Civilian & telegraph. [volume] (Cumberland, Md.) 1859-1875, 1865-12-14


try and to mankind that :" the preservation
Of the sacred fire of liberty and the destiny Of
the republican model of Government are justly I
considered as deeply. perhaps as finally staked
Oh the experiment entrusted to the American |
people" And the house of Representatives
answered Washington by the voice Of Madison
- We adore the Invisible Hand which has led
the American people, through so many diff
cuties, to cherish a conscious responsibility |
for the destiny Of Republican liberty" More
than seventysix years have glded away since
these words were spoken the United States |
have passed through scverer trials than were
forcseen and now at this new epoch in our
existrnce as one nation, with our Union pu-
rfed By SORROWS. and strengthened by con-
Aict, and established by the virtue of the poo
pie, GREATNESS of the occasion invites US once
more to repeat, with solemnity, the pledges
Of our fathers to hold ourselves answcrablc
before our fellow men for the success of the
republican form of Government Experience
has proved its sutiiciency in peace and in war;
it has indicated its authority through dan
gers, and 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 coun-
try were few, and its trade was repressed by
hostile regulations: now all the civilized ma
tons of the globe welcome our commerce. and
their governments profess towards us amity.
Then our country felt its way hesitatngly
along an untried path, with States so little
bound together by rapid means of communi-
cation as to be hardly known to one another,
and with historic traditions extending over
very few years. now intercourse between the
States is swift and intimate; the experience
of centuries has been crowded into q few gen
erations, and has created an intense indie
structible nationality. Then our jurisdiction
did not reach beyond the inconvcnicnt boun-
darics of the territory which had achieved in
dependence now, through ccssions of land,
first colonized by Spain and France, the
country has acquired more complex charac
ter, and has for its natural 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 convic-
ton that our form Of Government is the best
ever known to the world has enabled US to
emerge from civil war within four years,
with a complete vudication Of the consttu-
tional authority of the General Government,
and with our local liberties and State nstitu-
tons unimpared. The throngs Of cmigrants
that crowd to our shores are witnesses of the
confidence of all peoples in our pcrmanence
Here is the great land of free labor, where
industry is blessed with unexamped rewards,
and the bread of the workingman is sweetcncd
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 natural right. Here, under the
combined influence of fruitful soil, genial
climes, and happy institutions, population has
increased iiftccn-fold within century. Here,
through the easy development of boundlcss
resources, wealth has increased with two-fod
greater rapidity than numbers, so that we
have become secure against the financial Vi
cissitudes of other countries, ard, alike in
business and in opinion, are selfccntered and
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 the civil gov
eminent, refuses to subscrve the craft of
statesmen, and becomes, in its independence.
the spiritual life of the people. Here tolera-
ton 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 unshacklcd in the pursuit of science,
to collect stores of knowledge and acquire an
cvor-increasing mastery over the forces of
nature Here the national domain is offered
and held in millions of separate frccholls, so
that our fellow citizens hcyound the occu-
pants of any other part of the earth, consl-
tute in reality a people. Here exists the
democratic form of government and that form
of Government, by the confession of European
statesmen, gives power of which no other
form is capable. because it incorporates every
man with the State, and arouses everything
that belongs to the sou."
Where, in past history, does parallel cx-
list to the public happiness which is within
the reach of the people of the United States ?
Where, in any part of the globe, can institu
tons be found so suited to their habits or 50
entitled to their love as their own free Con-
stitution? Every one of them. then, in what
ever part of the land he has his home must
wish Us pcrpetuity Who of them will not
now ackn 1wledee, in the words of Washing
ton, that g every step by which the people of
the United States have advanced to the char
acter Of an Independent nation seems to have
been distinguished by some token of Prov-
dental agency ?" Who will not join with me
in the prayer, that the Invisible Hand which
has led us through the clouds that gloomcd
around our path will so guide us onward to a
perfect restoration of fratcrnal affection, that
we of this day may be able to transmit our
great Inheritance. of State governments in all
their lights, of the General Government in
its whole constitutional vigor, to our posterity
and they to theirs through countless genera
tons I?
ANDREW JOHNSON.
WAsHINGToN, d ecembor 4, 1865.