Virginia advocate. [volume] (Charlottesville, Va.) 1827-1860, 1829-07-24
SPEECH

silent; but 1 nope II would he SuperduouS, as L
am sure ut would be unavailing, TO attempt to
express my feelings, receiving the kind at
tentions OF this company. No gentleman who
has himself had occasion, while absent from
home, to experience the value of private or pub
lie hospitality, will doubt the sentiments excited
in me by these testimonials of your favorable o.
plnion. 1t the voice of welcome that awaits
him beneath his own roof, his return home,
make the most direct appeal to the sensibilities
of the traveller, it is with a satisfaction scarcely
inferior, heightened by of obligation,
that he receives, in distant region, those proofs
ofkindness, aud assurances ofgood will, in which
lie seems to recover some of the best endear-
mcnts Of home in the land of strangers
would spare you, gentlemcn-l would spare my
self the effort to describe, in set phrases-what
Ut felt, needs no eXplanation-what, if not felt,
cannot be described; and beg you, with the
plainness of 4 sincere and grateful heart, to be-
lievo that set the proper value on this public
end cordial manifestation of your friendly fcr!-
ing, and that, while L take to mvself-and feel
honored in doing $3.50 much of ii as flows from
your hosptablc regard toward stranger, re-
1oice more especially in this festive meeting as
apledge of good will between the distant SIC
tons OF the Union, to which respectively Pc
long. That Union, gentlemen, resting as it
does on political basis, must derive much of
Its strength and value, from harmony and coni-
atty between the distant members. In despD-
tic government, resting on the principle of the
immediate subordination Of all the parts to one
head, this harmony among the subjects is not
necessary. 1t may even be the interest of the
sovereign to play off the jealouses of the differ
ent parts of tho state against each other thus
preventing them from combining against HIM
self. But in popular government where eve
~ thing IS ultimately referred to the will of the
citizens, mutual good will between them is all
important. 1t is, therefore, most fortunate for
us, that she basis, OH which our Union rests is
natural broad, and stable. The several ports of
bc,i IS houn
each other, by the measures of preponderatin"
political power, exerted by the stronger mem
bers TO attach the weaker to their sovereignty.
We do not owe our gathering together into this
family ofstates, to the intermarriagc Of northern
Ferdinands with southern lsabellas Our Union
not cemented by the sealing wax of diplo-
natic congresses, (where foreign statesmen sit
IN Judgment, to parcel out reluctant provinces a.
nong rival empires y nor by the blood of disas-
trous battle fields. Had such been the origin of
our association, we might have expected that
1ncurable untipathies would exist between the
discordant members, and that a Union, com
menced In power, violence, or intrigue, would
continue In disgust while it lasted, and end i'm
OWL war On the contrary, among numerous
instructive aspects, in which political sys-
tenn presents itself to the contemplation Of the
friends ofiiberty, none is more Important than
that IN which it teaches the most suspicious
mode OF extending popular government, over
Il vast region of country, filed by Il rapidly in
creasing population, by means of a confederation
OF states. The superficial observer, not merely
abroad, but at home, may regard the multiple
cation of the states with their different local in
terests, as an alarming source of dissenton
threatening eventual destruction to the republic
But had the sagacity of the most profound poll
tician been exercised to contrive n mode, in
which the content of North America should be-
come one broad theatre, for the exercise of the
rights and the enjoyment and perpetuaton of
privileges OF republican government and rational
liberty, 1T may well be doubted, whether any
other so effcctual, so prompt, and at the same
time so simple. could have been devised by him.
as the creation of a number of separate states
successfully formed as population becoming
dense IN the older settlements, had poured itself
out into the newer fields of adventure and pro-
mise; united by coniederacy in the pursuit of
all objects of common and general interest; and
separate, independent, and sovereign as to all of
individual concern. 1t is thus that Union is
extending itself, not rs mere matter of political
arrangement, still less by compulsion and pow
CIR, but by the choice and act of the individual
citizens.
What have we in all the newly settled
portions of the Union? The hardy and enter
pricing youth find society in the older settle
ments comparatively filled up. His portion OF
the old family farm is too morrow To- satisfy his
wants or his desires, and he goes forth, with
the paternal blessing, and often with little else
to take up his share of the rich heritage which
western world. He quits the land of his fothers.
the scenes of his early days with tender regret
gllstening Ill his eye, though hope nantes on
his check. He does not, as he departs, shake
off the dust of the vcneratcd soil from his feet
but he goes on the bank of some distant river. to
perpetuate the remembrance of the home of his
childhood. He piously bestows the name of the
spot where he was born on the spot to which he
has wondered; and while he is labourinr with
the difficulties, struggling with the privations,
languishDg perhaps under the diseases, incident
to the new settlement and the freshly opened
soil, he remembers the fneighbourhood whence
he sprung the rooftha sheltered his infancy
the spring that gushed from the rock by his IA
Their door where he wont to bathe his heated
forehead, after the toll of his youthful sports
the rural church; the graves Of his father and
his mother. In few years, new community
has been formed the forest has disappeared be-
meath the sturdy arm of the emigrant his chill
dren have grown up, the hardy offspring of the
new clime and the rising settlement is already
linked in all partialities and associations with
that from which its fathers and founders have
wandered. Such, for the most part, is the man.
ncr in which the states have been built up; and
IN this way foundation is laid by nature herself
tor the peace, cordially, and brotherly feeling
between the ancient and recent settlements Of
the country.
1t is, however, the necessary course Of things
that as the newly settled portion Of the country
is organized into states, possessing each the To-
cal feeling and local interest ofseparatc political
communities, some prejudces--like the domes-
tic discussions of the members of the same fami-
ly-should spring up among them, or. between
them tand the older states. These may owe
their origin TO the more exclusive settlement of
some of the new states, from some Of the old
ones respectively; to supposed inconsistency of
the interests of different sections of the counfrv
TO the diversity of manners, incident to the DC.
cullarity of geographical and social position
and the leading pursuits of life, or to the con-
fllcts OF party politics, which are, of necessity,
in free country, often capIcious, and as vo-
lent as they are uncertain. From these and o.
thcr causes, on which / need not dwell, and
without any impeachment Of The prosperous op-