The Madisonian. [volume] (Washington City [i.e. Washington, D.C.]) 1837-1845, 1837-11-07
CIVILIZATION AGAINST BARBARIsM.


The contest now waging, we regard as
battle between civilization and barbarism.
Experience and intelligence unite on the one
side, against fanaticism and delusion on the
other. Rome, when her doom began to be
visible in the lowering clouds Of the North,
saw not more cause for alarm than the patriot
now may contemplate in the rude assaults
making upon the proudest achievements OF
our advanced civilization. Achievements,
attained through the action Of the voluntary
principle, and under the auspices of our
Democratic Republic, and tending to the per-
lection of the social condition Of man.
In respect to this view of the case, Mr..
LEeARE uses the following remarkable illus
tration.
BY what example are we to be guided in such
matters il not by that Of England-by far the most
magnificent manifestation that the world in any age
of it, has beheld, Of the might and the grandeur
of civilized life. Sir, have weighed every syla-
BILE that utter-I express deliberate conviction,
founded upon patient inquiry and comparison as
complete as my limited knowledge has enabled me
to make IT. between the past and present condition Of
mankind, and between the great nation of which
/ am speaking and those which surround her.
Sir, there is a gulf between them-that narrow
channel separates worlds--t is an ocean more
than three thousand miles wide ! appeal to
any one who has been abroad, whether going
from England to any part Of the continent be
not descending immensely in the scale of civil
zation know, Sir, that that word is an Ambiguous
one. know that in some Of the graces of polished
society," in some of the arts OF an elegant imaglna-
on that in the exact sciences and in learning
and general intellectual cultivation some nations
have exceled, perhaps, many equaled England. But
in that civilization which, as have said before It is
the great end of modern political economy to pro-
mote, and which is Immediately connected with the
subject before you; which at once springs out OF,
and leads to, the accumulation OF capital and the
distribution of wealth and comfort through all
classes of a community, with an immense aggregate
Of national power and resources-that civilization
which enables man to WELD these elements, and
arm him with the force Of all their legions" which
gives him dominion over all other creatures, and
makes him emphatically the Lord OF the Universe
that civilization which consists not in music not in
playing on the flute as the Athenian hero said but
in turning small city into great one in that VIC
torious triumphant irresistible civilization there is
nothing recorded in the annals OF mankind that does
not sink into the shades Of the deepest eclipse by the
side of England say nothing of her recent achieve
ments on the land and the sea of her fleets, her
armies, her subsidized allies Look at the Thames
crowded with shippng visit her arsenals her docks,
her canals her railways her factories, her mines,
her warehouses, her roads and bridges go through
the streets of that wonderful metropolis, the bank,
the emporium, and the exchange of the world; con-
verse with those merchants who conduct and CONTROL
as far it is possible TO control the commerce of all
nations, with those manufacturers who fill the mar
ket with their unrivalled products; go into the bank
which is the repository Of the precious metals for all
Europe consider its notes we'll as the bills OF pr
vaie banks, at a premium every where, more valua-
Bile than specie, symbols not merely of gold, but OF
what is far more precious than gold, yea, than fine
gold of perfect good faith, of unblemshed integrity
of sagacious enterprise of sieadfas persevering
industry of boundless wealth, of business coexten-
sve with the EARTH and of all these things possessed
exercised, enjoyed protected under system OF lib
erty chastened by the law which maintains it. and of
law sofened and milgated by the spirit of liberty
which it breathes throughout. Sir, know as well
as any one, what compensaons there for all this
opulence and power, for i is the condition OF our
beings that we "buy our blessings at a price" l
know that there are disturbing causes which have
hitherto married, in some degree the effect of this
high and mighty civilization but the hand OF re-
form has been already applied to them, and every
thing promises the most suspicious results. have
il on the most unquestionable authority, because,
from an unwilling witness, that within the memory
Of man. never were the laboring classes of England
SO universally employed, and so comfortably situated
as at the beginning of the present year