The daily union. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1845-1857, 1855-05-10

A.fpaIcA FOR THE AMERICANS.


furnishes ust now good deal than half the pabulum
wherewt slio and journalists are fed Whe,h
erhe is yhioal real personagea magus or monkey
nobody seems know but inclined to regard him
As real because OF his general acceptance among Dai2etU
politicians and because Of the irresistible merrment his
occasional coming down something other affords
the newspapers We paunchy old gentleman the
other day with face like the SUM- only red and blue
and spot,y and dismally wheezy voice who came near
beg carried of with ponderous aroplecc chucke wheh
seized him somebody casually observed that Sam was
pitching into the police and he was only relieved from
The fatal consequences by series Of desperate
which resembled those getting under way
again after the sudden stroke Of typhoon Now gam
anquesonaby real parsonage and this old gen
tlernan anquestionably real disciple Of his We are al
loss 10 account for the reality of the phenomena thus ex
hihiied.
Bat whether real or mythical il has been impossible Tor
us TO raise our admiration Of Sam TO the popular pch
After due aud dilgent inquiry, have arrived ut only
d moderate estimate OF his qualities In fact considering
The mystery in which shrouds his ways disposed
to believe that he is Of Jerry Sneak than hero
The assumption secrecy the part any one natural
y starts our suspicious We cannot why heshoad resort
to il IL he hasbors only Just generous designs We as
soca darkness and night with things that are foul and
we admire the saying that twilight even though favor
lie with lovers is also favorable 10 thieves Schemes
which shrink from the day which skulk behind corners
and gle themselves into obscure and crooked places
are the schemes love at venture And all the veil
Cd prophets appehend very much like that one we
read OF in palace of Meou who hid his face as nc pre-
tended TO his admirers its brightness would strike
them dead in reality because ii Of an ugness so
monstrous that no one could look upon 1t and live
There is an utterance however, imputed to this inn
peryous aud oracuiar Sam, which cordially accept
He said to have said that America belongs to Americans
Just as his immortal namesake Sam Patch said that some
things could be done well others and we thank
him for the concession II good, very good very ex-
ceent good the logical Touchstone would have ex
clsmed-proyided you put proper meaning to it
What is America, and who are AinericansY IT all de-
ponds upon that accordingly you will the
phrase appear very wise very foolish II you de-
ternned TO consider America nothing than the
three million square miles Of dirt included between
The granite hills and the Pacific and Americans those
exclusively whose bodies happened to be fashioned
from it fear that you have not penetrated TO the real
beauty and Significance of the terms The soul Of muck
worm may very naturally be contented with identifying
itself with the mould from which is bred and into which
it will be resolved but the soul of man, unless we
are hugely misinformed claims l0er origin and looks
forward TO nobler destiny.
America in our sense Of the word embraces complex
idea 1t means simply the soil with its coal, cotton,
and corn but the nationality by which that soil is
pied aud political system in which such occupants
organized The soil existed long before yespucci gave
a name--as long back it may be, when the morning
stars sang togehe-but the America chicken
m dates from the last few years Of the eighteenth CEN
Jury 1t picked its shell for the first time amid the
non-voeys of Bunker Ill., and gave its first peep when
the old Sstehouse bell at Philadelphia rang liberty
to all the land Before that period the struggling and
dependent colonies which here the spawn
of the older nationshe eggs and embryos of America
but not the fufedged bird II was not until the pot
cal constitution of SO had been accepted BY the people
that America attaned complete and distinctive existence
A. ,rstl IL
began-to spread her seeny vans,' and shout coca
doodle to the sun.
1t would be needless this day, to state what the
distinguishing principles Of that political existence They
have been thousand times and resumed
often in the simple formula which every school-boy
knowsthe Of the whole people by themselves
and for themselves In other words America is the dem
ocratic republicno government of the people by
despot by ogarchy by any class such AS the
redhaired part of the inhabitants the bueeyed part
nor yet for any other end than the good of
the entire naonbut the democratic republic, pure and
simple This il the political organism which individuazcs
us separates living unity from all the rest of the
world.
All this course would bc elementary be recount
ed in any discussion events had made
necessary adequate of second question
who then are Americans Who constitute the people in
whose hands the desnie of America to be deposited
The fashionable answer these times thc natives this
whether our old friends Uncas and Chingachgook and
kag-ne-g ga bow wow-whethcr Walk-n-the-water and
Ta.kng-snake, and Big yeow-hunder to be consd-
cred Americans par excelence7 Alas no for they poor
fellows all trudging towards hesettng sum- and
their red and dusky figures will have faded in the darker
shadows of the night it, them the second generation
of Eatives--ihey who are driving them awaywho com
pose exclusively the American family? You say yes but
we say mol Because, if America be, have shown
than the soil of America, do not how
cloddy derivation from ii entities to the of Amer
can Clearly that title cannot nure to from the
argllaceous sicous compounds Of our bodiesclear
il descends from vegetable ancesryand ii must dis
dain itself to that simple relationship to physical
nature which chance to enjoy, in common with the
skunk the ratesnake, and the All these are
only the natural productions of America-excelent no
doubt in their several ways-but the American man ia
something than natural product Boosting moral
or spiritual genesis and referring his brthrght to the
immortal thoughts, which the soul Of his institutions
and the divine affections, which lift his politics out Of
the slime OF tatecraft into the air Of great humanitary
purposes.
The real American, then, is hcno matter whether his
corporal chemistry first gnited in Kamschaka the
moon--who, abandoning every other country and for
swearing every other allegiance gives his mind and heart
10 the grand constituent ideas Of the republico the inn
pulses and ends in which and by which alone 1t subssts
If have arrived years Of dscretonf he produces
evidence Of capacity TO understand the relations he
derakef he has resided In the atmosphere of freedom
long enough te catch its genuine spirii-then 10 he