Southern telegraph., 1838-11-07

! tne SUBJECT oil letters, when the name Il
many nabob, who had thrice his wealth
and many have lived and honrished or rath-
er vegetated long after him, shall have per-
shed from the memory Of man, or shall be
remembered only as an example of the folly
and mean-spiritedness of him who wore it.
But the fame of genius and the light Of sci
ence and knowledge and virtue, and the
civilization and the humanity and the gen
tleness and the happiness which they bring
along with them; these travel to the ends of
the earth, whereverthere is an eye of intel
ligence to behold, or human heart to ad-
mire them. Tell those nations whom you
wish TO adopt your institutions, of these,
and then if you choose you may add in your
railroads, and your turnpikes and your in
ternal navigation, and the fertility of your
soils and your minerals and all your other
wealth and the facilities Of acquiring it,
and they will listen TO you gravely and
with respect. And OH my country, how
easily thou mightest do it, and how happy
and honored wouldst be IL thou would'st do
1t! But fear the spirit Of seventy-six that
began our glory has gone to the tomb with
the fathers of the Revolution; and another
inferior spirit waving also with the years
that are rolling by, has succeeded it, that
will tamely submit TO let the work lie un-
finished that was so gloriously began, and
scarcely approxmating to its completion.
But you will tell me that there arc no more
battles to be fought; show us the battle
ground; sound the tocsin of. alarm at the
invasion of our liberties and the patriotic
blood of seventy-six will be found coursing
in our veins.
Aye, it is true, there are no battles TO be
fought by those which must be- waged a.
gainst ignorance and vice, against anarchy
and misrule. The tocsin ofaIarm is sound
ed and tho cry is, to the rescue, not of bo-
dies from the British yoke, but of minds and
of hearts and of a hnd, shaded in ignorance
and vice dyed with crime. Is there no
mind to be recovered and educatedl Mol
virtue to be created and protected? mol
useful energies to be inspireda No amiable
accomplishments to impart to the commu-
nifty? Shall the sons of the valley alone
disgrace their country when they come into
the halls of legislation or fiji the higher sta
tions of their country? Like one high in
Office in a neighboring State whose pen is
sufficient to disgrace a school boy. Shall
they alone be excluded from the diplomatic
corps from a want of the intellectual and
literary qualifications that shall enable them
f to compete with the representatives of for
a eign nations? Or shall we be obliged to
transport from beyond the mountains and
from foreign countries our Presidents and
Professors in colleges, our ciyikofIicers, our
h statesmen and our leading politicians?- p
i And of all countries in Christendom, shall
the sons of the valley alone be excluded
from all honorable rank with the lIustrious
contributors to the cause ofscicnce2 Shall
talent, at once as vigorous, as active and as
susceptible Of accomplishment as any the
sun ever shono upon, he compelled through
neglect to seal its own disgrace? 1t can
Fl not, il must not, it will not be. This valley
will yet arise; she viii do her duty, she will
rear high the columns of her intelligence
and virtue, and will tell TO mankind, that
though the youngest Of the inhabited por-
tons of the earth, yet is she fortunes flvor-,
te child, and she will justify by her exalted
deeds, her rich and unparalleled eudown-
{ meuts from nature. Those very heavens,
on which the world depends for all its good,
and which have reserved their choicest gifts
for this noble valley, shall yet see her stretch
ing up her hands to the native home of her
/ blessings, and reaching forward after that
I perfection in intelligence and virtue that.
forms the glory of the skies. And should
II ever come to pass that the genius and lit
erary culture of ancient Greece and Rome
} should reappear in this valley, s9fiened,
4 beautified and made lovely by the rich ex-
, celIence of christian virtue and christian sem
timent, who will not then rejoice that his lot
was cast and that the time of that portion Of
his everlasting history which is formed on
earth,was passed in this astonishing countrye
8. The cultivation of letters in the valley
i of the Mississippi is important as ameans'
/ of preserving, perfecting and perpetuatingI
/, our republican and free Institutions among
: ourselves.
A principle so much discussed and so OBJ
/ vious 10 every rejecting mind, requires but
little from me on the present occasion.
Il is our pride and boast that our govern
ment is peculiar. To obtain for it this pc
culiarity might not indeed have been the
ri chief object in the first exertions of the col
onies which tended to and brought on the
Revolution. But that il did soon become
the prominent object is clear from history
land one is at loss 10 determine which is
most astonishing, the singularity Of the plan
/, and the suddenness Of its invitation, being
: without model in history; or the. holiness
that led to its adoption and execution as a
! mere experiment Both indeed seem rath-,
er to have sprung from the inspiration ofthe
! father Of lights than fromthe legitimate ac-
! ton of the purest and most exalted human
4 reason. N''i'
4 Not an Office, nor law, nor an institution
: exists that does not rest, more or less, upon