The weekly Lancaster gazette. (Lancaster, Ohio) 1852-1855, 1853-11-03
Friday Evening, OCT. 2I, Is5a.
l1TAE TRuE BASIS OF AmERIcAN Ixpl

"1HE TRUE BASIS or AMERICAN IKDE
PENDEEcE."-We were SO we'll pleased will
the address of William H. Seward befor,
the American Institute, New York, OF
the above subject, that we thought WI
could occupy our space no more proflitably
than giving il entire. ats lucid ex position
OF the true sources Of national grande ur, il
profound analysis Of the principles of A
mericau Independence, and its fervent ap
peals Id behalf Of popular labor aud univer
sal freedom, challenge the attention of ey
cry rejecting reader:"
Gentlemen of the American Institute, DR.
Johnson truly said-that the first man who
balanced straw on his nose; the first man
who rode three horses at time; In short, al
such men deserved the applause Of man.
kind, on account, not of the use of what
they did, but of the dexterity which they ex.
hibited, for that. everything which enlarged
the sphere of human powers, and showed
man that he could do what he thought he
could not do, was valuable. | apprehend.
ed that this is true exposition Of the phi
losophy Of your own most useful labors.-
The increase Of personal power and skill
diminiShes individual dependence; and indi-
vidual independence, whenit pervades the
whole State, is national Independence
tits only when through such individual
ity OF its members, a nation attains certain
independence that it passes from that con-
dition of society, in which il thinks, moves
and acts, whether for peace or for war. for
right or for wrong, according to the interest
or caprices of one or Of few persons, Ga
condition which defines monarchy or afistoc-
racy,) to that better condition in which 1t
thinks, moves d acts, in oil things under
the direction Of one common interest; ascer-
tanned and determined by the intelligent
consent Of a majority, or all Of its members,
which condition constitutes Republic or
Democracy. So Democracy whereVe it ex-
lists, is more or lees perfect, and Of course
moro or less safe and strong, according to
the tone ofindividuality maintainedby its cit
izens.
or all men and OF all nations, it seems to
me that Americans, and this Republic have
at once the least excuse for want Of inde-
pendence, and the most need for assuming
and maintaining it.
No other nation has equal elements of So
cety and Of Empire. Charlemagne, when
founding his kingdom, saw or might have
seen that while it was confined by the o.
cean and by the mediterranean on the West
and on the South, 1t was equally shut in
Northerly and Eastwardly by river and
mountain barriers, which would be success
fully maintained forever, by races as Wig
orous and as independent, as the Franks
themselves. Alfred the Great saw SO clear.
ly how his country was crcumseribed by the
seas that he never once thought of continent
tial Empire. The future career of France
and England may, like the past, be filled up
with spasmodic efforts to enlarge fixed do
minions by military conquest,and agricultur-
al and commercial colonies, but all such at
tempts, even if they should be as gigantic.
as those which have heretofore been made,
will, like them, be followed by disastrous re.
actions, bringing the nations back again,
and confining them at last, within their
neutral and earliest borders. No political
system can be held together permanently
by force suspending or overpowering the
laws of political affinity and gravitation.-
Unlike those nations, we are homogeneous
people, occupying compact and indivisi-
BILE domain, peculiarly adapted to internal
commerce, seventeen times greater than
that of France, and an hundred times more
extended than that of Great Britain. While
it spreads Eastward and Westward across
the Continent, nature has not interposed nor
has man erected, nor can he raise, barri-
er on the North or on the South, that can
prevent any expansion that shall be found
necessary, provided only, that effect it shall
be, as they ought to be, wise, peaceful, and
magnanimous. Only Russia excels US in
territorial greatness. But while all Other
vast population are not merely willing, but
even superstilious subjects, Of an unmitti-
gated despotism, more than four-6fths of
them are predial slaves.
If such a population could within any
short period, rise up to state of compare
tive social elevation, such change would
Immediately lead to sedtions that must in
evitably result in dismemberment OF the
Empire.
Why should we go abroad for minerals,
orsfor metallic treasures, since this broad
domain of ours is even more plentifully
than any equal portion Of the earth, stored
with Marl, Gypsum, Salt, Coal, Quicksil-
yer, Lead, Copper, Iron and Gold! Where
shall we find quarries and forests, producing
more amply the materials for architecture,
whether for the purpose of peace or Of war,
on land or on seal
Our cities may be built of our own free
stone, marble; and our Southern coasts, are
frineed with pine and live. oak, while timber
and lumber, diversified and exhnustless,
crown our Northern mountains and plains.
Why should we resort to other soils and
climates for supplies Of subsistence,if we ex-
pect spices, dyes and some not iridispensa-
BILE tropical fruits, since we have sugar, rice
and cotton fields stretching along the shore
of the Gulf, long mountain ranges, such as
those of Virginia and Vermont, ,decliviites in
which the vine delights, along the banks Of
the Ohio, and the endless prairies, fertile in
all cereal grains, tobacco, fax and hemp,
that border the Lakes and the Mississippi
and their widely branching and far-reaching
inlets and tributaries.
II there ia virtue in blood, what nation
traces its lineage to purer and gentler
stocks9 And what nation increases It's
numbers, by either immigration or by native
births, more rapidly; and what nation more
over, has risin in intelligence as equally or
so fast!
fit be asked whether we have spirit and
vigor proportioned to our natural resources
awnswer look at these thirteen original
States. Their yigor is not only unimpaired,
butt is increasing.
Then look at the eighteen others. offshoots
Of those stocks. They are even more elas-
tic and thrifty. Consider huw small and
/ -, -ocan nti,r nlant cd ware the. tOarms of al