Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1865-12-10

- - - - AFA-A-S
-. -
j, and firmly refused 10 become uropa
A. gandists Of Repulicanism. 10 Is tn
Is only Government suited to our con
ie ditian but we have never sough
x 10 impose il on others and we have con
n sistently followed the advise of Washing
It ton TO recommend il only by the careful
n preservation and prudent use of the bles
/ sings. During all the intervening perioC
Y the policy OF European powers and o
i the United States has, On the whole. beer
e harmonious. Twice indeed, rumors of the
+ invasion ofsomeparts of America, in the
interests Of monarchy have prevailed
n twice my predecessors have had occa-
= sion TO announce the views of this nation
} in respect to such interference.
[ On both occasions, the renon-
! STRANGE of the United States was
( respected from deep conviction on
: the part Of European governments
that the system of nOn-interference and
mutual abstinence from propagandism,
. was the true rule for the two hemispheres.
Since those time we have advanced in
wealth and power, but we retain thesame
purpose TO leave the nations of Europe
To choose their own dynasties and form
their own systems of government. This
consistent moderation may justly demand
a corresponding moderation. We should
regard il as great calamity to ourselves,
to the cause of good government, and
to the peace of the world, should any
I European power challenge the American
people, as it were, to the defence ofrepub-
lieanism against foreign interference.
We cannot fOresee, and are unwil-
ling TO consider, what opportunities might
present themselves, what combina-
tions might offer to protect our
selves against designs inimical to our
form of government. The United States
desire to act in the future rs they have
acted heretofore; they never VIII be
driven from that course but bV the
aggression of European powers, and we
rely on the wisdom and Justice of those
/ powers to respect the system OF non-inter-
! ference, which has so long been sanctioned
/ by time, and which, by its good results
! has approved itself 10 both continents.
/ The correspondence between the Uni
/ ted States and France, in reference to
questions which have become subjects Of
| discussion between the two governments,
will, at proper time, be laid before Con-
gress.
! CHARACTER AND VALUE OF FREE GOV
ERNMEET.
/ When, on the organization Of our
| government under the Constitution, the
I President of the United States delivered
| this inaugural address to the two Houses
Of Congress, he said to them, and
| through them to the country and TO man
kind, that the preservation of the sacred
fire of liberty and the destiny of
the republican model Of government
are justly considered as deeply, per-
haps as finally, stRked on the expert /
ment entrustel to the American Deo-
pie" And the House Of Representatives I
answered Washington by the voice of I
Madison. " We adore the invisible hand |
which has led the American people /
through so many difficulties, to cherish /
a conscious responsibility for the destiny 1
Of republican liberty More than seven
ty-six years have glided away since .
these words were spoken. The United 4
States have passed through seveFer trials /
than were foreseen, and now, at
this new epoch in our existence a. one
nation, with our Union purified by s0r-
rows and strengthened by conflict, and
established by the virtue of the people,
the greatness Of the occasion invites us
once more to repeat with sOlemuity the
pledges Of our fathers to hold ourselves
answerable before our fellow men for the
success of the Republican form of Gov
,ernment. Experience has proved its
su1ficiency in peace and in war. 1t has
vindicated its authority through dangers
and atflictions and sudden and terrible
emergencies which would have crushed
any system that had been less firmly
fixed in the hearts of the people. At the
inauguration of Washington the foreign
relations of the country We're few, and
its trade was repressed by hostile regula-
tiOns. Now all the civilized nations Of
the globe welcome our commerce, and
their governments profess toward US
amity; then our country felt
its way hesitatingly along an untried
path, with States so little bound
together by rapid means of cOInmunica-
ton as TO be hardly known to one an
other, and with historic traditions eX-
tending over very few years. Now
intercourse between the States is swift
and intimate. The experience Of centu-
ries has been crowded into a few genera
tions, and has created an intense,
indestructible nationality. Then cur
jurisdiction did not reach beyond
the inconvenient boundaries of
the territory which had achieved
independence. Now, through cessiOns
Of lands, first coloniZed by Spain and
France, the country has acquired a more
complex character, and has foF IFS natu-
raj limits the chain of lakes, the Gulf of
Mexico, and on the east and the west
the two great oceans. Other nations
were wasted by civil wars for ages before
they could establish for themselves the
necessary degree of unity.
The latent conviction that our form of
Government is the best ever known in
the world has enabled us to emerge from
civil war within our Year,, with COM
plete vindicatioH of the Constitutional
authority OF the General Government,
and with our local liberties and State
institutions unimpaired. The throngs Of
emigrants that cTewd TO our shores are
witnesses of the confidence Of all people
in our permaBence, Here is the great
land of free labor, where industry is
blessed wirh unexampled rewards, and
the bread of the working man is sweet
ened by the consciousness that the
cause Of the country sis his own cause,
his own safety, his own dignity" Here
every one enjoys the free use of his facul-
ties Gad the choice of his activity as a
natural right. Here, under the combined
influence of fruitful soil, genial cline
and happy Institutions, population has
increased fifteen fold within "a century
Here, through the easy development of
bOundless Resources, wealth has increased
with twofold greater rapidity than num-
bers, so that We have become secure
]
against the financial vicissitudes of other
countries, and alike in business and in
opinion, are self-centred, and truly in
dependent. More and more care is
given to provide education for every
one born on our soil. Here religion
released from political connection with
the civil government, refuses to sub
serve the craft of the statesmen, and be-
comesNin its independence, the spiritual
Of Tho fcla - ]
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 ever
increasing mastery over the forces of
nature, Here the national domain is Of
fered and held in millions of separate
freeholds, so that our fellow-citizens,
beyond the occupants of any other part
Of the earth, constitute in reality a
people. Here exists the democratic
form Of Government, and that
form Of Government, by the
confession of European statesmen,
''gives a power of which no other form is
capable, because it Incorporates every
man with the State, and arouses every
thing that belongs TO the SOUL Where,
in past history, does a parallel exist, to
the public happiness which is within the
reach of the people of the United States
Where, in any part of the globe, can in
stitutions be found so suited to their hab-
its, 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 perpe-
tuity. Who of them will not now ac-
knowledge, in the words Of Washington, I
that 'every ystep by which the people ofthe /
United States have advanced to the /
character Of an independent nation, /
seems TO have been distinguished by
some token of Proyidential agency y?
Who viii no, join with me in the prayer
thai the Invisible hand which has led US
through the clouds that gloomed around
our path, viii so guide US onward to a per-
feet restoration of fraternaI affection /
that we OF this day may hs able to trans
NIT our great Inheritance of State GeY-
eEnsaents, in all their rights of the Gen /
eral Government, in its whole Constitu- /
tional yigor, to our posteTtty, and they to /
theirs, Through countless generations.
ANDREW JOHNSON. /