The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-02-12
aRowrH on rnr AMrr1cAN nrrupL1c.

good in the systems of former centuries she |
drew her nourishment; the wrecks of the past |
were her warnings. With the deepest sent |
ment of faith fixed in her inmost nature shl |
disehthralled religion from bondage to temporal
power, that he1>Torship might be worship only |
in spirit and in truth The wisdom which had |
passed from India through Greece, with what |
Greece had added of her own; the urispru- |
dence of Rome; the medieval municipalities, |
the Teutonic method of representation; the |
political experience Of England; the benignant
wisdom OF the eXpositors of the law of nature |
and OF nations in France and Holland, all shed |
on her their selectest influence. She washed |
the gold of political wisdom from the sands
wherever 1t was found; she cleft it from the |
rocks; she CLEANED it among ruins. Out of all
the discoveries OF statesmen and sages, out of
all the experience of past human lite, she COM
piled perennial political philosophy, the pri-
mordinal principles OF national ethics. The wise
men of Europe sought the best government in a
mixture of monarchy, aristocracy and demo-
cracy: and America went behind these names to
extract from them the vital elements of social
forms, and blend them harmoniously in the free
commonwealth which comes nearest to the
illustration OF the natural equality of all men.
She entrusted the guardianship of established
rights TO law, the movements of reform to the
spirit of the people, and drew her force from the
happy reconciliation OF both.
TERRITORIAL EXTENT OF THE REPUBLIC.
Republics had heretofore been limited to small
cautions or cities and their dependencies; Anne
RIGA, doing that OF which the like had not before
been known upon the earth, or believed by kings
aud statesmen to be possible, extended her re-
public across continent. Under her auspices
the vine OF liberty took deep root and filled the
land; the hills were covered with its shadow; its
boughs were like the goodly cedars, and reached
unto both oceans The fame of this only daugh-
ter of freedom went out into all the lands of the
earth; from her the human race drew hope.
pROpuFCIEc nNJ ruu coNspr rrp1CrS ON or Auruvy
Neither hereditary monarchy nor hereditary
arlstocracy planted itself on our soil; the only
hereditary condition that fastened itself upon
us was servitude. Nature works ia sincerity,
and is ever true 10 its law. The bee hives honey,
he viper distils poison; the vine stores its
Juices ana so do the poppy and the upas In
like manner, every thought and every action
rlpfns lis seed, each in its kind. In the indi-
vidual man, and still more in a nation, just
idea gives life, and progress, and glory; false
conception portends disaster, shame, and
death. hundred and twenty years ago,
West Jersey Quaker wrote:-'This trade of I'M
porting slaves is dark gloominess hanging over
the land; the consequences will be grievous to
posterity." At the North the growth of slavery
was arrested by natural causes; in the region
nearest the tropics it throve rankly, and worked
itself into the organism of the rising States
Virginia stood between the two; with soil, and
climate, and resources demanding free labor, and
yet capable of the profitable employment of the
slave. She was the land of great statesmen; and
they saw the danger of her being whelmed
under the rising flood in time to struggle against
the delusions OF avarice and pride. Ninety-four
years ago. the Legislature of Virginia addressed
the British King, saying that the trade in slaves
was "of great Inhumanity" was opposed to the
security and happiness" OF their constituents,
would in time have the most de-
very existence" And the King answered
them, that upon pain of his highest
dispeasure, the importation of slaves shouldnot
be in any respect obstructed." "Pharisaical
Britain" wrote Franklin in behalf OF Virginia,
Ito pride thyself in setting tree a single slave
that happened to land ON thy coasts, while thy
laws continue traffic whereby so many hun
dreds of thousands are dragged into slavery
that is entaied on their posterity" "a serious
view of this subject" said Patrick Henry in
1878, ''gives a gloomy prospect to future times"
In the same year George Mason wrote to the
Legislature OF Virginia:-"The laws of impartial
Providence may avenge our injustice upon our
pOsterity." In Virginia, and in the Continental
Congress- Jefferson, with the approval
of Edmund Pendleton, branded the
slave-trade as piracy; and he fixed
cornerstone of America-'tAll men are created
equal, with an inahenabe right to liberty" On
| the first organization of temporary governments
Tor the continental domain, Jefferson Ibut for the
default of New Jersey, would in 1884, have con-
secrated every part of that territory TO freedom.
| In the formation of the national constitution
Virginia, opposed by part of New England,
| vainly struggled to abolish the slave-trade at
| once and forever; and when the ordinance of
| 1857 was introduced by Nathan Dane, without
| the clause prohibiting slavery, it was through
| the favorable disposition of Virginia and the
| South that the clause OF Jefferson was restored,
! and the whole Northwestern Territory-all the
| territory that then belonged to the nation--was
reserved for the labor of treemen.
DESPAIR OF THE MEN OF THE REVOLUTION.
| The hope prevailed in Virginia that the abo-
| ltion OF the saVe-trade would bring with it the
| gradual abolition of slavery; but the expecta-
| tion was doomed to disappointment In sup
| porting incipient measures for emancipation,
Jefferson encountered difficulties greater than
| he could overcome; and after vain wrestllngs,
| the words that broke from him, II tremble for
| my country, when / reflect that God is Just,
that His justice cannot sleep forever were
| words of despair. 1t was the desire of Wash
| ington's heart that Virginia should remove
| slavery by public act; and as the prospects of
| a general emancipation grew more and more
dim, he, in utter hopelessness OF the action of
the State, did all that he could by bequeathing
| freedom to his own slaves. Good and true men
| he'd. from the days of l776, thought of colo
| nizng the negro in the home of his ancestors
But the idea of colonization was thought to
increase the difficulty of emancipation; and in
| spite of strong support, while 1t accomplished
much good for Africa, 1t proved impracticable as
a remedy at home. Madison, who in early life
disliked slavery so much that he wished "to
depend rs little as possible on the labor OF
slayes" Madison, who held that where slavery
exists "the republican theory becomes falla-
cous;" Madison, who in the last years of his
life would not consent to the annexation of
Texas, lest his counrrymen should hll it with
slaves Madison, who said slavery Is the greatest
evil under which the nation labors-a portentous
evil-an evil, moral, political, and economical
a sad blot on our free country" went mourn
fully into old age with the cherries words "No
satisfactory plan has yet been devised for taking
out the STAIN"
NEW VIEWS OF SLAVERY.