The Washington union. [volume] (City of Washington [D.C.]) 1857-1859, 1858-10-29
wAsHINGToN CITY, FRIDAY, ocToBER %, 1883

State of whatever form Of government has during the
period Ct It's existence, enjoyed higher degree Of domes
tic tranquility than the United States existing at
this day exhibits better conditions OF parents stability
durability none except Great Britain IN her foreign
conquests has advanced steadily and rapidly along
the path OF territorial greatness and material power and
In the accelerated accumulation with general distribution
of wsath and other results of material prosperity
exceeds the United States Meanwhile the States of the
Union have doubled, almost trebled in number the
federal system which worked well for few States works
not less we'll for many and thus democratic republican
institutions established within each State prove capable of
adaptation by of federal SYSTEM to the whole
continent Of America That spectacle of great
egn States abiding in peace together which philosophers
and statesmen have dreamed OF and hoped TO see but
which yet exhibited here in the New
World.
Democratic republican Institutions popular sefgoy
ernment--yes, these are living facts here in the
United States. Self action the utmost possible degree
Of individual independence-that il the commanding
and characteristic fact in condition people
1t has enabled to subdue the wilderness and its
wild denzens TO people and TO cultivate tho lsyld
before us to fill IL with farm houses and work shops
mansions and churches and cities to extract from the
earth its mineral wealth; to navigate its waters to
lake. river and sea with ships to rule at home
and TO conquer abroad and IL sends swarmng forth
from paternal homes here to overspread continent
with intelligence and force, with republican
government and our democratic thoughts. And So at
this day the United States not the United States only
they are indeed America.
We have advanced thus from the Atlantic to the Pa
cl6c, by tho impetus of race, of national origin
of institutions of ideas and of the natural advan
tages Of our country. All that But we
have advanced also with the simultaneous general move
ment, intellectual and social, Of modern Europe
doubt whether that modern Europe has gained upon
old Europe in the conception of moral truth DO all the
learned spccuaons and bitter controversies Of the church
add anything the divinity and the spirituality of the
primitive teachings of Christ and the Apostesg Have
all the nobest efforts of modern art succeeded in deynS
line of beauty which Greece did not see in the works Of
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political institutions and with good but is there
possible combination of in society which had not
been studied and expounded in the politics of Aristotle
Is there any mechanism OF government any principle OF
legislation, surprising those of the Romans doubt
We have discovered many things in astronomy, in geo
ogy, in chemistry in the natural sciences generally and
in mechanic art but when and where have discover
cd new virtue We may read this day in the exquisite
but somewhat visionary specuations of Plato and still
better in the practical and select speeches
of Cicero--as in his admirable discourses Duty,
those on the nature of God, Divnation, and the
Ends of Good and Evil-we may read all there is most
worth reading anywhere, ontside of the Bible in the
whole round of human knowledge on moral obligation,
the relations of to each other to nature, to
ciety, and to religion.
1t is not in such subjects then of religion of ethics
of aesthetic art even of government but in the others
limited at namely physical science and mechanic art -
that boast of the advancement of modern Europe
and with it European America. There to be law
OF the nature of the human race in virtue OF which, at
successive periods of his earts history particular
tion branch of the human family starts into this
that line of improvement reaches its ultimate point and
there stops. Each succeeding nation as it eliminates
into greatness takes its And thus is that
the ages of the world roll the immense field vt
knowledge is explored in its diverse directions and each
generation transmits TO tho next additional store Of
discoveries to be garnered up by pile upon pile the
first fruits of the great final harvest of the Infinite and the
Eternal. .a.
What we to our share of this the Infinite and the Etcr-
nal have mean Of modern Europe and
umental. With us, however, 1t has not been the dis
covery OF things, the instruments of progress,
much that of of those things to the result
end social Improvement Gunpowder the mariner COM
pass the printing press the motive power OF stean pho
Biography, anasthetc agency, railways, magnetic ele
graphing, telescopes, algebra, and uxonal calculus
these existed long ago, perhaps in the uses or the
thought, at least of the ancient populations OF Asia.
have myself seen much evidence of that in the shattered
remnants Of the mighty Past Of Egypt India and China
But it Is only in hands that the marvellous capab
ties of these things have been invoked from obscuy
and subjected to the ministries of life Thus we have
penetrated by the eye far into the mysterious depths of
the celestial armament, to reveal the motions of the
and its satellite planets to behold another with
its dependent solar system in each one of the glitter
ing stars high and TO resolve every light specS and
train of fntest line in the sky into its fields
of nnumerable worlds. We have calculated the move
ments Of celestial bodies their several orbits their
functions and opposons, their magnitude and density,
with the assurance and almost the precision with which
we time the wheels of a watch measure barrel of
-four erce of tobacco Nay, by calculation of mp
parent perturbations in the movements of the rcmoer
planets we ascertain what and where yet unseen
of the disturbance exists and directing the tee
scopc eye to that point planet is found rolling in
Its everlasting rounds We expose prepared tablet to the
rays of the sum- and they paint upon it perfect image of
whatever objects within the range Of the
hectcd lines of light We compress the explosive
power of the flaming scintillatons of thunder bolt
within the cavity of tube from which to hur desruc
ton and death into the ranks of hostile armies the
49,. 1r hnla
indefinite expansbility of matter and so compel it to
drag the rail land, and to drive the steamship
river and sea, and to perform the work of million
hands, until power of action limtess almost
creation. We out of earth and air the cleo
tromagnetc currents yiewess and occult disembod
led spirit and as, with wish flash, they convey
thoughts continents and oceansantioipating
tme annhilatng space. We say to pain, cease-and it
ceases. We speak to assembled multitude and the
winged words utter, they issue from lips
caught up by the photographer transmitted by the cleo
trio telegraph thousand miles in the instant stamped
million sheets, If by enchantment, and dissent
mated the universe. All these tho marvels Of
modern science and artmarvels which only do not
tort from continual exclamatons of wonder and ave-
because like the great works of nature around u.s. they
have TO be the familiar objects of life they are
with and of now life itself is; and which, II
ii were not so might impe US, with supersous self
idolatry TO say to ourselves, Oh man. art thou In
deed man, the created art thou not rather the crea
tor, God @tE4 a'a 'H#
Most wonderful say, is the intellectual and social
activity and efficiency Of our times We perceive IL in
the eeming earth in the crowded city, the burdened
perceive it In the increased productions of So
cicty and its fixed monuments; perceive il in