The daily union. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1845-1857, 1855-07-03
ADDRESS OF GENERAL CUSHING,


Delivered at Ns~6uvyport, (Aass,) July 4 1850.
FELLow-oIzEss We have disposed of Of the objects
for which assemble here There remains another not
local in its nature but wide the limits of
country; for wheresoever the continent OF the
New World the starred banner Of nationality
furled-wheesoever, from tho Atlantic to the Pacific in
all that broad expanse of lake and river of mountain and
of painwheresoever springs up blade of from
the earth, quivers waterfall under the MILL sscends
on high the smoke OF the engine happy hearts shelter
themselves under the rooftree of homewheresoever
say there lives and breathes American shall this day
be consecraed the memories of the Declaration of Amer
lean Independence 1t shall bs celebrated with tumultuous
JOY by old and by young. 1t shall be celebrated with
proud recoecons Of great and wise foreiathers 1t
shall be celebrated with mutual congratulations in view
OF countrys grandeur wealth. and power 1t shall be
celebrated with thanks Almighty God that He vouch-
safed make of the thirteen colonies people And 1t
shall be celebrated by u.s. least with rvent prayers
Almighty Cod that He would continue to make of the
thirty States peopeone great glorious indissoluble
Union
Yes fellowctizens the Union is my theme. Now, when
the of false doctrines sappng the foundations
Of the Union and the of passion dash
ing against the pillars Of the consttuonnow 10 not
time for indulgng in the sounding generales of vague
and wordy patriotism Now the contrary behooves
consider what the American Union has done for
whatit iswheher it be worth the having and if how
is it to be preserved in despite Of faction and anatcism
whether the North the South. And that repeat is
my theme this day.
l. What has the Union done for us2 To this
question: it needs to go back to the time when, seventy
FIVE years ago. this day broke on fathers lurdy amid
the storms of war; to follow onward the of
country to the present hour and then pause and look
around on its present condition.
When the Declaration of Independence went forth to the
world, proper constitutional government--that is
cal fabric deliberately commenced from the cornerstone Of
III hail, xsro all
beauty and strength of perfect wholewas thing yet
unknown EARTH and to be attempted by us for the first
time in the history Of man.
population Of only two millions Of souls, scanty
scattered along the belt of land between the Allie
ghanies and the Atlantic ocean, constituted the people Of
the United Colonies. Beyond the mountains vast
wdernessthe lair Of the wild beast and of the human
savage. Our public resources were nothing, the
strong and stronger hearts which inherited from
British sres and the spirit of independence personal
and national which had been ditused among in the
shadow of the secluded forests Of the New World.
Two generations onlyhat is, two Of the average PEI
RODS of human actvityhave since elapsed They were
grandsres who founded the United States But now
where and what we? Our population has filled up its
original 1t has swarmed across the Aleghanies and
occupied with its industry its power its principles its civ
iizao the and fertile valley Of the Mississippi The
remote Rocky Mountains have proved barrier to its
progress 1t stands upon the shores of the Pacific
ander in the limits Of India that kingdoms remain to
be conquered, but that wildernesses left to be
claimed by the hand of industry from the dominion of
cultivated Nature. Nor in the wrestl with Nature only
have shown manhood; for science learning, art
have also up and hourshed under the vvfyng inu
prosperity and freedom and in all that apperains
material well moral greatness-whether in the cul
tvaton of the earth the advancement of mechanic
art manufacture and commercewe the feeble child
of England range side by side with great parent
while the nations distanced by in the of wealth
and power gaze marvellous progress with admira
ton and with Nay we have gone twice through the
test-tria of foreign war; with Great Britain, in
which, if gained greater honor we, at least gained
this of conendng equal terms and with equal
against the Queen of Nations; and another with Mexico,
in which, from Pao Alto to Chepultepec whether under
the of Scott Tayorwherever the flag of the Union
waved still waved in front of the fight the abarum Of
victory And through the whole period of this
paraeed growth in greatness and alone of the
lions of Chrisendon have exhibited the spectacle of peo
Pile to whom civil is unknown, among whom
ample exists Of death for political cause, and who have
lived in unbroken domestic tranquility under the gis
of the constitution.
q IT, then the Unonthe of all these priceless
blessngsworth having7 Yes in the madness of to
whom superintendent felicity burden, have
come to calculate the value Of the Union. That think
surpasses our faculty of calculation. When shall have
passed those glorious gates Of political paradise which
separate the known from the unknown them like the fallen
Adam and Eve gazing miserable and repentant where
bar their return,
The brandshed sword of God before them hlazed
Fierce q comet
then say it will be for Choose like Them
aplace of rest Where shall that place be? You, who
seek to accomplish objects for the attainment of which you
DANGEROUSLY and ostentatously avow your readiness to
tampe Bible to-day and the constitution tomorrow
because they both stand in path you who set
moral conscience against the former and political
science against the latteof you ask what the ns
tutions and what the political condition which you propose
to give the people Of the United States in exchange for
constitution and the Union Of which it is the charter
That in the overthrow of the constitution and the dsrup
ton Of the Union national wealth is to be destroyed
that production of those great agricultural staples
which our prosperity depends s to cease at least to
cease for us that manufactures to langush and
expire that ships to rot unemployed for all this
you the zeal OF your assumed philanthropy dono care
But can you expect you be bndy visionary to
believe that the bonds of this Union be rent asunder
by violent hands, and for the express purpose of revou-
tonary social change in the relation of the white and the
black races of the country2 Can you pretend to think
say that the political equality Of those is Of sudden
10 be brought bou except force You know must be
and STEP therefore in the constitutional change for
phanthropy sake the organization Of hostile republics
plunged at into warciv war, social war, servile
wara that in warfare foreign domestic there COM
bined of deadly, Of atrocious, of horribel
have endeavored to picture to myself that republic Of
Al. A.. ,,of,r tI,o sn~o Horofo