The daily national Whig. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1847-1849, 1849-02-12

o. The President EJECT left Nashville
on the 9Th inst, and would reach Louisville
yesterday evening if nothing occurred to
hinder the progress Of the boat
GUIzoT's NOTION OF WARRINGTON.
Guizot, since his expulsion from France
by an indignant people, over whom he at
tempted TO tyranize afterthe manner Of Rich
ellen, has been engaged in writing about
Washington
He says Of Washington, that she founded
the political liberty, at the same time as
the national indie pendence Of his country"
This will be news to the American people,
and if Washington were living, il would be
new, to him, too,
1t seems to be utterly impossible for Eu-
ropeans to understand American liberty -
They Judge Of it as thing which, they
think must have OF necessity some resem-
blance to European liberty, and hence the
errors Of their opinions and views Of it
American liberty is a system Of laws and
constitutions which spring from the consent
Of the governed and which are the express
sion Of the general sentiment obtained in a
direct form through the representatives otthe
people European liberty is the mere re-
Taxation Of the will Of the governing power,
which claims to rule the people through dr.
vine right. The former is the act of the
people, the latter is the act of the usurper
The idea Of American liberty is, that all
governing power derives its existence from
the consent Of the governed. That Of Eat
ropean liberty is, that it is boon granted by
the Governor Hence we read in European
writers Of one man founding political liber-
ty, founding national independence.
No one man founded political liberty in
America, no one man founded its national
independence. These works were the rich
fruits of seed-time, in which every man,
woman, and child in the American colonies
took an active part, in which every man,
woman, and child labored diligently for near
two hundred years before the harvest was
ready for the sickle. Guzot, with all his
wisdom, does not understand the first princl-
pie Of American liberty. 1t, however, re-
fleets no discredit upon his mind. True lib
erty is not thing to be learned by the ap-
plication Of the individual mind. 1t must
be born with US, must grow up with US, must
be a part of our existence 1t is not to be
wondered at, that Frenchman cannot APP
pIeciate American liberty, when an Eng
lishman fails to understand it. The harvest
Of American liberty would have beenreaped in
l775, and would have been gathered and gar
nered in the seven years war that followed, il
Washington had not lived, il none Of his com
peer,hadlived, Neither w ashington nor they
were necessary to the great work. The
work itself, the spirit Of the people Of ths
American colonies, brought him and then
upon the stage, and if they had not beer
among men, others would have been raised "
to meet the emergency. God was in thi;
thing Of American liberty, as he is in all things
His instruments were present, and they
obeyed, in all things they did, the prompt
ness and impulses that governed and stimu-
lated forward the handful Of colonists, who
threw of the yoke Of bondage and asserted
the principles Of true human government SCI
forth inthe act declaring their independence
Washington founded not American liberty
founded not the national independence o
America, The people of the American
colonies did this work, and Washington wa.
only the representative Of their power, Tha
he was pre-eminent among the eminent, both
in counsel and in the field, is true, bu
American liberty is not the work Of his wis
dom or Of his acts 1t is the work, we re-
peat, Of the whole American people, wht
spoke their thoughts and resolves through
him They founded their own political lib
srty, their own national independence, ant
have maintained both ever since and main
tain both at the present time