The Iowa transcript. (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1858-1866, 1865-12-13

foreign interference. We cannot foresee
ana are unwilling to consider what oPpor-
tunities might present themselves, what
combinations might offer to protect our
selves against designs inimical to our form
of government. The United States desire
TO act in the future as they have ever acted
heretofore they never will be driven from
That course but by the aggression of Euro
pean powers; and we rely on the wisdom
and justice of those powers to respect the
system OF non-lntcrterence which has 20
long been sanctioned by time, and which.
by Its good results, has approved itself to
both continents.
The correspondence between the United
States and France, in reference to cues
tons which have become subjects of dis
cussion between the two governments, will,
at proper time, be laid before congress.
When, on the organization of our govern
ment, under the constitution, the President
of the United States delivered his inaugur-
al address to the two houses Of congress,
he said to them, and through them to the
couutry and to mankind, that ssthe preser-
walton Of the sacred fire Of liberty and the
destiny of the republican model of govern
ment are justly considered as deeply, per-
haps as finally staked on the experiment
entrusted to the American people" And
the house Of representatives answered
Washington by the voice of Madison ssWe
adore the invisible hand which has led
the American people, through so many diff
fculties, to cherish q conscious response
bility for the destiny Of republican liberty"
More than seventy-six years have glided
away since these words were spoken tho
United States have passed through severer
trials than were foreseen and now, at this
new epoch in our existence as one nation,
with cur Union purified by sorrows, and
strengthened by conflict, and established
by the virtue of the people, the greatness
of the occasion invites us once more to re-
peat, with solemnity, the pledges Of our
fathers to hold ourselves answerable before
our fellow-men for the success Of the re-
publican form of government. Experience
has proved its suihciency in peace and in
war; it has vindicated its authority
through dangers, affections, and sudden
and terrible emergencies. which would
have crushed any system that had
been less firmly fixed in the heart Of the
people. At the Inauguration of Washington
the foreign relations Of the country were
few, and its trade was repressed by hostile
regulations now all the civilized nations
of the globe welcome our commerce, and
their governments profess towards NJ
amity. Then our country felt its way hesi-
tatingly along an untried path, with states
so lutte bound together by rapid means Of
communication as to be hardly known to
one another, and with historic traditions
extending over few years now intercourse
between the states is swift and intimate
the experience Of centuries has been crowd
ed into new generations, and has created
an intense, indestructible nationality. Then
our jurisdiction did not reach beyond the
announcement boundaries of the territory
which had achieved independence now,
through cessions Of lands, first colonized by
Spain and France, the country has acquired
| more complex character, and has for it,
| natural limits the chain of lakes, the Cult
of Mexico, and on the east and west the two
| great oceans. Other nations were wasted
| by civil wars for ages before they could es-
tablish for themselves the necessary de-
| gree OF unity: the latent conviction that our
| form Of government is the best ever known
| to the worlt, has enabled us to emerge from
| a civil war within four years, with COM
| plete yindication Of the constitutional au-
thority Of the general government, and with
our local liberties and state institutions un-
impaired. The throngs Of emigrants that
crowd to our shores are witnesses of tho
] Here is the great land of free labor, where
industry is blessed with unexampled re-
wards, and the bread of the workingman 10
sweetened by the consciousness that the
cause of the country is his own cause, his
own safety, his own dignity" Here every
one enjoys the free use Of his faculties and
the choice Of activity as national right.
Here. under the combined influence Of .
fruitful SOIL genial chimes, and happy insti-
tutions, population has increased fifteen
fold within century. Here, through the
easy development of boundless resources,
wealth has increased with two-fold greater
rapidity than numbers, SO that we have be-
come secure against the financial vicissitudes
of other countries, and. alike in bus; ness
and in opinion, are self-centred ard truly
independent. Here more and more care is
given to provide education for every one
born on our soil. Here religion, released
from political connection with civil govern
ment, refuses to subserve the craft of states
men. and becomes in its independence, the
spiritual life of the people. Here liberation
is extended to every opinion, in the quiet
certainty that truth needs only fair field
TO secure the victory. Here the human
mind goes forth unshackled in the pursuit
of science, TO collect stores Of knowledge
and acquire an oyer-increasing mastery
over the forces of nature Here the nation
al domain is offered and held in millions Of
separate freeholds, so that cur fellow-citis-
ems, beyond the occupants of any other part
Of the earth, constitute in reality people.
Here exists the democratic form of govern
ment by the confession Of the European
statesmen, gives power of which no
other form is capable. because it incorpor-
ates every man with the state, and arouses
every thing that belongs to the SOUL
Where, in past history, does parallel
exist to the public happiness which is with
in the reach Of the people of the United
States Where in any part Of the globe, can
institutions be found so suited to their
habits or so entitled to their love as their
own free constitution Every one Of them,
then, in whatever part of the land he has
his home, must wish its perpetuity. Who
Of them will not now acknowledge, in the
words of Washington, that g every step BY
which the people Of the United State have
advanced to the character of an independ-
ent nation, seems to have been distinguish
ed by some token of Providential agency 2!
Who will not join with me in the prayer.
that the invisible hand which has led US
through the cloud that gloomed around our
path. will so guide US onward to q perfect
restoration of fraternal affection, that we Of
this day may be able to transmit our great
inheritance. of state governments in all
their rights. of the general government in
its whole constitutional vigor, to our poster
ity, and they to theirs through countless
generations !! ANDREW JOHNSON.
WASHINGTON, December 4, 1865.