The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1850-08-03

dian Appropriation bill.
The growth of this Republic, with its unva-
ried characteristics of strength and stability,
constitutes phenomenon which to European
| eyes is startling and inexplcable. Our exist
| ence as a nation belongs to a new volume in
| history and it requires for its record more am
| pie pages than were needed for the annals of
| antiquity. Of all people we shall probably be
the last to philosopher upon the true meaning
of our position among the nations of the world
We shall go on solving problems and giving
demonstrations of longvexed questions, social
and political, without taking particular notice
that we are doing any thing of an extraordinary
kind. The spirit Of mighty Future is our in
spiration, and with sublime indifference we
tread the path of the Present, looking forward
to something so great that every thing achieved
now seems of small account, except in so far as
it is preparatory to greater things yet to be &C
complished.
An intelligent writer in one of the French
reviews has devoted an elaborate article OF es-
say to the subject Of American history and pro-
gress. The tendency to generalization, SO com
mon among the literary men of France, is not
wanting in this disquistion--a tendency, we
may remark, which often INDUCES itself with
out a sufficient basis of facts to warrant such
generalized conclusions as speculative philoso-
piers are very apt to delight in. We quote
from the review as follows:
What is America to become, 1t is not difficult
| l.-s.a zaI -,
Europe! The space comprised between the Allie
! ghancs, parallel to tho Atlantic and the Rocky
Mountains, parallel to the Pacific, is as it is we'll
known, six times larger than France If to this
il added the three hundred and ninety leagues of
the old States and the new territories acquired re
! Gently from the Rocky Mountains TO the sea, i'm.
aginaton itself Is astonished at these proportions
1t is the tenth part Of the whole globe. Thus the
American does not zee his country from the belfry
| but in the race and society TO which he bclongs
! The inhabitant Of New York goes without trouble
! TO New Orleans, and the Louisanian easily becomes
acclimated in Kentucky. Provided you leave him
| those laws and manners which permit him the free
| development of his American strength, he is happy
! he feels that he makes part Of grand organic
! and harmonious body. Laws soil, country, man.
ners, membranes, desires, institutions, pride
passion, qualities-all is in harmony. The partial
as solid and az stable az the best organized
States; they have their roots in the souls Of the
| people, and their sap in the habits of the com
munity. Obscure yesterday marching with a
bold step in the unknown, America cares little for
| the present. the future is her own. One fact gov
her whole life; il is expansion, activity, ener
| gy, tendency to variety, the go-sheadism. Her
moral yigor, identical in its causes, and in its
sence, with the internal strength Of Rome under
| the Scpos, Of France under Louis XIV, Of Spain
under Isabella, Of England since the Georges
| moves in a space far more vast. The American
soul, profoundly identified with the institutions Of
| the country, desires only what and must re-
suit from the institutions and the national
manners. Everywhere people work, live at hotels,
narry young, are fond Of adventures, are not much
afraid Of bankruptcy, or danger, or even death,
and they certain that there will be always land
enough for a courageous American.
ITO this vast social experiment, Of which the
United States is the work shop. must be added the
physical experiment that nature is necessarily
| rying on. The rivers change their beds Niagara
is reccding the forests fall prairics burn up, the
| temperature becomes by degrees mider and more
| temperate the miasma which exhale from newly
stirred soil lose their morbid power, the means Of
subsistence increase, the population doubles every
twenty years, and it is yet only preparatory
work The heroic age, the epoch Of war announces
itself; this strong race which absorbs many Others
is far very far from having filled up its borders,
from Russian America and the Samoyedes to the
/ Isthmus Of Panama.
"The tendencies Of North America are, then, to
| conquest on the one parton the other, to the
| panson Of the fcderative groups; and not in any
manner as some English travellers seem TO be-
! lievc, TO the transformation Of republics into
arches. The breaking up Of the confederated
States into two or three groups is probable, when
the whole shall be composed Of fractions too nu-
mcrous and too powerful for the borders destined to
enclose them. Already the inhabitants Of the Mis-
sissipp have some inclination TO detach themselves
from the States which form the Atlantic border.
Texas, California, and Oregon, yet too little civ
ilized, and with too small n population TO be Of
much account, will make another sphere which
| will be formed in the Union.
at IL possible that Cuba, Florida, New Orleans,
Carolina, and all the valley Of the Mississippi, will
unite together; that the old non slavehoding
Staies Of the north ~neluding Canada, will consti.
tute second group; and the third, sterile In part
but powerful on tho other hand from the mines Of