The republic., 1851-01-02
Reported for The Pennsyluanian.

sfssippt,
Delivered in the Medical Fund Hall, Monday
Eueaing, December 30h, TO aid in rebuilding the
SOutttoaTk Church.
II was at quite early period of our colonial his
tory that the necessity for close, firm, and frater
nal Union among the numerous but distinct Anglo
American settlements scattered along the line OF
our Atlantic coast from Massachusetts TO G eorgia,
began not only TO be seriously felt, but TO be pub
licly acknowledged To illustrious citizen of
Philadelphia, to him whose
-"quiet memory climbs to Heaven,
Calming the lightning which he thence hath riven,
Or drawing from the no less kindled earth,
Freedom and peace TO that which boasts his brth'
to your own beloved and venerated Franklin, was
America indebted for the irst regular proposition
OF a general Union of the colonies II was as a re-
preventative OF Pennsylvania, i'll Congress which
held its session in the city of Albany, In the year
l774. that DIR. Franklin brought forward his Plan
OF Colonial Union, which received the unanimous
sanction Of that enlightened body. This plan was
unfortunately defeated IN the end, in consequence
of the unexpected and iberal opposition Of the Bri
tish Government. When, few years later, our
wise and valiant forefathers were compelled, by
long course OF tyrannous and cruel oppression, to
for the vindicaton of their rights and
liberties, the expediency of adopting compact Of
Union, which should embrace all the colonies who
might be inclined to become parties TO it, and be,
at the same time, of character in the hlghes
degree solid and permanent, was universally per-
ceived by those sage and sagacious men to whose
direction the destinies OF the new republic were
at this crisis fortunately conhded. The
first decisive movement in the Continental Con-
gress towards the attainment Of this important OBJ
Iect ID understood 10 have been that OF The great
parsonage already named, who, as early as the
month of July, IT'S, submitted ''artcles of Con-
federation and perpetual Union" TO the considera-
ton OF that body, into which not only all the Brit
ish Colonies on the Continent were to be admitted,
but Ireland and the West India Islands also. The
articles of Confederation which finally adopt
ed, provided in express terms, for the establish
ment of perpetual Union;" and when these arti-
cles were supplanted by the present Federal Con-
sttulon, the trainers OF the latter instrument-
shortly to become the new organic law of the Re-
publc-took especial pains to declare in the pre-
ambe the reof, in the most formal and striking
manner that of their chief objects in setting
foot the frame of Government which they had 30
deliberately constructed, was ''to form more per-
feet Union" than that which had previously existed
under the Confederation. The Convention 10 whose
labors the Federal Constitution, we know to
have acted under the authority Of special act Of
Congress, which explicitly sets forth the purposes
held in view in calling that body together, and
which appear to have been the creation OF "a firm
National Government, and ''the preservation of
the Union'-the manifold blessings OF which had
been too sensibly felt not be cordially appre-
ciated. Ii cannot but be well known To all whom
l now behold before and around me, that, in
1887, there were, as now, many persons of no in:
considerable influence, who were openly in favor
of dissolvipg the Union, then subssting; and that
great efforts made by the secessionists of that
day to induce their fellow citizens generally to
which id been brought into existence avowedly
as a plan Of mutual concession and compromise OF
that plan Washington Id known to have thus writ
ten, short time alter is adoption: "There are some
things in the new form, will readily acknowledge
which never did, and, am persuaded, never will,
obtain my cordial appreciation; but did then con-
slider, and do now most firmly believe, that in the
aggregate it is ths best Constitution, that be
obtained at this epoch, and that this dissolu-
ton awaits choice, and is the only alterna-
tive" Again, he says: lit appears to me little
short of miracle, that the delegates from 10
many States different from each other In their
manners, circumstances, and prejudices, should
unite In system OF National Government
so little liable to well ll-founded objections. Nor
am yet such an enthusiastic, partial, or
undiscriminate admirer of it, not per-
ceve it is tnctured with some real though not
radical defects" Doctor Franklin. in short
speech delivered by him towards the close of the
Convention, had said 81 consent to this Constitu-
ton, because expect no better, and because am
not sure il is not the best The opinions have had
Of its errors sacrifice to the public good" Such
profound and practical men as Washington and
Franklin did not think of looking Tor absolute per-
fection in aught of human design workman
ship; they knew how to make discreet and liberal
allowance for conflicting opinions, for sectional
jealousy, and the thousand other influences
favorable to wise and wholesome legislation, which
must necessarily to some extent prevail in a de-
Lucrative assembly like that of which they had
been members. 1t was not for such men as these,
(hke certain fierce political optmists OF the pre-
sent day,) to denounce in terms of unmeasurod
rel rotation great scheme OF adjustment and
compromise, because it did not precisely harmo
Mise in all respects with their own particular views
of public policy. The Union was greatly too valu
able in their estimation, and far too dear to their
hearts, to be given up inconsiderately, in order
TO crafty the idle whim of the moment or to
secure the temporary triumph Of faction. They
recoected too well and painfully, the precious
blood which had been shed, and the toll which had
been encountered, and the treasures which had
been expended, revolutionary struggle
k,A ha.,,
III that struggle for america, and for the iDorld
They were lovers OF order, friends to social con-
cord, and opposed to anarchy and civil strife
They imper fec tons in the Constitution, and
they did not undertake to deny their existence;
bat they satisfied that the refusal to ratify il
on the part of the States, would be followed by the
dissolution Of the Union; and this they held to be
the greatest evil which could possibly befall the
country. Accordingly, they exertcd themselves,
Gas have of late the champions of the scheme of
compromise which has been recently adopted by
Congress,) to suppress excitement to stifie agita-
ton, and TO quiet the country. Tney urged their
countrymen TO accept the plan Of the Convention,
and utterly disregard those sedtous disclaimers
who were openly seeking notoriety and conse-
quence by the destruction of civil institutions,
which they either had not sufficient intellect TO ap
preciate, or sufficient virtues to respect.
Mr.. Madison, in the 37th number of the Fede-
ralis, in combating the quibbling obectors of that
period who insisted upon the rejection of the Con-
stitution because it was not, in their estimation,
perfectly faultless model of employed
language which it would be well if certain hyper
critical gentlemen who now laboring to per-
petuate dissension and discord among would
dispassonately )nsder Z" Would il be wonder
full" says he, elf, under the pressure of all these
difficulties, the Convention should have been forced
into some deviation5 from that artificial structure
and that regular symmetry which an abstract view
OF the subject might lead an ingenious theoris to
bestow on constitution planned in his closet or in
his imagination. The real wonder is that 80 many
difficulties have been surmounted, and surmounted
with an unanimity almost as unprecedented as 1t
must have been unexpected. IL tisimpossble for any
man of candor to reflect this circumstance with
out partaking of the astonishment. 1t is impossi-
bic for the of pious reflection to perceive
in it finger of that Almighty hand which has been
30 frequently and signaly extended to our relief in
the critical stages of the Revolution.
''The history of almost all the great councils and
consultations, held among mankind for recon
cling their discordant opinions, assuaging their
mutual jealousies, and adjusting their respective
interests, is history OF factions, contentious, and
disappoinments, and may be classed among the
most dark and degraded pictures which display
the intirmities and depravities of the human cha
racter. II in few scattered instances, brighter