The daily republic. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1853-1853, 1853-08-04

The discovery itself of the American continent
may, think, fairly bs considered the most extra
ordinary event in the history of the world. In
this, in other cases, familiarity blunts the edge
of our perceptions; but much as have meditated,
and often AZ have treated this theme, its magni-
tude grows upon me with each successive contem-
plation. That continent nearly as large as Eu-
rope and Africa united--spread out on both sides
of the equator--lyinQ between the western shores
Of Europe and Africa and the eastern shore of
Asia, with groups Of islands in either ocean, as it
were stopping plnces on the march Of discovery
a continent not inhabited, indeed, by civilized
races, but still occupied by one of the families of
rational man--that this great hemisphere, / say,
should have laid undiscovered for five thousand
years upon the bosom of the deep--a mystery SO
vast, within so short distance, and yet not found
OUTS indeed marvel. Mute nature if | may so
express myself, had made the discovery to the
philosopher, for the preponderance of land in the
eastern hemisphere demanded a counterpoise in
the west. Dark-wooded trees had drifted over the
sea and told of the tropical forests where they
grew Stupendous ocean currents, driven west
ward by the ver-breathing trade-winds had
coast, and returned to Europe with tidings of the
everlasting breakwaters which had stopped their
way. But the fulness of time had not yet come.
Egypt and Assyra, and Tyre and Carthage, and
Greece and Rome must flourish and fall, before
the seals are broken. The ancient civilization
Yes, and more. Nature must unlock her rarest
mysteries; the quivering steel must learn to trem-
BILE to the pole, the Astrolabe must climb the arch
of heaven; science must demonstrate the sphe-
richly of the earth, which the ancients suspected
but could not prove; the press must scatter the
flying of medieval darkness; the creative in
stincts of a new political, intellectual and social
life must begin to kndle into action and then the
great discOverer may go forth. F'&t
He does go forth. The discovery is made; the
balance of the globe is redressed. A continent
nearly equal in extent to one-half the ancient
hemisphere is brought to light What momen-
| tous questions present themselves Another
world! Is it q twin sister Of the ancient world
1t has mountains, and rivers, and lakes, and for
ests; but does it contain the homes Of man--of
cultivated races, who have pursued, independent
lily of their Eastern brethren, separate, perhaps
higher paths of civilization? In word, has the
great cause of humanity made an Immediate gain
by the wonderful event which has added SO much
to the geography of the world as before known?
The first contact answered these questions in
the negative. The native aces-apparently in
capable of assimilation--seemed doomed by
mysterious Providence to pass away. The Spa
niard came upon them, borne on winged mon
sters, as they thought, from beyond the sea; ca
reering on strange NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. and rider,
as they supposed forming but one animal; and
he advanced under cover of that fearful ordnance
which they COMPOUNDED with three-bolted artillery
brought them death.
| Those that escaped have borrowed little from
us but the poisoned cup--the loathsome malady--|
the murderous weapon. The skies are mild. the
soil is fertile, there every variety of climate
boundless theatre for human enjoyment and ac-
tion--but the appointed agent was not there.
Over the greater part of the new-found continent,
society, broken down by eternal wars between
neighboring tribes, at once in its decreptude and
infancy had not yet risen to the pastoral stage
Nature, in fact, had not bestowed upon man the
mute but faithful partners of his toil-the horse,
the OK the sheep, and other still humber associ-
ates, whose aid (did we but know it) lies at the
basis of his civilization; who furnish SO much of
his food and clothing-meat, milk, eggs, and wool
and skins, and relieve his weary muscles of their
heaviest burdens. There is no civilized popula-
ton to stand up and enter into equal comparison
and generous rivalry with Europe. The discov
erer has come; but the settler, the colonist, the
conqueror- ALAS, that | must add, too often the
oppressor and destroyer-are to follow in his train.
By these various agencies-joyous and sorrowful-
through these paths of triumph and woe-the cul-
ture Of the old world, in the lapse of successive
generations, reformed of its abuses, enriched with
new arts, animated by a broader spirit of humani-
| ty--transferred from the privileged few to the
mass of the community-is to be reproduced and
perfected in the West.
need not say to this company, assembled on
the shores of the haven for which SO many noble
hearts on that terrible voyage throbbed with sick
ening expectancy-tha quiet haven where the
Mayfiower filrled her tattered sails-that great
er, a nobler work was never performed by man.
Truly the opus n,agn,.,n, the great work of hui
mainly. You bid me speak Of that portion of it
which devolved on the Pilgrims. Would to Heaven
l could find words to do Justice even to my own
poor conceptions, and still more that could find
conceptions not far below the august reality. A
mighty work of improvement, in which (not to
speak of what has been done to other portions of
An 49, k.t
saw, has multiplied herself into the thousand YES
sells that bear the flag of the Union to every sea
has scattered her progeny through the land to the
number of nearly a quarter of million for every
individual in that dropping company of one hum
dred; and in place of the simple compact, which