Ypsilanti sentinel. [volume] (Ypsilanti, Washtenaw Co., Mich.) 1843-1900, 1847-03-17

awaits us ally in vain; we may hope there, like
the foolish bird that hides its head in the sand
in the vain belief that its body is not seen, yet
even there this preposterous excuse of want of
''room' shall be laid bare, and. the quick-com-
ing future will decide that it was a hypocritical
pretence, under which we sought to conceal
the avarice which prompted us to covet and to
seize by force that which was not ours.
Mr.. President, this uneasy desire to aug
ment our territory has depraved the moral sense
and blighted the otherwise keen sagacity of our
people. What has been the fate of all nations
who have acted upon the idea that they must
advance! Our young orators cherish this no
ton with feryid, but fatally mistaken ZEAL
They call it by the myterious name of destiny
''Odr destiny" they say, is onward, and hence
they argue, with ready sophistry, the propriety
OF seizing upon any territory and any people
that may lay in the way of our 'sfated' advance.
Recently these Progressives have groUn clas-
steal; some assiduous student Of antiquities has
helped them to patron saint. They have
wandered back into the desolated Pantheon. and
there, amongst the Polytheistic relics of that
''pale mother of dead empires they have found
a god whom these Romans, centuries gone by.
baptized Terminus
Sir, have heard much and read somewhat of
this gentle Terminus. Alexander, of whom
have spoken, was devotee of this divinity
We have seen the end of him and his empire.
1t was said to be an attribute of this god that he
must dl,cays advance, and never recede. So
both Republican and imperial Rome believed.
1t was, as they SAID, their destiny. And for a
while did seem to be even so. Roman Termi-
nus did advance. Under the eagles of Rome he
was carried from his home on the Tiber to the
furthiest East, on one hand, and the far west,
amongst the then barbarous tribes of western
Europe, on the other. But at length the time
came when retributive justice had become ga
destiny. The despIsed Gaul calls out to the
condemned Goth, and Attila, with his Huns, an
swers back the battle shout to both. The blue
eyed nations of the north,' in succession, or
united, pour forth their countless host of war
riors upon Rome and Rome's always advancing
god Terminus. And now the battle-axe of the
barbarian strikes down the conquering ca gle of
Rome. Terminus at last recedes, slowly at
first, but finally he is driven to Rome, and from
Rome to Byzantium. Whoever would know
the further fate of this Roman deity, so recently
taken under the patronage of American Democ-
racy, may find ample qualification of his curios-
ity in the luminous pages of Gibbons " De-
cline and Fall" Such will find that Rome
thought, as you now think, that it was her des
tiny to conquer provinces and nations, and no
doubt she sometimes said as you say, II will
conquer peace And where now is she, the
Mistress of the world? The spider weaves his
web in her palaces, and the owl sings her watch
song in her towers. Teutonic power now lords
it over the servile remnant, the miserable m e.
mento of old and once omnipotent Rome. Sad.
very sad, are the lessons which time had writ
ten for US. Through and in them | see moth
lug but the infexible execution of that old law
which ordains as eternal that cardinal rule
'sThou shalt not covet thy neighbor's goods, nor
any thing which is his Since have lately
heard so much about the ACKNOWLEDGMENT of
Mexico, / have looked back to see how. in the
course of events, which some call sProvidence,' -
it has Jared with other nations who engaged in the
work of dsmembe rment. / that in the lat
ter half of the eighteenth century three powerful
nations Russia, Austria and Prussia united in the
disbursement oil Poland. They sad too, as YOU say,
sit is our destiny" They ''they wanted room. -
Doubtless each of these thought with his share Of
Poland, his power too strong ever to fear nva-
sion, or eveninsult One had his California, anoth-
er his New Mexico, and the third his Vera Cruz
Did they remain untouched and incapable of harmi
Alas. no-far, very far, from it. Retrbutive JUS
tice must fulfil its destiny too. very few years pas:
| off, and we hear of new man, a Corscan lieutenant
the self-named EARNED soldier ofDemocracy," n a.
poleoD. He ravages Austria, covers her land with
blood, drives the Northern Gar from his capital
| and seeps in his palace. Austria may now remcm-
Der how her power trampled upon Poland. Did she
not paw dear, for her California? But has Prussia
no atonement to make? You see this same Napo-
leon, the blind instrument of Providence, at work
there. The thunders of his cannon at jena pro-
claim the work of retrbuton for Poland's wrongs;
and the successors of the great Frederick the drill
tofE ti.-pr tha andx
plain that surrounds their CAPITOL, right glad if they
escape captivity or death. But how fares it with the
Autocrat of Russia? Is he secure in his share OF
the spos of PoIandl No, Suddenly, we see, sir,
six hundred thousand armed men marching to Mos
COW. Does his Vera Cruz protecting him now?-
Far from it. Blood, slaughter, desolation, spread
abroad over the land, and finally the conhagraton
of the old commercial metropolis of Russia closes
the reributon she must pay for her share IN the dis
memberment OF her weak. ilnpotent ncighbor. MIR.
President, a mind more prone to look for the judy
ments of heaven in the doings of men than mine,
cannot fail in this to the Providence of Cod
When Moscow burned it seemed as if the earth was
lighted up that the nations might behold the scene.
IS that mighty of fire gathered and heaved and
roed upwards, and yet higher, TIL its flames licked
the Stars and fired the whole heavens, it did as
though the God of the Nations was writing in char
acters of lame the front of his throne that doom
that shall fell upon the strong nation who tramples
ScOrn uDOu the weak. ana what fortune awaits
him, the appoiated executor of this work, when it
was all done? re too, conceived the notion that
his destiny pc nted onward TO universal dominion.
France was too small. Europe, he thought, should
bow down before Linn. But. soon as this idea took
possession of his SOIL, he too becomes powerless.-
His Terminus must .ccede too. Right there, while
he witnessed the humil alton, and doubtless medita-
ted the subjugation of r. 'ssa. He who holds the
winds in his fist gathered TIE SHOWS OF the north and
blew them upon his six hun 1red thousand men,
They fed, they froze, they persisted! And now the
mighty Napoleon, who had resol led on universal do
minion he too, is suffered TO answer for the viola
ton of that ancient law, sthou shalt net covet any
thing which is thy neighbours" How is the mighty
fallen. He, beneath whose proud foots.ep Europe
trembled, he is an exile at Eiba and /. final
" prisoner on the Rock of St Helena, and there
on barren island, in an unfrequented sea, in the
crater of extnguishcd volcano, there is the death
bed of the mighty conquerer. All his Anneratons
have come to that! Hislast hour has now come; he,
the man Of destiny; he who has rocked the world