Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1865-12-15

rumors OF invasion OF some parts OF America,
in the interest of monarchy, have prevailed;
twice my predecessors have had occasion to
announce the view of this nation in respect to
such interference. On both occasions the re-
monstrance of the United States was respect
ed, 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
henispheres. Since those times we have ad-
vanced in wealth and power; but we retain
the same purpose to leave the nations of
Europe to choose their own dynastics and
form their own systems Of government.
This consistent moderation may justly de-
mand corresponding moderation. We should
regard it as great calamity to ourselves, to
the cause of good government and to the
peace of the world. should any European
Power challenge the American people, as it
were, to the defence ofrepublicanism against
/ foreign interference. We cannot foresee and
are unwilling to consider what opportunities
might present themselves what combinations
might offer to protect ourselves against de-
signs inimical to our form Of government
The United States desire to act in the future
as they have ever acted heretofore (; they new
| er will be driven from that course but by the
aggression Of European Powers; and we rely
on the wisdom and justice of those Powers to
respect the system of non interference which
has so 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 questions
which have become subjects of iscussion be-
tween the two Governments, will, at prop
er time, be laid beford Congress.
CONCLUSION.
When on the organization of our Govern
ment, under the Constitution, the President
of the United States delivered his inaugural
address to the two Houses of Congress, he
said to them, and through them to the coun-
try and to mankind, that ''the preservation
Of the sacred fire of liberty and the destiny of
the republican model of government are just
ly considered as deeply, perhaps as finally
staked on the experiment intrusted to the
American people," And the House of Rep
resentatives answered Washington by the
voice of Madison eve adore the invisible
hand which has led the American people,
through so many difficulties to cherish con-
scious responsibility for the destiny of repub-
lican liberty" More than seventy-six years
have glided away since these words were
spoken: the United States have passed
through severer trials than were foreseen
and now, at this new epoch in our existence
as one nation, with our Union purified by
sorrows, and strengthened by conflict, and es-
tablished by the virtue of the people, the
greatness of the occasion invites us once more
to repeat, with solemnity, the pledges of our
fathers to hold ourselves ansWerable before
our fellow men for the success of the republi-
can form of government.
Experience has proved it's snfhciency in
peace and in war it has indicated its au-
thority through dangers, and affections, aud
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 well
come our commerce, and their Governments
profess towards us amity. Then our country
felt its way hesitatlngly along an untried path
with States so little bound together with rapid
means of communication as to be hardly
known to one another, and with historic ira
ditions extending over very few years; now
intercourse between the States is swift and
intimate ; the experience Of centuries has been
crowded into few generations, and has ere
ated an intense, indestructible nationality
Then our 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 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 es-
tablish for themselves the necessary degree
of unity the latent conviction 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 vim
dication of the constitutional authority of the
General Government, and with our local
liberties and State institutions unimpaired.
The throngs Of emigrants that crowd to our
shores are witnesses Of the confidence of all
people in our permanence. Here is the great
land of free labor, where industry is blessed
with unex ampled rewards, and the bread of
the workingman is sweetened by the con-
seriousness that the cause Of the country SIS
his own cause, his own safety his own dig
nifty" Here every one enjoys the free use
Of his faculties and the choice of activity as
a natural right. Here under the combined
influence of fruitful soil, genial climes and
happy institutions, population has increased
flteen-fold within century. Here, through
the easy development of boundlcss 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 business and
in opinion, are self-centred and truly indie
pendent. Here more and more care is given
to provide education for every one born on
our soil Here religion, released from po-
ltical connection with the civil government,
refuses to subserve the craft Of statesmen,
and becomes, in its independence, the spir-
itual life of the people. Here liberation is
extended to every opinion, in a quiet certain
ty that trnth needs only a fair field to secure
the victory Here the human mind goes