Weekly national intelligencer., 1854-11-18
NATIONAL INTELLIGENCER.
MANIFEST DESTINY"

to which alusion has heretofore been made in this
journal, concerning the marked decline of that
flibustering spirit which has more than once been
unhappily prevalent in certain sections of the coun-
try. We are not insensible of the various causes
which have contributed to this result, among which
we find pleasure in mentioning the frmness with
which the Executive Head of the Government de-
nounced by his official proclamation, these discrgan-
izing schemes as being no less violation of our
own laws than an infringement of those which bind
together the commonwealth Of nations in commu-
nifty of rights and correatve duties 1t is no less
grateful to us to recall the disapprobation with
which the popular branch of Congress received the
il-advised proposition to repeal, with respect to
European Power with whom we are still in relations
of ostensible "peace and anlty," those Neutrality
Laws with which the Legislation of Congress has
sanctioned and ratified the Common Law of Ma
tions And we may alludc to the fidelity and rigor
with which the Judiciary has applied the princi-
pies of preventive justice in repressing the ebulli
ton of spirit so destructive to law and order both
at home and abroad
But, in adverting to the subject to-day, it is not
so much our object TO animadvert any particular
displays of the doctrine of " manifest destiny" with
respect to neighboring people, to the islands in
what are called /" American waters" or to the re-
moter g isles of the ocean" as to examine the
ture and tendency of the doctrine ITSELF considered
as rule of political action. The question we wish
to raise is this Is the doctrine of tmanifest des
tiny" veritable and substantial theory Of human
activity in the figure of society, or is it an unsub
stantial fiement which disordered Imagination has
worked to oscar the eyeballs" of Young Ameri-
cap And, in order to solve this question, we pur-
pose to examine it in the light of history and of
reason.
And has such an ancient maid as the muse Of
history got any thing to say on doctrine SO young
as that of our manifest destinarians? Is it not
newborn development of an age of progress? We
are aware it has been called so by distinguished au-
thority, but tseems to us it is an old phenomenon
under new phase and new name; and if, as Lord
Bolngbroke said, history is philosophy teaching by
example," we may perhaps light upon some Illus
trations Of the principle are discussing, and from
an examination of Its effects arrive at some appre
henson of the inherent nature and tendency Of the
principle itself
"Noachian Deluge," it will perhaps suffice for our
purpose to commence with the times which date
from that catastrophe Before that event we incline
to think the believers in manifest destiny" were
few, else more than eight would have been saved In
the ark for when was !" destiny more clearly
"manifesteT' than on that occasion2 Here at least
there was something real and tangible; but the chill
dren of man turned away from the warning voice of
the "preacher of righteousness" But the post
deluvian history Of mankind attests credulity in
this dogma even more inexplcable than the unbe-
lief which destroyed the generations before the food
And the first instance we adduce is the remarkable
ease of the Babel-builders. They were genuine
manifest destinarians." They said, "Go to, let US
build us city, and tower whose top may reach
unto heaven, and let US make us name" 1t is
mentioned by the sacred historian characteristic
of these men that "nothing was restrained from
them which they imagined to do" 1t was great
and mighty deed which they purposed and the
words they spoke were brave words. But the issue
of their enterprise points moral against Babel
building in general against ali rash schemes Of ele-
vation and aggrandizement, which, instead of full
filing their end, serve only to illustrate that pride
which goes before destruction and that naughty
spirit which presages fall
If we may be pardoned in quoting from the same
old book another illustration of the fallacous hopes
with which "manifest destiny" fatters its votaries
only to deceive, we might cite the name of Nebuch-
adnezzar He, too, dreamed of consolidating wide
spread empire for his GREATNESS was grown and
reached unto heaven, and his dominion unto the
end of the earth" He issues his DEGREES "unto
all people, nations, and languages that dwell in all
the earth }" and we soon find him walking in his
palace and complacently solloquizing, Is not this
great Babylon that have built for the house of the
kingdom by the might Of my power and for the
honor of my majesty" Proud words again, but,
alas how deceitful; for the next thing read of
Nebuchadnezzar is that he was driven from among
men and did eat grass as oxen"
And about two hundred years after Nebuchad-
nezzar had thus fallen arose another man of des-
tiny. Alexander the Great, that young Macedo-
nian conqueror who rolled back the tide of war
upon the East and swept over Asia, believed him.
self the destined master Of the world and sighed to
think he had but one to subdue. 1t is an old and
familiar story which records his rise, his progress
and his fall and though it has, as the poet says,
long since gone gimmering through the school
bov's tale vet we may educe from it salutary