The native American., 1838-03-03

and the dissolue, they set at defiance social, mo-
raj and political restraints, and become the ten
ants OF our jails, or add still greater burdens to
the. humane and charitable or, seeking shelter as
inmates of our asylums for the poor still further
increase the taxes of the Industrious citizen to
provide for their support.
No land can long remain free where the mass
OF the people do not understand, and cannot read
and interpret, the laws by which they are go
yerned.
No land can long remain free'where empiricks
and quacks, or secret and dangerous enemies of
ITS institutions, tamper with the laws, or take the
lead In the enactment of them.
No land can long remain free, where large
bodies Of men set at nanght the written Constitu-
tion, or ignoranty, or basely attempt its subver-
sion.
These men have each their watch-cry. Is a
countryman, is son of a countryman in diff
culty--is he candidate for office, foreign BAN
ner is raised in the midst Of the land. The stars
and the stripes no longer maintain their supre-
macy. From every quarter is heard the rally
ing shout, to the rescue.
The time has already come when we should
begin to arouse. Look at some Of the grave
questions which now agitate the land. Whence
arises this alarming cry Of instant and complete
emancipation Of the save-whence this hurting
storm of denunciation--this threatening array of
the poor against the rich--this howl Of outcast
wretches against all incorporated companies and
vested rights--this fierce and startling demand Of
an equal division Of property, of community of
goods, and, God Of Heaven, Of community Of
wives! Who are these that array themselves
with gaudy banners and obscene cries against all
that we have been taught to believe sacred and
revered i'll our Constitution, and holy and up
right in morals!
Do state these things too strongly! Look
at George Thompson, Robert Dale Owen, and
Fanny Wright.
Well, indeed, might the Father Of his country,
in the spirit Of prophecy, warn us against foreign in
iuence and corruption; well, indeed, might he
warn us Indignantly to frown upon the first
dawning Of every attempt to ALLEVIATE any por-
ton of our country, from the rest, to enfeeble
the sacred ties which now link together the various
parts"
These combinations and associations have al
ready ''become potent engines by which cunning,
ambitious and unprincipled men are attempting
to subvert the power Of the people, and to usurp
for themselves the reins of Government" The
time is yet to come when they shall ''destroy
the engines which have lifted them to unjust
dominion"
And what is to be the effect Of these fac
tions! They are among us now. Their mem
bers are governed by those laws which watch
over us and them. which guard and protect us in
the darkness of midnight as well as in the broad
glare Of noon-day-which are with us, and over
us, and about at firesides, in the toll and
hustle of business, on the way-side and in the
open feld-whch secure to us the possession of
life, liberty, property, and honor-which reach
the lonely and desolate outcast from the wreck on
the shore, and the president and his ministers in
their halls-which follow US, from our birth to
our grave, in the supplies of our daily wants, and
the multiplication of our comforts and our luxu-
ries-which permit no wrong to remain unredress-
ed, no right to be impaired, no injury unrevenged:
laws that written and published, and remedies
that are open to all. Yet of this they are igno-
rant. They feel these blessings around them.
They know not whence they come--that they
arise from and rest upon the virtue and intelli-
gence Of the people. They cannot be taught
that the liberty they profess to seek, once at
tanned, must bring with it curses and affections
which they have not dreamed Of. They see not,
and feel not, and therefore dread not the unutera-
bic misery of broken constitutions, and violated
sanctuaries, and civil war. They band them
selves Ties Of kindred, of country, and, closer
and stronger than ALL ties of faction begin to usurp
the place of obedience to the law, of devotedness
~ WOuIu 10 you ulS were con-
fined to the miserable and ignorant alien, who
knows not the value of the pearl he casts away;
alien alike to the country Of his adoption and the
land of his faith, and the God Of his creation.
Already the evil seeds thus sown begin to take
root; they are scattered broadcast throughout
the land. The first step in the formation Of
these factions has been already taken. They
necessarily lead to anarchy, to dissolution Of
the bonds Of society, progressive as are the pas
sions of man.
''There is natural and necessary progression
from the extreme Of anarchy to the extreme of
tyranny. Arbitrary power is most easily estab-
shed on the ruins Of liberty abused to icentious-
ness.''
Look at the history of ancient Rome :: her
progressive greatness-the sternness of her vir-
Me-her glory-her uninterrupted success. till
she relaxed the severity Of her laws and admit
ted strangers to the right Of citizenship. Then
trace the gradual demoralization Of her people,
and the progressive loss of her liberties.
Look at the history of those glorious republics
which, in the darkness, moral and political,
that for centuries shrouded Europe, afford al
bright and luminous illustration Of the capacity
Of man for self.government-the republics in
the north of Ttalv See the myriads Of peODle