Daily national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1854, 1854-07-27

squhllty OF men ana OF equanty OF StaleS IN favor
OF slayeholding States, which were admitted in
the Federal Constitution.
! What is the moral TO be drawn from the phys
ica progress OF the United States? II is, that the
strongest bonds Of cohesion in society are COM
merce and gratitude for protected freedom.
While the majestic progress of the United
States is no longer denied as fact, ii is, never
theless, too generally regarded as purely acct
dental, and likely to cease through want of
corresponding intelligence and virtue. The prn-
ciple assumed in this reasoning is just. A nation
deficient in intelligence and virtue is an ignoble
one, and no ignoble race can retain an enlarged
empire. But examination will show that the
facts assumed are altogether erroneous. In order
to prove that we are deficient in intelligence, the
monuments of ancient and modern nations, all Of
whom have either completed their courses or
passed the middle point are arrayed before us,
and we are challenged to exhibit similar monu-
ments of equal merit on the part Of the United
States rs if time was not essential condition
of achievement, and as if also, circumstances
exerted no influence in directing the activity Of
nations. 1t is true that we can show no cam
paigns equal to those Of Cesar or of Frederick,
or of Napoleon; and no inspirations of the divine
art equal to the Had, or the Ened or the Inferno
or the dramas of Shakespeare. But it is equally
true that neither Greece nor Rome, nor France,
nor England, has erected tower as high as
Babel, or mausoleum so massive as the grand
Pyramid.
Reasoning a prio,f, it is manifest that nso-
much MS the physical progress of the United
States has been unprecedented while 1t has fol-
lowed method, and insomuch as this progress
has been conducted with magnanimity through
many temptations and embarrassments, it is of
itself no unworthy monument of national intelli-
gence.
The Constitutions (of the States and of the
Union) are confessedly unsurpassed. Grant, as
is true that all the great political ideas which
are embodied in them, were before known; grant,
moreover, that favorable coniuncture for redu-
cling those distractions to the concrete had come ;
grant, also, that favorable conditions of nature
and human society concurred 49, nevertheless,
even then was ever higher genius, or great
talent, displayed, in conducting the affairs of
men, than were exercised first in framing the
many peculiar and delicate parts of that system
Of Government, with proportions so accurate that
each might bear the very tension and pressure to
which it was to be exposed and then in bringing
all those parts together, and forging them into
one great machine with such wonderful skill,
that at the very first touch of the propeing pop
ular spring, it went at once into full and per-
feet OPP ration, and has continued its movements
for seventy years, in prosperity as well as in adj
versity, amid the factions generated by long
without interruption or irregularty, but even
without jar. Consider the sagacity of the People
that, amid the clouds of jealousy and the storms
Of passion, raised by heated partisans, deliberate
ly examined and resolutely adopted, that won
derful yet untried mechanism, so contrived for
their USE and decided that it should not merely
have a trial, but should stand forever, the only
Government of themselves and of their posterty
Consider, that NOT only was this vast engine set
in motion by the voluntary act of the People, but
it has also been kept in motion by their own
perpetually renewed consent and direct activity /;
and that, although like every other combination
Of forces, it has its dead points, yet it passes
through them with perfect regularity, and without
even any sensible diminution of motion, owing 10
the watchful performance by the People, at critical
moments of the functions deyolved upon them.
Consider how many and various are the human
wills, which meet and concur every time fresh
impulse is given to the great mechanism. A
majority of the States, negecting or refusing to
act on any such occasion, could bring the Gov
ernment to dead stand. Consider that the Peo-
pie not only interfere such critical occasions,
but also that they are continually supplying the
necessary force to sustain the movements of the
subordinate parts of the machine.
There are two and half millions of electors,
and every one Of these is charged with the per-
Torrance, for the most part annually, with four
several classes of functions, in as many distinct
spheres Once, generally, in each year, the elect
ors choose a mayor supervisor, aldermen or
trustees, select men, justices of the peace po-
lice officers, clerks, assessors of taxes commits
sionors of public charities, commissioners of
streets, roads, and bridges, and subaterns, or
other officers of the militia, in their respective
cities, towns, or other forms of municipalities.
Again-the electors, generally, once in each year,
choose officers nearly as numerous, and of a
higher grade, to execute judicial ministerial,
and fiscal powers, of similar nature, within
the counties, which embrace several cities, towns,
and municipalities Again--they elect Governors,
Lieutenant Governors, Senators and Representa-
tives, Judges, Treasurers Ministers Of Finance,
of Education, of Public Works, and of Char
tiles, in the States constituted by such counties
States sovereign in all things, except the few de-
partments they have voluntarily assigned to the
Federal Union. Once more--thc citizens choose,
once in two years, Representatives, and once in
three years, Senator's who exercise the legislative
powers of the Republic; and once in four years,
the Vice President and President of the United
States, its Chief Executive Magistrates The peace,
order, prosperity, and happiness and even the
safety Of society, rest manifesy on the soundness
Of judgment with which these many and various
electoral trusts arc discharged. Reflect now, for
moment, on the perturbations of society, the de-
vices and combinations Of parties, and the appli-
ances of corruption, to which the electoral body
is at all times exposed Could these functions
be performed with results so generally suspicious,
if the People of the United States did not, as a
mass, excel other nations in intelligence, as much
rs in the good fortune Of nheriting such extra
ordinary Institutions?
Look at the operation Of this system in yet an
other aspect Not only the Constitutions of the
several States, but even the Constitution Of the
Union, stands only by the voluntary consent Of
the People. BY physical force, which there Is no
Government force to suppress, they could subvert
any or all Of these Constitutions. Even without
force, and acting only by agreement, but in con-
fomity TO certain established conditions, they
can change or subyert all these Constitutions
There Is indeed no restraining power acting upon
them, from within or from without Practically,
they do change the Constitutions of the several
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