The Cadiz sentinel. [volume] (Cadiz, Ohio) 184?-1851, 1845-07-16

man. The hunter with his rife and his axe, at
tended by bis wife and children; the herdsman
driving the few cattle that were to multiply as
they browsed; the cutivator ofthe soil--all came
TO the inviting region. Wherever the bending
mountains opened pass--wherever the buffa.
loes and the beasts of the forest had made
trace, these sons of nature, children of humanity,
in the highest sentiment of personal freedom,
came 10 occupy the beautiful wilderness whose
prairies blossomed everywhere profusely with
wild fowers-whose woods in spring put to
shame, by their magnifcence, the cultivated gar
dens of man.
And now that these unlettered fugitives, edu-
Gated only by the spirit of freedom, destitute of
dead letter erudtion, but sharing the living ideas
of the age, had made their homes in the West
what would follow? Would they degrade the ~
selves to ignorance and in6delity? Would they
make the soltudes of the desert excuses for H.
cent? ousness2 Would the doctrines of freedom
lead them to live in unorganized society, desti-
tute of laws and fixed institutions?
At time when European society was becom.
ing broken in pieces, scattered, disunited, and
resolved into its elements, scene ensued in
Tennessee, than which nothing more beautiful
ly grand is recorded in the annals of the race.
These adVenturers in the wilderness longed
to come together in organized society. The
overshadowiDg genius Of their time inspired them
with good designs, and filled them with the coun-
sells OF wisdom. Dwellers in the fores, ,reest of the
free, bound in the spirit, they came up by their
representatives, on foot, on horseback, through
the forest, along the streams, by the buffalo ira
ces, by the Indian paths, by the blazed forest
avenues, to meet in convention among the noun
tains at Knoxville, and frame for themselves
consttution. Andrew jackson was there, the
greatest man Acm al-modest, bold, deter.
mined, demanalng nothing for himself, and
shrinking from nothing that his heart approved.
The convention came together on the lth day
of January, 1896, and finished lis work on the
9th of February. How had the wisdom of the
old world vanly taxed itself to frame consttu-
tons, that could at least, be the subject of expe-
rment; the men of Tennessee, in less than 25
days, perfected a fabric, which, in its essential
forms, was to last forever, They came togeth-
er, full of faith and reverence, oflovo to human
ity, ofconfdence in truth. In the simplicity of
wisdom, they framed their constitution, acting
under higher influences than they were conscious
Of
They wrought in sad sincerity,
Themselves from God they could not free;
They bulded better than they knew
The conscious stones to beauty grew.
In the instrument which they framed, they
embodied their faith in God, and in the immortal
nature of man. They gave the right of suffrage
TO every freeman; they vndcated the sanctity of
reason, by giving freedom of speech and of the
press; they reverenced the voice Of God, as it
speaks in the soul of man, by asserting the inde-
feisbly right Of man TO worship the Infinite ac-
cording to his conscience; they established the
freedom and equality of elections; and they de-
manded from every future legislator solemn
oath "never to consent TO any act or thing what
ever that shall even have tendency to lessen
the rights of the people,"
These majestic lawgivers, wiser than the So
Ions, and Lycurguses. and Numas of the Old
WorId-these prophetic founders of State, who
embodied in their constitution the sublimest
truths of humanity, acted without reference TO
human praises.
They kept no special record of their doings;
they took no pains TO vaunt their deeds and
when their work was done, knew not that they
had finished one of TIE sublimest acts ever per-
formed among men. They left no record as to
whose agency was conspicuous, whose eloquence
swayed, whose generous will predominated; nor
should we know, but for tradition, confirmed by
what followed among themselves.
The men of Tennessee were now people,
and they were TO send forth man to stand for
them in the Congress of the United States
that avenue to gory.-that home of eloquence---
the citadel of popular power; and, with one con-
sent, they united in selecting the foremost man
among their aw-givers-ANDREw JACKSON
The love of the people of Tennessee followed
him TO the American Congress; and he had serv.
ed but a single term, when the State of Tennes-
see made him one of its representatives in the
American Senate, where he sat under the aus
pices of Jefferson.
Thus, when he was scarcely more than thirty,
he had guided the settlement of the wilderness; /;
swayed the deliberation Of people in establish
ing its fundamental laws; acted as the represen-
taiive of that people, and again as the represent
tative of his organized State, disciplined to a
knowledge of the power Of the people and the
power Of States; the associate of republican
statesmen, the friend and companion of JefIer-
son.
The men who framed the constitution OF the
United States, many of them, did not know the
innate life and sc(.preserving energy of their
work. They feared that freedom could not en-
dure, and they planned strong government for
its protection. te
During his short career in Congress, Jackson
showed his'quiet, deeply-seated, innate, intutive
faith in human freedom, and in the institutions
Of freedom. He was ever, by his votes and OPT
mons, found among those who had confidence
in humanity; and in the great division ofminds,
this child of the woodlands, this representative of
forest life in the west, was found modestly and
b - ~ \.
TO him 10 doubt the right of man to the free de-
velopment of his powers; it did not occur to him
to place a guardianship over the people; it did
mt occur In him IN seek to oive flurohtlitv IN