Richmond enquirer. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1815-1867, 1857-05-01
A SPEECH FOR THE ,UNIoN-HON. CALEB
HESIIINc AT uIS HOME.

CUSHING AT HIS HOME.
The citizens of Newburyport, Mass, on the return
there of Hon. Caleb Gushing, late Attorney General
of the U. States. gave him public reception. IN
an eloquent speech, chiefly dwelling on the uneAaul'
pied progress of this country aince its settlement aud
its future destiny, the distinguished orator sald:
say tina, is the work appointed of God for US to do,
and with the blessing of God upon US, that uork we
will do If rivers run across our path, we will bridge
them; il mountains rise up TO stop us, we will tunnel
them; ii deserts appear we will reclaim and Guilt
vate them It oceans intervene, We will navigate them,
to which last end so long az there is an oak lett on
earth, gallant ships shall continue 10 be launched INTO
the waters of this our Merrimac. No material Oh.
stacle can arrest our progress We WOO this fair ma
fure which lies before us and We WOO il as its con
queror, like the vikings of the old time, winning
their brides OF the sea in upen combat say this in the
same confidence of conviction "a one who, seeing
the set forth from the portals of the East may
speak of its onward course TO the West FOrthe
| time was, when the United States were but weak lit
tie colonies OF England scattered along the Shore
Then they overlooked the Alleghaues into the valley
of the Mississippi. Next they absorbed the vast do
main of France from Lake Superior all around to
the Gulf of Mexico, and westward to Oregon. Next
they possessed themselves of the two Flordas, and
then of Texas. And finally they have marched on
through New Mexico into remote California.
! But in our conquest OF nature with our stalwart
arms, and with dauntless hearts to back them, it
| y,
ish before US. That is inevitable. There can be no
change for the better save at the expense Of that
which s-one generation giving place to another. Out
| Of decay springs fresh life The tribes of Indians
who hunted over the land, without occupying it. re-
| tire before like the hunted deer and the buffalo
| themselves deeper and deeper into the innermost
recesses of the continent. And the Hispano Next
cans, wasting away by apparent incapacity of self
government, are suffering one province after another
of theirs TO relapse into pristine desostlon and thus
| tn he
| laws of the United States.
All that is now history. Yet wise men saw long be.
fore that it was to be. From the present they in.
srred the future and spoke Off with the positiveness
| aud precision of inspired prophecy.
| Men of Massachusetts, have you at all times
thoroughly appreciated and strenuously co.operated
TO advance these great purposes of Providence =
Have you might say, Yes you have in act, but
not always in thought You planted self government
in America the moment you touched its shores Then
Won mistakenly awhile to establish here e1-
elusive theocracy but in this you failed, because it
was incompatible with one great preordsinsd event
You Welded at LENGTH and conceded to others that
| religious liberty which you had previously claimed
far Yourselves alone. You pursued the thoughts of
independence to the day of the Revolution, emoody
ing that ides in ths framework of confederation Of
republics.
erfully contributed with Virginia to develop the
great territorial capacities of the North West. But
were you equally clear sighted in regard to the not
less important Southwest Did you in feeling sup
mort virginia herel Did you not struggle 10 pre-
vent the acquisition of Louisiana the acquisition of
Florida the ACQUISITION of Texas the acquisition of
California; Was not the Cuion, as our fathers con.
ceived it, thus completed in spite of you! And yet,
who proHted first, who profted next, who profted
constantly by each Of these great stages of the great
event. Was it not you, the men of Massachusetts,
with YOUR ships, your manufactures, your mechanic
arts, and your ntelligence1 Nay, did you not I'M
consciously, and rs it wers in despite OF yourselves
nit ,iyhf and will
Massachusetts does whenever she acts to the con-
summation Of the great event, by pouring your CAPT
tsl your Industry, your inventive genius, and your
men into each one Of the successive territorial
accessons to the Union! You did; you could not
belp doing IL you strong and self willed but the
great event stronger and more willful than YOU
and il snached you up out of the depths of oppos.
| ton 10 it, absorbed you into its vortex, and when
there as with your virtues and your lights you de-
serve to be, you became the most ethcacous element
| of its further progress
Why ia il sol Why is it that for so many years
| Massachusetts has perseveringly opposed whatever
is and persistsnty endesvored to prevent whatever
| is TO bel
il ia crammed full with intelligence and accomplish
ment of the highest order in all the possibilities Of
life and ask myself if che be not-and if she be not
why she is no-the head the brains, the thought The
soul of the American Union
II ia not that the men Of Massachusetts, with ad.
mtted high intelligence, lack courage. Quite as often
"A otherwise, they have this in excess plunging into
the strife as il they could master it,
"And with strong hand hold In the rearing world"
and occasionally manfestng somewhat of that hardi
hood of unreason, which plants the buttlng bull IN
front of the locomotive machines full career.
Nor is it because Of interested views on the part
of Massachusetts. She is sngularly dsinterested-
governed by ideas rather than by mere interesis.-
She mnness this even in her political alterations
She opposes a.. policies of the Federal Government,
sometimes merely because they are such. Thus at
one period, with Daniel Webster in the State Depart.
ment, Edward Everett Minister to England, lsaac &.
Bates and Rufus Choate in the Senate, and deleSa
tion composed Of such men as John Quincy Adams,
Leyerett Saltonstall, Nathan Appleton, Robert q.
Winthrop, and George \. Briggs, in the House, Mas:
sachusetts had might have had her own way 10 all
things reasonable and yet she pulled the building
down about her head out Of imaginary devotion to
The United States Bank. Why need she trouble her
sef as to that "What il Hecuba to her, or she to
Hecubal'
Could it advantage Boston to have all the banking
capital of the country revove around Philadelphia!
Or was II important TO Boston, whether any little
surplus Of public treasure on hand was or was not
nsed AZ banking capiall Yet OH such an issue oppo.
sition Massachusetts would have-opposiiion to her
own men, nay, to her own man of men, just a. in
the same train of incidents the question whether
daily postage should be paid in silver or in bank pa.
per there was another transient agony, at least in
Boston.
Why is il, again let me ask that Massachusetts, has
not instead of opposing always rather assumed her
post in conscious right Of intelligence and courage,
proudly in that van of The march of the Union Why
nger in the rear always to pull back, TO criticse to
complain of the Federal Government
cannot gay why it isl see how it is. She per-
mits hersef to be preoccupied with some secondary
incident of the great event. and works herself into
rape on thst until she has Lost all thought and care OF
the great event ITSELF and Of the part which in she
might and should play. At the present time, when
human wit is at the maximum of creative and produc
81, han he
electric telegraph, marvels though they be, are but
faint signs OF the progress around uswhen earth and
sky, air and sea- and all which in them is animae or
nsnimae partake Of the great movement aud are in.
stipct with its spirit-at such time the public mind
of Massachusetts, stands STILL and grows passionate
over some minor question. And We forget that, while
we sit by the wayside, angrily discussing the nnge
dfcles Of hours of deness, the world is rushing 81
entIy BY, leaving US in the lurch.
Must il be 70 foreyer7 Will Massachusetts choose
always to be the drag or break on the wheels, and
never the motive power itself7 Will she constantly
struggle to clog the march of the great EVENT. If
she reflect she will be satisfied that she cannot stop
il; nav che will see that it is her event. il is her
very self that she ia vanIy striving to stop. re-
peat, that from Jamestown on the one hand, and Ply.
mouth the other, issued the first two parallel
streams of emigration and Of political aud social IN.
fuence, flowing one to the SOUTHWEST and the other
TO the North. West which streams in their Westward
progress the history. the life the sou the pre-
destined great event Of America You may guide,
or at any rate 20 with the fatal movement. But you
cannot stop it, nay, whether you will or not you are
in it and Of it, aud must on with its motion,
either leading edfor if not leading you will be
led-in the councils Of the Union.
Men Of Massachusetts. l eIbort you to "ieave oil
mesner things to low AMBITION, and raise yourselves
into your appropriate sphere. | en'reat, implore
you TO abandon all thought of holding in those view,
less coursers OF the winds which, with stretched
muscles and snoring nosrils hurrying US on to
greatness to discard the vain with to check the course
Of the gallant ship Of destiny, which, with all
sails set from deck to truck, and with favorlne
breezes to fill them, lie waited across the subject
MAN, laden with the last and best hopes of mankind;
10 cease from the impious endeavor to stop the
fiery wheel. of that chariot of the sum- which careers
along the stsrry field of the Union, from the dawning
Orient, up and the empyrean heights OF our ac
tual power, on the uttermost region OF the occdent.
TWO WEEKS LATER FROM CALIFORNIA
THE LATEST FROM GEN, WALKER.