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

higher publications. yet its agency there is the
side OF virtue and in favor of liberty Were it left to
have government without newspapers, or newspapers
without government. would not hesitate moment to
prefer the latter Paradoxical this may seem, can
be doubted that no government be maintained in
the spirit of liberty and purity, without the Christening in
fuences OF the newspaper press.
1t sometimes said that rich OF instruction is
closed to us, because America has monuments and
by this it is meant that she is not yet marked with the
decay OF age and the ravages OF tme the assertion IS
strictly true. But unless ruin is more desirable than
greatness and the dim figures OF antiquity more precious
than the fresh and glowing forms of youth this feature OF
her character is rather her glory than her reproach The
monuments Of America are not found in the scattered
fragments OF the dusty past but point all of them to the
rising grandeurs OF The far offuture and while older
lions look back through the twilight of ages that lose
forth in the dawn OF morning. meet and welcome the
approach OF day. No feuda castles crumbng upon our
hills, attest the ancient violence OF robberords and not
for do the glorious relics OF anobe ancestry bear wit
ness in buried columns and broken arches to the degen
crate spirits of their unworthy sons but in place these,
and far better than these our landscapes with
contented homes, we build affairs to science by the
hearthstone of every citizen, and with the spires OF
thousands OF churches we point our children the path to
Heaven While we can preserve, unlmPared to our
need ask no other support for our institutions and no
other witnesses to our fame.
| To the Of instruction which have been already
mentioned, should do wrong not to add that other and
peculiar education which springs from the very working
of our republican system, and from which member of
Under policy, every citizen is part OF the govern
ment and of its most important duties perod
cay deyolved upon him, both by law and by necessity
He yields the power of the elective franchise and deter
mines by his vote the choice alike of measures and Of
mennot only mho shall rule HIM, but achat shall rule
him he sits in the nry-box and the fortune the fame,
nay the very life of his neighbour rest upon his decision
he is called as Witness and is to give true test
mony questions involving the deepest interests and the
most important results by the suages OF his fellow
citizens. he is clothed with still greater trusts, and
sumes responsibilities which belong only 10 the highest
stations in the gift of the people sovereign in his
right the symbols Of his authority are thus constantly
before his eyes; and from every exercise OF his
power, the American citizen derives fresh excitement to
his intellect and increased dignity to his character In
all his public acts the double motive presses upon him TO
ensure reward and to avoid disgrace. Under free gov
ernment, he knows full well that, with intelligence and
fidelity there are no plaudits which he may not win and
prizes of ambition which are above his reach while,
the other hand, nowhere else is corruption
sable and ignorance wholly out of place. In other
countries where passive obedience is the fruit of despo
educated princes but the genius OF institutions
templates no such thing as an ignorant man, and deems
itself defrauded OF its Just claims when it finds citizen
fahless to his duty The large requirements, therefore,
OF American politics, which with superficial observers
the subject OF hasy regret constitute IN reality one OF the
most valuable features OF our republican SYSTEM most
ailuent source OF ennobng instruction, and tend with
inevitable certainty not only to increase the popular in
teigence but to give energy expansion and elevation
elusive devotion to personal pursuits not the most ia
vorabe elements either for great conceptions or dstn
guished action. The highest heroism, the contrary,
springs from the strongest excemens and the period of
revolution is also the period of awakened genius. The
same which break up ancient abuses in society,
break up, with equal efficacy old absurdites in science
and in art and from the sti-heaving waves OF tumut
and reform, emerge side by side the warrior, the states
map, the orator, and the poet The sublime productions
OF Milton had their birth in the same times which pro-
duced the stormy character of Oliver Cromwell and the
harsh passionate voice OF the soened to
ears by the lofty melody Of the other. Amid the fierce
passions and new found energies OF revolutionary
| kran and RDIprrn
the rising fortunes OF the man of destiny And after
commissions, such the earth has rarely SEEM Napoleon
upon the stage prepared for him. and writes his
name in iron characters not only upon the history OF u
rope but upon the very forehead Of the world The ex
perience of modern times is confirmed upon this subject
was everywhere the dwelling place of letters and we
read the examples OF successful genius, not among the
subjects Of desotc Babylon but among the democracy
of Athens There no literary fame, even in Greece,
until the opened of her republican principles but
then she became the machess land of civilization and
refinement.
Where science struck the thrones earth and heaven,
| Which shook but fell not and the harmonious mind
| Poured itself forth in all prophetic song,
And music lifted up the listening spirit,
| Until it walked exempt from mortal care,
| Godlike, DER the clear pillows Of sweet sound
And human hands first mimicked, and then Knocked
| With moulded limbs, more lovely than its own,
| The human form, till marble grew divine"
And the literature of Greece prove forever the kind
ling influences OF Grecian liberty
But as people continue indefinitely in state Of
revolutions these exctaons of the popular mind in other
ages and other countries, always producing the same no
BILE fruits, have after brief and brilliant reign been
invariably followed by the paalyzng topor OF despotlsm
1t was reserved for happy country to devise sys
tem--our own incompatible federatye system-whch,
with the liberazing influences OF the Christian religion in
freedom and in purity, is constantly instrucng and slim
uatng the popular mind and developing all the energies
of nature Ii is problem successfully worked out,
which Justly commands the admiration of the world,
equally suspicious to literature and to liberty and prom
ises blessings to mankind which the human imagination
can hardly conceive "At this moment the disastrous
and ominous condition of Europe, which men OF phio
sophica inquiry and reflection begin to ascribe to nvete
rate, radical, and permanent evils OF political and social
systems but renders vivid and dazzling the bright
aspects of manifold prosperity" But this is not the
occasion to pursue this train of thought.
Devoted in patriotism, and ready 10 act on the
BILE princple-satus rc,pubf'c9 Supremd feIour coun-
trymen have yet neglected nothing which calculated
to adorn domestic life and promote individual happiness
Female education has, therefore, always been subject OF
primary attention.
Elevated to her appropriate position in society; ad6rn
ed refined, and accomplished by careful instruction, the
american is the happy companion OF the Aneri-
reeman-gaddenng his heart by her smile of conf
public duty by her voice of counsel and appreciation.
Glorious institutions their fruit would have
turned to ashes, without the lovely association of the
softer sex, fitted by education be the FRIEND the joy
the pride of American patriots.
If country, from the very nature OF its government
demands much OF its citizens, let remember that it
makes them capable of doing much and that by giving
to them the stimulus and nurture Of free institutions
places within the reach of the most humble, the
highest aalnmens of learning and the nobes achieve
ments OF mind.
The value of this nurture and of this stimulus is but at
tested by the great results which they have already
pshed and thus measured by the standard OF results,