Richmond enquirer. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1815-1867, 1825-07-26

country rise; pouring out his generous blood, ike
water, before he knew whether it would fertilze n
land of freedom or of bondage! how shall strug-
Gle with the emotions, that stiile the utterance oil
thy name! Our poor work may perish; but thine
| shall endures This monument may mouder away
the solid ground il rests upon may sink down TO
level with the sea; but ths memory shall not fail
l--Wheresoever among men heart shall be
found that beats TO the transports OF patriotism and
liberty, it's aspirations shall be to claim kindred
with Thy sphil''
Reflections such as the following, clothed as
they in all the beauty of language, scarcely
fail 10 draw as much the admiration as the assent
| OF tie reader:
| "Tbe leading reflection, TO which this occasion
seems 10 invite us, respects the great changes
which have happened in the fifty years. since Ike
battle OF Bunker Hill was fought. And it peculiar
~ marks the character of the present age, that in
looking at these changes, and in estimating their ell
iect on our condition. we are obliged TO consider,
not wha, has been done in our own country only ,
but in others also. In these interesting times,
while nations making separate and individual
| advances in Improvement, they make, too Y COM
mon progress like vessels a common tide, pro-
PEELED by the gales al different rates, according to
their several structure and management, but all
NOV ed forward by mighty current beneath,
strong enough TO bear onward whatever does moi
| sink beneath il.
9 chief distinction of the present day is CON-
! muniiy of opinions and knowledge amongst men,
IN different nations existing in degree heretofore
unknown. knowledge has, in time, triumph
ed, ard is ,riumphing, over distance, over differ
ence 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 no, imply necessary hos
| tilty, and that all contact need not be war.-The
whole world is becoming a common field for intel
lect to act in Energy of mind, genius, power
wheresoever it exists, may speak out in any
tongue, and the royld will hear it, a great chord
| oil sentiment and feeling runs through two CONT
| nents, and vibrates over BOTH Every breeze watts
| intelligence from country 10 country; every
rolls it all give il forth and all in turn receive it.
There is vas, commerce of ideas; there marts
and exchanges for intellectual discoveries, and
wonderful fellowship of those individual intelligent
| ces which make up the mind and opinion of the age
Mind is the great lever of all things; human thought
Is the process by which human ends ultimately
answered; and the diffusion of knowledge aston
ishng in the last half-cen,ury; has rendered immune
rabie minds, variously gifted by nature, competent
to be competitors. or fellow-workers, the shea
| ire OF intellectual operation
&c 1t need not surprise u.s. that under circumstan-
ces less suspicious, political revolutions elsewhere
even when well intended; have terminated differ
emily 1t Is, indeed great achievement, it is the
entirely popular, on lasting foundations nor is it
easy, indeed, to introduce the popular principle at
all, into governments to which, has been allogeth-
er stranger IL cannot be doubted, however, that
Europe has come out of the contest, in which she
has been so long engaged with greatly superior
| knowledge, and in many respects, highly i'm
proved condition. Whatever benefit has been ac-
CURED, is likely to be retained, for consists MAIN
ly IN the acquisition OF more enlightened IDEAS And
although klnuIOm9 M he ted
| from the hands that hold them, in the same manner
hey were obtained; although vulgar and ordinary
power may, in human affairs, be lost it has been
Won; yet 1t is the glorious preroeltive Of the
empire oil knowledge, that what gains it 10
seS On the contrary, il increases by the multiple
| OF It's power; all it's ends become means; all its
attachments, helps 10 new conquests Its whole
'Oundant harvest is but much seed wheat, and
nothing has ascertained, and nothing ascertain,
he amount of ultimate product.
Under the influence of this rapidly increasing
knowledge the people have begun, in all forms of
government, to think, and to on affairs of
| state. Regarding government as an institution for
| The public good, they demand a knowledge of its
| operations, and participation in its exercise. A
call Tor the Representative system, wherever il is
| not enjoyed, and where there is intelligence
enough to estimate its value, is perseveringly
made. Where men may speak out, they dema ID
II; where the bayonet is at their throas, they pray
| for it.
| "When Louis XIV said, ss am the state.', he
expressed the of the doctrine of unlimited
power. By the rules of that system, the people are
disconnected from the state; they its subjects
IL 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 age, to other opn-
ions; and the civilized world seems at last to be
proceeding to the conviction of that fundamental
and manifest truth, that the powers of government
1 l,rko a IL. IL.
| exercise but for the good of the community. A.
knowledge is more and more extended, this convic-
lion becomes more and more general knowledge,
In truth, Is The great sun In the frmament. Life
| and power are scattered with all its beams The
| prayer OF the Grecian combatant, when enveloped
IN unnatural clouds and darkness the appropriate
political supplicaton for the people of every coun-
| try not yet blessed with free institutions;
DSp'l these clouds, the light Of heaven restore,
Give me to SEE-aud YAK ak, no inore.'
| We may hope. that he growing influence OF
enlightened sentiment win promote the permanent
peace OF the world. Wars. TO maintain family al
lances, 10 uphold or to cast down dynasties TO re-
euls,e SUGGESTIONS to thrones, " hch have occupied
80 much room in the history of modern times, il not
less likely to happen at all, will be less likely 10
! become general aud involve many nations, as the
| great principle shall be and more established
that the interest OF the world is peace and it's grea,
statute, that every nation possesses the power Of
establishing GOV eminent for itself. But public
opinion has attained also influence over govern
vernmeats, which do not admit the popular princi-
pie into their organization. A necessary respect
! Tor the Judgment of the world operates, in some
measure, as control over the most unlimited forms
oil authority. 1t is owing, perhaps, to this truth
that the interesting struggle of me Greeks has been
suffered TO go on so long, without direct nterfe-
renee, either to wTest that country from lis present
masters, and add it to other powers or to execute
the system Of paciication by force, aud with unit
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