The star of the north. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1849-1866, 1855-06-21

and ihes Pacific, and Americans ss those
men exclusively whose bodies happened TO
be fashioned from ii, we fear that you have
not penetrated to the real beauty and signifi-
cance of the terms. The soul of muck
worm may very naturally be conten,ed with
Identifying itself with the mould from which
il is bred, and into which it will soon be re.
solved, but the soul of man, unless we are
hugely misinformed claims loflier origin,
and looks forward to nobler destiny.
| America, in our sense of the word, en-
braces acomplex idea. II means, not simp-
ly the soil with its coal, cotton, and corn, but
the nationality by which that soil is occupi-
ed, and ,he political system in which such
occupants are organized. The soil existed
| long before Vespucci gave it name,-as
long back, it may be, as when the morning
stars sang together,-but the true America, a
mere chicken still, dates from the last few
years of the eighteenth century. It picked
| its shell for the first time amid the cannon
volleys of Bunker Hill, and gave lis first
peep when the old State Household at Phil
adelphia rang ont liberty 10 all the land"
Before that period, the struggling and de-
pendent colonies which were here were the
mere spawn of the older nations-the eggs
| and embryos Of America, but not The full
aedged bird. 1t was not until The political
| Constitution OF 80 had been accepted by the
people that America attained complete
and distinctive existence, or that she was
able--continuing the figure with which we
began-to spread her "sheeny vans," and
shou. cock-a.doodle TO the sun.
| 1t would be needless, at this day, to state
what are the distinguishing principles of
that political existence. They have been
pronounced ten thousand times, and resumed
as often in the simple formula which every
school-boy knows-the government of the
whole people by themselves and for them
selves. In other " osds, America is The dem
ocra!ic repu5lic-not the government Of the
people by despot, nor By an oisarchy, nor
by any class such as The red-haired part of
the inhabitants, or the blue-eyed part; nor
yet a government for any other end than the
good of the entire nation--bnt the democrat
ic republic, pure and simple. This is the
political organism which individualises us,
or separates US living unity from all the
rest of the world.
All this, of course, would be too elemen-
iary 10 be recourted in any mature discus
sion, if recent events had not made it neces-
sary 10 an adequate answer of our second
ques,on--who, then, are Americana? Who
constitute the people in whose hands the
deslinies of America are TO be deposiied9
The fashionable answer in these times is
"ihe natives of this Continent 10 be sure !"
But lei us ask again, in that case whether
our old friends Uncas and Chingachgook,
and Kang-ne.ga-b ga-bow-wow-whethe Walk
Whitewater, and Talking snake, and Big
yellow -thunder, are to be considered Amsri-
cans par excellence! Alas no; for they,
poor fellows are all trudging towards the set
ting sun, and soon their red and dusky f.
of the night! Is it, then, the second genera.
iion Of naiives-they who are driving them
away-who compose exclusively the Amer
ican familya You say yes; But we say no !!
Because, ii America be as we have shown,
more than the soil of America we do not SEQ
how mere cloddy derivation from it enti-
| Ties one 10 the name of American. Clearly,
that title caInot enure 10 us from the mere
argi,Iaceous or sillicious compounds of our
| bodies-clearly, il descends from no vegeta.
| BILE ancestry-and it must disdain 10 .race
itself TO that simple relationship 10 physical
nature which we chance 10 enjoy, in COM
mon with the skunk, the fa,tlesnake, and
the catamount. All these are only the natu.
raj production OF America--exceent, no
doubt, in their several ways-but the Amer
lean man is something more than natural
product, boasling moral of spiritual gene.
sis; and referring his birth right to the i'm
rtal thoughts, which are the soul Of his
institutions, and TO :he divine affections,
which lifi his politics out of the slime of state.
craft, into the air of great humaEilary pur-
poses.
The real American, then, is he-no mat.
Ter whether his corporal chemesIry was first
| ignited in Kamschatka or the moon-whe,
abandoning every other country and for
swearing every other allegiance, gives Eis
mind and heart 10 the impulses and ends 10
which and by which alone itsubsisis. If we
have arrived at years of discretion--if he
produces evidence of capacity to under
stand the relations he under,akes--ifh he has
resided In the atmosphere Of freedom long
enough TO catch it's genuine spirit-then is
he an American, in the true and best sense
Of tho term.
Or, II not an American, pray what is he2
An Eng glishman, German, an Irishman, he
can no longer be; he has cast The slough Of
his old political relations forever; he has as
serted his sacred right oil expatriation (Which
the United States was the first of nations 10
sanc,ion) or been expatriated by his too ar
dent love of the cause which the United
States represents; and he car never return
to the ancient iolj 1t would spurn him
more sncontinantlxy than naxvdor annrna the