Mariposa Democrat., 1857-07-30

easily satiate in the possession, but treless IN
the pursuit of things; and carrying this pecu-
liarity with him into community, the wants Of
society, beget an interchange Of notions and
opinions, which mutually modifying each other,
| blend together in one mass of public sentiment,
out Of which Governments, at least such as
ours, derive their character and draw their
policies, and the State and the citizen progress
alike. Hence il is, that all free Governments
are, and must be, only the index of public
opinion 1t is folly to talk of Governments
distinct from the people. Who ever heard Of
free and refined system of Government sup
ported by barbarians, or saw wisdom and virtue
| hourishing under misrule and oppression?
To say then that our nation has reached its
climax, and enjoys all that she should aim at,
is to assume that her people possess all that in
virtue is desirable, and all that in knowledge
/ is useful, and are capable of no farther pro-
gress. Profanely dangerous as such an as
sumption must be, still if it be admitted, there
are yet ample channels left for the exercise Of
our National energies. There are new duties
to be performed arising from the position that
our Government sustans in the great family
Of Nations, that may yet call for the union of
all her wealth and all her power. The same
duties that man owes to man, Nations owes to
| Nations. To keep aoof from the misiortunes
Of others--to gaze upon sorrow without sooth-
ing it, or misery without relieving, violates the
noblest feelings Of the human heart, and no.
thing but the extreme of circumstance can JUS
| tify its adoption MS a policy The reverse is a
principle Policies may change with the sea-
sons that gave them birth, but principles are
as immutable as time itself The policy that
this Nation has thus far invariably pursued Of
being a silent spectator TO the great National
events that have transpired around her, be-
holding State after State annihilated, and their
people oppressed to crafty the ambition Of
Monarchs, under the specious pretence of pre-
serving the balance of power had its origin
in the infancy of the Republic, while she was
yet encumbered with the debts, and bleeding
with the wounds of Revolution; while her
people were few, and her system of Govern
ment was an untried experiment. But these
reasons, now, happily, no longer exist, and the
policy itself ought to be, and ] have faith
enough to believe will be, speedily abandoned
Under its operations, Poland whose sons
fought side by side with our Fathers through
the Revolution, the blood of whose brave and
generous but exiled children, has watered the
battle-fields Of every Nation, has been dismem-
bered without protest.
And VIC have seen Greece vanly struggling
for the,liberties we enjoy her fields ravaged-
her cities in flames, and her children going
down beneath the murderous scymetar of the
Turk: and though every American bosom
was filled with Indignation, and every heart
with sympathy, yet the Nation spoke not, lest
forsooth, she might give umbragc to the sen
sitive Ottoman. And we have thought too
that we were performing all the duties of a
great, free, and powerful Nation, when, after
the die was cast and the contest closed, we
opened our arms to receive the defeated and
disheartened exiles Of Hungary. A curse up
on every policy which when the great ques-
tons of National and moral rights are concern.
ed, converts into towards Nation, that in the
pursuit Of its own selfish ends, has given to
the world the most ample evidence of the pos
session Of both boldness and courage.
1t may be said that different policy would
involve us in war. And are we to pause in
the performance OF the great moral duties of
Nations, until we learn whether our acts will
please or displease the insolent pride of Popes
and Kings? Besides If war must come, when,
and where could it better find us than in per-
forming right and rebuking wrong, and forcing
the immutable principles of Justice into the
only carry with us the undivided sympathies
Of the people, but would call around us, as
friends and co-workers, the virtuous and op-
pressed of every land. The wars Of selfish
ness, and of ambition, have desolated and dis
graced every preceding age, but the war of
principle has been reserved for this. Whatev
er has been, or may be said, about the evils of
war, still il has its benefits 1t has been the
| &c ,t, u hoe H.
clarion to arouse the dormant energies of the
oppressed, it has taught mankind how to break
the chains of bondage, and how to win, and
how TO maintain their liberties and far greater
must be the development of wisdom, and far
higher the refinement in morals, ere wars shall
cease to be useful, or Nations placed too high
to reap any advantage from their occurrence
With us, it might be said, it would offer an
outlet to that excess of restless energy which
ever seeking for something to perform, might
otherwise breed discord and disunion; and it
would drain off that vast and fast accumulat.
ing wealth, which, though it has not yet pro
duced any perceptble evil, hath nevertheless
an inevitable tendency to enervate and cor
rupt. But it may be contended that having
acquired so many blessings and advantages,
We now possess far too much to hazard in any
COHlcSl, luOuHu uiCl;tlcu ny mural uul1 anu
Justice and that our safest and best policy is
to stand where we are, and to allow those 9TH
ers that yet linger behind, to follow after as
best they may. But such view is founded
in ignorance of the social character, and social
tendencies of mankind. The bosom of the
great Ocean ITSELF is not more strongly or con-
stantly impelled by its natural tendencies, to
seek and maintain an equilibrium, than is the
bosom of society; and as soon might we hope
to behold a column of water rise and stand
elfsustained above the surface of the Sea, as
that one Nation, or one people should long
preserve a decided prominence over the rest
of the race And when such an instance pre-
sents ITSELF it is not in accordance NTH, but in
spite of the moral and social laws-th0se lars,
the complete observance of which, would give
the same solemn, silent and sublime harmony
to the social Universe, that we behold all
around us in the physical. The favored
among the Nations, must assist others to rise I;
or expect themselves to be pulled down by the
inexplicable force of social attraction. They
may go backwards but they cannot pause
Nations have never yet discovered an interme-
diate state in which to halt between progress
and decline.
China has been trying it for the last