Part 15 (1/2)
The leading reflection to which this occasion seees which have happened in the fifty years since the battle of Bunker Hill was fought And it peculiarlyat these changes, and in estied to consider, not what has been done in our own country only, but in others also In these interesting ti separate and individual advances in iress; like vessels on a coales at different rates, according to their several structure and hty current, strong enough to bear onhatever does not sink beneath it
A chief distinction of the present day is a cost ree heretofore unknown Knowledge has, in our ti, over distance, over difference of languages, over diversity of habits, over prejudice, and over bigotry The civilized and Christian world is fast learning the great lesson, that difference of nation does not imply necessary hostility, and that all contact need not be war The whole world is becoenius, poheresoever it exists, reat chord of sentih two continents, and vibrates over both Every breeze wafts intelligence froive it forth, and all in turn receive it There is a vast coes for intellectual discoveries, and a wonderful fellowshi+p of those individual intelligences which reat lever of all things; huht is the process by which human ends are ultie, so astonishi+ng in the last half-century, has rendered innuifted by nature, competent to be competitors or felloorkers on the theatre of intellectual operation
From these causes important improvements have taken place in the personal condition of individuals Generally speaking, mankind are not only better fed and better clothed, but they are able also to enjoy more leisure; they possess more refinement and more self-respect A superior tone of education, manners, and habits prevails This remark, most true in its application to our own country, is also partly true when applied elsewhere It is proved by the vastly augmented consumption of those articles of manufacture and of commerce which contribute to the coress of population And while the unexampled and almost incredible use of machinery would seem to supply the place of labor, labor still finds its occupation and its reward; so wisely has Providence adjusted men's wants and desires to their condition and their capacity
Any adequate survey, however, of the progressthe last half-century in the polite and the mechanic arts, in riculture, in letters and in science, would require volumes I must abstain wholly from these subjects, and turn for a reat question of politics and govern the whole fifty years it has intensely occupied the thoughts of overnated; ancient opinions attacked and defended; new ideas recommended and resisted, by whatever power theto the controversy From the closet and the public halls the debate has been transferred to the field; and the world has been shaken by wars of unexareatest variety of fortune A day of peace has at length succeeded; and now that the strife has subsided, and the sin to see what has actually been done, per the state and condition of hu on particular circumstances, it is e and improved individual condition, a real, substantial, and ihly favorable, on the whole, to hureat wheel of political revolution began to ular, and safe Transferred to the other continent, froular and violent ith, like the chariot-wheels in the races of antiquity, it took fire fro conflagration and terror around
We learn from the result of this experiment, how fortunate was our own condition, and how ad the great exaovernments The possession of power did not turn the heads of the A been in the habit of exercising a great degree of self-control Although the paramount authority of the parent state existed over theislation had always been open to our Colonial assemblies They were accustoovernment; they understood the doctrine of the division of power a different branches, and the necessity of checks on each The character of our countryious; and there was little in the change to shock their feelings of justice and humanity, or even to disturb an honest prejudice We had no doed orders to cast down, no violent changes of property to encounter In the Aht or wished for more than to defend and enjoy his own None hoped for plunder or for spoil Rapacity was unknown to it; the axe was not a the instruments of its accomplishle day under any well-founded i a tendency adverse to the Christian religion
It need not surprise us, that, under circumstances less auspicious, political revolutions elsewhere, even ell intended, have terreat achieveovern foundations; nor is it easy, indeed, to introduce the popular principle at all into governer It cannot be doubted, however, that Europe has coed, with greatly superior knowledge, and, in hly improved condition
Whatever benefit has been acquired is likely to be retained, for it consists htened ideas And although kingdoms and provinces may be wrested from the hands that hold theh ordinary and vulgar power may, in hulorious prerogative of the eains it never loses On the contrary, it increases by the multiple of its oer; all its ends become means; all its attainments, helps to new conquests Its whole abundant harvest is but socan limit, the amount of ultimate product
Under the influence of this rapidly increasing knowledge, the people have begun, in all forovern governood, they dee of its operations, and a participation in its exercise A call for the representative system, wherever it is not enjoyed, and where there is already intelligence enough to estily made Where men may speak out, they demand it; where the bayonet is at their throats, they pray for it
When Louis the Fourteenth said, ”I am the state,” he expressed the essence of the doctrine of unlimited power By the rules of that system, the people are disconnected from the state; they are its subjects; it is their lord These ideas, founded in the love of power, and long supported by the excess and the abuse of it, are yielding, in our age, to other opinions; and the civilized world see to the conviction of that fundaovernment are but a trust, and that they cannot be lawfully exercised but for the good of the coe is more and eneral
Knowledge, in truth, is the great sun in the firmament Life and power are scattered with all its beams The prayer of the Grecian champion, when enveloped in unnatural clouds and darkness, is the appropriate political supplication for the people of every country not yet blessed with free institutions:--
”Dispel this cloud, the light of heaven restore, Give me TO SEE,--and Ajax asks no htened sentiment will promote the permanent peace of the world Wars to maintain family alliances, to uphold or to cast down dynasties, and to regulate successions to thrones, which have occupied so much room in the history of modern times, if not less likely to happen at all, will be less likely to becoreat principle shall be more and more established, that the interest of the world is peace, and its first great statute, that every nation possesses the power of establishi+ng a government for itself But public opinion has attained also an influence over governanization A necessary respect for the judgment of the world operates, in some measure, as a control over the , perhaps, to this truth, that the interesting struggle of the Greeks has been suffered to go on so long, without a direct interference, either to wrest that country from its present masters, or to execute the systeth, lay the neck of Christian and civilized Greek at the foot of the barbarian Turk Let us thank God that we live in an age when so has influence besides the bayonet, and when the sternest authority does not venture to encounter the scorching power of public reproach Any attempt of the kind I have nation; the air of the civilized world ought to be made too warm to be comfortably breathed by any one ould hazard it
It is, indeed, a touching reflection, that, while, in the fulness of our country's happiness, we rear this monu to a country which is now in fearful contest, not for works of art or lory, but for her own existence Let her be assured, that she is not forgotten in the world; that her efforts are applauded, and that constant prayers ascend for her success And let us cherish a confident hope for her final triuious and civil liberty be kindled, it will burn
Huuish it Like the earth's central fire, it may be smothered for a time; the ocean may overwhelm it; mountains may press it down; but its inherent and unconquerable force will heave both the ocean and the land, and at some time or other, in some place or other, the volcano will break out and flareat events of the half-century, we must reckon, certainly, the revolution of South America; and we are not likely to overrate the importance of that revolution, either to the people of the country itself or to the rest of the world The late Spanish colonies, now independent states, under circumstances less favorable, doubtless, than attended our own revolution, have yet successfully coreat object of establishi+ng their independence; they are known and acknowledged in the world; and although in regard to their systeious toleration, and their provisions for public instruction, they may have yet much to learn, it must be admitted that they have risen to the condition of settled and established states more rapidly than could have been reasonably anticipated They already furnish an exhilarating exaovernments and despotic misrule Their coreat e of commodities, to bear a useful part in the intercourse of nations
A new spirit of enterprise and industry begins to prevail; all the great interests of society receive a salutary iress of information not only testifies to an ihest and most essential iht, the existence of South America was scarcely felt in the civilized world The thirteen little Colonies of North America habitually called theation, ions of the South were hardly visible above the horizon But in our day there has been, as it were, a new creation The southern hein to lift theht of heaven; its broad and fertile plains stretch out, in beauty, to the eye of civilizedof the voice of political liberty the waters of darkness retire
And, now, let us indulge an honest exultation in the conviction of the benefit which the example of our country has produced, and is likely to produce, on human freedom and hunitude, and to feel in all its ireat drama of human affairs We are placed at the head of the systeovernovernments are compatible, not only with respectability and power, but with repose, with peace, with security of personal rights, with good laws, and a just adandists Wherever other systeht better in the condition, we leave the preference to be enjoyed Our history hitherto proves, however, that the popular forovern themselves; and the duty incu exa may weaken its authority with the world If, in our case, the representative systeovernments must be pronounced impossible No combination of circumstances more favorable to the experiment can ever be expected to occur The last hopes of mankind, therefore, rest with us; and if it should be proclaiainst the experihout the earth
These are exciteestions of doubt
Our history and our condition, all that is gone before us, and all that surrounds us, authorize the belief, that popular governh subject to occasional variations, in foreneral character, be as durable and permanent as other systems We know, indeed, that in our country any other is iovernments adheres to the American soil It is bedded in it, iations which have devolved on this generation, and on us, sink deep into our hearts Those who established our liberty and our governreat trust now descends to new hands Let us apply ourselves to that which is presented to us, as our appropriate object We can win no laurels in a war for independence Earlier and worthier hands have gathered them all Nor are there places for us by the side of Solon, and Alfred, and other founders of states Our fathers have filled thereat duty of defence and preservation; and there is opened to us, also, a noble pursuit, to which the spirit of the tily invites us
Our proper business is ie of improvement In a day of peace, let us advance the arts of peace and the works of peace Let us develop the resources of our land, call forth its powers, build up its institutions, proreat interests, and see whether we also, in our day and generation,worthy to be remembered Let us cultivate a true spirit of union and harreat objects which our condition points out to us, let us act under a settled conviction, and an habitual feeling, that these twenty-four States are one country Let our conceptions be enlarged to the circle of our duties Let us extend our ideas over the whole of the vast field in which we are called to act
Let our object be, OUR COUNTRY, OUR WHOLE COUNTRY, AND NOTHING BUT OUR COUNTRY And, by the blessing of God, may that country itself become a vast and splendid monument, not of oppression and terror, but of Wisdoaze with admiration for ever!