The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1851-09-23
The visit of the President to Massachusetts,

n lew weeks since freSldent lLLMoRI
stood among the Wondering ruins which mark
the old site of Jamestown. The ancient grave
yard still encloses few monumental slabs with
efaced Inscriptions, covered with moss anu
crumblLng with time. A single tower OF
the old brick church, rendered picturesque in
its Plsinness by the overgrowing vines and ivy
presents an arched entrance TO the unroofed
and unwalled interior, choked with weeds and
shaded by the luxurant foliage of trees, seem
lngy of centuried growth. Here, over the
remains Of the small and feeble band of adven-
turers who planted the first white settlement
in VIRGINIA, less than two hundred and fifty
years before, stood the representative Of the
sovereignty Of twenty-five millions of people
We thought it was hardly possible to bring
the NOW and THEN into more striking and i'm
presslve contrast. IL the dust on which he trod
could have been reinvested with vitality and
the first tenant Of that green cemetery could
have reassumed the spirit in the flesh, and stalk
ed bodily by the side of the PRESIDENT the appa-
rition could hardly have suggested more vivid
train of reflection than was lighted by the mag
netic spark that, knowing neither time nor dis
lance, and running along the track Of centuries
as rapidly as it traverses the line of continent
connects the present with the past and the dis
'tant, and blends the impression Of the scene be-
fore us with the memories of buried empires and
ages.
But impressive as was the occasion to which
we refer, and vivid as was the picture of con
trast which 1t brought before u.s. we think the
recent exhibition in Boston might have called
up the same contrast still more strikingly, had
It not been that the shifting, glowing, active.
living drama before our eyes chained the facul-
ties TO the present, or with its rapid movement
hurried us into the future rather than the past
jamestown, in its silent ruins, relapsing into
the vegetable dominion which so recently pos
sessed an hemisphere, invited reflection, and re-
called whatwe utyesterday were. Boston, in its
commercial and manufacturing greatness, sug-
gested rather the emancipation of what we may be-
come to- morrow. In her streets, and in view of
the splendid pageants with which they have been
of late crowded, the minds eye looks forward
to the numbers numberless which our twenty
five million will have become two hundred
ward to that early day when the only type of
Anglo-Saxon civilization in the new world was
feeble, sick, wave-worn, and climate worn
colony on the banks of the river James. The
goodly company that dined in the big tent on
Boston Common on Friday last outnumbered
all the English colonsts who were in America
as recently as the year 1880. At the com
e. al, Al
laion of the colonies was less than that which
figured within the corporate limits Of Boston
during the three days of the celebration. And
now, from the banks Of the James. and the
shore of Massachusetts, Bay, the tide of people
and of civilization has rolled westward over halt
world, and the flag of the same mighty nation
that on the rock Of Plymouth braves the blasts
of the Atlantic, floats TRANQUILITY in the Pacific
breezes at the golden gate Of San Francisco
And to what have we been indebted for this
unparalleled progress And to what must we
look hereafter that our future may correspond
with our past7 What should we have been
to-day if Plymouth had remained separate
colony from Massachusetts, and New Haven
from Connecticut, and Providence from Rhode
Island; and Virginia, and New York, and South
Carolina mad remaiIed severed, and there had
been no concert, association, CO operation OF
these dependent colonies to rpen thereafter into
Confederacy Of States, and finally into more
perfect UNroN}
As we trace the rise aud progress of our
country from its first feeble beginnings TO its
present prosperity, power, and greatness. we
cannot fail To see that it is to that UNIoY we
are indebted for all that we are, and all that we
can hope TO be. To this conviction we attri-
butte the genial and generous enthusiasm with
which the citizens of MASSACHUSETTS have
welcomed among them the Chief Magistrate Of
their Republic. They have hailed him as the
type, the symbol, the representative of that
.,TIora.rrY which resides in thirty one States
md twenty-five millions q people. and have
ought 10 prove their devotion 10 the country
by their manifestations Of kindness, respect,
and cordial loyalty to the President.