Semi-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1853-18??, 1857-05-02
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Caleb Cushing,s Great speech.

Caleb Cushing's Great speech.
The Hon. Caleb Cushing, on the occasion Of his
return to Newbnyport. Mass, was honored by :
public receptionby his fellow-citizens without
spect to party and in reply to the welcome thus
given him he delivered strikingly able and impress
sive speech. We make the following extracts:
Is not that manifest destiny Is not that pro-
videntiai mission? Is not that of the steps IN
the march, march, march" of the Union which,
when suggested by me- on former occasion. az what
the Union had perforce to do was taken to be the
personation of some awful monster, shaking forth
pestilence and death from its horrid hair! Aye, in
this pioneer colony of Massachusetts, doubled with
Plymouth, on the very rock of Plymouth itself,
where free compact Of self government first found
footsand on earth, and from which point, togeth-
er with the coeval starting point of jamestown,
there moved the two parallel columns of emigration
which commenced Americas march-at that very
place, good and honored friend of mine felt called
upon to protest against my suggestion of the on
ward march, march, march" of the advancing
hosts of civilization liberty and power which follow
the westward flight of the eagle of the Union. 1
stand to my thought. reterate it. / stick to the
purpose which brought my forefather, John Cush-
ing from bingham in England to bingham in Mas
sachusetts. l say that every shipoad of colonists
which came in The beginning to Virginia and TO Mas
sachusetts, and each one of us their descendants,
who are but moving on with acceleraton of the
original impetus which they gave us and every ship
load of colonsts from Ireland and Germany, all and
each one of are but the humble ministers Of God
appointed to occupy, to cultivate, and to cvilize
America. 1t is oppression seeking to be freedom
1t is want demanding to be want no longer. It's
the strong man without air and without room, and
determined to have them or die calamity in the
struggle for them. 1t is the irrepressible expansion
of the over-compressed human energies. 1t is the
exodus of the nations 1t is the outpourng of the
toofull blood of the Old World into the all capaci-
Gus veins of the New World 1t is the Foundation
in america Of Republican empires to outc"unt in
numbers and outrie in strength the parent States Of
Europe. sag that is the soork appointed IF God
for to do, and aoith the blessing Of God upon u.s.
that soork soiU do. II rivers across path
we will bridge them; if mountains rise up to stop
US, we will tunnel them {; if deserts appear will
reclaim and cultivate them if oceans intervene we
will navigate them, to which last end, so long as
there is an oak left upon the earth, gallant ships
shall continue to be launched into the waters of this
our Merrimac No material obstacle can arrest our
progress. We WOO fair nature which lies before us,
and WOO it rs its conqueIer, like the vikings of
the old time winning their brides of the sea in open
combat.
l say this in the same confidence of conviction as
who seeing the set forth from the portals of
the East, NAV speak of its onward course to the
West. For time when the United States
but weak little Colonies of England, scattered along
les into the Valley of the Mississippi Next they
absorbed the vast domain of France from Lake SUI
peror all around to the Gulf of Mexico, and west.
ward to Oregon Next they possessed themselves
of the two Flor:das and then of Texas. And finally
they have marched on through New Mexico into
mote California But in conquest of nature with
stalwart arms, and with dauntless hearts to
back them, it happens that men, nations races may,
must, will, perish before u.s. That is inevitable.
There can be change for the better at the
pense of that which is generation gives place
to another. Out of decay springs fresh life. The
tribes of Indians who hunted over the land without
occupying it. retire before like the hunted deer
and buffalo themselves, deeper and deeper into the
innermost recesses Of the Continent And the HIS
PIANO Mexicans wasting away by apparent incapacity
OF self government, suffering province after
another of theirs to relaps into pristine desolaon
and thus to become prepared to receive the people
and the laws of the United States. All that is now
history. Yet, wise men saw long before that so it
was to be- From the present they inferred the future,
and spoke of it with the pcstiveness and precision
of inspired prophecy.
l pray you not to misunderstood me. l repro
bate, not ITSELF but all irregular enterprises of
war; | hold that the great issues of peace belong
to the sovereign power of the Union and should not
be wantonly usurped by individual rashness glory
in the acts which it has fallen to to perform, to-
wards the repression of all such undertakings in
the United States, whether on the part of p,esump-
tuous British Minister recruiting troops acithn our
jurisdiction for the purpose Of onrtare IN the Crineo
or Of reckless american adcenturer, recruiting
them for the purpose Of plumber and bloodshed in
Nicaragua. No, let not the small man, Walker, be
honored for this, account of which the great man,
Burr, was damned.
Non tall auxilo, nee defensorbus istis,
Tempus eget
The United States require such instruments to
help them forward to the consummaton Of their de-
stinies in America. On the contrary. they impede
;rcfo oil r
possible good in himself has only served to obsruct
national purposes in Mexico in Nicaragua in all Span
,sh America. And such things tend to discredit us
also. Thus far if there be- in all the annals of time
case of mighty nation speedily advancing to its
zenith in the shining light of untarnshcd honor it is
these United States. So mote it be-no5less o6lige
Independence of England with our limits of original
dominion intact, achieved bravely on the field of
battle in righteous war, with Bunker Hill at the be-
ginning of the contest and at the close of it Saratoga
and Yorktown. Our succeeding great step was
Louisiana and that came to by the spontaneous act
ofour oldest-1nd may she cease to be our con-
slant ally and friend generous and glorious France
Followed by the Floridas-not extorted by us from
Spain hut coded to us by her, as JOINT Quincy Adams
once, with his forcible eloQuencc. explained in nv
hearing-ceded to US in fair exchange for our own
province of Texas That again returned us of its
own free WILL after having been raised through the
gallantry of her sons with Houston and Rusk at their
head, TO independence of Mexico by the same iden-
teal right that Mexico was independent of Spain
And now California is ours, which we acquired in
just war, and might have kept by the just right of
war; but disained to do so, choosing rather to hold
it by the tenure of cesson and of contract with con-
tribution of ample indemnity therefor to Mexico.
say, all that is record of which any nation might,
with good cause be proud; and may it be contin-
ued hereafter in the bright line Of glory and
of justice to the end"
Wr We cheer:uy give place to the following
communication. We Zone of us) have used paper