Washington telegraph., 1845-12-10
p r o s PECT s.

pend somewhat upon circumstances, an
somewhat upon the attention which he be
slows upon his business, SO nations wei
'are depends partly upon the position il
which circumstances have placed it ''1
partly upon the faithfulness and energy
with which its government is administers
As certainly as recklessness and ext
gance in private life will lead . P'"''
and disgrace, so certainly will 1e"as
ism and improvident legisla,i'" bring a
nation to ruin.
IT.. .snIon assigned US by train OF
ortunate and heaven directed circumstan-
ces is a high and noble one, and the road
to enduring prosperity and fame lies open
before us; but we need not expect to dash
with impuniiy heller skelter along 1t, re-
gardess of consequences. We need not
think to be exempt from the difficulties
with which every human effort must con-
tend. We need not fatter ourselves that
we require no instruction from the exam
pies of other days. We cannot hope that
the evils which have overthrown other
governments can be safely practised by
ours.
Our government is an experiment, but
il is indeed noble one. Springing from
principles of natural right and indepen.
dence, il is a magnanimous effort to test
fully mans capability of se!fgovernment.
His ignorance and weakness have often
been wofully experimental upon. Our
government is an experiment upon the
nobler qualities Of the soul. An expert.
ment to maintain untarnished the virtues
which achieved our independence, and
upon whose practice its durability depends.
Without virtue republic cannot exist,
for its government is a heart, and the
people its life blood, and it must perish
when the one languidly and corruptly
flows, or the other throbs faitblessly.-
So long as the old republics maintained
their virtue, the hosts of Persia were as
chaf' before them; bu, they no sooner go, TO
wrangling among themselves. and became
ambitious of petty distinctions which looked
no, to the general welfare, and grew ex.
travagant and conceited, than they tottered
to their fall, and were irretrievably humbled
and subjected by the battle of Cheronea.
Had Greece preserved her virtue she would
now exist as in the days of her glory, and
that beautiful representation of dccayed
greatness, by Byron in which he describes
her as
"Greece. but living Greece no more"
would never have been written.
Our country is young, but already has
she attained an enviable stand among the
nations of the earth. From weakness and
she has sprung into the strength
and light of liberty and manhood.
But Yesterday her unfiedged eaglet broke
The grasp which bound him grovelling to the earth
A mothers grasp, who, false TO nature, sought
Her offsprng's blood to fill her shrinking veins,
And would have plucked his brightest plume to deck
Her waning strength-now high he soars, above
The lightnngs reach, or on the bosom Of
Yon FURNISHED cloud, with out-stretched pnon
floats
Free as the Heaven he breathes"-
The prospect before US is bright and
cheering. Shall we keep it so, by strict
adherence to the fundamental principles
of our government. and by the practice
Of those virtues which become and adorn
it; or by rash disregard of every bright
precedent and demagogueing confidence
in our own strength shall it be overshad-
owed with clouds, and sunk in irredeemable
darkncssl Shall we falsify the hopes of
the oppressed of earth, and become re-
sponsible to mankind for our failure; or
true to the high interests which our fathers
left us in charge, shall we press nobly on
ward and upward, with the exul,ing cry
upon our lips-"E1celsior!"