Smyrna times., 1857-03-04
Written for the Smyrna Times.
The Popularity of the American
Nation,

acter. Every person exhibits some character
istic peculiar to himself and nobody else
Whether this is from his original constitution
which he is surrounded, we will not attempt t.
investigate but it is enough for our presen
purpose to know that there are certain peculi
arities which distinguish every individual ant
every nation.
In looking back upon the history of these ma.
tions which lie far distant in the mists of by.
gone days, we find that their peculiar charac
teristic, as well as their genius, consisted in
the power, bravery and achievements of their
military. 1t is true, that some portions of the
historians of Greece and Rome are distinguish
ed by the brilliant victories around the shrine
OF Minerva, and the glorious and imperishable
monument. erected upon the bright plains of
literature, where the tragic and poetic muse
has strewn rich and beautiful gems of poetry
and song; also, we find imbedded imperishable
footprints in the deep and rugged labyrinths of
philosophy. However lasting these may be,
and however impressive upon our minds may be
their successes in poetry, literature and philoso-
ply, their history, like their government, is
eclipsed by the despotic usurpation of their ar
miles, The annals of the nations of antiquity
4bound in the bloody details of the successes
and defeats of their armies, the daring ambition
of their leaders and the despotism and the ty-
ranny of their emperors, kings and sovereigns,
and their history, by the pen of the historian,
is painted in the most beautiful style, with the
many horrible massacres and victories of their
hired hordes of desperadoes; it is rendered
painful and heartrending by the barbarous and
Inhuman butcheries of enemies and made in
glorious and despicable by the pOmpous boasts
of rulers in trampling upon the sovereignty of
their weaker antagonist. And, in taking the
history of every nation from the earliest periods
of which we have any records, to that period
when the sun Of civilization borne upon the
and rclulgent rays upon the minds and souls of
dispellng the dark and gloomy spirit
which lowered over the human family, and with
Its warm and piercing heat, melted the letters
of ignorance and freed mankind from vice, de-
IradatiOn and superstitution--we find that,
speaking, it is nothing but de-
lincatiOn of blood bought laurels, the portrayal
Ut lus'tu passions the rise and fall of empires,
kingdoms and epublcs-nations conflicting
with nations, empires dashing against empires
and republics usurped by the unquesiionable
ambition of outlawed despots, with their whole
life written upon the field of carnage by the
blood of millions of unfortunate mortals. Such
was the genius of the nations OF antiquity
But, thank Heaven, the people of this nation
have taken lessons of admoniton and warning
by their examples, and that we can boast of a
genius which is of purer and nobler kind
that kind of a genius which has drank deep
from the fountain of Christianity, imbued with |
The spirit of justice and equity. The peculi- |
lrity of this nation is its wonderfully enlarged |
hump of gO-GheaditiUenesS. 1t is true, the Old
Fogyish arstocracy of Briton endeavors to de-
mean us by calling us " fast boys" 1t is true,
we admit, that, as they call US big listed far
ners and greasy mechanics" we can, in de-
Tending our rights, hurl the bullets and bomb
shells warmed and filled with the steam of free
ION, too fast for their practised hordes of hired
yrants Our diplomatists, also, are too fast
or them, in compelling them by the power of
reason, to>yed to justice and humanity, and
forcing them to keep faithful treaties which
tend TO elevate the human race, and introduce !
civilization and christianity among those hea-
then nations whom they have kept buried in
ignorance by the yoke Of despotsin. This is
truly nation Of action, and it is intensified by |
the impetuosity which we pursue everything |
capable of attracting our attention or enIisting
our sympathies indeed, we have become so
jealous In our pursuits, that the word modera-
ton has been almost obliterated from our yo-
cabulary. When we undertake to do ANYTHING.
we do it, and that, too, SO fast that enyious
minds of foreign nations stand in awe at the
deeds of. these " fast boys" And,
no wonder that English noblemen exclaim in !
the outbreakings Of jealous spirit, Why did
our statesmen not originate these doctrines!"
When we, from an humble roof, can produce
a Clayton or Marcy, to originate new doc
trlnss and principles in diplomacy, which fall
like thunder bolts upon the members of the
British Parliament, whose rumbIings are heard
in the astonished hearts of honest Britons, and
makes them unwontingly exclaim in a voice of
commendatioD within the walls of British aris-
tocracy, like the. stiffness produced by the low
and mournfnl motterings Of the beating of the
drums and the clanking Of the arms of approach
ing enemies.a In all our undertakings, with
such an eagerness do we pursue them that moth
ing satisfies us except grand consummation or
stupendous failure. SO completely have we
brought science in tho mental and machinery
IN the mechanical world under our control, that
what our fathers did in lifetime, we can &C..
complish in a single day IT is this spirit of
nj - !. l. Z