The daily republic., 1853-08-24

geration only. Young America 10 very honest
fellow-he means well, but like other young folks
he is sometimes little too much in hurry. He
needs the curb occasionally, as we old ones, per-
haps, still more frequently need the spur. There
is principle of progress in the human mind-in
all the works Of men, 8 hands-in all associations
and communities, from the village club to the en-
pire that embraces a quarter of tho human race
in all political nstitutons-in art, literature, and
science-and most especially in all new countries,
where it must, from the nature of the case be tho
leading and governing principle. Who can COM
pare the modern world its condition, its arts, its
institutions, with the ancient world and doubt
this: the daily newspaper, smoking every morn
ing from hundred presses, with strip of hero
gyphcs on the side Of an obelisk, perplexing the
world with its dubious import, and even that
found out within the last thirty years; the ocean
steamer with the row galley, creeping timidly
round the shore; the railways in the United States
alone, without mentioning those Of Europe, with
those famous Roman paved roads, the Appian and
Flaminian way, to which the orator alluded
which our railroads exceed ten-fold in extent, to
say nothing Of their superiority in every other
spect, us a means Of communication; the printing
press, driven by steam with the scribe q toilsome
pen; the electric telegraph, with the mail coach,
the post horse, the pedestrian courier; and above
all, representative republican confederacy, ex-
tending over a continent, with feudal despotism
building palace on the necks Of a people, or a
by public largess deeming all labor servile, ostra-
cisng its good men, insulting and expressing its
allies, and rending its own vitals, within the Cir
cult of the city walls to which it was confined
who, SAY, can make this comparison, and doubt
that the principle of progress is deeply seated
in our nature as the principle Of conservatism, and
that true practical wisdom and high national
policy reside in the due mixture and joint action
Of the two? 73 llg 5ss37Gsr 5gE
Now, sir, this was the wisdom of the men of rs.
This is the lesson of the Fourth of July this is the
oracle which speaks to us from the shrines Of this
consecrated hall If we. study the writings of the
men of that day, we find that they treated the
cause of civil liberty not only as one of justice and
right, of sentiment and feeling, but also Of
history and tradition, of charters and laws. They
not only looked to the future, but they explored
the past. They built wisely and skilfully, in such
sort that after times might extend the stately front
of the temple of ffreedom and enlarge its spacious
courts, and pile its stories, arch above arch, gal
lery above gallery, to the heavens; but they dug
the foundation deep down to the eternal rock; the
town, the school, the militia, the church---thOse
were the four corner stones on which they reared
the edifce. 6 G5 .
If we look only at one part of their work-if we
see them porng over musty parchments by the
midnight lamp--citing the year books against
writs of assistance -disputing themselves hoarse
about this phrase in the charter of Charles the
First, and that section in a statute of Edward the
most bgoted conservatives that ever threw drag
chain round the limbs of young and ardent peo-
pie. But, gracious heavens, look at them again,
when the trumpet sounds the hour of resistance;
survey the other aspect of their work. See these
undaunted patriots in their obscure caucus gath
erings in their town meetings. in their provincial as
semblies, in their Continental Congress, breathing
defiance to the British Parliament and the British
throne March with their raw militia to the conflict
with the trained veterans of the seven years war.
Witness them, group OF colonies extemporlzed
into confederacy, entering with calm set-pos-
session into alliance with the Oldest monarchy in
Europe, and occupying as they did a narrow belt
of territory along the coast thinly peopled, par
tally cleared hemmed in by the native savage,
by the Alleganies by the Ohio, and the lakes.
behold them, dilating with the grandeur of the
position, radiant in the prospective glores of their
career, casting abroad the germs of future inde-
pendent States, destined, ut no distant day, not
merely to cover the face of the thirteen British
colonies, but to spread over the territories of
France and Spain on this continent-over Flori-
da and Louisiana,-over New Mexico and Califor-
nia-beyond the Mississippi, beyond the Rocky
mountains unite the Atlantic and the racine
oceans the Arctic and the Torrid zones, in great
network of confederate republican government:
contemplate this, and you will acknowledge the
men of seventy-six to have been the boldest mon
of progress that the world has ever seen!
These are the men whom the Fourth Of July
Otises and the Warrens, the Franklins and the
Adamses, the Patrick Henrys and the Jeffersons,
and him whom may not name in the plural
number, brightest of the bright and purest of the
purc--W Washington himself. But let us be sure
to initiate them or to strive to do SOY in all their
great principles, in both parts Of their noble and
comprehensive policy. Let us reverence them as
they reverenced their predocessors--Ilot seeking
to build up the future the ruins of all that had
gone before, nor yet to bind down the living,
breathing, burning present to the mouldering
relics of the dead past-but deducing the rule of
bold and safe progress from the records ofn wise
and glorious experience. l lte Et2 ~
am trespassng unconscionably, sir, upon the
time of the company, but will, with your leave,
add one further reflection. We live at an era as
eventful, in my judgment, as that of '76, though
in different way. We have no foreign yoke to
threw off; but in the discharge of the duty de-
volved upon us by Providence, we have to carry
the republican independence which our fathers
achieved, with all the organized institutions of an
enlightened community, institutions of religion,
law, education, charity, art, and all the thousand
graces of the highest culture, beyond the Missouri,
beyond the Sierra Nevada; perhaps in time around
the circuit of the Antilles perhaps to the Archi-
polagoes of the Central Pacific. The pioneers are
on the way; who tell how far and how fast
they will travel' Who that compares the North
America of 1853, but century ago, and number
ing but little over million of souls of European
origin or still more the North America of 1853,
when there was certainly not fifth part of that
number; who that compares this with the North
America of l853-its twenty-five millions of Eu-
ropean origin, and its thirtyone States, will ven-
|ture to assign limits to our growth; will dare to
compute the timetable of our railway progress;
or lift 80 much a of the curtain that hides
the crowded events Of the coming century,
This only we can plainly see: the Old World is
rocking to its foundations. From the Gulf of
Finland to the Yellow sea, every thing is shaken.
The Spirit of the Age has gone forth to hold his
great review, and the kings Of the earth moved
to meet him at his coming. The band which
holds the great powers of Europe together in one
political league, is strained to its utmost tension
The catastrophe may for awhile be staved Oft, but
to all appearance they are hurrying to the verge
of one Of those conflicts which, like the battles OF