Weekly national intelligencer., 1851-07-05
FRIDAY, JULY 4, 1851.
THE sEvENTY-FoURTH ANNIVERSARY

II is once more our pleasing task to congratulate
the readers of the Inteligencer, and all others who
love our common country, on the return of this our
National Birthday. Seldom, certainly, has it re-
turned bringing with it more welcome sources of
felcitation.
Milton tells US there is an angel in the sun. If
there be, we cannot but think his angelic nature
must have been conscious of augmented Joy as its
morning rays saluted, on this auspicious morning,
our Western shore. Angels, we are told from the
highest authority, hold lively sympathy with men; !;
and the fable, if fable it be, that every child born
into the world is made the peculiar charge Of one
of these heavenly guardians, receives heightened
beauty and dignity if extended TO nations, which, in
the Divine sight, are but as larger children, born
yesterday, and whose boasted antiquity is but as a
hands breadth before the Father of Eternity.
Has our land its Michael to defend, its Raphael
TO instruct and to preserve US! If so, we say
again there must have been joy among these,
celestial protectors, as this Anniversary Morn
ing dawned on free UNITED America How
many reasons crowd themselves on the mind in
confirmation Of the consoling thought If we ad-
vert to some of them, let it not be attributed to
boastful spirit. There is such thing as gratitude,
sober, rational gratitude to Heaven for benefits re-
ceived and the legitimate course to rouse that dor
mant virtue into action is not to deny, to under
value, to forget our blessings, but to call them up
before the mind in all their true and unexaggerated
extent. Americans have much to be thankful for ;
rhor;t hon
more appropriately give expression to the feelings
such remembrance should create, than on the ami
versary morning of our national birth Repress
them as we may, such feelings will have vent; and
could any of us stand on some lofty vantage ground
like that described by the poet, and with the eye
and piercing gaze Of Uriel, survey the assemblage
Of the American people this day, he would soon be
convinced how futile were the attempt to 81
ence the voice of the National exulta,ion. Let the
scoffer deride us if he will, and indulge superc-
lious smile at American vanity; had he an AMERI-
CAN HEART, he would know that sounds such as
those which vibrate this day on every plain, and
valley and hill, from the mountains to the sea, are
better calculated to prompt the warm big tear that
fills the patriots eye, than the simper Of self
blended with an ill.concealed pang OF
secret envy behind it.
Yes we rejoice in our land, if but physically
considered. In its position, midway between the
elder Continents, fitted and ready to receive the
commerce, and the maturer knowledge, of both:
in It's liberal endowment from boon Natures hand
with whatever can minister to human comfort,
adornment, or strength animal, vegetable, mineral,
all are here, and all in that exuberant, boundless
profusion which no expenditure can ever exhaust.
We rejoice in population, formed from the COM
bnaton and admixture of the best of other nations,
and blending, like the famed Cornthan brass, into
mixture superior, from its very composition to
either one of the metals out of which it was CON-
pounded a population tried in commerce, in art,
n science, and in arms, and found alike adapted to
hem all in population which, though spread
through all the zones, and born under every variety
If climate, soil, and physical condition, is marked,
nevertheless, with common national likeness,
lnmistaken and unmistakeable. We rejoice, too,
n the possession of a national mind, such as no
,ther circumstances could have formed mind
,orn late in the history of nations, and therefore
ler TO the experience and enriched by the accumu-.
ated knowledge of them all mind which takes
is start under advantages that never were or could
'e enjoyed by any other people.
We rejoice, again, in the effect of such popu-
alton and such common mind upon the vast
of natural material spread before it,
nd subjected to its freest, boldest, most unrestrc
d action. True, the process is but begun true,
We have, as it were, but commenced the conquest of
'ur own possessions but let any sober man con-
empate what has been already achieved, and
Measure the achievement, not by the centuries but
~ the years it has thus far occupied, and then let
lin, in all fairness and soberness, say whether we
'an be justly accused of exulting without cause.
from what point shall we contemplate the won
lrous scene! Shall it be from the Alleghanies
These were once our western barrier, and he
Who passed it was deemed an adventurous wan
lerer, plunging into boundess wilderness. But
What are they now! Peaks on the Atlantic bor-
Ter, with teeming swelling empire beyond. The
heights of the Rocky Mountains themselves are
asst losing their far vest associations, and seem
advancing towards the centre of the Republic. An
observer may almost hear the roar of either ocean,
ninging as faint and far off murmurs on his ear
md while his peering gaze beholds on one side
he neighboring pole, he may almost see the sink
ng Corderas expire at the Gulf, and the eternal
andes stretch beneath the line. And all this free
he chosen home of freedom And all these diverse,
stinct, Independent, emulating realms blended and
ind nlt1hl into