The Washington union., 1858-03-04
THE REAL POWER OF THE NATION

In the carrier periods OF clVihzauon the real power
of State existed in numbers and peculiar geograph
ica position Even as late the commencement of the
present century great military cheftain was
tmated equal to any other captain of that day and
forty thousand 1t was numbers that deter
mined the strength and force of the nation To some
extent, this is now but the power of numbers is
rapidly passing away.
We have in the United States twenty-five thousand
miles of railroad constructed at cost of than
one thousand millions of dollars This gigantic work
and expenditure, though agency of commerce to
limited extent is, after all facility for per
sonal inter communication of our own people. More
than laws and constitutions it has consolidated the
nation. 1t has brought distant and apparently
antagonistic parts together in social eommu-
Mon 1t has made friends and brothers of stran-
gers and rivals 1t is exceedingly doubtful, if, in
the midst of arrng politics and the strife OF ambi-
tion it has not operated powerful antidote, pre-
serving equilibrium when otherwise there might
have been bitter contention if not dsunon.
The machinery employed in the United States, in
all the diversified avocatons of life does the work
of more than six hundred millions of men. This
gigantic engine of labor and production is the chief
source Of power. The people who work it are mere
engineers and fremen. Without its very large
portion of the country which now constitutes
main reliance would be utterly valueess. The great
plain of the lakes and the valleys of rivers which
find their source thousands of miles in the interior,
and provide an element of navigation and of quick and
cheap commercial exchange, would have remained
in the peaceabe possession of the Indians except for
the employment Of the machinery which has been
the invention of the present generation.
No fact is better illustrated than that the expan-
sive power of nation is no more hereafter to be
found in mere irruptons-in the spasmodlc action OF
few individuals is locomotion itself to be de-
termined by numbers We provided by our sys
TEN of roads with the facilities of rapid and easy
centraton. The whole force of the nation, moved
by common impulse may be brought to bear upon
any vital point at the shortest notice. This fact in
connexon with geographical position, is quite
sufficient TO protect us from exterior assaults and it
leaves us to the peaceful and uninterrupted employ
ment of that Observation-Disclosures power, which
is steadily operating upon the States of the Union
directly and upon all the States of the two CONT
nents of America indirectly. 1t has opened to our
engineers, Texas, New Mexico, and California, and it
has made of them just in proportion as they are
accessible to our works, large, successful, and
wealthy communities.
Industry, it is manifest, is hereafter to be meas
ured by the genius of the country which constitutes
to-day the real element of power not only ON this
side, but also the other side of the water. Its
partnership with capital and production has already
produced complete revolution in all the relations
of human lfe The monarchical governments of Eu-
rope have more to fear from this source than from
the influence of any political theories or nstitu-
tions, not excepting our own. The true expansive
powers of people, liberalizing, humanizng, and
civilizng-the central power of progress in its
ward and resistess course, enlargng the mind, ex-
altng the character and imparting true dignity and
independence to man. is to be found in the discovery
and application of the laws Of mechanics, the true
principles in fact of all the natural sciences.
The effects of these discoveries already exhib-
tied in the almost complete equalization of values of
all parts and portions of the American continents in
the rapid extension of territorial limits; in the
productions of the soil in the development of min
era wealth and the infinite uses to which it is ap-
Piled in the expansion of commerce, external and
internal and in the deep gulf which has been crea-
ted in this way between the people of the United
States and the people inhabiting other portions Of
this and the southern continent of America We
are ON the Lazarus side of the gulf and GER
tain as it required the wisdom of the Great Archi-
tect to construct the world to endow it, and inhabit
it, so it is in the progress of time, by the su-
perior knowledge, genius and skill possessed and
employed by people, we shall acquire and appro-
pirate Just such additional territory may be de-
manded to develop what we have. We will occu-
py what we need. We do not this language
in an offensive political sense, but do it TO
express the true philosophy of progress in this
country, to assign to it the laws of its existence
and its destiny. 1t is the principle whose
operation has driven out the Indian and whose
operation will drive out every other race that de-
stroys, and does not employ the proper to
sure its preservation. The car has taken the place
of the coach--the engine has superseded the horse
the reaper the cradle, the cuvator the hoe, the gin
the workman the lathe the hammer, and so on till
every distaff is idle and every mechanic is engi-
neer These things may threaten the idle and the
slothful but they cannot offend them. The train
speeds before the currcle the electric message robs
the mail, but these are wonders not insults.
The electric telegraph alone has doubled the ca
pacity of money as medium of exchange, to con-