Weekly Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1853-1861, 1855-05-31

I hitiHi5 ttiHtrltlfncleu aSsOciatlnS uuutt lic
free, harmonious influence of political liberty,
and gives earnest of an idea which dwells in
the expanded benevolence of the phlanthro-
pist, which governments but feebly shadow
forth, and future age may realize.
Americans visit Europe with peculiar pleas
ure, andproft. From there most of Us draw
our descent, and thither we go, with pardon
able vanity or with self-condemnation, to
compare ourselves with our ancestry, stand
ing up side by side with men of former gen.
Grafton and another country, measuring our
condition with theirs, and drawing wholesome
reflections from the contrast; to visit the spots
where the great dead lie buried, and from
these as stand point, with the sentiment
there inspired, to look ont along the course
and on the result of their lobors, in the truer
sense of that simple epitaph "si nsoaamentum
quassis circuDaspice,'' and to witness all those
objects to which ocean width of distance lends
additional enchantment. No people travel
with more zest than we, and none form more
disinterested opinions roncening what we see.
The American has no petty iealousies which
rank and station beget, and consequently is
prepared 10 look on things with uniaundiced
eye. Knowing that no station is too high
for each man to aspire to, ambition and self
reliance impart quiet dignity to his manner
that commands respect. What has been de-
risiyely said of our countrymen abroad, ''that
fools rush in" &c, is not so true as our Eng
lish cousins would wish to have it supposed;
the fact however, that the simple citizens
does gain admittance, whichis generally ac-
corded only to rank, is true, and the ieason Is,
that the msuspicious independence of the
American challenges the courtesy. Wher-
ever objects of interest are to I've seen there he
is found, and what is more and better, il is
universally confessed, that the citizens of no
nation are received abroad with so much kind
ness and warmth as those who go ont from
homes within the limits Of our republican I'm
ion.
True they are regarded with suspicion by
governments but as truly as the people look
on them as harbingers of hope. The large
proportion OF travellers, pursuers Of pleasure
on the Continent of Europe are our country
men; they are seen in Egypt and Palestine,
and wherever else curiosity or research in
vite them. Thus we at home gain knowl-
edge and familiarity almost with places we
! have never seen. at is n great thing to
| look on the man that has seen the king
| And what is the result of all this iourneying,
this acquaintance with men and manners of
every country? Is the mind less stored with
new ideas? Does the heart beat pulses less
true to the throbbings of the great heart of
humanity? Beneath the gay exterior of the
pleasure-seeker there runs current of serious
observation that is fraught with important
consequences. He returns with profit to him.
self, with those means of bettering himself
and others that enlarged experience creates
and enlarged views disseminates. With an
earnest purpose, and it is with such that each
man is supposed TO work ont his life-task
extended privileges afford extended oppor-
tunities of improvement and perfection, and
the traveller can, and does, do much within
the sphere of his influence.
But the greater step in the rrogress-be-
sides forging the links which bind nations,
there is brought home to the minds of men,
reflections on the idess which governments
and institutions represent, and the tendency
of mans yearnings for frecdom; this is the
slow result Of association and interchange
During the few score years since the Union
!, emerged from the darkness, have been heard
the faint, faltering, increasing footsteps o.
nations travelling toward shrine, more
anxiously sought than even Mecca, where
, glows light, here steady and bright, there
t tiickering and doubtful, and now alas! almos
obscured by the fog of ignorance and oppres
sion 1t ilumines an occasional hilltop
+. whittier those in the valley of despots may
escape and be free, and encourages all tt
: come within the circle Of its life bestowinl
| radiance.