Weekly national intelligencer., 1851-04-26
NATIONAL INTELLIGENCER.
TO THE EDITORS.

III kindness 10 give place In your vauaole Journai
to my opening paper on the Anglo-Saxon Popula-
ton OF the Northern Temperate Zone of America,
YOU will herewith receive the enclosed in continu-
ance of the same most important subject. "If you
wish,'' said philosopher Of deep thought "to
scan the base Of character of any individual inquire
who and what were the characters OF those who
superintended his education" This advice may
have exceptions, but il is founded on general and
substantial truth. So is it with nations, and gives
substantial tenor to history. One age is the parent
of that which is to follow and therefore those who
set themselves to the task of inquiry into the causes,
character, and probable issue OF any great event,
must, TO ensure true responses, commence retro
spectively. The neglect of such antecedent ana
lysis has caused and perpetuaed the most egregous
mistakes as to the history Of our own country. 1t
cannot be deemed irrelevant to observe, at the out
set of this inquiry, that no great change in human
affairs can be sudden.
What we usually and very loosely call revolu-
ton is and cannot be other than the announcement
of fact; the electric exposition-the declaration
that the elements had been long in preparation Il
demands only candid review of the past to lead
us to the discovery that the present is the result Of
necessity but it also teaches US TO expect that
cause and effect will have like dependence in
futurity.
The elements propose to place before the pub
lie have been, in loose, irregular, and Of course
desultory Manner published in part through the last
thirty-6ve years. The main fact, in the laws OF
Nature, as influencing the engrouping of mankind,
the prevalence Of western winds over the whole
northern temperate, and, as far as man has been
able to penetrate, the northern frozen zone,
have as proper documents were attainabe, insert
ed in nv View of the United States, and in the
Philadelphia edition Of Brewster's Encyclopedias.
In both cases the document could scarcely be re-
garded as really published. 1t ought, in reality, to
be emphaticaly remarked that too little attention
has been directed to the most important of all phe-
nomena, aerial motion, on the history OF nations
on cause why, round the whole earth, IN the
northern temperate zone all the appendages Of CT
viization can be brought to operation twenty de-
grees OF latitude more northwardly on the western
than on the eastern borders of the two great CONT
nents But, as in our views on the future increase
and location of the people ofthe United States, and
the inevitable corresponding social and political in
fuence Of this people over the earth, we must give
due weight to natural laws we now proceed, 10 some
brief but necessary views Of history.
In A. D. 1900, not only America, but immense
regions beside, had been but recently discovered,
and were then in more or less rapid state of de-
velopment-as indeed was also the state of the
human mind. Itwas said, and that truly, that, pre-
vious TO the discovery and application to use Of
the art of printing, man had not "eifher looked
info the heaUens, the earth, or himself" That
art had been, when America was discovered, about
fifty years in use, and had already operated great
intellectual advances. II had supplied means Of
improvement beyond all that the most powerful
imagination could have anticipated. But the whole
tenor of contemporaneous history proves atmuch
had to be done. Great minds were rising human
reason was awakened; the sphere of action was
widening the expanse of Intellectual research was
no longer confined to the earth. The telescope
applied TO the heavens, and the mariners compass
to the earth, seemed by their joint influence to be-
stow ubiquity on man. Other Improvements fol-
lowed; amongst the most efficacious were numer-
GUS colonies founded in the recently discovered
countries. TO all purposes relevant to man the
sphere Of creation was enlarged. But facts, which
/ may mention, will show that much, indeed, had
to be oone to rouse the human mind from its long
aethargy.
The true astronomical system was not made
known to Europeans, by the work Of Copernicus.
until l543 fity-one years after the discovery OF
America by Columbus. In regard to mental i'm
proyement, as we may express 1t IN general terms,
the Italians were very far in advance OF any other
of the European nations when the art Of printing
came into use. In the practice OF navigation they
were the only nation of the southern part OF Eu-
rope, Or we hazard little in saying, of any part of
Europe, WHO pOSSeSSeu Hen CdpdUIc VI tllHcI CoH-
ceivng or Of conducting extensive voyages. When
the career Of discovery opened, the Italians gave
not only the most eminent but nearly all the early
great navigators, whatever other nations gave
them empoyment: such were Toscanelli, Verraz-
zano, Americus Vespucius, the Cabots, and, above
all, Christopher Columbus. These were the men
who opened the immense drama yet in action. In
the early dawn of this morning of discovery, there
was an exciting vagueness, not yet (l65l) entirely
dispelled. In every great movement OF mankind
there ever has been, and, to lead to any enduring
result, there ever must be- some all-pervading prin-
ciple of impulsion. Personal aggrandzeme Mt,
merging into national grandeur, has conducted the
vast, the vet unabated modern movement.
To scan effects, we must, however, revert to pri-
mary causes. Those who enjoy great estate
ought not TO forget the testator. When the age of
discovery commenced, what pervading power was
paramountin Europe? The Roman hierarchy which
ISSUED from and followed the Roman empire, was
then the real power, influencing and guiding human
action. This power has been much more talked OF,
written about praised and abused, than really un-
ders,ood. This system was essentially similar TO
all other institutions, by which one or a few men
reach irresponsible power, liable TO abuse, and it
was abused. But we ought TO pause and inquire
into the law Of compensations. We ought 10 sup
pose something inherently excellent in system
which formed the characters Of the men who open
ed the sublime drama Of the modern world. We
set an inapprecable value on the Greek and Roman
classics, and in still more sacred degree on the