The Rhode-Island Republican. [volume] (Newport, R.I.) 1809-1841, 1836-07-20
w and cheap source of information not


% show, to the inhabitants of many other
states and countries:-;TBy means of this
powerful engine, public officers, and
public men may be, and frequently are ar
raigna,tAt the bar of public opinion; their
merits and dement's freely discussed and
boldly declared; aud they mus, stand, or
fall, by the Judgment of community jeal-
ous Of their own rights, and vigiTant to de-
tect the errors Of l,e'public servants.
Whilst other nations have established
and maintained censorship of the press,
n,rasted to ministerial agents, to take care
that nothing should fnd its way to the peo-
pie that was offensive to the royal car; and
have kept employed regiments of spies to
catch and report to them, every unfriendly
every ambiguous-and every doubtful
expression, in order to make them the foun-
dation of Imprisonment, pains, aud penal
ties we in this country have found the
freedom Of speech, and the press always
salutary in its effects and as constituting
an engine, before which, weak, or def
cient administration could not stand an
engine capable of disbanding armies,--of
dissolving treaties of equipping navies -
Of regulating trade land Of controlling all
the diversified operations Of an extensive
Commercial Nation.
Another of the important consequences,
resulting from the Revolution, through
giants, and laws passed by Congress, ac-
cording to the pr visions, and spirit of the
Constitution is the general dis semmination
of the rudiments Of learning; il is true that
We have no Universities in this country so
iberally endowed as they have in Europe !:
nor do we need them. But it by no means
follows that for the purposes of life we are
not quite as well off in that respect as they
nre There, limited number,-a few
favored individuals, are made accomplished
scholars here, our ambition is to make,
all men, practical men ofbusiness, in The or
binary pursuits of life There, they take
pride in qualifying FEW men of letters to
read Hebrew, and to translate the Persian,
tue Chaldaic and the Arabic languages -
here, we claim the merit of instructing all
men to read, TO write, and to cypher and
without pursuing the comparison any far
ther, you eau decide whether the balance
as 10 usefulness, is, or is not in favor Of
our own institutions; and if you could by
any possibility be made aware of the total
and lamentable ignorance, in which, the
greater portion of the population Of Europe
even now grovels, according to the accounts
given by their own writers, it would afford
you an additional reason to be proud of
your own Country, and to revere its Insti-
tutions.
These are some of the effects produced
in tins country by the Revolution of their
mportance TO il, as connected with its
growth, its institutions and its general pros
perity, some remarks have been submitted:
and OF which you are yourselves more COM
petent to Judge, than to instruct:
But it is not to the United States alone,
that our Revolution has produced impor-
iant consequences far from it /; the cleo
trio spark stricken out by that collision,
has not only llumined our own Continent;
but flashing across the broad Atlantic, has
shed its light over the bcniei,ted regions of
Europe. Upon the adoption of The Consti-
tuition, or within a very short period after
that event when the principles of the A.
merican system Of Government came to be
known, aud those principles had been in
some degree carried out into practical de-
tail then France, the only Nation that
had joined with us in the contest, began n
mong its own people to feel its effects and
from that time to the present, with various
success, has been almost constantly in a |
state of commo,ion, from their longing de- |
sire for such system, and practise of Gov
crnment, as has prevailed, and does now
prevail in these United Etates. In the I
mean tine the principles of American Free
dom. disseminated by means of that PRESS
of which we have spoken; by that Educa-
fion to which we have alluded and by
that Freedom Of speech, which all here have
enjoyed, and in this country still enjoy i
other States and Nations have been in like
manner agitated.-The whole American
Continent at the South Of US, has been COM
pIetely revoiu,ionized its population has
ceased to be the provinces of Spain and
Portugal; and without having actually set
tied down upon any thing like fixed princi-
piles of Government; BRAZIL alone perhaps
excepted) have maintained their Indepen-
dence Of foreign domination, and claimed,
and do now claim the right of self govern
ment.-The European Kingdoms of Britain,
clgium, Spain, Portugal, Italy, aud the
whole of Greece have felt the impulse, and
at times have been convalsed by it, to their
very centre.
These are some among the important ef-
fects, that have been produced by the A
merican Revolution and they are such as