixed ; for in the constant changes of our rulers, every possible opportunity is afforded to correct errors or soften opposition, and the clamorous minority of to-day in a few short months finds itself triumphantly borne along on the breeze of popular favor. The keen and searching inquisition under which every scheme of public pohcy passes in a republican government, before it becomes " a law," may be said to test its value and practicability before it has a vital application. A universal agreement of opinion would soon degenerate into apathy, and apathy would pave the way for the foot of the oppressor. The opposition, therefore, of the minority is just as essential for 12 bmd- ing of our rights, as is the approbation of tha' ^ to give them legal force. The clash, in fine, ol 16 826 A yoiOB TO axbbica. the majority, so fiir from marring the great design of eifil inotitii- tions, contribates directly to advance it. In its every-day workings, we find society insensibly Be|>aratei into three divisions — the very rich, the people made comfortable bj daily industry, and the poor. Now the majority must ever be found among those who are successful laborers, and it will never yield to the assumptions of the wealthy, nor to the unreasonable desires of the Tery poor. Here then we find the rock against which vainly beat the pretensions of the parvenu, and the distinctions anoong those who would even demolish society for personal gain. And h will be found, that notwithstanding the public mind ia occasionally douded by threatening storms, or suffers from absolute outbieak, the aolid interests of all are carefully guarded ; for this conservative majority is constantly recruited from the ranks of those who, bat a short time previously, were among the poor ; whilst the pretensions riah, in the vicissitudes that attend the holding of property when no exclusive privileges are granted, sink out of sight before they can do any mate- rial injury by the misapplied use of th^r wealth. It is remarkable that a government of the majority has constantly set limitations upon the exercise of its own authority. The ruler, therefore, of a republic is constantly surrounding himself with re- straints ; while the ruler of a monarchy, a single individual, is con- stantly extending the gratification of his powers, and thus afifords the best illustration of the fitness of the majority to rule. Consti- tutions, however, when majorities govern, are after all only vmtten diecks and limitations upon the actions of men, and are created by their powers without reference to the fact, whether they shall in the future fall into the party in the majority or in the minority. This conduct, so magnanimous, has its moral efiect upon the minds of men, for it is rarely that a faction attempts to violate the funds- mental law ; or if ventured upon, it quickly retraces its steps. There are always in every majority a large number of persons who will not sacrifice to party what belongs to the country, and these indi- viduals are ever ready to abandon an oppressive majority, and by THE BIGHT OF THE MAJORITY TO RULE. 327 gc ing over to the minority, restore the balances of the written con stitution. lu the history of our goveniment it will be found that repeated attempts have been made by the legislatures of our States to violate their respective constitutions, and even that of the Federal Govern- ment. Every instance has proved abortive. So many people have instantly resented such an attempt, and abandoned the presumptuous party in power, as to render it •incapable of doing injury, and the sober second thought of these revolutionists themselves, has caused them finally to seek redress only through the legitimate channels of the laws. In the Federal Government the advantage afforded the minority is permanent. Much as the States may differ in relative size or population, they are equal in the Senate. The veto of the Execu- tive operates as a check in favor of the minority, for its immediate effect is always to defeat the will of the majority of the legislature. Another class of checks grows out of the distribution of the govern- ment into departments, thereby separating interests which are com- mon to all its parts from those which are exclusively local. Ano- ther very important security against excessive accumulation of power is the confinement of the Federal Government to the exercise of such powers as are expressly given to it by the constitution, and the re- tention of the remaining portion of sovereignty in the hands of the State Government. Such are a few of the most prominent instances of the radical importance and effective character of the checks or limitations which our majority constantly imposes upon the exercise of its own author- ity. They are yet more strongly illusti'ated in the formation of the constitutions of the new States, which, though founded upon th^ principle of universal suffrage, yet judiciously impose limitations upor the power of the majority, wherever believed to be necessary for thf public weal. Yet all these checks and limitations, however wia< skilfully arranged, and harmoniously operative, are m ■J 8S8 A yOIOE TO AKERICA. Notwithstandixig the wisdom of its arraDgement, and the applioabiliij' of its constnictioD, the instrument requires a judicious and energetio hand to wield it. Indeed, its very complexify and deUcacj make the proper handling of it an impossibility to the ignorant Neither our own, nor any other free government, could flourish or exist, unkflB controlled by checks and restraints exterior to, but necessary to the well-working of its machinery. The real safety of our goyemment — its true security against oppresaoif on the part of the majority^ or rebellion from the minority — ^is no mere contrivance, no balancing of class against dass, no reliance in selfish interests. It is somethiiig stronger, safer, wiser than any or all of these : it is the uprightnani and wisdom of an educated and Christian nation insuring the justioe of the majority's decision, and the acquiescence of the remainder in their judgment. This, therefore, requires wisdom in our stateamen; it is this makes our countiy peaceful, happy, and prosperous, and pre- vents the wanton abuse of the constituted forms of government by a victorious majority. It is these moral checks which remove any apprehension on the part of the minority, and obviate any vindictive or illegal action, or even a passive resistance to measures honestly intended to promote the well-being of the whole community, however much they may fail to meet the views of a part. Such measures must be maintained or opposed, not from sinister or selfish motives, but from the unfeigned conviction that their retention or alteration will be for the good of the greatest number. Such is the course of every true citizen whose patriotism is not a mere name. A contrary action on a question pregnant with such mighty results, is certain to lead eventually to anarchy and revolu- tion. From parallel scenes of civil discord — the oppression of the weak, the tyranny of the many — there is a certain and dread alterna- tive,— an alternative destroying every hope of liberty, blighting the virtues of the soul and the powers of intellect, enthralling man in all the darkness of mental slavery, but an alternative in which relief may still be found — an irremediable, a hopeless despotism. FREEDOM FROM FOREIGN INFLUENCE. " Our virtues Live in the interpretation of the times." Shakspeare. It is a preposterous assumption that any single class of our citizens are exempted from their civil responsibilities by reason of the religion which they may happen to profess. We are not able to understand why all the members of our vast commonwealth are not equally bound and equally interested in the preservation of the general safety. We cannot comprehend the rule by which one man must ojQfer all his resources for the public good, while another, because of a different religious profession, may remit every exertion on the same behalf, as to him alone seems equitable or agi'eeable. Amer- ican citizens should permit no religious creed to teach them forget- fulness of their common country. They should spurn alliance with every cause which leads them to forego their love for the equal rights of all men. K they cannot stand together upon the broad platform of liberty for the whole human race, there is no hope left that humanity shall be benefited. Strange times, iftdeed. have we fallen upon, that demand of us a demonstration, to any portion of the American population, of the necessity of the duty of their most zealous support of the free system of government under which they live. Mighty revolutions must assuredly have been wrought in public sentiment, when American citizens are discovered to be forgetful of their obligations to the sacred cause of republican truth, and wilfully derelict to the high duty they owe to the country whose sufficient protection they are proud everywhere to claim. No domestic influence, germinating here on the blessed home-soil, could ever have been potent to pro- 380 A VOICK TO AMKRICA. duco a state of things so alanningly fraught with miscliief. It could have arisen from the operation of none of those healthy principles with wliicli our fathei*s wisely set in motion this comprehensive sys- tem of jx^ace. Alien hatred is its real author, and foreign inteifer- ence is its malicious progenitor. It was produced on a distant soil, and it is diligently sought now to be domesticated on this. It bears the brand of foreign iniquity on its forehead, and stands confessed a monster of too hideous a mien to be the product of the clime whose breezes all whisper of freedom. We will not pause to undertake the proof of what is already so transparently obvious, namely, that both Catholic and Protestant Americans are bound by an equal engagement to sustain the liberties of that country whose appointed guardians they are. It is a duty from which, while members of the great body of freemen, they can neither ask nor expect a release. The obligation is stamped too deeply on their souls ; it is ingrained with their nature, by the pro- cess of their early education ; and he must, in truth, cease entirely to be an American — openly cast off his allegiance altogether, and for- swear both the lights and the privileges of citizenship — who hopes, by any method, to absolve his conscience from the religious duty ho owes to the country, either of his birth or adoption. But consenting, for the moment, to set the question of duty aside, we are left to estimate the measure of interest that should lead every citizen, of whatever religious creed, to strive to maintain American freedom intact from the taint of foreign influence.* Interest is some- times a powerful advocate, when duty cannot find a tongue. Fear often persuades, and moves to action, when a loftier motive feels its power paralyzed and gone. The better to understand the nature and extent of this common interest, it is necessary first to study the character of that influence from abroad, by whose threats and usurpations our free institutions are subjected to peril. The grounds of fear must be accurately ascer- tained, before the alarmed heart instinctively puts forth all its ener- gies for preservation. FREEDOM FROM FOREIGN INFLUENCE. 331 No nation can achieve either character, influence, or power, unless it be founded and compacted on some particular principle. Monarchy builds on the principle that one man is better than his fellows, and possesses therefore an hereditary right to rule. Republicanism cher- ishes the heaven-born idea that all men are equal, and not only equal, but free — capable of self-control, and the safe direction of their own concerns and interests ; and, so dearly has this grand idea been cherished, that it has become an mcorporated principle in the political system, and been employed as the corner-stone of the entire edifice of republicanism. Here, at the commencement, all absolute forms of government are at open issue with democracy. There is a fatal incon- gruity between them from the beginning. And not only so, but it is not possible for the influence of one of them to falter in its active progress, until it shall have finally succeeded in outrooting the other from existence. Foreign potentates are not blind to truths of such magnitude, looming ominously from the lessening horizon of their friture. They understand that inactivity is destruction ; that silent acquiescence is worse than destruction; for it is a humiliating confession of wrong, to the syllables of which they have never fashioned .their lips. They start up with awakened fears and renewed energies. Watching the con- stant changes that occur in the political sky, they draw themselves secretly into closer companionship, each hating the other with the full measure of his heart's power, but hating the new influence even more. Considerations of safety weigh down thoughts of mere policy, and they swear to forget the smaller evils in the face of one they esteem far greater. It is selfishness that is working at the bottom ; but this selfishness is destined to perform an important work, — for it will be the most active element in the destruction of every system of government where Church and State are connected. The prophecy, even now, is in the progress of a literal fulfilment. Opposing republicanism on grounds like these, it is little to be expected that foreign powers will abate a jot or tittle of the intensity of that spirit of hatred which uniformly characterizes their action. S32 A VOICE TO AMERICA. Nor do tliey at any moment give evidence of its relaxation. If America but crosses the Gulf-Stream, their swiftest ships are on her track. If she treats with a nation like Texas, they are there to whisper words of disaffection and discouragement. Our name is employed as a term of ridicule and reproach abroad, and our soil is considered only a fit lazar-house for the reception of all cases of political disease. Wo are styled the Botany Bay of the world, accepting every ingi'edient that is offered to help build up a wild and incongruous nation; and into our lap are poured the paupers, the convicts, the lazaroni, the assassins, and the vermin-eaten rabble^ whose presence is a source of peril to governments whose duty it is to make proper provision for them. We contribute of our bounty to famishing nations, and yet are styled the most avaricious and grasp- ing of any on the face of the earth. Our march forward is one of peace alone ; yet are we charged with a spirit of piracy which befits only a nation wholly barbarous. If our representatives abroad con- vene to confer upon the highest interests of their common country, spies dog their steps, falsehoods hunt down their true purposes, their government is spoken of as an outlaw, and secret pledges are circu- lated to destroy its growing influence by whatever means, and at however great a hazard. But this is only a superficial view of the matter. It is not altogether abroad — it is even on our own soil that foreign powers seek chiefly to do the work, the performance of which they have undertaken. Know- ing that if a battery is to bo silenced it must be carried by a vigorous assault, and that in order to destroy a fortification a breach must fii-sl; be made in the walls, they direct all their secret forces against that goveninieut which stands sponsor for free and liberal institutions. To crij)ple its pov.cr, to Avcaken its energy, to obstmct and over- throw its matured purposes, to turn its very forces against itself, and thus gi^e it the name of an insane suicide, — these are tlxe objects that are sought with such an unmistakable eagerness, and tho accomplishment of which would fill the world with the jubilations of tyranny. PEEEDOM FROM FOREIGN INFLUENCE. 333 To carry forward so gigantic a purpose, there is need of the co- operation of an equally gigantic power. Such ends are wrought but through the aid of mighty instrumentalities. Secrecy is likewise required to insure success, to mask the almost resistless energies of an attempt of such magnitude. Where was a power endowed with qualifications of so peculiar a character to be found? At whose bidding would it start up, mailed in its coat of impenetrable armor, and exclaim — " Here am I !" The needed power was already in existence. It was the ultramon- tane party of the Romish Church, whose Pope and prelates sprang forward with an alacrity that showed how welcome was the work. That Church holds almost complete ascendency in the Old World ; her emissaries are prowling everywhere; she sustains an army of secret laborers — sappers and miners of true freedom — whose toils are never relaxed by favor, and never relieved by sleep ; her temporal head is ambitious only of rule, and her myriad children are com- manded only servile and unqualified obedience. Her whole history is at war with free aspirations of any kind or grade. Her principles are those of high-handed usurpation. The rack and the thumb-screw have been her barbarous instruments of discipline, — the bloody Inqui- sition has been the secret but terrible source of her power, — and the Confessional still remains the silent engine of its perpetuation. Foreign rulers, as a body, acknowledge the supremacy of that gigantic despotism. It is one which engulfs all others, making their assumptions appear even trifling in comparison with its own. Hence they consider its decrees inviolable. From its high court they expect no appeal. They, therefore, have plotted with it, and the fruits of their machinations they promise to the Mother Church. The head of tliat Church understands the plan, and forthwith sets himself to divide and conquer the fair realms of Liberty. The means are ample, and are all ready to his hand. Emigrants are coming in long and unbroken processions to America, all, or nearly all, the sheep of his fold. This vast mass will lie secretly and silently congregate on our soil, not for the pure and lawful purposes of religion, but for the more 16* I .1 .1 834: A VOICE TO AMERICA. Qvn^y and rapid spread of his power, and the gratification of the foreign potentates wlio form the bulwark of his sovereignty. Ho delegates faithful messengei's, who are appointed shepherds of his spreading ilocks. Patiently and quietly they go about their work, carefully avoiding any initation of the popular mind, seeking no conflict with any existing power, enduring in silence whatever reproach or contumely may overtake them, and stiiving continually for the attainment of a single end, the political as well as the spiritual supremacy of the Pope. This countless array of immigrants, though they may hate their fonner rulers never so intensely, nevertheless acknowledge obedience to the Pope and his prelates. That connec- tion it is not even thought of dissolving. Yet the rulers are but ready instniments in the hands of this Pope, — the Arch-Piiest who is skil- fully intriguing for the perpetuation of their power, as well as his own. The connection which holds their interests together, is one that cannot be dissevered. By such a complex process is the overthrow of our institutions sought to be compassed. Tyranny first drives its beggared popula- tion from the land, to inhabit one of the fairest and freest promise : the Pope is the ally of tyrants, because it is through them alone that his ambitious ends are reached ; and adherence to the Church of which the Pope is the visible head, is the first condition needed to bring the success of both Popery and tyranny to its desired culmina- tion. They are joined in an indissoluble league, and the same prin- ciple vitalizes both. In that union they Avill stand or fall together. Popeiy is a political system ; cunningly constructed, and energetically kept in ceaseless operation. Its ambition enclasps the globe. Its aims circumscribe all nations and all people. It, works secretly, when openly might be dangerous; but for evermore it worJcs. lis eftbrta know no relaxation. It is a gigantic scheme of despotism ; first sapping the course of free thought, juid then appealing to the super- stitious fears of the heart, whose sentiments are ren^lered unliealtJiy by its enchaining wiles. No wonder that the foreign powers who seek our destruction, FREEDOM FROM FOREIGN INFLUENCE. 335 should apply for aid to the head of a system like this. They must have been forgetful of their own purpose, if they had passed it by. No wonder that they consent so unanimously to do the Pope's bid- ding, if he will but engage to perform a service in which they crave his effective assistance. He serves, by this means, both himself and them. He strengthens their power, and adds enormously to his own. K he can but rule in America, his supple minions will be no less satisfied than himself. They do not desire a new empire ; they care nothing for further self-aggrandizement, or the baubles of an authority that cannot fail to prove troublesome rather than profitable ; they do not seek to erect a new despotism, whose head they may, some day, become themselves : they only wish that there may be no America. This beacon-light of the world does but throw into deeper shadow the realms over which they bear rule. They would have it extin- guished forever ; and Popery has seriously undertaken the task, de- termined here, on American soil, to make its final stand, and fight its last battle. That great conflict, we firmly believe, is to be fought out in our own day. This is the nature of that foreign influence, exerted on our soil, which has awakened such alarming fears in these present times. The mask has been torn away ; the monster stands exposed before us. So far as Romanism is only religious, it has equal rights with every other form of worship, and every other creed in existence ; but the moment its aims become political, and it seeks aspiringly to bring the State in subjection to the Church, that moment it deserves, as a system, to be scouted from existence, and its pharisaical leaders to be deprived of that freedom whose interests they have so basely been laboring "to betray. To check the inroad of such a system of despotism, Americans of all creeds are urged, by every possible consideration of safety, to apply themselves without delay. Araericau Catholics may enjoy their religion, but they should never allow themselves to be used for the betrayal of their fi-eedom. They must see, as the rest of us, that the reign of Romanism in this country through its deputed repre- \ 886 A VOICE TO AMERICA. fientativcs, is a relapse into the power of the self-same tyranny from which they have escaped. It must be plain, that whatever might be the loss to Protestants by the overthrow of our liberties, it would certainly be an equal inisfoilune to Catholics. Their interest is a common one with ours. Wo have no rights to lose by so appalling a misfortune, the privation of which would not cripple and injure them as well. All are bound up in one common destiny. All must know that they -are to rise or fall together. The. words of Washington burn in our memories at thoughts like these : " Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence^ I coDJure you to beheve me, fellow-citizens, the jealousy of a free people ought to be constantly awake ; it is one of the most baneful foes of a repub- lican government." And the expressed fears of Jeflferson must not be forgotten : " I hope wo may find some means, in future, of shield- ing ourselves from foreign influence, — political, commercial, or in whatever form it may be attempted. I wish there were an ocean of fire between this and the Old World." And Madison added : " Foreign influence is a (.Trcciau horse to the republic ; we cannot he too careful to cxchide its entranced Warnings like these are not to be passed lightly by. Events have abundantly shown tlie far-seeing sagacity of the fatliers of the republic, and irrefragably prove that their feat's were founded in wisdom. Americans must at this dav ^ve such warnings due heed, be their creed what it may. When liberty is menaced from vritliout, it sliould arouse us all like the sound of a fire-bell in the night. THE ORIGIN OF POLITICAL POWER. "For what is freedom, but the unfettered lue of all the powdrs which God, for use, has given?*' Coleridge. National prosperity arises necessarily and only from intelligent freedom. Nations have ever been prosperous and strong, in propor- tion to their appreciation and wise use of liberty. All tlie Divine teachings, whether by revelation or by human example, have shown that the true basis of civil and political liberty — the true source and organization of civil and political power — are divinely ordained. The greatest happiness is always attained by those who live in closest ob- servance of all the divine laws of life ; and this is true of the di- vine law of political organization, as much as it is of the divine laws of bodily health or social happiness. To fulfil these conditions of happiness, men must think. Just as much as they are left to their own guidance, just so much they need to possess and to use the power of quickly disc^ning between right and wrong, truth and falsehood. From this truth it follows that we Americans, who live in the enjoyment of a freer exercise of our facul- ties, and under less restraints than are experienced by any other na- tion, need more than any other the full possession, and constant and active use of a thoughtful and foreseeing intelligence. . The true basis of political power is the consent of the people £ erned ; and in proportion to the wisdom of that consent is the dom of the government, and the happiness and prosperity od whole. It is a melancholy fact which might be adduced in rep this statement, that so vast a majority of the human race hflp contentedly in darkness and chains. But thoujg' ^ 338 A VOICE TO AMERICA. militate against our argument. It only shows that their consent has not been wisely given. Nor has any such nation erer attained to a true prosperity, or a true happiness. It is the consent of the gor- crne<] wliioli has upheld all human governments, and the refusal or withdrawal of it has always overthrown them. As the nation, so 18 tlie government. The men have always made the ruler — not the ruler the men. The ruler has held his place by virtue of being an exponent of the national spirit ; by being such a man that the na- tional mind found in his actions its fullest and freest expression. This expression of the national mind, which has always controlled even the direst tyrannies, has found its freest, safest, and most digni- fied manifestation in our republic, the best form of government yet CBtablished on earth, — which arose, by the force of necessity, above forms and precedents, and whose vigor and vitality are sustained by a stern adherence to the original principle upon which it was con- structed, — where the majoiity speaks for the whole, without tyranny, and the minoiity acquiesces without rebellion — and the glorious result is a j)eaccful and happy unanimity. That the will of the govorned, according to the design of the Ahniglity, should constitute the substance of the government, is proved by the fact that aspirations after political freedom are an integi'al part of the human mind as created by God. Ignorance, as we have remarked, may obscure this glowing thought, and may apparently queucli its light ; but the capacity for desiring and enjoy- ing liberty is yet alive, and the innate longing sometimes bursts forth, like an unsuspected volcano, beneath the very feet of the tyrants who think that they have trodden out every spark of the sacred fire. Wo need not prove tliis assertion to Americans. Every Amencan feels the trutli of it, and will recognize the principle in full operation as he looks into his own heart, or observes the actions of his fellow-citizens. But God lias revealed tlie truth of free political principles in other ways than by this indistinct and feeble natural light. The revelation is implied often antry, although the poor captive Jiad paid, according to the stipulation, as much gold for his ranBom as wouIdlSil the place of his confinement 1 Although Pizarro foimded the city of Lima, and had thoi^ht himself secure, yet several inanneo- tions ensued with various success, until the eurresder and ezeoatioii of the last of the Incas, in 1562, when the Spanish rule was establiBhed. The State founded by Pizarro remained a dependency on. the Spaifc> ish crown until the year 1782, when an outbreak occurred, and the standard of independence was reared, around which the ntttives rallied with great spirit, and in great numbers. For two years the war continued with alt<'rnate success; the enterprise, however, finally suffered defeat. But these eftbrts were triumphant in 1817, tinder General San Martin ; and in July, 1821, the independence of Peru was solemnly proclaimed, with San Martin as Protector. This ofBoe he resigned, after constituting a Congress ; but its inefficiency soon be(;ame apparent. In 1823, the patriots were defeated, the Congress dissolved, anarchy piedoininated, and Lima a^in surrendered to the Spanish troops. They were, shoitly afterwards, partially dispossessed by Bolivar, and the Chilians ; but Pern, though freed from Spanish subjiigjKion, was like a vessel tossed By ever}' casual wave, unsafe, and exposed to conflicting dangers. The history of Upper Peru, better known as Bolivia, a name it derives from its great deliverer — Bolivar — is briefly told. Previously to the battle of Ayachueo, in 1824, it fonned a part of the vice- royalty of Buonos Ayres ; but Greneral Sucre, at the head of the re- publicans, having then defeated the royalist troops, the independence of the country was effected; and in the following year^ at the request MEXICO AND THE SOUTH AMERICAN STATES. 351 of the people, Bolivar drew up its constitution. Soon, however, domestic factions sprung up, the purity of his motives were question- ed, and he was suspected of aiming at a perpetual dictatorship. He gave, however, a noble denial to these unjust imputations, by quelling the disturbances that affected the State, and then retiring to private life. For a time he was recalled to the exercise of the chief authority, till 1830, in which year his death occuiTed. The government is still in the hands of a President ; and it may be said this republic is, of all those of South America, the best as to its internal quiet and prosperity, for most of them are, indeed, republics but in name. It is needless to fatigue the reader with historic details of the several independent States and Confederacies of Central and South America. Grouping theni together, we may sum up the whole by saying, that they have been but expeiiments towards freedom, and, without excep- tion, unsuccessful experiments. Knowing comparatively little of the sweets of real liberty, they seem to be not very ambitious for its attainment ; but a sluggish supineness renders them insensible to its value. An amusing illustration of this occurred not many years ago at Chili. At a dinner given to some oflScers of an American vessel on the fourth of July, one of our oflScers gave as a toast, " General Wash- ington,'* when a Chihan followed with " The hundred Washingtons of South Anierica !" In the republics of South America, which pre- serve the blood and the indolent pride of the Spaniards, constitutions are destroyed homiy, by the will of some Dictator ; and the people, after a transient appearance in the career of civilization, fall back into the darkness of barbarism, and are not even conscious that they have been free for a day. Society, in short, stumbles at the first step it attempts to take forward, and falls helpless at the entrance of that path in which modern civilization springs forward, radiant and proud, to the goal.* While we, in common with the civilized world, have been constructing our railroads and steamships, many of the natives of these States pursue the barbarous custom of travelling on the back of a man, or of a mule, and thus pursue journeys of seven' * Malte-Brun. A VOICE TO AMEBICA. days acroaa a stouy and rugged country. Erery species of KDii moral degradation seems to prev^l. The principal occupation of the wealthier class consists in doing nothing ; that of the majori^ Bomething worse — surrendering themselves to fillhinesa and It has been already intimated that tie superior progress in ciri zatioa of ilie United States is the fruit of the Protestant faith. It to the refining, elevating, and hallowing influences of a pure anity, that we trace the high developments of social and civil ord^' to which Protestant America has attained. The Bible is the bi^- wark of a nation's safety and success. Need we proofe, we have th* fact amply illustrated in the comparative civilizations of the northern and southern portions of our own continent. A few men land, one by one, on the shores of Nortli America, poor, humble, and unknown; they bring with, tiem but one book, tbe Bible; they open it on the rocky strand, and begin immediately to construct their infant community or commonwealth in accordance with its s»-. cred order, subordinating all to its claims. Their sympathies are one in the common faith, and hope of its teachings. Amid the frosts of winter, and on ft rugged, sterile soil, yet are they all undia- mayed. " See the calmness and boldness of these men : we discover in tie constitution of this rising empire, the fire of Luther untied with the coolness of Calvin. Fancy pictures the scene all glowing with Chiia- tian beauty and heroism; with the sound of the aie and hammer, mingles the chant of a psalm. Their firm faith in the favor of their God renders them indifferent to dread of the desolate wildemes. The light of Heaven sanctifies their toil ; and by a sort of social mir- acle the wilderness, and the solitary place, is made to blossom as the rose, "Where once was the rude wigwam of the savage, we now be- hold thousands of cides, towns, and hamlets, filled with the abodes of peace and plenty. "Look we uti another picture. The proud monarchy of Spaiosenda her atately viceroy and aiinament, accompanied with the sanctions and pomp of Rome, to a country and a clime of luxuriant fertility, and which I MEXICO AND THE SOUTH AMERICAN STATES. 353 is known to abound in the precious metals. As if to render the contrast of circumstances the more convincing, nature herself seems to echo to her Maker's voice. In order that the test may be the more decisive, every physical advantage seems to be in favor of the mission of Ro- manism. But while all around is grand and gigantic, glowing with exuberant hfe and fertility, man is here in weakness, imbecility, and vice. He is under the vassalage of a spiritual thraldom, which eflfect- ually prevents the development of his moral and intellectual nature. To all the noble incentives to action he is ahke indifierent ; he is the victim of supineness, indolence, and immorality. " What means this wondrous sterility in a new world, except that the idea brought thither had given elsewhere all its fruit ; that Ro- manism, essentially conservative during three ages, has lost power of impulse — the creative spirit ; and that, henceforth, she is incapable of giving to the wide expanse the word alone pregnant of a new social world ; that her soul, imprisoned in the cathedrals of the mediaeval ages, has no longer the strength of divine tempests to purify chaos and baptize continents. " Let these nations of the South do what they will, they end inevi- tably by realizing in their government the ideal which they have in- scribed on their state religion, that is, absolute power. All they can do is to change dictators, and thus we see them succeed in nothing but in tightening the bands of their thraldom. Progressive punish- ment ! South America lies as it were at the foot of a vast upas-tree, ever distilling its tor{)or, while the trunk, rooted in another continent, remains visible."* " The Spaniards, in spite of unexampled barbarities, which have covered them with lasting shame, have not succeeded in exterminat- ing the Indian race, nor even in hindering their sharing their rights. The Americans of the United States have attained this double result, with a wonderful facility ; quietly, legally, philanthropically, without bloodshed, without violating, in the eyes of the world, any of the great principles of morality."f * M. Quinet. t De Tocqueville. 354 A VOICE TO AMERICA. If rr>]M'rt fur its laws l»o the tost of tlic moralitv of a countn-, tho Suuth AiiKMicaii States will ha fuimd miserably bankrupt in this par- ticular : l'«»r ban 11 V a ilav passes ibat is not the witness of the ex-^eii- lion (if Hnn«* iM)litical oilendtfr, while *'the United States of Xoith Ainciiia."' wrili-s M. l>e Tuc'«iueville, "is, I think, the only country ii|M)!i rarth, whi-n*, ft)r thu last fifty years, not a single individual has bi'«'n |»iit to ress crime, consecpiently vices of the most hideous and revolting chai'actor obtain to an alanning extent. The social rela- tiuiis of life nrr, in a state of moral putrefaction — the most extreme licentiousness pn-vails, and society exists only in name ; its phases are JUS dark and dcgiaatiiot, and the ignorant vic.'lim of designing u-urpei*s, are shot like dogs, ;inigniMl to the earth. The imagination cannot compre- hend tin* future of these (MMiiitries! thev seem everv vear to fall lower anns — the feast-(!avs — llu; ]M)ni]»s and ceremonies of the K<>man Church. » M. ir()rl.I-,Miv. AMERICA, THE THEATRE OF THE GREAT DEMONSTRATION. *^ Into the fall enjoyment of all which Europe has reached only through such slow and painful Steps, we sprang at once, by the Declaration of Independence, and by th| establishment of free representative government ; government, borrowing more or less from the models of other free States, but strengthened, secured, and improved in their symmetry, and deepened in their founda- tion, by those great men of our «wn country, whose names wiU be as familiar to future times a« if they were written on the arch of the sky."— Webster. It must strike every reflective mind, that ours is no history of mere chance, or even of simple fortune. This gigantic country, stretched between so many parallels of latitude, its shores washed by the two great oceans of the world, its past so wonderful, its pres- ent so great with mighty promises, — this America does not exist without a purpose, as if the careless hand of Chance had origi- nated it, with no designed place among the other countries of the world, and no grand promise to perform for the regeneration of man- kind. It is not possible, even for him who affects to disbelieve in the providence and the power of a God, to imagine that an exist- ence like ours ever sprung out of the chaos of accident, or was the unlooked-for fruit of circumstances which never felt the guidance of a Supreme, cootroUing hand. That we are specially deputed to begin and to carry out success- fully the greatest social and political problem in the world's destiny, is enough to fill the breast of every man with hope-felt determina- tion, for it commands our thoughts, our eneigies, and our faith. The sooner our citizens recognize this feeling, the speedier and the more energetic must be the steps in that great demonstration in which we are certainly the acxjredited principals. If individuals have a destiny iparked out for them, suited to the inclinations and endowments of natures^ — must it not be equally true that nationSy made up 356 A VOICE TO AMERICA. of vast masses of indiviJujils, with all these same endowments and inclinations, have as large a share in the plans of that Providence which both rules and loves the world ? In our country, all things are new ; and we ought heartily to thank God for hanng cast our lot, with this mighty experiment, too, in our keeping, in a locality where the fetters that belong to an old and effete society are not known. "We often speak of our vast virgin soil, hiding nutriment enough in its bosom to sustain the entire population of oijr globe ; but have we not as good cause to boast of that fresh and virgin-like way of thought, and that childlike and impulsive style of sentiment, which hitherto has made the despots and proud nobles of the Old World regard us with ineffable disjgusty but which is now beginning to challenge real respect and admiration everywhere ? Yes, — let us thank God that ydth us, in this experiment on whicb we have entered, all things are new. Let us sing praises that we are neither hemmed in by any other tyranny than what we are free to ini})0Sii upon ourselves, nor made timid by any of those eternal suspieions which rob older nations of their energy and their peace. It is sufHoiently apparent to even the least attentive observer, that the masses of Europe are fast growing restive under the old yokes and dominions ; that the instinctive sentiment of manhood is rapidly rising and overgrowing every other idea in the breasts of the gov- erned ; that the millions of silent subjects in Europe are expectant of a dawn that shall call on them to rise from their sleep to the free- dom of a glorious day. Who can tell how much of this is the natu- ral result of our own quiet and dignified example ? Or who will say how much these events in the world have, under Gx)d, been hastened by the steady and silent illumination which we have been offering- for now three-fourths of a century ? Such things as these are evi- dences enough of the depth of j;he sentiment of freedom, native in all breasts ; as well as of the strength of that influence which our own country must of necessity exert wherever her institutions are generally known. THE GREAT DEMONSTRATION. 367 The past history of the world points with an unerring finger to America as tlie nation where all its old, and bloody, and unhappy experiences, are to be spoken of only as things belonging to darker times, to clouded intellects, and corrupt hearts ; where what was bad is forever to be put behind us, and what is good is forever to allure us along ; where oppression shall cease to be the law, and freedom no longer be the exception ; where those true and lofty senti- ments which belong to the human race, are henceforth to be allowed room for indefinite expansion ; where government is to cease to be a crushing process upon the integrity of the heart and intellect, but is to take its. very root and sustenance in the intelligent consent of those who are governed ; and where the great truth, that peace is the natu- ral political condition of the human family, and love is the loftiest and most absolute law, is to be not simply propounded, but proved. Such are the important truths to the existence of which we, as a people, are to testify. This is the time for us to bear willing testi- mony, as we are the nation to whom the responsibility has been in- trusted. Wliether we will or no, our destiny, our history, our na- ture, our geographical position, our very inclinations, — all conspire to point us to our duty. If we will but take the map and glance at the present geographi- cal boundaries of our country, we shall see in a moment what a wide field for carrying forward this great political experiment we are in pos- session ofl We people a variety of climates, such as no other nation on the face of the earth ever held direct ownership in. Our soil is calculated to furnish all the productions needed for the comfort and sustenance of man. We lie between the extreme latitudes of the temperate belt of the earth's surface, — a position of infinite conse- quence, when considered in connection with the world's past history ; for it has been said with truth, that in none but temperate climates have the great deeds of human history been pti*""'"*^. The state- ment is well worth serious thought : it ia^ tba*^ ^'tt aze occupants of the temperate regions of tb-" wer governed the world. J.'i A Vnh'r. Tit AMKIMCA. I.I II < .■■■. Ii.iw III li .1 iMli-iiii'iil li siij.|M.iiy f;i'':>: !i. l.-u ill. 1 1. -j 111 .ii" t '.«|iiiiiirii, tliiTi' *N li:inlly i-ii'iiVn .-..f A:':"::.ri :: itHi I.I n.'li.. J"..iiilli Vinni.'.i ilivt rlilrllv iM-twrM.-u tin; Z\\-j '.r-'"'.^. .III 1 li i. II. \. I In.. II- 111 r.'iw.inl :iny spi-c'iMl claims oitli*,-r on thv ^v ■:■:■. I's ii. .(■... ..i i.liiiii III..M W iiliiii ilii» Arctic, Circle, tliero is do hrr'.'.^z li..|... li, 1 I I'ui ».• ill.- w.mM ; 11. »r, ill fjicl, li.'is it (jvcr boon at a'l «:!:- i..i. Ill I III. -II li ili.i \\li.«l.^ colli •* nl' lli^lt)^y. < >nly one almost eternal \iiiii. I I. ..-ii . 1 - c.n I (lie li'ii';; ii»i|»i»r of wliicli iiUiH havo but a verr |.ii. i mil.' ».« Ill ll..^ |"i.»M iiMi, nihl ihiriii!:^ wliicli term, all life, "whetlier larls oi' llu' world bcvond them. Ill l'iii.'p.\ ill.' illii .ii.iiiv»!i is still moro complete. There, exists a pi'piil.iUiMi uimil'.'im.*; a\\k\1 {\no hundred aiul tit'ty millions, of vari- I'liii.ice. ;Mid l.in:'.ii;i;-,,' i. In les.uiivcs i>f everv dcseriptlon — phvsi- ciil. ini.'ru'ciii.il, or piiiel\ r.piiiiu:\l — that population is aslonishinnrlv lieh. W %' ii.'.'il hut uh. ;iie iheir vleeds, io eoiivinoe our reader o\ I he x.i'.i II. I. IN \' Mipv'r;ori(\ o\ siK'h a people over all othei"s of the (Md W vmM. We h;ue vMily to meiuiou (he names of CJreeoe and Home, [o si.iri iii c\erv mind ihe ri^vht ihounh'.s on this subioot. Of the wmld's threat poets, who has not lu-.iid M' Viri^^il and Iloiiierf 0( her orators, to ^vhom are not th.e names of Demosthenes and Cicero tamiliar i Who has not yor he;ird of Plato? of Socrates* of THE GREAT DEMONSTBATION. 859 Aristotle ? of Alexander f And to whose ears are not the sounds of both Caesar and Brutus like " household words ?" But such an historical recital is needless. Every intelligent Ameri- can citizen is well aware of the truth of these things, and how forcibly they bear on the point which we design to illustrate. All tend to show that over this belt of the temperate zone have passed, from the begin- ning, the power, the energy, and the promise of the world's final exaltation and redemption. Exactly within this same favored limit, lies our own country. The United States of North America form a new nation in the history of the world. We are a people, likewise, whose government, both in its form and principles, is wholly peculiar. Nothing like it has the world ever seen or known before. In developing the details of such a form of government, we certainly have shown ourselves, thus far, both apt and energetic — shrinking from no responsibilities, and rising to the heights of heroism itself by the mere force and fulness of faith in our destiny. Having sprung from a race peculiarly educated, by means of the experiences of the generations gone before, we were first fitted, by this wise dispensation of Providence, for the reception of the broad and deep principles which pertain to our civil existence. We have, then, to say, in the first place, respecting ourselves, that though perhaps as yet behind some of the European countries in par- ticular fields of science, or literature, or general learning, we may, nevertheless, challenge the whole world in fair comparison with our people for general intelligence, for intellectual activity, for practical learning, for bold and comprehensive thought, and for striking and energetic action. The Americans combine elements in their charac- ter that no people, as a whole, ever possessed before. No sooner does a new or progressive idea become born in their brain, than it is forced into the notice and approbation of the world. See how we cut the waters of rivers thousands of miles long, and * hipn waj majestically across the stormiest ocean of the globe. ■nost interminable lines of railroad over which steam every day, and destined yet to lace a continent 360 A VOICE TO AMERICA. many times across, Bee with what overwhelming yet steady energy we tunu«.l iiHjuntains, skirt fearful precipices, fly over rolling prairiesy and diivo on with a noise of thunder to the extreme boundaries of the broad continent. All this, too, the work of a small cycle of years. And our experiments with electricity — what amazing won- ders have been wrought in the briefest breath of time! The world may well look on astonished, though it hardly fills us at home with the same emotion. We comprehend now the answer to the sublime question put to Job; "Canst thou send lightnings, that they may go, and say unto thee, ' Here we are I' " And we feel that this is all but an experiment as yet, and so toil earnestly on after new victo- ries, and the achievement of still grander successes. We are not yet content with this ; we are content with nothing. Our action is fiilly up with our natiomd motto, that watchword of the future — " Onward I" Wo have conquered earth, air, water, and lightning successively. We have taught mankind how all things were at the first designed for their happiness and (comfort, and that nothing was wanting but ingenuity and energy to unlock the hidden treasures of a globe. Our material greatness is not paralleled by that of any nation in existence. Wealth has flooded our coffers, and enabled us gener- ously to offer a helping hand to the less fortunate ones of the world. Power hiis consequently increased, until we are acknowledged to be one of the great nations of Christendom — a nation on which are fixed the eager eyes of all mankind. And, to carry out the point still fur- ther, our poi)ulation has increased in a ratio that seems really incom- prehensible. The mind itself is hardly rapid enough to keep pace with the facts thus presented. It cannot be very long, at the present ratio of increase, before we shall have a population on our soil denser even than that which makes old China the standing wonder of the earth. And this crowded and busy people, alive to the vanquisbment of time, s])ace, and matter, nmst be the people from whose midst will go forth the manitbld influences that are to subjugate all men and all things to their high sway. We do not contend that this new gov- ernment will be in any way related to the tyrannies that have hith- THE GREAT DEMONSTRATION. 361 erto cast nothing but gloomy shadows over the hearts of mankind ; nor that it is to seize hold of men and compel them to obey, or even to beheve ; but that in such a government will reside the spirit and essence of freedom, more than any other element, — that it will bring all men eventually out of political darkness into a world of mental light, — ^that it will succeed everywhere in establishing and vindica- ting individual manhood, — and that, with their native rights restored to them, men will at once feel new responsibilities, and assert their true claims to all that is high, and great, and holy in their nature. This is plainly our mission. Is it not one of unsurpassed grandeur, both in itself and its results ? Power for ages has gradually been moving westward, exactly through this geographical belt of the earth. Each successive step has been attended with still more important results. Every westward remove of this power has been marked\ with the burning of a still brighter light, and has left behind it a still more luminous track for mankind to gaze upon. It has now struck the Atlantic shore of North America, ahd, in a space of time almost incredible, has pushed its rapid way to the Pacific boundary. When it leaps that ocean, it gets back on its old ground again, and thus in its course the highest form of civilization has girdled the world. Young and vigorous as America is, its youth and vigor are not to be wasted in dreams. Nor is there much fear, either, that such will be the case. Some timidly caution us against going " too fast," pro- fessing ignorance of where our destiny may lead us. That, however, seems plain enough to a mind possessed of true faith. Our course is clear ; our mistakes are soon corrected by the aid of experience ; om* successes overwhelm the warnings of the hopeless,, and bid us on. We see, then, that the United States offiar the field for the fair trial of this great experiment of man, ~" ''o learn whether men are of more worth thi ^^ and monarchies, and all tjrrannieii^'^ f, — are not violent usurpations of ifa xm our fortunes rests the destiny yfot A VOICE TO AMERICA. ^^pl^S^makittg all peoples restive ; our moral strenglli U roan Ferfiil than fleets, more dreaded by tyranlu tlinu unnumbered men rms. We are to conquer, but not by the sword. We are to ugate, but not by violence. All nations are to come under tlie tay of our principles, but never are they to pass under any yoke. iill is to he freedom and ligbt, and the eye is to see as clearly as at the noonday. Whatever is done, will be done in the direction of a single purpose; and that is, the emancipation o/ourracf. We arg not working for mere wealth ; nor position ; nor social consideratiou ; but while laboring for all these, wo are insensibly helping on the great cause, and solving the grand problem of a world's freedom. America — not even yet thinly populated — is the batlle-ficld where the content is wnged between the armies of freedom and tyranny, 'Ty sign points to this imposing fact. Here the last great onset it be made by lie pbalanses of dartnesa, bigotry, illiberality, and Dondages of all descriptions ; and, under (iod, if Americans am but true to tlierasfilvca and their principle?, bore nil! ofcui' a glorious nctwy lor fi«edom ssd trutii — a victory havii^ tiie FegeoecUioo of man tor ita object, and tlie happinefls of the nniveTse for ita hbbiiIl SECRET POLITICAL ASSOCIATIONS, THEIR USE AND ABUSE " A proper secrecy is the only mystery of able men : mystery is the only secrecy of weak uid cnnniog ones."— Chesterfield. '• A fool's mouth is his destruction."— Solomox. A GREAT outcry has, of late, been raised against the use of Secrecy in political organization and action. It seems to be taken for granted that a secret mode of operation is sufficient to condemn the operator and his work, with all honest men. The prevailing mode of discuss- ing the question is so very shallow and insufficient, that we shall here attempt to put it in its proper light, by considering the principle of secrecy in human action, and secret practices in American politics. Very little argument is needed to prove, in general, that Secrecy, in itself, is of an indiflferent quality, neither right nor wrong ; and that it is only the use or abuse of it which renders it good or bad. Christ himself expressly enjoined secrecy in the performance of good deeds, with a force which he could not express, except by the Oriental hyperbole of commanding that the left hand should not know the doings of the right. Neither such actions, nor the personal religious exercises of his disciples, were to be ipoken of or known farther than was unavoidable. Such concealment was practised by the Great Master himself. Again ; how many human beings would like to be deprived of the use of secrecy ? What would become of the shrewd enterprises of business men, if they could not keep their secrets until r are ripe ? How endurable would it be to men in general, to 364 A VOICE TO AMERICA. know tliat all their iiujinorics and all their hopes — the faults they wouM tain iui-;^i*t, and the phms they would fain pursue — were to be WM'ii and known ut" all men? As long as there are individual in- ti'iH-sts and human ini|x*rfections, so long must secrecy be an indis- jM'ii>al>K' in«i;rediLMit of human life. If the world were perfect — which wnuid make it lu-avon — S(.'crecy would be needless. Until then, it is luA (inly pri^jK'r and usi'ful, but absolutely indispensable ; although, lik«' «'v* IT thinu: olsi', it may bo perverted to wrong uses. Without furthi'r inquiry into a truth so abstract, and so unlikely to 1)0 tleniod, the proi)osition may now be laid down, that Reformz (real or pretended) directed against powerful existing interests^ begin with Secrecy, Secrecy was the cradle of Chiistianity — the greatest Inform movement the world ever saw. Christ himself trusted in his Divinity ; and knew that before his time no hands would be laid on him. Yet how often did ho conceal himself from his enemies, once even by a direct exercise of miraculous power ? And after his death, it is a fact as notorious as any in the whole range of histoiy, that without a practice of concealment more elaborate and profound, porhaj)s, than any other ever known, the new-born faith would have boon oxtorminatod from the face of the earth, simply by the mur- der of every i)rofessor of it. For years and years together, every discoverable Christian had forthwith to choose between apostasv and (loath. The reason is clear. Christianity was held to be at enmity, first with the established religion of the Jews, the most ferocious and unrelenting of bigots, and afterwards with the Roman Imperial Tower, the greatest existing interest on earth.* At the be- ginning, the weak young twig had to be hidden from the destruction with which all the powers of the earth menaced it. But as it grew up into a noble tree, it threw off its cloak of secrecy. It retains it however, even to the present day, in countries under the domination >f s.'ivMi;'«i raganisnis, or scarcely less savage Romanism. The lesser reform movements before the great l^rotestaut Refonna- * Do C^uiucy, llist. and Crit. Es-nyi*, vol. ii. Secret {Societies, p. 8G8, SECRET POLITICAL ASSOCIATIONS. 365 tion in the sixteenth century, and indeed that Reformation itself, took more or less reftige in secret investigation and secret communion ; and for the same reason, viz., that open profession would have endan- gered the whole movement. Luther, proclaiming aloud his earliest doubts of the Romish doctrines, would have suddenly and silently disappeared. Indeed, it was only a like disappearance into the friendly concealment of the Wartburg, that saved him from the actual gripe of the iron-handed Church of Rome. Wichffites and Hussites, wherever they could be hunted out, followed the fiery path to Heaven trod by their bold teachers, whose Reformations were sub- stantially quenched in blood. The Romish Church is a secret organization. It distinctly claims, and always attempts (and has too often succeeded), to over-influence and thoroughly control and direct all civil governments. For this purpdSe, as well as for the purpose of retaining a good hold upon the people at large, its constitution has always been essentially secret. It has operated through mystic forms. It uses an unknown tongue in its ritual. It wields a secret influence through the confessional. It centralizes its power in the hands of one man, and so proceeds that the masses of lay members, who are the basis of that power, are utterly ignorant of the mode of its use. The two great instruments, moreover, of the Romish Church — the two griping talons which serve it as his two great claws serve the lobster, to seize, hold, and crush its victims — are the Jesuits and the Inquisition. The Jesuit claw is for governments and nations, the inquisitorial claw for individuals. It is unnecessary to show how secrecy is the very life and breath of these wicked engines. They could no more live or work without it^ than a fish could breathe without water. This secret plotting of the Romish Church, and the secret manoeu- vring of its two ministering spirits, have become so notoriously and undisputedly believed, that they serve to supply some of the com- monest and most forcible wcffds c' ' ~ "ah tongue. Seek out a name for some false and titaf < for some revoltingly tyrannical piece of • . inquiry ; or for VOICE TO AMERICA. * the man guilty of bugK things; — t!ie proceedings, you say, . JesQitioal plot; or they are an Inquisitorial proceeding. The nian ia a Jesuit ; a crafty, Jesuitical fellow. Fasten those names on him or bis schemea, and whatever an ill name can do, is done. Yet notwithstanding thia secret character— perhapa we should aay, according to it — the Romish Church has invariably Bought to destroy all secret organizations not professedly subordinate to il, by jirma spirit- uiil and temporal — aometimea by cursing, and sometimes by burning, ^ T!ie Freemasons were excommunicated by a Bull of Clement XIT , Freemasonry has been the crime for which many victims of the Roman Inquisition have died in tiie fire, or suffered torture and con- fiscation. The purely literary or philosophical lUuminati and Hosi- crucians in Germany, tlie Carbonari in Italy and France, the Free- maaoBs and Odd-Fellows everywhere, have operated under open opposition, and even actual persecution. To leave organizations distinctively religious — The liluiainati and Eosicrucians, although they proposed only philosophical investiga- tions, or the moral and inlellectuai improvement of their membera, yet used doctrines bo liberal as not to be orthodox in the estimalioD of established governments ; and therefore necessarily worked secretly, ai long as they existed. The United Irishmen, who aimed at eslab- Ijehing an independent government in Ireland, worked in the pro- fouadeat secrecy ; were a terrible bugbear to the Eagliah government, and were finally suppressed by it. The Itahan Carbonari, as well as their successors who are yet seeking the freedom of Italy, held their lives in their hand. They existed, as tliey yet exiBt, only becauaa the Romish despots of the Peninsula could not find them. Patriot Eepublicans, seeking the freedom of Hungary, yet live amidst the oppiussive and penetrating espionage of Austrian soldiers and Aus- trian petlifoggers, solely hy secrecy. The bullet, or tlio hangman's rope, would be theii' portion within the day of their discoveiy. But it is needless to multiply instances. In religious, politico- religioua, and political niovomenta alike, for purposes good or bad^ in OTOry case whea they hare directly or indiraotivj SECRET POLITICAL ASSOCIATIONS. 367 constituted interests, secrecy has been an element. Especially, it is hardly possible to name an important political enterprise, successful or not, which has not been nursed under a secret shadow. Our own history informs us, that the Convention which framed the Constitution of the United States sat with closed doors from the 25th of May, to the lYth of September following. Few words, indeed, are more famihar to the reader of history, than plot and conspiracy. We barely suggest the English Revolution of 1688 ; the Irish revolutionary efforts from 1780 to 1848 ; the various French Revolutions ; the Hungarian Revolution ; the Italian, German, and other Continental Revolutions of 1848; the periodical pop-gun revolutions of Mexico and South America ; and our own Revolution of 1*776. The beginnings of such enterprises, according to the Greek fable, must be hidden, as the baby Jupiter was on Mount Ida, other- wise they will be swallowed up by the powers that be ; as Saturn, the constituted authority of the period, swallowed up all Jupiter's little brothers and sisters ; and for a like reason. The old monster knew that it was foretold that one of them should supersede him. But when the new-bom power has strength enough to proceed openly, it does as Jupiter did — it vigorously assaults and dethrones the wicked Titans. In the political management of the present day, more peaceful phases of the spirit which operated the bloody plots of old times, yet prevail. Secret pohtical machinations are perhaps as numerous, and as harmful, in our free nation, as in any other. Our parties originate in secret scheming, and are managed by secret scheming. Who knows the facts of the political life of any leading politician of the present century? — how he secured a nomination ; arranged with the " friends" of this or that rival ; secured the support of this or that leading newspaper ? Mackenzie's notorious Collection of Letters is a series of confidential communications passing among the set of New York politicians, of whom Martin Van l^uren was one. It furnishes a great mass of details relating to the mingled threads of their per- •onal and political fortunes, as unreservedly discussed among them- L VOICE TO AMERICA. BelvM. That collection, eiiiljracing many rioc\unont8 referring lives flDii fortunes of Van Buren, Hoyt, Swartwoiit, B. F. Butler, ( breleng, and tlie numerous tribe of tlieir allioa and followers, furnish^ tbe best illustration ever yet publisbed, of the spirit and practice t American politicians. And throiigbout tbe long and tortuoos serii of traDSHcdons of which it treats, it is secrecy always, and inviolabitt which is nssumcd to be the cloak and necessary medium of tdl th^l enterprises and combinations. Was it open management that organized the opposition that ]at*--3 terly arose against Washington's administration, under the s the Republican party? Was it open management that neai'ly made Aaron Burr Preadent of the United States ? Is it open management tluit at the present day presents candidates for the suffrages of Ameri- can freemen i Did open management nominate Polk or Pierce for the Presidency? Who knows, indeed, how his own State Governor was nominated and chosen ; how many sly bargains and private schemes were contrived and executed to complete the present organi- zation of any State Legislature ? Who knows even the precise mode in which wei'e selected and appointed the municipal govermoent of his town or city, and the business committees under it, or even libs officers of his school district? Who knows precisely how are origin- ated and carried through such measures as the Nebraska Bill ; tha Collins Mail Appropriation ; or any other of the public or private measures that yearly are enacted by Congress? Who knows how the ] State Legislature is guided ; or how iLe vote in town meeting or city council, for or agaiast a sewer or a park, is arranged? It is not claimed that nobody knows, by any means. A few know; and lliese few take very good care not to tell. The main lodi/ of voters no NOT KNOW how or why the men for whom they vote, were >el up fOe- ' mffraye. It is true that the old pohtical parties, in their " nominating con" ventions," proceed with open doors; speeches arc made, and rcsoltt- IB adopted, but al! this machinery amounts to nothing more tlina flie more publication of tha acta of secret cominiltces, the moving ^ SECRET POLITICAL ASSOCIATIONS. 369 cause ana reason for the resolves being unknown and unseen. When the great elections are pending, does not each party have its secret agents in Washington — meeting in dark conclave — flooding the country with sealed packages ? And does not the party in power carefully keep the key of the Post-oflBce? Is not then the finger pressed on the lips ? " Say nothing !" " Keep dark !" These and other cabalistic words, with all the mysterious inuendos of conspiracy, are uttered with low tones and smothered breath ; and all justified, commended, practised, and applauded. What, then, is there so strange in the practice of the American party, desiring to keep its own secrets ? Secret management, by the retention of these "State secrets" in the hands of a few astute men, who handle the caucus and conven- tion machinery, the parties through it, and the nation through the parties ; is the whole essence of political operations in the United States. Indeed, our political parties belong to the most perfect sp<^ cies of secret organizations, because the rank and file of the army do not know its leaders. The conclusions thus far reached in this chapter are these : 1. Secrecy is indifferent in itself, and good or bad according to the use which is made of it. 2. Secrecy is often necessary in the beginnings of reformatory en- terprises which interfere with established interests. 3. Secrecy is an established and universal element in the usual course of American pohtics. The American Party is young. It has grown to its present stature by the spontaneous gathering of the people to its standard, rather than by the efforts of any apostles. Its strength has come volun- tarily from either of the two great parties, or from the increasing host of political sectarians or neutrals. The active enmity of all these it naturally would and did incur. The masses of these established organizations were not altogether opposed, as the success of the new- 870 ▲ YOIOX TO AXSBICU. Ah oomer showsi to its prindpks : bat the leadeis of them were in Ae unhappy case of a sleeping cur whode tail is pinched. Thej jumped up in a fury, and barked at all creation. But they did no execution, because they did not know where the trouble came from. Under such irritating circumstances, it is perfectly natural that they ahoold indulge in condemnations of the very practices whidi aire the baav ci their own influence. People seldom relish being attacked with their own weapons. Their editorial yokefellows were in the aame difficulty, and were further annoyed at the slight put upon their pio- Jassional importance. They could not discover the &otB about Uiii new movement^ either fer their personal gratification, for pangrapiiB and editorials in the paper, or for the use of the party." They oon- sidered that they had a prescriptive right to know eveiy thing &aif and to tell it or not, at their discretion ; and here was aometfaing of which they seemed doomed to know nothing, first or last^ exoept' by its results. So they veiy generally joined in the outcry. It waa to be expected that editors, shut out from all participation, would revile an organization that they knew nothing about ; and that politiciaiis, with their legs knocked from under them by invisible blows, should cry out in distress as they fell into the pit which their, own hands had prepared. No one doubts, however, that the safety ensuing upon this mode of action has, in fact, saved the American Party from very great dan- gers, if not from destruction. It has confounded and confused all measures of opposition. If there had in the beginning been open proselyting, importunate grasping after disciples, and all the ordinaiy " advertising department" of new enterprises, would not the usual party discipline have sufficed to keep the new party down, and the old ones together 1 There would have been a great blustering show of argument for some, and of threats and promises for others. But these accustomed weapons were useless, because the enemy was invi- sible. There may have been very many errors in the practical details of the plans adopted to secure this secrecy. It is not necessary to claim perfection for human productions. But this secret mode of SECRET POLITICAL ASSOCUTIONS. 371 operating, if the history of our political parties is authority, is in itself proper and defensible. Secrecy is not a necessary constituent principle of the American Party. Secrecy is an old abuse — an established vicious practice of the old parties. It was a temporary necessity of the new party. But if the American Party has any mission in this respect, it is to break up the secret mode of operating, and to introduce a new and open mode of political action. It proposes to destroy the old irresponsible despotism which has been exercised over the masses of the people, and to introduce the present generation, for the first time, to a free democratic practice in self-government. The American Party pro- claims the New Era of Government by the Intelligent Action of American Freemen. This is now, in effect, a new principle. This Intelligent Action is a necessaiy constituent principle of the new party. And by just so much as the members of it are more intelli- gent, by as much the permanent maintenance of the secret mode of operation is less practicable. Accordingly, the approaching end of this state of things is shown by the many and significant secessions, and threats of secession, which are already dividing the Party in various States. Now, therefore, the American Party needs carefully to consider whether henceforward an open activity — a new thing in American politics — is not its necessary condition of success. This " unprecedented attraction" will be much more potent than the veil of a concealment which, after all, is enticing to the weak-minded rather than attractive to the wise. The American Party has not been organized to take advantage of secrecy, as if it were a newly discovered method of political operation. It has been organized to work against secret political organizations, namely, the old political parties, and the Romish Church. It does not attempt to introduce an unjustifiable new mode of political management ; it proposes to destroy an unjustifiable old mode. It is already contrasted with the old parties by its free and bold avowal of that secret mode of operation which they used without avowing it. It now has an opportunity to cast away even this avowed secrecy, and 87S A YOIOS TO AinCRTOA, ' to enlist our voten into a great and new party — a uoited, intelligen free and open organization of American fiieemen, expieasLog tbei own views and wishes as to the goyemment of their o¥rEi countij when ihat shall have been accomplished — America will be redeemec not from Popish Jesuits only, but from political Jesuits as welL The will be inaugurated the dominion of true political fieedom ; of whic there is practically none, to^lay, in these United States. M i I 4 ■H THE AMERICAN REPUBUC, THE HOPE OF THE WORLD. *' The preservation of the sacred fire of Liberty, and the perpetuation of the Republican model of government, were oondderad by its fomnders as finally staked on the experiment intrusted to the hands of the American people.'' WASBnx&rov. Ours is a period ia the world's history, when great and important events crowd on the attention almost too rapidly to admit of properly studying them, or of estimating their consequences. The Present seems to be in league with the Future, to put to open shame the deeds of the Past. Events have run together so hurriedly for the last half century and more, that it would appear as if the time had arrived for their unravelment Where the torpor of indifference has lain with its benumbing influence, symptoms are now beginning to be perceptible of returning consciousness and animation. The oppressed, whose energies have long been worn with the chain, are ready to herald the first ray of light in their prisons, with peans that shall reach the heavens. The weary-hearted are once more recruiting their strength, with the hope that the beautiful dream of their souls is about to find its happy realization. The blind are again groping about in their cells, calling for the aid of their deliverers. All: things are made to feel the influence of the new spirit that rules the age. The nations of the earth seem to be hurrying forward for the ad- justment, of accounts long overlooked and forgotten. All are eager to present their claims, and to receive, as soon as may be, the share that in equity is their own. Topics are now in discussion, that, but a short while ago, were left out of the category altogether. Interests that, till now, never presumed to thrust themselves from the oblivion in which they were buried, are now openly canvassed. Rights now isd a tongue, that heretofore have been unnoticed and unknown, for IT W- I 874 A YOICS TO AMEKSCA. want of any one to advocate and plead for them. Hie ffaiiea an wondeifiilly changed. A rey<^ation has been wrongfat. Hie, sword has not done it^ though the sword has been sheathed but little during this long intenral ; bat it is the eolent wark of awakened and intelli- gent public opinion, which no power is able to withstand. K cannot be cajoled torn its position; it cannot be bribed ; once fixed, it can- not be driven from its place by either force or fear. For yean^ the continent o[ Eoiope has been the theatre of revolu- tions, sncbeeding one another with a impiditf trolj astoniBiiliii^ France seems, from the beginning, to have been the fomaoe i& whidi all the fires have originated. One ruler has ^ven plAoe in Psrii to another, till it has become difficnlt to keep the varioos dumgea in mind. Thrones have been erected and orerUirown, as if they wse but the baubles and playthings which the greater Napoleon ofieetod to consider them. Italy has given signs of regeneration. Throoghont her Kne of States, firom time to time, encouraging vcnces have been heard in the name of liberty, and now and then her people have risen upon their usurpers, to wrest from them the power they have so wrongfnUy exercised. From far-off shores, the Hame has been seen burning in that classic land ; and hopes have been entertained that it was a bright and lasting illumination. But such hopes have all been cast down. With Austrian swords at their throats, and French bayonets at their breasts, it was scarcely to be expected that the people of Italy could succeed in so unequal a contest. A guard is quartered now in every house ; but no military surveillance can imprison those expansive ideas, or the spirit of those vital principles, that spread so mysteriously over the face of a land. No power is sufficient to over- awe those deep and scarcely audible mutterings, which p'esage the earthquake by which all things are destined to be shaken. The struggle of Hungary for independence adds a new and "brigfat chapter to the book of the world's history. It was an unsuccessful efibrt ; and some may conclude that its failure established the wortb- IflBnefls of the cause contended ior : but the very unhappiness of th« THE HOPE OF THE WORLD. 875 « issue has had the effect to draw upon that people the sympathies of Hberty-loving hearts everywhere, and their example has been re- corded as one worthy of imitation, wherever the sound of freedom has been heard. Hungary reposes ; but we believe that hers is the rest which recruits the strength, and precedes other and more earnest efforts in the cause for which her energies have been exhausted. She fell by treachery, more than by the combination of fweign ene- mies ; and when her tattered ensigns are lifted again from the dust, the wish of all American hearts will be, that they may lead on her armies to the speedy and successful achievement of her freedom. The German States from time to time have felt the throes of this mighty convulsion. Of all others, they seemed the least hkely to resist the current of liberal ideas. They were the earliest to hail the light that came dancing over the earth, and welcomed it with hearts that had been tutored to the love of liberty. Great things were ex- pected of them, and great things should ha,ve been performed. But the spirit was not universal. It had not yet struck deep root in the common heart The masses had not yet gone far enough in that school of bitter experience which inculcates high resolves in man. The existing order of things carried a preponderating influence which was hard to overcome. The ancient and time-honored barriers it was difficult to remove ; but another and a far mightier obstacle was, the close and compact union of absolutism in its own defence. Monarchy was made to feel that upon this one effort might forever depend its existence. The conspiracy was successful. The weary one^ whose faith had been so enduring in behalf of their holy cause, succumbed to the pressure they could no longer resist, and took up their abode in foul prisons, — wandered, sad-hearted, abroad, to eat the bread of exiles, — or laid down and died, desponding forever of freedom. If we scan the history of Europe for the last few years, it will offer us little else than a confused record of struggles and repulses, of efforts and disappointments, of hopes and fears, of popular outbreaks and tyrannical usurpations. Sometimes, indeed, the rulers, trembling for their inmiediate safety, hsiVB granted concessions, in order to ofr 876 A yoicn to AinntTCA> peMe the popular damor ; but on r^;aiiiiiig power, all these oonoei- flioDS have been blotted oat, and tyranny has became more Axa^iy than ever. In this, abeolutiBm was only true to ita own nature. As ■oon as it was safe to lay aside the mask, it never fiiiled to exhibit its true character in all its hideous proportdons. Not once -has it dfend gifts to the people, which it did not, at the time, leaolve to take bed: again, with usurious interest Austria, Prussia, Russia, France — ^what else can the eye fasten itwif upon in scanning the history of their more recent acts, but reoords of murder, of imprisonment, of fines and confiscaticMis^ of baniahmeoti of leagues against liberty, oi cruelty and tyranny in all their multi- plied forms? Where is the hope to-day that their people are roaldog themselves ready to go forward with the conflict that will reward them with freedom f How many of the population ci those e mpirBB are languishing abroad at this moment, dying lingering deaths far from home and fiiends, rather than swear away the fipdedom of th^ consciences at the dictation of crowned conspirators ! Who ahall tell the number, or the acuteness of their sufferings ? Who shall estimate the depth of that grief which seems able to consume both body and soul together ? Europe is now a seething caldron. The great game of the Irings^ carried on so long with impunity, at last appears to be completely blocked. The rulers are at a stand. Events have mastered ambi- tious men ; and the extended laws of cause and effect, running silently through, a course of centuries, at length seem about to vindicate their supreme authority. Politics is now another name for confusion. Min- isters study and scheme how they may extricate their royal masters j j- fi-om "their dilemma, and give over their efforts with exclamations of mortification and despair. The rulers grasp their sceptres more f: firmly, fearing that it cannot be long ere they must give them up I : forever. Cabinets have grown timid, and dare not assert with former boldness the policy of their several courts. There is a manifest want of confidence everywhere. • Armies are called into service, till there are scarcely any men left to recruit them. The treasuries are de- i THE HOPE OF THE WOELD. 377 pleted by enormous drafts, and bankruptcy and ruin threaten nations that but yesterday were prolific in resources. But in the midst of this inextricable confusion, certain signs are beginning to betoken the increasiug interest which foreign countries take in our national welfare. We see, from time to time, symptoms of a more decided leaning to republicanism. Here and there sturdy words are spoken — at the right time and in the right place — ^in our behalf. The spirit and principles of our government find admiring friends where it was least to be expected. Our institutions are criti- cised and commented on in an appreciative temper, and without that rancor and prejudice which was once so certain to be excited, by the mere mention of our name. It is too important a truth for any of us to overlook, that the American Republic is the home of Liberty, and the final hope of the world. Through the eflScacy of her example and her teachings, must redemption finally come. We hold the treasure in our own keeping ; we are the trustees of a possession that is to enrich man- kind. On our soil dwells that living spirit, which is, in time, to overthrow error, tear away the deceits of usurpation, deprive tyranny of its power, and everywhere animate the human soul with the belief that freedom was coeval with its birth. If the world may not hope in us, then all hope is in vain. The experiment of a free government is one with which we have made ourselves familiar. With the institutions which belong to such a form of government, we have an acquaintance that is practical, and thus the more valuable. Their spirit has infused itself into our habits, our customs, and our ways of thought. K these privileges are worthy to be perpetuated, none ought to be more eager and eaniest in tbe performance of such a work, than we who have io Ikii^.iNI them ; and it should therefore be a labor of love ni their blessings to the world. - - ■- Foreign rulers no doubt regard us with je&lcfOB^ our system is incompatible with the secure It must be so, in the very nature of tfa 878 ▲ yoics to amtowa, oankm is a aitent one, because it deals with the imdentanding alonep Other sTstems put forth military power, to orush oat opposition hy brute force, and to secure acquiescence by fear. But true Liberty has no such murderous weap(His in her armory. Hie nie&na by which she works are those that soonest disarm tynumy, and bring usurpers to confusion. She appeals not to prejudice, but to reason. She overcomes opposition, not with oppodtimi, but with the teaching of suMime truths that cannot be reaiffted. Americans should not forget their invaluable trust. They tbould be as true as their fore&thers to the hope which is oommitt^ into thfflr keeping. Throng menace, and artifice, and open <^pponti0D, they should walk undaunted ; holding their way with the rawlute- ness that will take theih out <^ the reach <^ fear, and yindioating by ' every act of their lives those immortal truths which Ibnn the Inoad basis of our national existence. Above all things, sectionalism is to be frowned upon as the worst enemy known to the republic. Let it come from what quarter it may, the heart that harbors the thought of it without fear, and with- out regret, is nowise worthy of the stamp of the American name. They who cherish it with the hope thereby of raising their individual fortunes, will certainly be classed with the Arnolds and Iscariota of our race. It is a monstrous thing, that after so many years of national proa- perity, the men can be found who dare openly excite one portion of our people against the other. Honest differences of opinion are to be looked for, and open expressions of those differences are a neces- sary consequence ; but to excite treason, to inflame sectional preju- \j dices, to build up barriers between one State and another, to breed a swarm of pestilential sentiments that threaten to infest the land like a plague, — is to put one's self without the pale of honorable American citizenship, and beyond the reach of honest men's consideration. If we are to possess a nationality of our own, we must become one people. There can be no sti'ength to the national character, if its farces are dissipated by domestic divisions. Unless we are aUe f'i THE HOPE OF THE WORLD. 879 to stand together, we must straightway fall in pieces. The moment unity begins to relax, disease and death set in with all their ravaging train. Differences should exist only as spurs to efforts of greater patriotism. If they take hold on the character of citizenship itself qualifying its value and demeaning its rjuik, they become mischiefe instead of tuds, and ought to be silenced, even at the cost of the greatest sacrifices. In so vast an area as that comprised within the limits of the United States, it would not be at all strange if there were a great diversity of interests. It is to be eiq)ected that, on numberless subjects of local concern, tiie inh^itants of the different sections should entertain di- rectly opposite opinions. Nothing is potent to counteract the effect of these divisions, and to draw together the widely separated interests of our extended country, but some sentiment- that shall take a deeper root in the heart than mere interest, and control all other influences by its superior power. We look in vain to any other sentiment for the performance of tlus work, than that of love for one's country. Once fixed in the heart, thare is no supplanting it It is strong enough to ^ape all the affections and interests that are recorded in the list of our common humanity. And if other people are to be found whose hearts beat quick at the mention of their country's name, Americans have reasons a thousand- fold stronger for laying all tbeir nobler feelings on the altar of patri- otism. We are addressed by considerations such as appeal to no other people on the &ce of the earth ; we have entered on an experi- ment without a parallel in the history of the world ; we are seeking great and hidden truths ; we hold the hopes of all liberty in our hands ; and the wise men of other nations are watching the course of our star with both jubilant and prayerful emotions. Surrounded by such stern realities, and weighed down with these vast responaibili&ii impased by Heaven itself, he must utterly fail to understand hii tn relations to his fellow-men, or even to discern the meaning of Us existence, who remains indifferent to the great circnmstaneqi beset his situation. 880 A TOIOB TO A¥WllflA, Uine u no safety fbrua, except in xanltjpt fee&a^ mod Imnaaaf of action. We must learn to consider the wbde coantiy aa dear ti oar hearta as any single part of it; to f<»get the too ready feeing which promote distrust and alienation ; to oheiiah. eivery tme aiiii noble sentiment that enfi)lda within its embiace the welfiue of tk whole of our comm<»i country; to cultivate feelingB of brotheihood and peace; to hold steadily up to cont em plation tlie one idea of 00 high American name and nationality. No oonsideratiiMi should be allowed to talce pcecedenoe of a apA of patriotism. Our country before all things, should he boQi the sentiment and the motto. Union as well as liberty, ahcHild be en every one's tongue. Nationality as well as fieedom^ sJhoiiUl vitalitt the thought of every one's heart. No great good can be permaneBtlf secured, except by generous and oft-repeated sacrifieea. No hammt institutacms can hope for stability, unless they are feonded in tb^ deepest human conviction of their necessity, and sustaiBfld by the perpetual heroism of those to whom their value is apparenL We must either be brethren, or become aliens to the memories of the past Wo must sick jealousies in nobler considerations, or lose aghft of all the promises of our glorious future. We must earnestly de- termine to be nothing but Ahericans, — ^knowing no greater name, and resolved that there shall be no greater nation, — and at once the bright inheritance becomes ours, and om* grandest hopes leap forward to their swift realization. ppiuHx. I. SECKET SOCIETIES AND OATHS. Judge Gayle, of Alabama, formerly a Whig member of Congress, and a prominent man in his State and elsewhere, has written an able letter to some of his personal fnends, from which we make the fol- lowing extracts, bearing upon the political topics of the day. After considering and endorsing the platform of the American party as maintaining the great principles of free government, he gives reasons which ought to commend his views to all aood citizens. This remarkable party was formed some eighteen months since, to correct the flagrant abases which had crept into public affairs, and which threatened the most serious consequences to the union of the States and the government. The arts of demagogues, and the corrupt practices of the two great parties of the country, had trained the public mind to regard with indifference, if not with approbation, the advancement of men without merit to the high and responsible trusts of the government, which had hitherto been reserved as the reward of experience, of wisdom, of tried patriotism, and of elevated and enlightened statesmanship. Each of these parties professed to have some good principles, it is true, but all observing men witnessed, with disgust, the total disregard and abandonment of these principles in disgraceful and revolting scrambles for office. The extraordinary increase yf the foreign population had been witnessed with concern by all considerate Americans. Tides of immigration had wafted to our shores, in almost countless numbers, tlie people of all nations and all countries — of all grades, classes, and conditions — from the haughty Briton to the grovel- ling, besotted Chinaman ; from the high-toned, educated gentleman, to the ig- norant serf and convicted felon : all demanding and all alike admitted (none are 17* 382 A VOICE TO AMERICA. over rejected) to the privileges of the ballot-box, thereby filling our halls of Icfrislation with men of their own choice, and exerting a commanding inflaenoe in the pfti«i*ago of laws for the government of this American country of ours. They had seen these people occupying, as they are constantly doing, exten- sive districts of country in large communities to themselves — having but Uttle intercourse witli our citizens, witliout which they can never acquire the trne American impression of our government, or imbibe the true spirit of our laws. They had seen them form sei^ratc societies and associations, and organizing into largo military bodies, to the exclusion of our people, showing an aversion to incorporate with them, or to assume the American character, and evincing a preference for the manners, habits, customs, and institutions of their respec- tive nations. They had seen them convene in large political assemblies, and with charao- teristic arrogance demand changes in our constitution and laws to suit the pe- culiar views in which they had been trained and educated from infiMicy. And above all, and worse than all, they had witnessed the degradation of the country in our national legislature, by the passage of laws conferring upon un- naturalized foreigners the full right of suffrage in the territories, and all the other rights, privileges, and immunities which form the priceless heritage of the native-born citizen, in total disregard of the Constitution, which confers on Congress the power to pass uniform naturalization laws only. The allegiance of these aliens is wholly due to the crowned heads of the countries from which they emigrated. They have no right to claim the protec- tion of our government, or to petition for a redress of grievances. In case of war with the nations to which they belong, as alien euemies, they would be lia- ble to be seized under the laws of Congress, to have their goods confiscated, and themselves imprisoned or sent out of the country. And yet it is upon these people, composed, as a largo majorirty are known to be, of the vicious dregs of European society, that autliority is conferred of controlling the ballot-box, and of exercising the high and responsible functions of our territorial governments. The right of suffrage has also been conferred on aliens in some of the States. Now, if the foreign population has, at this early period of our history, ac- quired such commanding influence in our national and state legislatures, it re- quires no prophetic sagacity to predict that tlie day is not distant when they will control the destinies of this great republic. This idea has strongly and universally impressed itself upon the public mind, and given rise to that truly noble and patriotic sentiment that '* Americans shall rule America." This sentiment proclaims the existence of that intense Ameri- can feeling and love of country whicli is a surer ^feguard of our liberties than all our constitutions, and wliicli can never more than partially animate the bo- som of tlie foreigner, because nature has given him the same inspiration for his own native land. The correction of these and other abuses, to the dangers of which no one can be indifferent, was the principal inducement to the formation of the American APPENDIX. 383 party. They saw that they had theur origin mainly if not entirely in our natur- alization laws. A million and a half of American voters have banded together in one great political brotherhood to cause these laws to be repealed or modi- fied; and roused and animated as they are by the feeling just stated, you can no more defeat them, in their purposes, than you can suppress the feeling itself. The feature of this remarkable American party that has been deemed most assailable, and accordingly has been attacked with the greatest violence and rancor, is the secret or private character of its organization. Jacobin club, se- cret conspiracy, undei^ound party, dark-lantern party, and such like epithets, have been unsparingly applied to it. These are very ugly names, intended to awaken popular prejudice, and to render an object hideous which is otherwise comely enough. The party is composed of numerous societies or councils, dispersed through the country, and established at localities to suit the convenience of its members. These localities are made public, the times of meeting are made public, their membership is public, and, what is of more importance, the result of their de- liberations is made public. These councils, or societies, to accomplish the great objects of their institution, went sedulously to work, and their joint efforts, in an incredibly short space of time, have enabled them to lay before the public, the great principles, to the support of which they stand pledged before the American people. Their consultations, as to the details of their platform, were necessarily private ; but when their great work was done, they submitted it to public inspection, and if well done, the public will not take the trouble to in- quire into the process by which it was accomplished. The simple question is, are these private associations, formed for great public purposes, hostile in their tendency, as they are asserted to be, to the free insti- tations of our country, and to the true spirit of the Constitution? The right of the people peaceably to meet together and to consult upon pub- lic affairs, whether their meetings are private or public, whether in the form of private societies or public assemblies, has never before been questioned in this country, even during periods of the highest political excitement and exasper- ation. As evincive of the jealousy and apprehensions of the fathers of the republic, they classed the right of the people peaceably to assemble (privately or publicly and without restraint) with the right of petition, religious freedom, the freedom of speech and of the press, and in the first articles of the amendments of the Constitution, prohibited Congress from passing any law to abridge them in any manner whatever. These have always been severed by the enlightened friends of free govern- ment, as among the great elements of human liberty, and it is to be regretted, that, without refiection it is hoped, they or any of them should be denounced by persons of standing and character, as hostile to our free institutions. If there is truth in history, private political societies have ever proved them- 384 A VOICE TO AMERICA. ■elves the Dutural enemies of tjTants, and the natoral and indispensable alliei of rcpul»lies. In despotisms they are resorted to by necessity, and in firoe gov- ernmcDtrt t}iroii};li choice, as being more efflcacions az^d conyenient in compass- ing the ohjccts proi)0»cd, whcthor they loolc to the improvements in govent- mciit or to the correction of abuses. Since the accession of the house of Bruns- wick to tint Knfflisli tliroiic in 1714, these private associations for all purposes, wlicther i»olitica], coninicrcial, religious, or any other, have been of universal pre valence. They are ho interwoven with the business of the people, in all its brunches, tliut they have hcoomo a part of their social OTganization, and if any attempt were made to restrain tliem, a blaze would be kindled throughout Eng- land tliat it would bo difficult to extinguish. But of all countries in the world, they are most prevalent in the United States, especially those of a political cliaracter. They are the peculiar and exclusive machinery which have kept our political parties in motion during the entire period of our existence as a nation. This will be acknowledged hy all, and denied by none. All the platforms that have ever been formed by these parties have been tlie result of private and secret meetings, of secret consultations and deliberations ; and the mere matters of detail employed in their formation ire never known, and never nought to be known, except at the instance of imper- tinent curiosity. Pending our prcsidcntiul elections, these societies are formed throughont the country imdcr the name of clubs. They are as numerous as the cities, towns, villages, limnlets, and nci^liborlioodrt of the whole country, and all afliliated in a common bruthorhood. The information of each is rapidly and secretly commu- nicated to the otlior.", nnd all their schemes, plans, and contemplated move- ments arc art carefully ^vithlleld from the public as are the plans of hostile armies from each other. These periodical organizations are very much on the plan of tlioso of the American party, and they arc quite as secret in their char- acter. Xo one has ever blamed or censured tliem for this, for it is obvious that without them .success -would be hopeless. It is therefore too late in the day to denounce private political associations, and anathemas come with a bad grace from those wlio invented, and have ahvavs resorted to them. But the American party administer oaths to their members. This, in the opinion of its enemies, is very horrible, and the Billingsgate vocabulary is too meagre to Bup])ly appropriate epithets for its condemnation. It is, they say, juiti-ropublican and anti-democratic. This accusation has been as inconsider- ately made as tliat airainst the secret character of the order. If oaths are taken to bi]iprehenaion Vj thoae who have not atadied iiltaomewhat pvolband- ly from the Catholic point of view. I treat the anlject only under oertain aapeeli, and for CatholicB, and many of the terma I nae have in Catholloiheolaigy a teeb- idoal aenae, which thoae not ftmiliar with that theology may miaiqyprehaod. I aqr thia in ezooae of thoae who have miarepreaented me. I daim— and never have denied for the Pope, oat of the EcdMlaatioal Btaica of which he ia the temporal aoTereign-no temporal or dvil Juiadiotioo, power, or aathority, properly ao called. The only power the Fope haa in thia ocnrntiy, la hia power over Gathdioa aa the apiritnal head of the Ohnroh. It ia jrara^ a apiritoal power, and can be exerdaed only for a apiritnal end, and even than only over Oatholioa, for the Ohnroh doea not jadge thoae who are withont. Mr. Brownson is bore aaserdng the usual doctrines of Iiis Ghuieh in those countries in which his creed is in the minority. T}u Ckureh DOES jiulffe those who are without, else wherefore the Athanasian curses? In matters purely temporal, I, as a Catholic, owe no obedience to the Pope, because he has received f^om Jesus Christ no authority as a temporal sovereign over me. He cannot make or unmake the rights of the sovereign or the dutiea of the subject — ^abrogate the former or absolve from the latter. This paragraph is entirely annulled by the succeeding portion of the letter, and history stamps falsehood upon such assertions. ThuB'far, all Catholics, whether the so-called ultra-Montanes, or the so-called Galileans, are agreed. The dispute lies not here. All agree that the State is supreme and independent in its own order — ^that is to say, in the temporal order. £ut toJuU /maintain m, that the temporal order ia not eupreme and independent^ ||,,: lut^ in the very nature of things, subordinated to the spiritualy since the end of man — the end for which Ood made him^ directs and governs him hy his providence — lies in the spiritual, not in the temporal. Every man who believes any religion at all, whether Catholic or non-Catholic, docs, and must admit this ; for it is only saying that we must obey God rather than man, and live for the Creator rather than the creature. This premised, I think I can state to you, in a few I " words, the doctrine I do really hold. i; 'II I 1. II . ( APPENDIX. 387 The italics axe Mr. Brownson's own. The inference drawn from them immediately after, is worthy the followers of Loyola, but Prot- estants cannot, will not admit it. If " the State is supreme and in- dependent," — what does the writer intend by its being " subordinated to the spiritual ?" — " Much learning doth make thee mad." Inasmuch as the temporal order is subordinated to the spiritual^ it foUows that the State is under the laws of justice^ consequently the prince holds his powers as a trust, not as an indefeasible right, and therefore forfeits them when he abuses them, and loses his right to reign. This is the common doctrine held by all of us Americans, and all Catholic doctors teach and always have taught it. It lies at .the foundation of all true liberty, and is the only doctrine that can ever justify resistance to the temporal powers. This right of resistance of power, when it becomes tyrannical and oppressive, I take it for granted, is held by every American. But here is a difficulty. The Church, following the Holy Scriptures, makes civil allegiance a religious duty, and says with St. Paul (Romans viii. 1, 2) : " Let every soul be subject to the Jiigher powers, for there is no power but from God. Therefore, he that resisteth the power resisteth the ordinance of God, and they that resist purchase damnation to themselves." Here you see I am forbidden by the law of God to resist the power, and commanded, on peril of damnation, to obey. Here is my conscience bound to obedience, and my conscience as a Catholic can be released only by a declaration of my Church, as the divinely appointed director of conscience, that the prince of tyranny and oppression has forfeited his right, fallen from his dignity, and ceased to reign. What I claim for the Pope, as visible head of the Church, is the power to re- lease my conscience from this religious bond, and to place me at liberty to resist the prince become a tyrant. This is all I understand by the dispensing power. The power itself, everybody, not a tyrant or a slave, asserts. The American Congress of 1776 asserted it, and deposed George III. The ordy difference is^ some give it to the people, some to the individual ; and I claim it for the Church, and the Pope as head of the Church, So that the Church has, necessarily, " an indefeasible right" to control the secular power, as seemeth it best ; and constitutes itself a judge in all matters between the State and the ecclesiastical power^ Mr. Brownson claims the same right to resistance on behalf of his Church, which the whole body of Americans possess ; but he forgets that tlie right to resistance, when invested in a whole nation, is acaroely so liahle to abuse, us when the sole prerogative of one man 3S> A VOICE TO AMERICA. The P?pc GOO? uo: iu this exerci-sc a civil power or jiirisdiction, and it is call- ed h:6 to:::r"jruI i -wcr c:.ly bc-ea;;sc i: is a power exercised over temporal sot- erti^'ii*, 'T ill rolntion to t:.-? viy.jativi: of ti.e subjeo: to obey the prince. Bat even here the I'opo ii<:t3 no: relieve irom in cii allegiance. f:)rthat the prince had furfL-iioJ by hU tyniuiiy. He re'icujes :};e subject only from the spiritual or re- lijrio'j* o':-!:?a:io:;. ssuj-era-.'. .led by CiLK=:ian::y to the civil, and this only in case of tiiC C-:i;...i;o cor*?o:e:iC-:'. The V'-'iK 19 tJi< prf-p^.r authority to dtcidt for me tcJietJier the (institution of thit country U *r w not rej'Wjnant to the laurJt of G'^i. If he decides tliat it is not, OA he l:a9 decided, then I am bound in conscience to obey every law made in accordance with it ; and under no circumstances can he absolve me from my obligation to obey, or interfere with the administration of government under it, for the civil government is free to do according to its constitution wh&tever it pleases, that is not repugnant to the laws of God or to natural justice. That it is free to do more than tliat, I presume no man in thb country will pretend. Again the italics are the author's. AVe forbear to criticise, but ve say to our fellow-countrymen — behold these opinions, the sanctioned tenets of the Romanist party in our republic ; for Mr. Brownson " never publishes any thing, until he has first submitted it to the bishop." There is a sword hanging in ierrorem over our heads, and it merely awaits the verdict of a mitred prince, to raise civil war in our midst, and desolate the Union throughout its wide extent. I have made these remarks to aid yon to understimd the doctrine of the hrtJclcs to which I have cidlcd your attention. You are a ntrauger to me, but 1 take you to be a serious-minded man, and a lover of truth and justice ; as such I liave addressed you. I have no doctrine or opinions that 1 wish to conceal. 1 am a Catholic. As such, I aim to be true to my God, and to my fellow-men. I have the honor to he vour obedient servant, 0. A. BROWKSON. Hugh J. Davis, Esq., AVarrenton, N. C. III. J'UKKIGXJaiS AND THE ELECTIVE FliAXCIIISE Less lliaii ten days since, we had occasion to notice tlie manifesto ( ''the Louis- ville IJran(;li of the "Free (Icrman" Union, and to point out tlic dai. rcrons ten- dency of Huch anarchical organizations. We did not then anticipate tliat the ef- APPENDIX. 889 foots of the principles they hold, aided by Irish violence at eIectiouS| woold he so speedily and fataUy felt ki that city. It will not be possible, until more aocn- rate details shall have been received with regard to the bloody occurrences that have disgraced Louisville, to decide adequately in what proportion the guilt of murder, arson, and riot is to be divided between the native and foreign popu- lation. If the telegraphic reports prove to be accurate, a general understand- ing must have existed between the Germans and Irish, previous to the election, that they would go armed during the day, and prevent Americans, by every means, from approaching the x>olls. The first outrage was committed by a body of Irish or Germans, as early as nine oMock in the morning. The next attack was made upon Americans, several of whom were wounded, by Germans, who fired upon them from their houses and a brewery in which they had intrenched themselves. It is not stated that any provocation was given ; but exasperation — ^perhaps inflamed by drink — at the defeat of their ticket, was probably the main cause of the violence which these ruffians had recourse to. They reaped, however, bitter fruits from their mad folly. A crowd of Americans assemUed, burned the brewery, and after a conflict of considerable duration, sacked sev- eral houses. Up to this time, although some persons had been wounded, it does not seem that any one was killed. The scene of slaughter commenced in a dif- ferent part of the city at a later hour, and was again initiated by a gang of Irish. From this time the riot assumed the dimensions of a street battle. The Irish, who had been guilty of the last assault, intrenched themselves in houses, where they were besieged by a crowd of Americans, infuriated at the crime that had been committed, and the tumults of the night did not end imtil a large num- ber of lives had been lost, and several blocks of houses had been burned. On the day after the election, the excitement still continued, and at the last accounts yesterday, renewed outbreaks were feared during the coming night. Many foreigners were, however, leaving the city, and there is little doubt that a com- plete victory has been gained over them by their antagonists. Pitiable is the lot of most foreigners that land on our shores. TThcy emerge suddenly from subjection to tyrannical rule, and habits of slavery that genera- tions have stereotyped, into that paradise of the depraved and unthrifty, the possession of active political rights. The story is familiar to every one, of the Irishman, who, after regarding for some time with wonder a threshing machine, cried out, " Ye're bloody sthrong, but ye can't wfe." The Irish, alas, can vote ; so can the Germans, and between them they are acquiring, in the hands of dem- agogues more iniquitous than themselves, a control of elections in many of oui States, of which it is time that Americans should be wearied and ashamed. Eight months ago, the subject of amending our Naturalization Laws was brought before Congress, by Senator Adams of Mississippi. Beference was made, at the time, in our oolumns, to the aUo tpMeh whioih he made on that occasion, and hopes were entertiliMd that Utrnm »OD0Md would be dispassionately diMOBsed, and, wtth *<■■ ^ adopted by Congress. It Ally howevWi to th»4 to meet boldly, dther in A VOICE TO AMEBICA. ^ Cougreu or tba SUto Legislatures, the onborrikeiitiaQts which this quBBtion, i impoiteiiC for tha future iatorcsts of the couDtcy, freBenta. They dreiul iha IsobI opposition nhich advooacy of manly and patriotic meusures of tefoim would Bubjeot them to, and alirini! from being ostrataaod by foreigners, whose oppoai- tjon at the polls might preveoC their rs-electioti to office. The wisdom of the proposal that the lerrn of reaidence of aliena should be prolonged, before tiiaf are permitted W enjoy evory right of Amorieans bom, is recogniwd by provt- dent, titr-sighted Amaricans of all perlieB ; but thie cotrorilly Ibar of lo^zif votas, oQ tbs part of aspiraula for office, oppoacii mora tliun any thing els« sa efieetuol obatuele to proper legislution. The iiidiBureet manner, too, in whioU foreigners hsvo been contbanded by many with the power they wield, and tkft intermingling of njligious elements in all Native American paiSea that have hitherio Biisled, Imve tended to delay, if not tolally hinder, an imparlial oum- ination of the question, what rights it ia enpedient to bestow upon peiBoos bom It is the duty of the people and gOTernmont of the United States Co welooniB to oor shorea those who come here with a olsjin upon oor hospitality, and h* the home for themselves and edocatioa for their children, which we can ao e^ I aily afford to bestow. It ia also a bonnden obligation to aet towards them tho 1 part of kind protectors, siuelding them by oor laws, permitting them to hold, property, and to transfer it to their ohildrCE, and oven to acqmre snch eoutrol over the soil as they can secure by the labor of their haude. These privileges, however, which the immigrant liiia a right to look for, and whiah our laws the- oretically give, are pciBonsd, and rendered practically nngaloty by the prema- taie addilioo, indiscriminately, of tho right of snfirage. Ths poor Irishman or Gemuui eneoantere, aa he louda in our seaports, a mon&tcr who ia legally an- thorized to obstruct with a frequently impasaable harri happy home to which he ia entitled, and where ha products of [ho soil, and become a frugal, soiier, the land. This monster is political lemplaiion. oonditioned Irish laborer, as W Hulk into cormpticn by our o* instruotod that they may vote in the object. They his pathway ight enjoy abimdantly thn and iDduBtrions denizen of The bard-handed, hiunbly- aa the clodhopper socialist IVomQermany, both fault, more than by theirs. They are at onot eii montha, a year, or less, if fraud is amidoy I taught to consider themaelves an army of po- litical invaders, are enlisted either io iu&del ossociations, or under the bannen □f Tum-eelllng middle-men, and mode to reinforce the vast floating condottioti between parties, which oflon at elcotiona turns the scale in favor of the highest bidder or ths latest payer, and wrcsla plodges &om candidates in favor of iuft- dal encronohmenta, or impunity to do wrong. Foreigners who— if their oon:- sdences were not drugged by the fatal right to vote before they know ttaa A B C'e of our political alphabet, or cau disUnguisb between liberty and licena^, enoitement and disorder, or comprehend the secret of aequieaotng in the will of tbonugority — might become eventually the maelvci, or tbreugh their ohildivili by the glitter of goldo« briUa to remain in Urga I I APPENDIX. 391 towns and cities, where they spend freely what has been easily got, acquire habits of debauchery, and aternate between riotoas indulgence, the alms- house, and our prisons. The neglected offspring of such, brought up with their heads in the publio-school, and their bodies in the gutter, ripen into that unnaturally shrewd, depraved, dangerous race of infidel bullies, fearing neither God nor man, whose vocation is to seduce others to sin and misery, and increase as widely as possibly the realms of moral ruin. Every little while, some solemn warning, like the recent riot at Louisville, troubles the minds of thinking men, and points forward to that period of civil discord by which we may some day be convulsed, if a remedy is not applied to the evil created by our present naturalization laws ; but unfortunately the age is too peculiarly one of excitement for any single event to leave a lasting im- pression. Yet if citizens will look back twenty-five years, to a time when disor- ders that are common now were regarded as impossible, and will then reflect upon the consequences of a Uke decline, for another quarter of a century, they will be convinced of the danger of delay, and of the rapidity and strength that anti-American infiuence is acquiring in the country. New York Journal of Commerce^ Aug. 5, 1855. IV. EELIGIOUS TOLEBATION— HERETICS AND ROMANIST GRAVE- YARDS. P. Sharkey, Esq., of Jackson, Miss., writes ta the Southern Mer- cury as follows, giving an incident of the War of 1812-15, in which he served : July 25, 1855. To the JSdUor of ike Mercury : As there has been a great deal said about ancient Catholicism, and old files hunted up to prove their hostility to the Protestants, and as I am a man of but little ancient reading, and a little on the Young American ^|er, I will content myself by referring back to 1815, after the battle at New Orleans. I belonged to the Mississippi Militia, and was encamped on a French Catholic fiwm above New Orleans. After the battle was over, several of our men died by wounds and sickness, as they had been placed at Chef Menteur, where there BOt on* ftiofc of dry land to stand or lie on, only as they would gather fiags kjflil tjJilitiiQiU We were some distance above New Orleans, and « *« to a grave-yard, we proposed to bury our dead on in. Went to dig a grave, without knowing the 392 A VOICE TO AltERICA. bostility the CsthoUcB had to beretice. The owner of tlie laod c»me forbid BB tnm burying onr corpse. Ha sppaiTed to be very mncli eiUBgnd, orjiiie ont, " Saora ftmgaa 1 de American heretic no be pat on mj land." We mid w6 must bnry the man. He replied — "Uenocare; dare ia de MiasiiiBippi liver; throw him in de river." We soon raade him leave, and when vra vent to bury onr dead wo alwsjH bad onr gnna. Jo. Tempicton was one of onr Warren soldiers who sbared the fats of the balance that were buried there. We were discharged at tbat place, and came home. Letters followed ns from ourfriendB, ataUng that aa we Icfl; all the dead were taken np aud put in the livBT by the owner of Che land ; as tliough a dead heretie ooold burt a live CathoGo. How I refer to any man that waa belonging la Hinda' Dragoons, or tba His- ■iaaippi Militia, for tbe iacts of this and the report that followed us. I iriJl i«- &r to a few by name: Esq. McDonald, of Madison; Bichard and Battle Hairi- Bon, of JefferBOQ ; Haley Gotlon, of Leake, aa they wera there, and know the tiiQla as well as myaolf, P. SHAEKET. The above letter ia from one of the most substaatial .and well- tuowu citizens of the State of Mississippi, and what is the fact de- veloped? This: a lay member of the Romish Church ia bo fired with hatred towards Protestants, that he denies a burial-place to the brave and patriotic men who came from an adjoining State to repel an invading foe. Men who died in battle in defending the home of the Romanist, have their bones dug up from their mother earth, and thrown conteiaptnously into the Mississippi, aa if their dust defiled tha laud. Innumerable esamples, where the Romish priests have undis- puted sway, displaying the sarae feeling, constantly occur all the world. ♦ MILITABT IN THE OHUECH, The entboaiaBtie in the ^th that American inetitndona need no saft^Brd*, ooDtend that the illnminsting iniluenca of Protestantiam will, in tliis coontrj', destroy tbe pagan riCea of the Romish Churel) so common in Enropa. We find^ however, that this is not the case. The heathen custom of iuaagurating Blatnea, ■o common among the Greeks and Bncieat Bomane, maintains its plaM in » t/barah eluming to be Christian, and utnated in enlightened AmeriiA, Mid in the city of New York. I I APPENDIX. 898 At the Church of the Redeemer (German Eomish), on Sunday, the 12th of August, 1855, "a statue of the Virgin was inaugurated with the celebration of High Mass. Some time before the hour for the commencement of the services, the body of the church was densely crowded, but the gallery was attainable to the lucky possessor of a sixpence, and was very comfortably roomy. Occupy- ing the front central seats was a military band, and behind them a company — one of the German rifle companies, we believe — in uniform. Up the side aisles, at short intervals, were the banners of various Catholic and benevolent societies. Festoons of flowers and leaves, arranged very tastily, ran from pillar to pillar all the way up the church, each bearing the name of a saint. " The large altar-piece was decorated, to use the choice expression of the an- nouncement, 'in a manner particularly beautiful.* flowers and leaves were profusely used from top to bottom, and over all ran a cordon bleu^ inscribed with the prayer, * Regina sine lobe conceptaj ora pro ndbiaJ " In the centre of this high altar-piece, in a white-draped niche stood the statue of the Virgin, bearing the infant Redeemer in her arms. The material is not mentioned, and of course could not be distinguished : we suppose it is of wood. The announcement above quoted, says it is * of exquisite beauty.* It is very brilliantly painted. The robe is blue, fringed and starred with gold. The statue was encircled by a halo of gas-burners, arranged in star-shaped groups, and all the candles were burning at its feet. Mass was celebrated very finely. There is, or was on Sunday, a fine choir at the church, and the band assisted." Here we have the introduction of foreign military companies, as part of the pageant of a professedly religious ceremony. We would have every reflecting American to ask himself, What is the meaning of this association ? and what right have troops, organized by the State, to connect themselves thus with the ohuroh ? VL AMERICAN NATIONALITY. The " stars and stripes," the glorious emblem of the Union, form a parallelo- gram, with six white and seven red parallel stripes, denoting the union of the original Thirteen Colonies, with a blue square in the upper comer, next the flag-staff, cutting off four red and three white stripes, and containing thirty-one white stars, representing the number of States in the Union, combined in one large star, symbolizing the "many in one" of the national motto, ^^ B pluriima The great Union Flag was hoisted on the 2d day of January, 1776, at Cam- bridge, by General Washington. Lieut. Carter wrote from Charlestown Heights, tM A YOIOB TO r HMf»i Jnuuiytathyirte: "TheKlofVitvMohvMMiitbfftiligtetlMmoii UmMp Ib ft shofft time afler thay rMaivad it» tiiqr hoisted ft Uni^ iUi|( (above tine Cob- tiMOtid, with thirteen 8tripee)fttM9BiitFSigiift; their oitftdelfliedthirteoigaWy end gftve the like number of cheam." And Oen. Waehington wrote flram Ohb- Mdge» on the 4lh of the seme month, to Ool. Joeeph Seed : *m the original design, ss the perpetnitgr APPENDIX. 395 of the TTnion ceased to be indicated hy the flag, as it had previoasly been in the oircle of stars, except so £ir as indicated by the severfd stars forming one large star. The resolution of 1818 was as follows: " That from and after the fourth day of July next, the flag of the United States be thirteen horizontal stripes, al- ternate red and white ; that the union be twenty stars, white in a blue field. And that, on the admission of a new State into the Union, one star be added to the union of the flag ; and that such addition shall take effect on the fourth day of July next succeeding such admission." vn. AMERICAN ELECTIONS. There was a time, we remember, when the good order and decorum of Amer- ican Elections was a common proverb, at home and abroad. That time, we fear, has passed, or is passiog away. Not that the American people have grown, or are growing less attached to the principles of peace and propriety, nor less ca- pable of self-government, nor the government of their passions and prejudices, but rather because of the introduction into our popular contests of a strange element, that is inherently inimical to Americanism in every leading impulse and aspiration. This pestilent influence, within a very few months past, has been fearfully provocative of bloodshed and strife, in some of the most populous cities of the Union. New Orleans, St. Louis, Cincinnati, and places nearer home, have, each in its turn, been made the scene of a sanguinary strife, generally growing out of nefarious attempts by Irish and Germans — ^but chiefly Irish — to Interfere with American meetings, and American freedom of speech, in cases where it so happened neither those meetings nor that speech were shaped to accord with the sentiments, opinions, or beliefs, of a set of men, who are, of late years, but too prone to acknowledge the civil and political privileges they enjoy here (but which they never were permitted to enjoy " at home") by shoot- ing down Americans in their own streets, and blowing their brains out, when- ever they have the audacity to assemble together. Louisville, in Kentucky, it is grievous to see, is now passing through the same ordeal. — J^, J*. Esg^eaa, VIIL WHAT CAUSES ELECTION EIOTS li the low education of our foreign population. The musket and the bv are the exponents of the law in foreign cities ; and what we horn *» A VOICE TO AMERICA. ,d obadionoo, as "Uw"— aatta tcill a/tki jii^'oii/j— in other OomK trin is bowed to under the prick of tlie hnyoDel. Heaoe, when muong Hnoh at- people, ths prick of the bsyonat ia remOTOd, the law, or the will of Che major-- ity that makes the lair, is leslsted b; riot, mw, oiiunider. in Looisville, Kan^ tiuik;, for example, the AmeHoiuis beat on dBCtiDn-da; ; bnt Uie fbrnigDem Iheie, instead of doing as Americans do, aubmlc to the majority, in the ftbaemoB of the bayonet, ahoot &dld. their honses Amerieniis in the atrects I If tbb dl- vision in LooisvilEe had been between Whig AmGrioajia and Doinocratio Amor* ioane, the moment the residt was known it would have been acquiesced in, with general BnbraiEsion ; bat the indignant foreign population in LooiBville do, jnat ■a thay would do — when they dare — in Paris, or Berlin, or Vienna; thnt is, ap- peal to the musket and fight. It ia tiiia spirit of roaiatanQQ to law, to the majority, and to the dedorad will of that majority, which mokea repnblican government almost impossible OVM J sea—a minority that will not sobmit to a msjoritj, but prefijra a fight, as in LooiBvills ; and hence a result so deptoiable. These numerona riots that wo are having, wherever American intsTeata oome into political conflict with the intcresta or pasuona of foreignOTs, only go to show that government ia a trade, which a foreign popntation cannot loam b; instinct, hut mast bo educated in bj long trainlcg. PWinj is a vary simple not, but it means and embodies the idea of government, and govemraent ia ft science, which on Irishman, who cannot read, or a Qcrmaa, who knows not our Ungnsge, and onstoma, and traditions, cannot loam in a single day. Indeed, the educadon of onr foreign population ia for easier, if we may so expreaa oor- aelTGS, than their uaedtitation. To unicorn what they know is their first duty ; and it lakoa jeara and. yeora, bnt it ia mnch harder -work to unirarfttban lo Itam. Jury trials, habeas corpuaes, &e., are all Qreek to them j but all thesa they can Icam. What the; have lo unlearn, bowaTer, is harder than Qree^ and that ia, armed resislani» to law, to government, to m^orities. The prids. | of the bayonet is not half ao formidable to an American aa the writ of the con-J BtsWo ; bat this neoesaity of feeling the prick of the bayonet before they yield,, they must all onlearn. BeTolutiona ore wrought here, not in arms, but with hits of paper in the baUot-bOEcs. Minoritjes have no rights against laws oon- etitDtionally passed, and constitntlooallj expounded and executed, while ma- jorities, even, have no rights, under laws nneonstitntionally paaaed, or nnoon- stjtntionallj' eiecnted. These are very hard problems for foreigners to eolvo, but we Americana solve them. Wo often learn, too, that anbmisaion to wrongs is oftener wiser than armed realstonoa by force. When we are whipped aleo- tion-day, ws lament our bod luck, and try it again, but aeidom or never fight, unlesa attacked by fbroe. The loss of the anti-Amorioan candidate forCongreaa, in Louisville, led to shooting Americana in the atreeta, and, of course, to the Eufiaoqaont Ibarful retribution. Farslgnere, if they were wlae, would, tlieuiselves, coll fur a long tn^inlf fof their eonntrymen, before they pavs them the right of governing at the htiUot- J APPENDIX. 397 boxes. Men can no moro be good soldiers after a day^s enlistment, than good voters withoat tndning. Government is a curioas piece of human mechanism, which nntaught fingers may spoil, but which they can never safely touch, A foreigner may be as wise as Humboldt in philosophy, but as ignorant as a babe of the mechanism of the government of the United States of America. Twen- ty-one years are wisely demanded of us Americans to live, to think, to look on, to hear, and to talk, and to see, and to study, before we vote. Thousands of foreigners vote fraudulently who have been in the country scarcely a year, and hundreds of thousands that cannot read the Constitution of the United States in the language in which its makers wrote it. — K T. Express, Au^. 10, 1855. IX. GOLDEN MAXIMS OF WASHINGTON, <* Let us have a government by which our lives, liberties, and properties, will be secured." *' The government of the United States, though not actually perfect, is one of the best in the world." '^ It is among the evils, and perhaps not the smallest, of Democratic govern- ments, that the people must/i?e?, before they will see : when this happens, they are roused to action." *' If we mean to support the liberty and independence which it has cost us so much blood and treasure to establish, we must drive far away the demon of party spirit." " As there can be no harm in a pious wish for the good of one's country, I shall offer it as mine, that each state would not only choose, but absolutely com- pel their ablest men to attend Congress, that public abuses may be corrected." " The preservation of the sacred fire of liberty and the destiny of the repub- lican model of government are justly considered as deeply, perhaps as finally staked on the experiment intrusted to the hands of the American people." " There are four things which I humbly conceive are essential to the wdl being — ^I may even venture to say, to the existence of the United States M a independent power : — " 1, An indissoluble union of the states under one federal head. " 2. A sacred regard to public justice. "8. The adoption of a proper peace establishment. " 4. Prevalence of a pacific and friendly disposition amonfr the United States, making them forget their local prejudioeB 18 .li. I y ■■"'b-'i ^^ V. ft 'i' I". I 8M A YOIOE TO AiryRTOlA. ** Am ftftOMS to tomigD. tniinMW in immmwmbto ma^ «Mh ■MjiJnmnihi ■• |Mrtl«atelj ■kinilng to Uio trnlj «ii%ht«D6d upd indepoidni pstrioi^ finr • Bitiqr opportunitiM do they allbtd to tmiper irith dwmeitio <^fljfm», to jwiuhi the siti of Mdaotioiiy to mklMd pnUio opinion^ to inflnonoo or mwrm tht p«Uje ooondli 1 Against Uio inBidiooB irUm nil fon^gn InflnAnoe, J •oi^iixe jon i» ImUovo mo, ftUow-HiitiiMiB, the jMloniy of » fine people oni^ to b^ i»«TwtM!% nwake, mm* Aiftory aiMf 4yMrime$ prove ikatfsrdp^ ii^hmM u otu ^ ik^ mtd himtffdfm$ qf npuhUam goum mm k Bnt that jealomy, to be naefiil, mnet W frnpertiil, elee it beeomee the inatniment of the Yery inflnenee to be «v«iM| inateed of a defbnoe against it. SieaaaiTe paitiality Ibr one foieigii netion, and ezoeesiTe dislike fbr another, oaase those whom the/ aotnate to see danger only on one side, and serve to Tell and eyen second the arts of inflnenoe on the other. Beal patriots, who may resist the intrigues of the'fkvorite, are liable to beoooM anspeoted and odious, while its tools and dupes usurp the epplanse and eon- ildenoe of the people to surrender thdr interests. " The great rule of conduct fbr us in regard to ibreign nations is, in extending our commercial relations, to have with them as little political connection as pcftsible. So far as we have already formed engagements, kt them be fulfilled with perfbct good fidth. Here let us sU^ " Europe has a set of primary interests which to us have none or n very re- mote relation. Hence, she must be engaged in frequent centfoveindea, the causes of which are essentially foreign to our concerns. Hence, therefore, i* most be unwise in us to implicate ourselves by artiflcial ties in the ordinaiy vicissitudes of her politics, or the ordinary combinations and cdlislons of her jlj friendships or enmities. " The unity of government which constitutes you one people, is a main pillar I ij in the edifice of your real independence, the support of your tranquillity at home, your peace abroad, of your safety, of your prosperity, of that very liberty which you so highly prize. Bat as it is eapy to foresee that from different causes, and from different quarters, much pains will be taken, many artifices J employed, to weaken in your minds the conviction of this truth — as this is the point in your political fortress against which the batteries of internal and ex- ternal enemies will be most constantly and actively (though often covertly and insidiously) directed — it is of infinite moment that yon should properly estinuite the immense value of your national union to your collective and individual hap- jt-.] piness ; that you should cherish a cordial, habitual, and immovable attachment to it ; accustoming yourselves to think and to speak of it as a palladium of your political safety and prosperity ; watching for its preservation with jealous anx- iety ; discountenancing whatever may suggest even a suspicion that it con in any event be abandoned ; and indignantly frowning upon the first dawning of every attempt to alienate any portion of our countay from the rest, or to enfeeble the sacred ties which now link together the various parts. '^ For this you have every inducement of sympathy and interest. Citizens by birth or choice of a common country, that country has a right to concentrate APPENDIX. 399 your affections. The name of American, which belongs to yon in your national oipaoity, must always exalt the jast pride of patriotism more than any appella- tion, derived from local discriminations. With slight shades of difference, you hftve the same religion, manners, habits, and political principles. You have, in a eommon cause, fought and triumphed together. The independence and lib- erty you possess are the work of joint counsels and joint efforts, of common dangers, sufferings, and success. ** But these considerations, however powerfully they address themselves to your sensibility, are greatly outweighed by those which apply more immediately CO your interest. Here, every portion of our country finds the most command- ing motives for carefully guarding and preserving the union'of the whole.'' X. MAXIMS AND OPINIONS OF EMINENT STATESMEN, ETC. ** Hearken not to the unnatural voice, which tells you that the people of America, knit together, as they are, by so many cords of affection, can no longer Uve together, as members of the same family ; can no longer continue the mu- tual guardians of their mutual happiness ; can no longer be fellow-citizens of one great, respectable, and flourishing empire. Hearken not to the voice which petulantly tells you that the form of government recommended for your adop- tion, is a novelty in the political world ; that it has never yet had a place in the theories of the wildest projectors ; that it rashly attempts what it is impossible to accomplish. No, my countrymen ; shut your ears against this unhallowed language. Shut your heart against the poison which it conveys. The kindred - blood which flows in the veins of American citizens, the mingled blood which they have shed in defence of their sacred rights, consecrates their union, and excites horror at the idea of their becoming aliens, rivals, enemies. And if novelties are to be shunned, believe me, the most alarming of all novelties, the most wild of all projects, the most rash of all attempts, is that of rending us in pieees, in order to preserve our liberties, and promote our happiness. " But why is the experiment of an extended veirafaUo to be rejected merely because it may comprise what is new! It it *' the people of America, that, whilst they have paid a deoent na of former times and other nations, they have not soAfi r aiiliqTuty, for custom or for names, to overrule the n id. sense, the knowledge of their own situatioiu ^ lerience ? To this manly spirit posterity wHl V i world , fbr the example, of the ntUnerou I ietftvo, in fiivor of private rights and jbtf 400 A VOICE TO AMERICA. " When your lordebips look al Uie papers OanEioitted to ns Irom Araoricn; ' when jou ooDsidcr tliclr decency, firmnsss, and wisdom, eedom. More tlian half a ccntiiry has tested Its ■lability and Its power, afibrding a sufficient oogury of Ila brilliant fhtnra." — not be denied, but by those who would diapnte against the aon, Ibat ' \ with Ameriea, and in America, a new era oomniences in human aQalrs. This ' :a is distinguished by ftee representativa govummontB, by entire religloua lib- ind by improved syBtems of national intercourse, by a newly-awakened n unconquerable spirit of Itee inquiry, and by a di:S'uBion of knowledgs ongb the commnnity, suoh as has been befbre altogetber unknown or nn- • * • If we cherish the virtues and the priniaplos of our ftthtrs. APPEISTDIX. 401 Heaven will assist us to carry on the work of human liberty and hnman hap- piness."— i&w?. " The spirit of union is particularly liable to temptation and seduction in times of peace and prosperity." — Ibid, " If we are true to our country in our day and generation, and those who come after us shall be true to it also, assuredly we shall elevate her to a pitch of prosperity and happiness, of honor and power, never yet reached by any nation beneath the Sun." — Ibid, *^ The spirit of liberty, growing more and more" enlightened, and more and more vigorous from age to age, has been battering for centuries against the solid battlements of the feudal system. All that could be gained from the im- prudence, snatched from the weakness, or wrung from the necessities of crowned heads, has been carefully gathered up, secured and hoarded, as the rich treasures, the very jewels of liberty. The popular and representative right has kept up its warfare against prerogative with various success : sometimes writing the history of a whole age in blood, sometimes witnessing the martyr- doms of Sydneys and Bussels : often baffled and repulsed, but still gaining on the whole, and holding what is gained with a grasp which nothing but the complete extinction of its own being could compel it to relinquish." — Ibid, " The first object of a free people is the preservation of their liberty ; and lib- erty is only to be preserved by maintaining constitutional restraints and just divisions of political power."--i5i<:?. " Under the present Constitution, wisely and conscientiously administered, all are safe, happy, and renowned. The measure of our country's fame may fill our breasts. It is fame enough for us all to partake in Tier glory, if we will carry her character onward to its true destiny. Not only the cause of American Liberty, but the cause of Liberty throughout the whole earth, depends in a great measure on upholding the Constitution and Union of these States. Let it be a truth engraven on our hearts, let it be borne on the flag under which we raUy in every exigency that we have one oountry, one ConstUutiony one destin/y.'*'* — Ibid. t "This glorious Liberty — ^theso benign institutions, the dear purchase of our fathers, are ours — ours to enjoy, ours to preserve, ours to transmit. Generations past and generations to come hold us responsible for the sacred trust." — Rid. " I have no fears for the permanency of our Union, whilst our liberties are preserved. It is a tough and strong cord, as all will find who will presump- tuously attempt to break it. It has been competent to suppress all the domestic insurrections, and to carry us safely through all the foreign wars with which we have been afflicted since it was formed, and it has come out of each with more Strength and greater promise of durability. It is the choicest political blessing ^ A VOICE TO J which, a£ a people, wo oujoj, and I trust thst Proyidenoe will permit us to trana- mit it, nnimpsired to posterily, tlirough BndleBB geaerntions." — Benrs Clay. " TH^ Qmttilaiion of the Uhiled Stalta. — Like one of those wonJroiiB rooking ! BtcmeB reared b; UioCroid^, which, the fiogcrof achild might vibratB t( lie, yet the might of an army could not move from its place, our Conatitntion. b BO nicely poieed and balanced that it seeraBlo sway with every breath of opinion yet ao Brmly rooted in the hearts and sfTectionB of the people, that the irildaai slonus of treoson uid {kiaticiem brcdk over it in vain." — S. O. Wiaihrap. " Adivine TJghttogOToniill,is onabaurdity: to assert it, is blnspliemy. Pr&- i toDsions to a dimns rigM haTo been gonciBlly oorriod hlg:hest by thoao who havtt ' ^d the least claim to the Divine feyor. Liberty is to the colleetivo body wliat health is to every individual body. Without health, no pleoaure can be tiuiled ly man jwithont liberty, no happinflea can be enjoyed by B0ciely."—aiiiii3i™fa, " Which ia the most perfect popular government ? ' That,' eaid Has, ' whera the laws have no superior.' ' That,' anid Thalcs, ' trhera the inhabitonta aT» ndther loo rich nor too poor.' ' That,' aaid Anaoharsia, ' where virtue i» hon.- ored and vice detested.' That is the the best gDvemment irtuuli deairea to make the people happy, and knows Low to make the people happy. Neither the in- dinatioD nor the knowiodge will ai^os alone, and it is difficult to find them '. together. Pure Democracy, and pure Democracy alone, satjafies the former cou- dilion of this great problem. That the governors may be nolicitana only for the inCsrests of the governed, it is neoessary that the iiiterosta of the governors Burt the governed should bo tho aBmc. Theinteroatsof theaubjectsand lulere never abiolately coiumdo till the subjecta thomsolves become the rtilera ; tliaC is, tlH tbe government he either immediately or mediately domocratlc." — Macaulaj/. "Our own country, thoi^gh happily esompt, — and God grant that it may long eontiiiae so, — &om the troubles of Europe, is not exempt from tho influence of the oauaea that produce thorn. We too are inspired, and agitated, and governed by the all-pervading, Bll-inspiiing, all-agitaUng, nil-governing spirit of the age. What do I say f We were the flret to feel and act upon its infiucuoo. Our revo- lution woB the first of the long series that has since shaken every oomer of I Huropo and Americo. Onrfalhers led lie van in the long array of heroes, roar- tyiB, and canfoBSors, who have fought and fidlcn under the banner of hborty. The iuBtitulions they bequeathed to us, and under whioh wo are iiving in peaoo and happinoBB, wore founded on the prinoiples wliioh lie at the bottom of tlie present a^taUon in lluropo. We have realized what our eontemporeiiea I kborlng to attabi. Our trauquiltity is the fruit of an entire aoquiesoenee in the ^^^ spirit of the age. We have reduced the action of government within narrower <^^^^ ,^ limite, and ^von a wider scope Vt individual liberty, than any community thM ^^| iZ_ I APPENDIX. 403 " Wo live, therefore, in an age, and in a country, where positive laws and institutions have coraparativety but little direct force. But human nature re- mains the same. The passions are as wild, as ardent, as ungovernable, in a republic, as in a despotism. What then is to arrest their violence ? I answer in one word, Heliffion.^^ — Edward Eoerett. ^' Let no one accuse me of seeing wild visions, and dreaming impossible dreams. I am only stating what may be done, and what will be done. We may most shamefully betray the trust reposed in us — ^we may most miserably defeat the fond hopes entertained of us. We may become the scorn of tyrants and the jest of slaves. From our fate, oppression may assume a bolder front of insolence, and its victims sink into a darker despair. " In that event, how unspeakable will be our disgrace — with what weight of mountains will the infamy lie upon our souls. The gulf of our ruin will be as deep as the elevation we might have attained is high. How wilt thou fall from heaven, Lucifer, son of the morning I Our beloved country with ashes for beauty, the golden cord of our Union broken, its scattered fragments presenting every form of misrule, from the wildest anarchy to the most ruthless despotism, our " soil drenched with fraternal blood," the life of man stripped of its grace and dignity, the prizes of honor gone, and virtue divorced from half its encour- agements and supports — ^these are gloomy pictures, which I would not invite your imaginations Xa> dwell upon, but only to glance at, for the sake of the warn- ing lessons we may draw from them. " Kemember, that we can have none of those consolations which sustain the patriot who mourns over the undeserved misfortunes of his country. Our Eome cannot fall and we be innocent. No conqueror will chain us to the car of his triumph — no countless swarm of Huns and Goths will bury the memorials and trophies of civilized life, beneath a living tide of barbarism. Our own selfish- ness, our own neglect, our own passions, and our own vices, will furnish the elements of our destruction. With our own hands we shall tear down the stately edifice of our glory. We shall die by self-inflicted wounds." — G: S. EiUiard, " We less need new laws, new institutions, or new powers, than we need on all occasions, at all times, and in all places, the requisite intelligence concerning the true spirit of our present ones ; the high moral courage under every hazard, and against every offender, to execute with fidelity the authority already pos- sessed ; and the manly independence to abandon all supineness, irresolution, vacillation, and time-serving pusillanimity, and enforce our present mild system with that uniformity and steady vigor throughout, which alone can supply the place of the greater severity of less free institutions. " To arm and encourage us in renewed efforts to accomplish every thing on this subject which is desirable, our history constantly points her finger to a most efficient resource, and indeed to the only elixir, to secure a long life to any popu- lar government, in increased attention to useful education and sound morals. U»TBY; BASED UPON AND INOLUDma THE DOOUMENTB OF THE FEDERAL QOYBBHICEHT, Aa. Bj BxKSOK J. LoBsiKO and Edwin Williams. In two TolameSy royal 8vo^ ilhutrated with nmnerom fine engravings eclmen8 of art, and include exterior and Interior views of the Senate of the United States, and House of Bepreeentatiyes, OoTemment Bulldinffa, Capitol, Cnstom-Houses, Mints, Forts, and a seriee of newly-prepared portraits of aU the Preaiaents, dee. A copious analytical index ia aflOxed to the woric III. THE STATESMAN'S MANUAL; ooifrrAmiNe the fbesidents' messages-inaugubal, AimuAL, and SFEGIAIr-FBOM THOSE OF WASHINOTON TO THE PBESEHT TDfE: WITH THEIB HEM0IB8 Aim HISTOBIES OF THEIB ADMINISTBATIONS. ALSO, VALUABLE DOCUMENTS AND STATISTICS. CoxpiUED noK Oftigial Souboxs, by Edwin Wiluams. 3^ neto edition brought doton to thspreaeni tknA, 4 vols. 8vo., with Portraits of all the Presidents, cloth, extra gilt, $10. This great national work has received the highest commendation firom the Press through- out the country, as well as from some d the most distinguished perscmages connected with the Federal and State governments. It is indUpontable to all persons in any way eon- neoted with official Gt governmental afhir& A frill analytical Index accompanies the work, by which immediate reference can be made to any great question— politloa], sooisl, or legal 406 WALKER'S NATIONAL STANDABJ) WOEKS. THE STATBSXAN^S MAXXJAl* — OO H ' imUJU ). EXTRACTS FROM NOTICES OF THE WORK. '*'We can eay no more, and onght to say no less, of fhls work, than that it Is tbe most complete constitatioDal history of the United States that exists, or that can he constnicted "Within the same space. It Is indispensahle to the lihrary of every American scholar, as a hook of reference ; and, as its title indicates, it is, and always most be, the Stateamafi'a Mamiai.''''—Nev> York Evening Post. " An indispensahle work of reference to all persons engaged in public affairs, and others who study the history and practical operation of onr government." — President Taylor. ** A very valuable work for reference.'* — Hon, Henry Clay, ** An exceedingly useftil and valoable wot)l..^— President Polk, **Many hours of idle discussion and senseless debate might be spared to heated partisans, were this book at hand for appeal" — DemocraUo Re/oieiw, ** It is a vade mecum that has no competitor among the books of this oonntry."— Zotitf*- ^oiUe Joibmal, <*This is the most important contribution to American political history ever published. Certainly, no work can compare with this in condensed comprehensiveness, in acouraey, and in all the features which make such a book valuable."—^. Y, Courier and Enquirer. *' It is emphatically a national work. Ko American library, however small, is properly made up, in which a copy of this Statesman's Manual is not found." — Ifeuf York Expreee. " It presents information nowhere else to be found in a combined form, of the utmost importance to every American." — Boston Poet, '*It is a work of the utmost utility and value."— ^o«rivate and public library, is not all that should be said— they are indispensable to every awyer, politician, or Intelligent, patriotic citizen.''— Boston Witness. 407 WALKER'S NATIONAL STANDARD WOBXS. IV. A NEW AND ENLABGKD XDITION (tHE 20Tn THOUSAND) OF DR. BOWLING'S HISTORY OF ROMANISM. COMPILED FEOM EOMISH AUTnOEITIES; WITII SUPPLEMENT, BEINGUiG THE niSTOEY DOWN TO THE PEEBENT TIME; WITH FIFTY SNGBAYIirGS. 1 vol. 8vo., 800 pages, cloth gilt, $3. This valuable prodnctloD, which, by common consent of the Press, literary, religfooa, and secular, throughout America and Qreat Britain, has been pronounced the standard authority upon the subject of which it treats, has already attained a circulation In this coontry of up- wards of thirty thousand copies. The great oharacteristio merit of this work, consists in the fitct of its being based almost entirely upon Bomish authorities— for the most part inaccessi- ble to Protestant readers. It is the result of immense research and labor, and is the most eomprehensive and reliable work of its class extant ^^ The Prelates and Priests of the Eomlsh Church are earnestly Invited to give this work their candid perusal, as it contains no ux^just strictures upon their Church, but is cath- olic in its spirit. **It is a A J«t<7ry— veritable, authentic history— not a series of declamatory tirades against what the Bomish Church is supposed to be by those who discard her doctrines and author- ity—but a plain, unvarnished history of what she is actually by her own admissions and practices; a faithfhl and impartial exhibition, from her oton archives, of her recorded and attmted opinions and usages." — Protestani Churchman. ** Tills work is admirably adapted to the times. Its circulation would do incalcalable good in making known the system, tactics, errors, and dangers of Popery, and thus most effectu- ally put us on our guard. We trust its beautiful appearance will secure it an introduction where its stirring appeals and thrilling facts will tell upon the consciences and hearts of the people." — National Protestant. "Its contents form a rich storehouse of historical instruction, which should be placed within the reach of every family." — If. Y. Christian Jntelligencer. "It abounds in facts and incidents, and is better adapted to famish a vivid and impres- sive portraiture of Pomanistn as it is, than any other book we know of.** — New York Evangelist. "An able work, comprising the results of extensive reading and research, and well adapted to fill an important chasm in our literature." — Lutheran Observer V. THE AMERICAN AND ODD-FELLOWS' LITERARY MUSEUM. COMPEISING GEMS OF LITEEATUEE CONTEIBUTED BY MANY OF THE MOST EMINENT AMERICAN WBITEES. Illustrated with upwards of Thirty fine Steel Engravings. Two elegant volumes. Price — muslin, extra gilt, $5 ; gilt edges, $6. This beautiful work is of itself a library of choice, entertaining, and instructive reading — prose and verse — consisting of essays, sketches, tales, and historic and descriptive narratives, etc It is alike adapted for the social and the solitary hour, and peculiarly suited for the &mily circle. It contains nearly two hundred original contributions, by esteemed and popn • lar American writers. 408 J - 1 1 I #• r,'*!^. S£M?«a*N