The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1860-07-20

substantial blessings of life than are enjoyed
by equal numbers of people in the Oldest
and most prosperous States of Europe,
am lost in wonder and, as sufficient an
swer to the charge of degeneracy, l am
tempted to exclaim, " Look around you
ARTS AND SCIENCES IN AMERICA
But merely to fill up the wilderness with
population provided with the ordinary in
stitutions, and carrying on the customary
pursuits of civilized life-though surely no
mean achievement-was by no means the
whole of the work allotted to the United
States, and thus far performed with signal
activity, intelligence and success. The foun.
ders of America and their descendants have
accomplished more and better things. On
the basis of rapid geographical extension,
and with the force OF teeming numbers, they
have, in the very infancy of their political
existence, successfully aimed at higher pro-
gress in a generous civilization. The me-
chanical arts have been cultivated with un>
usual aptitude. Agriculture, manufactures,
commerce, navigation, whether by sails or
steam, and the art of printing in all its forms,
have been pursued with surprising skill.
Great improvements have been made in all
these branches of industry, and in the ma
chinery pertaining to them, which have been
eagerly adopted in Europe. A more ade-
Quate provision has been made for popular
education than in almost any other country.
l believe that in the cities of Boston, New
York and Philadelphia, more money, in
proportion to the population, is raised by
taxation for the support of common schools,
than in any other cities in the world. There
are more seminaries in the United States,
where respectable academical education
can be obtained-more, still mean, in pro.
portion to the population-than in any
other country except Germany. The fine
arts have reached high degree OF excellence.
The taste for music is rapidly spreading in
town and country; and every year witnesses
productions from the pencil and the chisel
of American sculptors and painters, which
would adorn any gallery in the world. Our
astronomers, mathematicians, naturalists,
chemists, engineers, jurists, publicists, histo-
rians, poets, novelists and photographers,
have placed themselves on level with those
of the elder world. The best dictionaries of
the English language since johnson are
those published in America. Our constitu.
tions, whether of the United States or of
the separate states, exclude all public pro-
vision for the maintenance of religion; but
in no part of Christendom is it more gener-
ously supported. Sacred science is pursued
as diligently, and the pulpit commands as
high degree of respect in the United
States, as in those countries where the
church is publicly endowed; while the Amer
lean missionary operations have won the
admiration of the civilized world. No
where, am persuaded, are there more lib
eral contributions to public-spirited and
charitable objects. In a word, there is no
branch of the mechanical or fine arts, no
department of science, exact or applied-no
form of polite literature-no description of
social improvement-in which, due allows
ance being made for the means and resources
at command, the progress of the United
States has not been satisfactory, and in
some respects astonishing. At this mo-
ment the rivers and seas of the globe are
navigated with that marvellous application
of steam as propelling power which
was first effected by Fulton; the monster
steamship which has just reached our shores
rides at anchor in the waters in which the
first successful experiment in steam naviga-
ton was made. The harvests of the civilized
world are gathered by American reapers !;
the newspapers which lead the journalism
of Europe are printed on American presses /;
there are railroads in Europe constructed by
American engineers and travelled by Amer
lean locomotives; troops armed with Amer
lean weapons, and ships of war built in
American dock-yards. In the factories of
Europe there is machinery of American IN
vention or improvement in their observa-
tories telescopes of American construction,
and apparatus of American invention for
recording the celestial phenomena. Ameri-
ca contests with Europe the introduction
into actual use Of the electric telegraph,
and her mode of operating it is adopted
throughout the French empire. American
authors in almost every department are
found on the shelves of European libraries.
1t is true no American Homer, Virgil,
Dante, Copernicus, Shakespeare, Bacon,
Milton, Newton, has risen on the world.
These mighty geniuses seem to be excep-
lions in the history of the human mind.
Favorable circumstances do not produce
them, nor does the absence of favorable cir
cumstances prevent their appearance. Ho-
mer rose in the dawn of Greek culture,
Virgil fourished in the court of Augustus,
Dante ushered in the birth of the new En-
ropean civilization, Copernicus was reared
in Polish cloister, Shakespeare was trained
in the green room of the theatre, Milton
was formed while the elements of English
thought and life were termenting toward a
great political and moral revolution, New
ton under the profigacy of the Restoration.
Ages may elapse before any country will
produce a man like these, as two centuries
have passed since the last mentioned of them
was born. But if it is really matter of
reproach to the United States, that in the