The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1853-10-20

Mr.. Chubb, and locks are more secure through
their controversy; while the American reap
mg-machine has stimulated the inventive fac
ultles OF the British manufacturers of agricul-
tural instruments. These are the forms in
which the ambition of the two peoples should
manifest Itself; but the interchange of gascon-
AIDES between Brother Jonathan and Brother
Bull Is thoroughly contemplate
Another pernicious class of writers consists
Of those who are fond of irritating old sores, by
appealing to the most unfortunate events of
past history. They confound beacons to be
avoided with lights that are to guide. They
drag forward the precedents of an 9nenlght-
ened age to regulate the practices Of an en-
lghtened age, and, while landing the principle
OF progress, seek to wither its fruits Let by-
cones be bygones, is a prudential maxim No
instructed Englishman defends the obstinacy
OF George the Third, or the insane policy of
Lord North. During the war of independence,
Macdonald, Judge Of the British Admiralty
Court, grayely declared in Parliament, on the
authority Of an ancient statute, that North
America was part and parcel Of the manor Of
Greenwich, and therefore he argued that
seizin of Greenwich was in law a seizin of
America; nor was he laughed at in the House
OF Commons; but who would venture to utter
such nonsense in our days! Let our follies
rest IN their tombs 1t is well to appeal to he
roic deeds when we desire to stimulate patri-
otlsm but they are not to be quoted for the
sake OF embittering luminosity and provoking
to hostilltes. IL the Anglo Saxon race are to
perform their mission with effectiveness. and if
1T Is to proceed uninterruptedly and rapidly to
completion, both English aud American must
take the present not the past, as the starting
point in their career and instead of looking
backward, look forward Our first duty is to
inaugurate, with all due solemnites, an epoch
of concord, Cancellation and good fellowship,
and make a firm resolution henceforward to
act in harmony, casting away prejudices, and
treating every one as an enemy who seeks to
revive antipathies and hatreds
We have contended that it is the mission of
the Anglo-Saxon race to promulgate Christi
anity, and through its agency to extend civil.
cation. We have seen in Europe the despotic
confederation of three sovereigns, formed under
the sanctified title of the Holy Alliance whose
aim was has been, and still is, to put down
public liberty. Wherever they have trodden,
the seeds of progress have been crushed under
their iron heels. Art and science have wther-
ed at their approach. They have gagged the
press, because it is the propagation of thought
and thought and autocracy cannot breathe the
same air and live. The Gear rules through
Siberia, the Kaiser dominates from Spielberg
and the dungeonsof Magdeburgh secure power
in Berlin. France has succumbed to the yoke !;
her tribune is desolate the voice of her legisla-
tive chambers is dumb The fire of Old Spain
Is quenched in the waters of superstition, and
in toe name of outraged Christianity no Prot
estant can receive religious burial on its soil
Portugal is moribund, and its knell already
sounds in the distance. Hungary is enslaved
Poland extinct. Belgium and Holland only
exist by suHerance while Sweden and Dem
mark are too near the Cossacks to assert more
than nominal nationality. Great Britain
then, stands alone in Europe, as the citadel of
freedom-the sole asylum of the continental
refugee. As all the sympathies of America are
with democracy and liberalism, her political
interests bind her to England for were Eng
land dcnationalized as Poland has been, where
would the stripes and stars find congenial
home in the western world! Therefore, under
international views, the two great representa-
tives OF the Ang 10 Saxon race are bound to-
gether by links which fratricdal arm alone
would sever Despotsm alone would rejoice
and triumph, were Great Britain and the Uni
ted States involved in war, or even were they
to stand aloof from each other Since, then, q
Holy Alliance has been formed 10 retard civil
| ization, and since it has succeeded, the more
| urgent is the necessity for the only two free
| and intelligent nations on earth to discard all
| MINOR differences that might cautiously and
obtrusively BIO raised and enter upon league,
| offensive and defensive, against all who would
i'm pede the advances of civilization.
Though the Governments of England and
America are differently constituted, their aim
is the same--to elevate, not to cast down, hu-
mainly. Monarchy, under constitutional limita-
ations, suits the genius of the English, as de-
mOcraoy suits the genius of the American,
people "rhe United States" as Sismondi has
remarked, cove, perhaps their principal ad-
vantages to their first founders having ap-
preached much nearer to the Greeks and RO
mans in their opinions and ideas, than we do
now. The Pilgrims of New Eng and, emigra-
ting in search of liberty of conscience, proposed
to themselves, in the first place, to create q
new country as the Greeks bad formerly done;
all other colOnists sent by Europe took with
them, as their only principle, the love of gain
as their only theory, the extension Of com
merce Thus they always sacrificed the future
to the present, and sowed the seeds Of dssolu-
ton in the new colony, from the moment of it's
birth" The fact is, that the Greeks, and be-
fore them the Egyptians, founded colonies that
they ght be complete 10 themselves and self
sustaining but when the kingdoms of modern
Europe founded colonies it was to make them
subordinate appendages to an empire. The
ancients had constantly in view the welfare Of
the colonists; the moderns, the welfare of the
mother country. In this manner England acted
towards North America; and even Lord Chat
ham affirmed that she should not be allowed
to make a nail for herself But the dogmas of
those days have passed away. England has
repudiated those errors, and given self govern.
ment to Canada and Australia an evident
proof that the principle of democracy is gain.
ing ground over the principle Of aristocracy,
and that British legislation is increasing in lib
eralism. When America threw of the British
yoke, she had clear ground to work upon, unen-
numbered with any traditions, untrammelled
by any vested interests and her statesmen
knew what to avoid, from having studied the
errors of Old England nevertheless, tho spirit
Of freedom is the Same in both countries,
though its form assumes different develop
ment. America cannot reproach England with
q class Of hereditary legislators,
while she retains race of hereditary bonds
men.
Commerce is a great approximation Of ma
tons; but the wings Of commerce must be free,
or her flight is low and sluggish. Now, in this
respect, America is in fault she has not met
England in spirit Of reciprocity. Her scale
Of import duties is heavily disproportionste,
and she gained advantages in the repeal of the
English Navigation Laws, for which she has
conceded no adequate equivalent. The Amcri-
cans have free access to forty English colonies,
but maintain the old privileges Of their sea-
board on the voyage from port to port For
instance, they will not allow British ship,
with cargo, to sail from New York to Cslifor-
mia, because an American ship is not permitted
10 carry Goals from Newcastle 10 London. 10
strict law, America is justified; but she has put
an Interpretation on the treaty which most
certainly the British Parliament never contem-