Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1865-12-23


be hardly known to one another, and with
historic traditions extending over very few
years; now intercourse between tho States is
swift and intimate; the experience Of centu-
rics has been crowded into few generations,
and has created an intense, ipdestructible ma
tionality. Then our jurisdiction did not reach
beyond the inconvenient boundaries of the
territory which had achieved, independence;
now, through cessiops of land first colonized
by Spaiu and France, the country has acquired,
a more complex character and has for its neu-
tral limits tho chain Of Lakes, the Gulf of
Mexico, and on the East and the West the
two great oceans. Other nations were wasted
.Iy civil wars for ages before they could estab-
lish for themselves the necessary degree Of
unity the lateit conviction that our form of
government is the best eyer known to the
world, has enabled us to emerge from civil
war within four years, with complete vindi-
cation Of the constitutional authority of the
general government, and with our local liber-
ties and State institutions unimpaired
The throngs Of emgrants that crowd to QUIZ
shores are witnesses of the confidence of all
peoples in our permancnce. Hero is the great
land of free labor, where induatry is blessed
with unexampled rewards, and the bread of
the working man is swectened by the con.
scionsness that the cause Of the country I: is
his own cause, his own safety, his own dgni.
ty" Here every one enjoys tile free use of
his faculties and the choice of activityas a
natural fight Here, under the combined in
fucnce of fruitful soil, genial climcs and
shappy institutions, population has increased
ffteen-fold within a century. Here, through
the easy development Of boundess r. sources,
wealth has increased with two-fold greater ra.
pidity than numbers, 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 indcpend-
ent. Here, more and more care is given to
provide education for every one born 90 our.
soil, Here, religion, released from political
connection with the civil government, refuses
to observe the craft of statesmen, and becomes,
iu lis Independence, the spiritual life of. the
people. Here, toleration is extended to every
opinion, in the quiet certainty that truth needs
only a fair field to secure the victory. Here,
the human mind goes forth unshackled in the
pursuit of science, to collect stores of knowl-,
edge. and acquire an ever.ipcreasing mastery
over the forces of nature. Here, the national
domain is offered and held in millions of sep.j
nratc 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 confcs,
sion of European statements, "gives powef
of which no otherlform is capable, because it.
Incorporates every man with the State, and
arduses everything that pertains to the soul. \
Where in past history, does parallel exist
to the public happiness which is within the
reach Of the people of the United States -
Where, i'll any part of the globe, can institu-
tions be found so suited to their habits, or so
entitled to theiriove, as their own free Con-
situation? Every one of them, then, in what
ever part of the land he has his home, must
wish its perpetuity. Who of them will not
now acknowledge, in the words of Washing
ton. that "%every step by which the people of
the United States have advanced to the char
acter OF au independent nation, seems to have
been distingpishedsby some token Of Provi-
Dental agency" Who will not join with me
in the prayer that the invisible hand which
has led us through the clouds that goomed
around our path, will so guide us onward to /
perfect restoration of fratcrnal affection, that
We of this day may be able to transmit our
great inheritance Of State governments in all
heir rights, of the general government in it's
constitutional vgor, to ours posterity ard
heyto theirs through countless generations
ANDREW JO1NSON.r.
WAsHINGroNs December 6, 1865