The Belmont chronicle, and farmers, mechanics and manufacturers advocate. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1848-1855, 1853-05-06
WHAT GIVES STABILITY TO
NATIONS.

To secure perpetuty to Nation (suys the
Newark Daily Advertiser) its citizens must
have something in common to worship or re-
spect. The Chinese find this necessity satisf-
ed in their veneration for parents; the
Hebrews in a reverence for their Temple and
their Law. These sentiments were, and con-
tinue to be, strong in those nations, and have
probably contributed powerfully to bind them
together, and preserve them respectively as
distinct populations, while all their con-
temporaries have long since perished from
the earth.
In most of the modern European States
these national attachments seem very largely
wanting; and in our own there are not many
elements of union beside the inferior and not
very stable one of mutual interest. We have
acted, or rather been distracted, together now
for upward of three-score years and ten-the
ordinary life of an individual, but short
duration for State. In all this time the
heart of the people can hardly turn to more
than two objects capable of commanding its
enthusiasm and veneration; these are the
American Revolution and the administration
Of Washington, including the great act of the
: Constitution. Even the last of these has
been desecrated by such violent and shamelnss
assaults as to have lost a good deal of that
deep hold upon the hearts of thousands which
it ought ever to retain. That such share of
attachment for it yet remains has been due
to the great and persevering eloquence and
. efforts of Webster and a few others who
o have bravely fought in its defence for the last
/. twenty years.
r There is still an abiding respect for law &
a order among us, which constitutes marked
i. distinction between us and the French, and
: forms a kind of substitute for the Jewish
r sentiment for their law and TEN ,,le, but in 0
e degree as much more feeble as loyalty to law
n is weaker then devotion to religion. AS fol
Q the mighty ligament which knits generations
. together in China, we have in the United
States, unfortunately, lost all its gentle but
4; permanent and sautary force, and almost
q even its recollection. Vencration for parents
v has no longer any existence in this country
e Our youth are of age at fourteen, or before
e though the law remains upon the statute
:, books which emancipates them at twenty
e But it has long since been repealed by the
common custom, together with those for the
O observance of the Sabbath, and the prohbi
h tion of the sale of lottery tickets and liquor
J. father now, SO far from having any sup
eriority to his offspring is obliged to yield hi
r. prerogative to the love of progress, as a
n present understood, which is, that he who il
i born last, of course, and for that reason
knows most
f AS soon as youth, therefore, is old enougi
if to smoke cigar, swallow glass of brand,
s without winking, and commit lcentiou
r. debauch, his father passes into the predica
If ment of an cold fogy," a word that comos
n from the Latin "fugor," meaning driven aura,
If one ,oho is done for-it is a gone case witI
q him, and time he should be off. His promising
Il heir succeeds, of course, to the administration
q Of the affairs of the nation, and frequentl,
v also to that of the estate of his parent, though
i, the law still upholds the latter in keepin,
v possession, as he has life and wit enough t.
d do it. But the yonngster has full swing ir
(. Uncle Sans affairs, and make himself com
Portable with hisproperty. Nobody is oblige'
- to rob the public exchequer now, as fat "Jack
" did.
- This is enough to illustrate some of tn
. points which we differ from the long-live
!, Chinese State, and the nine-lived nation o
. the Hebrews. Whether we shall continue
O distinct and flourishing people as long as they
= remains to be secn--by prosterity; tor we d.
. not much expect to do it ourselves, though w
: possibly may.