Eastern times. [volume] (Bath, Me.) 1846-1857, 1853-05-12
MISC E LLAN N Y .
1776 and 1853.

This is fast age. We live at locomotive
speed. A century OF life is crowded into a
year. The last seventy years, almost equal
in rapid development of the race, any pre-
vious thousand years Of The worlds history.
A distinguished writer in the cause OF Liber-
ty, in the Revolution, when surveying our
country's future, then attempted 10 be chock-
ed TO death, by the red hand of british mon-
archy, said in effect, Never since the time OF
Noah, hath people been placed in our po-
sitlon. The future is in our hands, and we
have to begin the business of t0orld ane,D. =
Nobly has our country fulfilled this saying
of the prophetic writer Of the Reyolution.-
Let rs and SO stand lace 10 face for mo-
ment, and the world will be struck dumb by
the miracle of contrast which they present.
Or, to bring the matter home more palpably,
suppose Washington risen from his grave,
for little while, and enihroned on the high
est peak oi The AlIeghanies. surveying as with
a supernatural scope of vision, THE LAND,
from ocean 10 ocean, from northern SHOWS 10
the Gem Of the Antilles. What contrast
10 the days Of '76 would meet the gaze of the
great man In '76 the United States con-
sisted Of thirteen colonies pent up between
the Alleghanies and the Atlantic, with pop
uaIiOn Of barely three millions, struggling
for lile itself against the mos: powerful the
most brutal monarchy ofihe age.
ln 1858, the United States consists OF thir-
ty>one great Republics, cemented in indisso-
luble union, with a apopulation Of oftwenty-ive
millions; her vast territory fronts alike to-
ward the rising and the setting sun the At
lantic and the Pacific arc her eastern and
western boundaries, and as TO the northern
and southern boundrIes, they are not settled
yet; by no means finished Destiny will lake
care OF them. Washington risen from his
tomb, and surveying The land from its Top
most height, need not let his vision be check
ed by either Niagara Falls or The Gulf Of Mex.
lco there is great deal of Unitcd States get
70 come, beyond gulf and cataract. Niagara
Falls will yet sing the hymn of a republican
continent. Cell up Franklin, and let him
contrast the industrial resources Of '76 with
'53. We can imagine the stare of wonder
which would light up his hearty, good-hu.
mored face. 4 l.
In his day, one John Fitch, aimed the un-
extinguishable laughter of u crowd of mer-
chants and other respectable people assem-
bled on Philadelphia wharf, tried The ex-
pertinent of propelliDg boat by force OF
steam. In his day, also, Oliver Evans, anolh-
er madman of The Fitch stamp, amid the ply
or contempt Of all men OF common sense,
tried TO propel wagon, on the Lancaster
pike, (near PhladeIphia,) by the force OF
sleam,-succeeded, too,-but was set down
as a mere theorist and dreamer by all practl-
cal men. Well, Doctor, look over the land,
n0I0i The Continent IS net.worked with
iron ways The scream of the Locomotive
is heard every where,-it Is never silent, from
the Cataract 10 the Gulf And the Hudson,
the Ohio, the Mississippi, the ocean in the
east, and the ocean in the west, send up,
night and day, the smoke of The steamboat to
Heaven the very steamboat, Doctor, which
John Fitch, in imperfect form, tried one day
% the Delaware river, and in miniature up
on the New York Kolch. From the Aroos-
took TO the bay of San Francisco, Doctor, the
steam engine dumb matter fired into strong,
terrible life, at the command OF science--nev.
er rests, not for an hour, nay, not for a mo-
ment, out Of The twenty -four. Through the
still night you hear ils mighty breathings /;
its fires rise through the darkness from ocean
10 ocean; its iron tramp is never still upon
iron ways; and upon river and sea, its hoarse
anthem never dies. But, as If this was not
enough, Doctor, as if steam was not fast
enough for this hurrying age, here comes The
Ericsson, gliding up New York bay, With lis
new moter, destined TO dethrone steam even
as steam annhilated the Stage coaches, lum-
bering Wagons, and snail-lke moving hand
labor Of '76. +,..t..,....ii. .,........
Supposing that Franklin has learned noti-
ing since his transit 10 another sphere, (and