Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1859-07-01
Gelctte0 Mlistrllnnn.
OUR COUNTRY.
BIZ LANpoN 6. HAYNEs.

kind was equivalent to- the creation of
another planet beyond the seas for the
habitatiOn Of man. It brought into ac-
tivity on the race a new combination Of
physical causes, which, in their final
operation, shall lead to consequences
political, social, intellectual, and moral
grander than have yet occupied the
thoughts or dazzlcd the minds Of men,
North America stands forth on our
sphere the centre figure among the con.
tinents around which they are all grouped.
On the one hand, she lifts her front, set
and glittering with cities in the face of
Europe and on the other, tlrns Der
western slope, watered with rivers =" lit
orally turbed with gold" and crowned
with eternal spring, in the broad vision
of Asia. While between these extremes
lies an empire more than six thousand
miles in its outline, covered with the
richest soils ever visited by the beams of
the sun, and intersected by streams which
pour their floods through -" finland seas"
to the great ocean. And already Science,
in her azure robe, has taken her stand
on the crest of the world, the summit of
the Rocky mountains and gazing with
dazzling eyes in the face Of Asia, with a
globe in one hand and n compass in the
other, whose trembling needle, instinct
with tho pulsations of that wonderful vein
ofmagnetic influence which throbs around
the world, is pointing out to the millions
of the West the parallel Of latitude on
which the riches of the earth are TO find
a highway to the East. And, indeed,
she is now reckoning into our Pacific
ports the daring canvass" and flying
steamer of every nation, from the wan
dorinc seas and distant transiss around
Cape Horn and Cape of Good Hope
And yet our country is bnt in the germ
of her greatness and the infancy of her
years.
In century to come, at the regular
rates Of increase, she will contain pop
ulation of 500 100000. It cannot be
avertcd; for the general laws of the
moral are as certain in their operation as
those of the natural world.
The glo-American race must even
tually pour its wave of population ovel
this continent. Its progress in the past
is the best augury for the future. Had
ally one in the time of the confederation
said that the handful Of Iaon then living,
and their descendants in fifty years,
would spread to the Pacific ocean, he
would have been regarded as a run-mad
enthusiast. But Incredibly has been
turned into faiih and fancy into fact. Is
it less probable that this powerful and
master race, within the next half century.
will have followed our eagles over all
Central America? Already the pulse of
the Angto- AmeyicaH beats in Nicaragua.
And what exists in our system TO pre-
vent its extension to the whole? 1t is
totally unlike any other which ever ex-
listed. In the checks and balances, con
cord and harmony ofits 3" embodied mem
bers, it approaches more nearly to the
solar system, planned by God himself,
than any other for like the planets
each revolving on its axis, while bound
by the kindly law of gravitation to the
central luminary-cvery State, possessing
a separate, distinct and Independent;
government Of her own, is at the game
time, bound with her sisters into a per-
feet union around the Federal Govern
ment by the compact of the Constitution
Of the United States.
The inference Of ACKNOWLEDGMENT from
territorial expansion springs from the CT
ror of confouuding our representative re-
public with pure and primitive democra-
cies, and applying the rcasonings drawn
from one to tho other. The true dis
tinction is, as Mr.. Madison said, that in
a radical democracy the people meet and
exercise the government in persoH--in a
representative republic by their agents.
1t follows, that the territorial limit Of
pure democracy is that distance from a
common centre which will barely allow
the most remote citizens. as often as pub
lie exigencies demand, to come to the
seat of government and that Of a repre-
sentative republic, that distance which
will permit the representative Of the
people TO come to the central point as
often as necessary without detrimont 20
the public service.
The application Of the agency Of steam
to transit on land and water, aud the en-
ploymcnt Of the lightning for the trans
mission Of intelligence, have endowed
government, man, and the human mind,
with kind Of earthly ubiquity, which,
in point Of time and practical eject, have
brought the utmost borders Of this whole
continent nearer to its common centre
than were the limits Of tho old thirteen
States to the seat Of government in the
days Of the confederation. Our double
system of government, State and federal,
in the practical influence and cXpansibil-
ity of its machinery, is capable ofadjust.
ing itself as well TO the whole as TO any
Of its segmcnts. Whether such an ex-
tension ought ever TO take place, and the
time and methods by which it shall be
accomplished, If ever, arc far different
que5tions- questions which must be de-
cided by you in your day and generation,
under high sense Of national justice,
honor and morality, when they shall
arise.
niscarding, however, in nature all So
cial distinctions springing from the acct
dents Of birth and fortune and founded
on the intrinsic dignity Of man 40 man.
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