Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1856-09-04
RepresentatiYe Men.

| intense passion" has Its representative maj
or nation. Thus Greece produced those
who embodied her high idealizatons in poe
try, philos ophv, history, sculpture and paint
ing: Homer, Plato, Thucydides, Phidias
and ApPelles were the personifca.ions. Ii
them the loitiest creations of art found
representative value. In Rome the great
characteristic of her people translated itsel
into living and breathing forms, The spirit
of conquest symbohzed by her god Terminus
was vtalized in her Scipios, her Caesars ant
| her Trajans.
Commercial aggrandizementm mt marked every
step of progress in the history OF Venice
Genoa and Holland. England, the inherito
OF that characteristic and its highest exist
her territorial possessions. Her Ansons
brakes, Cookies and Parrays, but carried
into activity the great national sentiment
Whatever OF honor or glory they won, was
due as much to the underfow and ground
swell of national, in which they were bap-
tised, as to their OWL exertions and capaci-
ties. Those capacities were called into full
play simply because they were acted upon
by those popular inspirations.
So it has been in our country. The great
idea " hich called our empire into independ-
ent existence was but the continuous on
ward flow of the principle inaugurated by
the English barons at Runnymede repre-
sentative civil liberty. That idea was en-
bodied and perfected in the person of Wash
ington. When the revolution closed and
the Constitution was adopted, many ef the
ancient feelings and prejudices in favor OF a
Capitalization Of governmental power still
existed. The policy and tendency of the
general government led more or less tor
twelve years after its institution, to an undue
consolidation of power into the hands of
that government. The centripetal power
was fast be:oming too great for the CEN
trifugal. An apostle of States Rights was
necessary, and he arose in the person of
Jefferson. The due weight Of the seperate
States in the coDtederacy was restored by
his exertions.
After the conclusion of the war with Eng
lapd, domestic industry was found to have
decayed. A blight had come over it. 1t
must be restored. New vigor must be. in
fused into it. 1t demanded representative
and he came Henry Clay energized the
system, recuperated it, and died rejoicing in
its eliminating strength.
The commerce of the seas and lakes and
rivers, at the beginning of this century. de-
manded quicker pusalion. 1t asked to be
brought into harmony with the rapid veloc-
ity begotten by modern civilization, aud
thrown by it into all the other departments
Of life. Time and space must be overcome
more quickly. Inventive genius knocked
eagerly at the gates Of the UNKNOWN, and
her echoes found a realization in Robert
Fulton.
Often had political heresies sprung up,
ideas at war with all government and which
invaded tine most sacred features of the Con-
stitution. Paradoxes loftily announced un-
der the falacous disguise of State sover-
eighty. stalked into the representative cham
bers of the nation and ominously threatened
to overthrow all the legitimate functions
and powers of the federal government. The
call Of the times was for defender and ex-
FOUNDER of the true theory of the Constitu-
ton. A responsive voice was heard: one
stood with flaming sword guarding the en-
trance agalns. any end every approach,
whether il came under the gdrb of WHY
friendship, or marched boldly up demanding
uuholy adm ssion. The great New Eng
lander became the living exponent OF Con-
stitution defended against assassin-like stabs
or open, vigorous assault.
In the West new and peculiar feature
of American life had grown up. The people
not content with the wide and fertile plains
East of the Missouri, with a feverish, un-
settled desire TO find new homes, and, if
possible, more productive soil, began to
penetrate in North-Westerly direction be-
yond that river. 1t was, in great meas
ure, like entering upon an unknown sea
without compass. They knew that there
was an almost boundless extent of land
West of that river, lying between it and a
remote and far. distant range of mountains,
allied the Rocky.
1t is true, lew hardy adventurers, with
no higher purposes than to crafty their
thirst for the chase, had roamed over these
wilds. They had, however, neither the ed
ucation nor the taste which could qualify or
dispose them to give the history of their dis
coveries to the world. Their short career
as joint occupants with the Indians and
wild beasts was about to terminate. The
heart of the mi gh,y West, full of those great
restless, ceaseless instincts and puisations
which impel to constant action, saw before
it that vast unpossessed region. 1t burned,
and chaled, and iretted to know what were
its capacities and resources. 1t desired to
OWN, to settle upon it, and introduce into it
a higher civilization than marked the mere
hunters life. Here, then, was a new, na-
tional aspiration--an underlined but fast de-
yeiouipr idea, hich must find its solution
in the soul of some one higher than the
masses, but who was thoroughly and in
tensely imbued with their instincts and
sympathies.
No great national perception, high aspi-
rativn, or true interest, which had hitherto
sprung uo in our country, had failed to find
i,s equivalent integer, its true index, its ex-
act personifca,on. To eifectuate fully the
object of this inchoate maternal aspiration
required a rare union of qualities Its rep
resentalive must combine the hardihood, the
energy end endurance of the hunter with the
scholarship and ardent devotion of the man
of science. To this unusual con unction OF
qualities, was to be added the still higher
one which fits its owner to command under
the most trying and difficult circumstances.
Where. then, was the representative ui This
idea, with the unusual capacities AMI ac-
compli ,hments necessary for its successful
solution, to be found!
AT the right time, when the voice of ne
cessity called, he presented himself, aud not
only accomplished most gloriously his first
mission, but rising, as it were, with the
power of prophetic sagacity above the actual
requirements of that hour, be foressw that
l. IL