The daily union. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1845-1857, 1847-07-31

single ine OF railroad IN 1896, its iron engines avesed
completed track Of sixteen hundred miles, and it has
now more miles of railroad than, the time of Washing
ton, II had OF post routes la proportion to It's population
II has more than three times many canals England
and more than iour times many France and the
canal connecting the Hudson with the lakes is the long
est OF these artificial rivers which has been constructed
In the year 1907 Robert Fulton attracted rdicule BY
building IT'S first steamboat and ten years AFTER had no
regular line OF steamboats, in all its western waters They
now crowd IN hundreds upon its rivers and its
land seas gathering the rich products OF the most remote
and land locked regions of our country, and pouring them
into the lap OF commerce. they defy every form of dan
ger upon Its Atlantic coast they keep company with its
navy against the nohers of the Gulf of Mexico and,
under the fostering OF Congress- they will soon
the ocean with lis mails, and minister to the wants OF
our ships OF war, and protect merchant marine IN
every quarter OF the globe sing OF its western
States possesses more steamboats, than the whole king
dom OF France and there said to be many steamers
on Lake Erie as in the Mediterranean sea.
Its increasing means OF communication thus keep pace
with its extending settlements, and its whole Union is
bound together IN the strong embraces OF mutual inter-
course, mutual knowledge and mutual interest In this
way 1t administers with facility one government for
esht soyerelgnhes and from single central hear,
all portions of the body polite: Yet with us, Paris is
not France; and that heart would become corrupt
and the stream of sanitary circulation torpid, but for the
purifying application of the fedeative principle and the
Christening and correcting influences OF the subdivisions
of power amongst the States and the people, to whom
large share in the duty OF selfgovernment is wisely
confded :.
The same influences, too, which have thus developed
with almost startling rapidly the various sources OF its
physical power, have adorned at the same time with
cheering monuments of its active benevoence Its scien-
tfc ingenuity, and its improving taste Its charities
parake, at once OF the ygor OF its enterprise and the
abundance OF Its and worthy object ever yet APP
pealed to in vain Shrewd and unylelding as 1t doubt
less is in the of trade, it is characterized by the
wamest sympathy for human suering and the most gen
disposition to give it adequate relief Its capacous
heart, sharing something OF Its broad nationality, has
gathered around it OF the iron OF avarce or the
numbness of exhausted feeling but fails respond
O
matter from what cline it comes or what disaster may
have produced it. In our own country it aests the mag
nitude of its benecence by its charitable institutions,
which attract respect, not only account OF the pur-
poses to which they devoted but from their elegant
construction and convenient arrangements Its care OF
its poor has been censured by foreign writers as so ex
avaganta toinvite paupersm; and with equal bounty
embraces in its mnistatons the aged and the sick, the
deaf and the dumb, the blind and the unatc These IN
situtions and well adapted to their
ends, excite admaon not much at their number,
that in country time has been found to estab
| llsh them Firm in the maintenance OF law its system
of punishments is characterized by Christian benevo
fence, and the pecuniary fines imposed on numerous
classes of crimes devoted to the promotion OF educa
tion-beauifully taxing vice TO support virtue.
If America has not yet equaed older nations by her
advances in literature and art she has at least laid
firm foundation for them and bright examples OF gen.
erous attainment and lofty intellect not even now
wanting among her cultivated citizens. Her statesman
ship has been proved in the srctest school OF dplomacy
and her public speaking, in true eoquence will not SUI
fer from comparison with that OF any other country In
history in painting, and in sculptures in poetry IN the
eoquence OF the pulpit, in the reasoning OF the
bench, andi the imposing dcon OF senatorial elocuon,
country has produced successful competitors for
companonshp with the most gifted sons OF genius in
other regions of the world
But, whatever may be thought of its literature and its
aste its contributions TO science and to mechanics
never be regarded deficient, either in number in
value Its discoveries in electricity, in gavanism, and in
the application of steam, brilliant in theory
they useful in results; and thousands OF models in
our Patent Office bear witness that the genius which in
vented the cotton gn and moulded the commerce OF
1.-THE world, is still rife among the countrymen of Eli
Whitney. In mathematics in mineralogy in geology,
and in chemistry the profound researches OF our conn-
ymen have added to the national character and nceas
ed the means of social happiness.
Tammeled by no letters Of ignorance Or superstition
dom into the glowing sunlight Of philosophy, as the
servant and interpreter of nature; he looks abroad into
the rich and magnificent universe, calls the delightful
scenery all his own--the mountains, the Valleys the
ocean, the rivers, and the sky through these wide
bounds he is free at will to choose
Whntecr bright spos the aord earth contains,
| Whateer the water or the ambient air.
All present him with perfect instances of the consum-
mate wisdom Of the Almighty God, who created world
SO fraught with beauty; and by their examination he
gains materials, which not only enghten and adorn but
exal and purify his mind teaching him to appreciate the
miraculous workings of an omnipoent and eternal
Power"
But confederate America after ALL is not yet century
old and is unjust, therefore, to her attain
ments by the rpened knowledge which with other ma
tons has been the accumulation OF centuries The first
condition of progress in every department of learning is to
appreciate its value and this condition, at least she has
generously fulfilled There is object of mental i'm
provement at all worthy of human pursuit. upon which,
in some form other she has not set the seal of her APP
prova; and her eevatien it should be remembered, is
not shown by the bright achievements of an isolated
GLASS; but by the liberal culture of whole people.
Without any deductions for her deficiencies, she has
done enough already 10 fix the gratitude of her citizens
and to challenge the admiration of the world And yet
she is but in the morning OF her existence; and bril-
liant Usher STAR has only entered upon the ad
ant career which it is destined under Providence yet to
accomplish Her population, her wealth, her intellect,
| nd her llpXVpr n NJ Them in
first development, and pressing forward to expan
sion whose majestic grandeur difficult for the mind to
realize. When consider her sparseness of popula
ton, her vacant territory her favored position, her
rivalled government and remember the momentum which
she has received from the past and the increased energy
which she must acquire from every succeeding step of
her onward march, ready to believe nothing i'm
possible in her future greatness.
II would be vain to expect that the work OF hu-
hands, requiring the agency of human means, should
attain successful results without sometimes exhibiting
the imperecons of its authors and the nrmties of their
| nature.
In the progress of our experiment Of self-government,
have encountered dangers which appeared to threaten
failure and which exultngy hailed by the enemies
OF freedom the sign that our federal Union the
prolific source of all our blessings would prove but
cessfully passed. Others must await us.
We know
" There is divinity which shapes our ends
Rough hew them as may
and we will not despair of the republics always remem
bcrng that If in the collisions of interests, the wicked
OF fanatcism, the phrenzy of party, to
those feelings OF aternal Affection orbearance, and
Citation, and 10 those great principles OF Justice and
spect for the rights all which animated our fathers we
MT If