Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1846-06-06

of ours had then but little developed itself, either to
the apprehension of others or to our own.
ITO progress" is simply to 60 forward, to move
in the direction Of ones head, to proceed the
way ones face is turned. Yet progress may be for
wards, backwards, upwards, downwards for, after
all, to say that thing progresses is only to say
that it does not stand still. Thus PORE, one of
the correctest Of modern writers, describing the
main court editor of his day and his style, says:
"Not SO bold Anal with weight of skull
Furious he dives precipitately dull
Whinpools and storms his circling arm invest,
With all the might of gravitation best
No crab more active in the dirty dance,
Downward 10 climb, and backward TO Advance"
All mortal diseases are progressive, until death
ends them so are old age and natural decay. A
martyr progresses while they convey him to the
stake; murderer as he is dragged on hurdle to
the gibbet.
The coming of darkness is progressive, like the
dawn. The fall of an avalanche, the catching of a
swift and terrible conhagration, the rolling Of an
earthquake, the havoc of a tornado, the flow of a
river of lava, desolating every thing before it
for ages, are all a progress. If every dixie that
fences Holland from the sea were torn down at
once, there would be the mightest progress which
that dull land has ever seen since it was first won
slowly from the waves. Toss any thing into the
suck of the Maelstrom and it progresses in les
sening circle until it gets to the vortex, and is
whelmed forever. This Government has certainly,
since the pure days of President WASHINGTON,
made great progress-the rapidity of which has
been much assisted y its tightening ITSELF in order
to go the faster, of great part of all the old in
cumbrances Of stern integrity, wisdom, and pru-
dence. They have been flung away, much as
Alexander, when he set off for the conquest Of In
dia made his soldiers burn their baggage and throw
away their gold When Horace says " the bad age
of our ancestors produced worse, presently to en-
gender posterity still prohigae," he precise
ly described Roman progress. osPeak by facts,
our progress has been, on the one side, to steam
boats, railroads. machinery of all sorts, enlarged
territory, and multiplied population and commerce.
This is the physical, the material side But what is
it on the other Public corruptons, factions, and
distractions of every kind; the laws too often dis
regarded or made for party every thing set at
hazard for purposes of party or personal success ;
prescription, persecution by Government for opin-
ions sake Presidential wars upon the Senate, the
currency, credit, and many other things charter
breaking, agrarianism, reputation, usurpation by
the Executive of almost all Legislative authority,
and other unmistakeable signs of tendency Of the
Government to anarchy or despotism.
The progress" then, in whatever direction or
to whatever result, is always progress, and will
be until, perchance, as the natural consequence
OF its own vehemence and velocity, further pro-
gress' in any direction, becomes impossible. Mean
while, like children, who, so they ride, care not
which way they go, we are charmed to see how
fast the hedges and houses dance by us; we clap
our hands, laugh delghtedly to see how we keep
moving, and take it for granted that what goes so
fast needs must go equally well.
But, let us consider. Nations that have shot up
with an amazing rapidity of rise have usually fallen
again as rapidly, just as the boy that was SIX
feet high at ten years DID, died in complete deere
ptude at twenty. We are monsters, marvels Of
boyish manhood but such wonders are always
portenous, to themselves if to nothing else. state
may outgrow the very principle OF life In tive
mean its insttutons-and this is what we are doing.
Like the gigantic child of which we have just
spoken, its body may vastly outstrip its mind, and
its strength its prudence it may arrive at the age
Of corporal passions, while the faculties that
should control them are yet in their infancy; and
its enormous powers, Unmatched with any thing
that should direct them, may be its bane, as much
as they were human wonder. For what can be
truer than those words which Milton puts in the
mouth of Samson, when all his might has failed
him and been overcome by little craft
90, impotence OF mind, in body strong!
But what is strength without double share
OF wisdom Vast, unwiedy burdensome,
Proudly secure, yet liable to fall
By weakest subtleties not made to rule,
But to subscrve where wisdom bears command
God hath not given genuine and lasting great
ness 10 be so built up. 1t is painful, slow, the
structure of mighty toll and patience, the calm
and sober growth of centuries, the work OF men
maenanmous solid, and sedate, rejoicing in no airy
audiences, confident in no creations OF the
moment. Such are in haste TO rear no piles faster
than thew can settle themseves-no Babels OF un'
baked brick. that will crush with their own
height. great State, in word, cannot spring up
like an exhaation, in morning: Tor, built TO en-
dure, il must be built slowly, and of materials no
only admirably put together, but capable 70 win
stand all but the slowest change.
| How different all that the votaries OF the pro