The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1851-07-21

amins--finds itself attached to the helm Of pro-
yress, and is directing its luminous course
towards lands hitherto unknown, to occupy and
cultivate them. This race 10 confident in its
destiny. lts language must become the living
language Of mankind. Its moral energies out
strip that Of other races and, with liberty for its
watchword, it is awakening up the nations with
new ideas, and shaking tyranny on lis throne
from the Hellespont to the Pillars Of Hercules
There is something so wonderful in this pos
sessing Of new world-there is something so
remarkable in the boldness and irresistible en-
ergy with which this tide of men is rising above
and oyerstepping the boundaries which it had
marked out for itself, by impulses and moral
currents beyond the control Of law, that the Old
World, with its respect and vencration for au-
thority, stands curious and apprehensve, lest the
wide ocean should at length be insufficient to
contain this movement Of Western humanity.
The prosecuted and the rejected of Europe,
have found the promise land America is des-
tined to renovate the earth.
Progress has been westward From the
eastern shores Of the Mediterranean, the civil
cation, the morals, and the religions of Asia and
Egypt have been transported by colonies to
Greece, to Italy, to Spain, and to the southern
coasts of France.
The love of liberty, and hatred of persecution
and tyranny, have ever led to coonizing distant
lands. Asiatic emigrations founded Greece.
Grecian emigration to Italy laid the foundation
of Roman liberty; and Roman conquest and
colonization laid the foundation of those lber-
ties in western Europe, which centuries of bar
barian invasion, and centuries of barbarian su-
perstition, were never able entirely to obiterate
Liberty struggled in Italy in opposition to the
Of the northerns; and with such
undying energy, that while Europe lay pros
trate at the feet of superstition, protected
by the sword of the Hun, and the Goth,
and the Saxon, republics sprang up there on
every hand, and saved civilization, truth, and
progress.
The intelligence and the morale Of the
Asiastic inspired the Greek, and made him the
child, greater than the parent. The intelligence
and morale Of the Greek created the Roman.
And the mental energy Of the latter soon made
him triumph over the barbarians, who had over
whemed and broken up his divided and totter
ing government 1t was Roman intelligence
1t was the activity of the Roman mind, that
alone shone forth in the darkness of the middle
ages, and preserved what little learning remained
in Europe.
Italy, all this time, remained the centre of at
traction. Rome was as completely master Of
Europe, many centuries after the overthrow of
her imperial power, as she had ever been be-
fore; and to this day her destiny is to govern
spiritually over the majority Of those whose an
cestors owed her temporal allegiance.
The difference between her first And her Sc
eond influence is, however, great and remark
abe. BY the first, she carried the love of lib
erty and her institutions to every corner Of
Europe. BY the second, she preserved knowl
edge, while she strove to perpetuate ignorance
among the masses-and kept herself in power
by iattering the passions and ambitions of bar
barian conqrerors and chieftains
Italy had still remnants Of free institutions
and the memory of loved liberty. She re.
gained them, and maintained them for ages
With her gold she kept in pay many Thousands
Of foreigners. These, and the multitude o
travellers who visited her from all parts, re
turned home with new and more liberal ideas
acquired by serving republics, and by observin!
their independence of ecclesiastical authority
Hence, gradually sprung up in Europe .thos
cries for reform, and those demands for mum
cipal liberty, which by degrees shook both tn
spiritual and temporal power all over Europe
and brought about that great revolution in favo
of liberty of conscience, which goes by the name
of the reformation.
In all this, we see the same influences a,
work. And we find the northern races invigor-
ated by the moral energy of the Roman race
re-acquiring their independence and manifest.
ing in due time, its mental power and accom-
plishments.
Ia Spain, the effort for moral liberty wa.
crushed, and the old authority held its stringent
sway even more tenaciously and oppressively
than before. The spectre of moral liberty in
spired terror that led TO fearful prosecutions
and civil broils. In France the struggle was
still more violent and uncertain, bat ended as in
Spain. In Germany, success was partial; but
her continental position left her populations
in check from military power. In England, al
most alone, and favored by good fortune moral
liberty was 80 far triumphant, as TO bay the
foundation for new energy in man, that will
probably be undying
Thus, in glancing over the worlds modern
history, we see in the colonies disseminated
throughout the earth's surface, fruits of the fear
ful struggle at home Spain, with her anti
quated institutions, has only sown weakness
and decay. France, with all her independence
and energy, has lost her plantations in the deepe
interests arising out Of the struggles for ibert,
lin n mora unsatisfactory form.l which She ha