Cedar Falls gazette. [volume] (Cedar Falls, Iowa) 1860-1895, 1860-10-05

sPEHoH OF HON. VIM. a. SEWARD
Delivered at Madison, Wis, Sept, IL, 1850.
DUTY AND RESPONSIBILITY OF THE NORTHWEST
Fello0 Citizens 1T is a political law-ant
when say political law, mean a higher
law-[cries of good, ~ a law of providence
that empire has for the last three thousand
years, SO long as we have records of civiliza.
ton, made its way constantly westward, and
that it must continue to move on westward
until the tides Of the renewed and the decay
ing civilization of the world meet on the
shores of the Pacific Ocean. Within a year
Il have seemed myself to follow the track OF
empire in its westward march for three thous-
and years. I stood but a year ago upon the
hill Of Calvary stood soon afterwards on
the Piaus of Athens.
81 Again found myself on the banks of the
Tiber.. Still advancing westward, l rested
under the shade of the palaces of the kings
of England, and trod the streets of the now
renovated capital of France. From those cap
itals made my way at last to Washington,
the City of established empire for the pres
aent generation of men, and of Influence over
the destinies of mankind. Applause EN-
pire moves far more rapidly in modern than
it did in ancient times. The empire estab-
lished at Washington is of less than hun
dred years formation. 1t was the en-
pire Of thirteen Atlantic American States
Still practically the mission of that empire is
fulfilled The power that directs it is ready
to pass away from those thirteen States, and
although held and exercised under the same
Constitution and national form of govern
ment, yet it is now in the very act of being
transferred from the thirteen States east Of
the Allegheny Mountains and on the coast of
the Atlantic Ocean, to the twenty States that
lie west of the Alleghanies, and stretch away
from their base to the base of the Rocky
Mountains. The political power of the Re-
public, the empire is already here in the plain
that stretches between the great lakes on the
east and base of the Rocky Mountains on the
west; and you are heirs to it. When the
next census shall reveal your power you will
be found to be the masters of the United
States, of America, and through them the
dominating political power of the world
TApplause-a voice, "Amen."] Our mission
ii may say that belong to that eastern
and falling empire instead Of the rising wes-
tern one, the mission of tho thirteen States
has been practically accomplished. And what
is it? just like the mission of every other
power on earth To reproduce, to produce
a new and greater and better power than we
have been ourselves, [applausel to introduce
on the stage of human affairs twenty new
States and to prepare the way for twenty
more, before whose rising greatness and
splendor, all our own achievements pale and
fade away We have done this with as much
forethought perhaps as any people ever ex-
ercised, by saving the broad domain which
you and these other forty States are to occu-
py, saving it for your possession and, so far
as we had virtue enough, by surrounding it
with barriers against the intrusion of igno-
rance, superstition and slavery. Applause.
Because you are to rise to the ascendant
and exercise dominating influence, you are
not, therefore, to cast off the ancient and hon
orable thirteen that opened the way for you
and marshaled you into this noble posses
sion, nor are you to cast off the new States
of the West But you are to lay still broad
or foundations, and to erect still more noble
columns to sustain the empire which our
fathers established, and which it is the man
ifest will of our heavenly father shall reach
from the shores of the lakes to the Gulf of
Mexico, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific
ocean. 1t was free government which they
established, and it was self goyernment--a
government such as, Oh so large a scale, or
indeed on any scale, has never before ex-
listed.
know that when you consider what
magnificent destiny you have before you, to
lay your hand on the Atlantic coast, and to
extend your power to the Pacific ocean and
grasp the great commerce Of the east, you
will fully appreciate the responsibility. 1t is
only to be done by maintaining the democrat
ic system of government. There is no other
name given under heaven by which, in this
generation, nations can be saved from desc
lation and ruin, than Democracy. This, to
many conservative ears, would seem strange
proposition, and yet it is so simple that l lack
the power almost of calculating it. Look at
England. She is ambitious, as she may be,
and ought to be, to retain that dominion,
reaching into every part Of the habitable
globe, which she now exercises. She is like
ly to do it, too, and may do it, by reducing
every successive year the power of her arts
tocracy and introducing more and more the
popular element of Democracy into the adj
ministration of her government.
In many respects, the government of En-
gland, though more aristocratic, is still less
monarchial than our own. The British en-
pire exists to-day only by recognizing and
gradually adopting the great truth that if
the British empire is to stand, it is the
British people who are to maintain that
empire and enjoy and exerciseit France, the
other great European power which seems to
stand firmer now than ever, and to be renew
ing her career of prosperity and glory
France, under the form of despotism, has
adopted the principle of universal suffrage,
ana the empire of France to-day is democ-
racy. The Austrian empire is falling, and
why? Because Democracy is rising in Ger
many to demand the liberation of the people
of it's various nations, and the exercise of
universal suffrage. And Italy to-day, all
along the coas tof the Mediterranean is rising
up to the dignity of renewed national life, by
adopting the principle of universal suffrage
and the limitation of power by the action of
the whole people
Now, if IN the old world, where govern
ment and empire are entrenched and estab-
1ished so strong in hereditary aristocracy, no
empire can stand except as it yields to the
Democratic principle look around over the
United States of America, and say how long
you can hold these States in federal union
or maintain one common authority or empire
here except on the principle of Democracy
Therefore it is that l say, that you of the
Northwest are, above all things, first, last
and all the time, to recognize as the great ell