The weekly North-Carolina standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 186?-1869, 1866-02-21
ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
GRAFTON
HON. GEO. BANCROFT.
REQUEST OF BOTH HOUSES OF CONGRESS,
IN THE HALL OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,
OF THE UNITED STATES,
ON MONDAY, FEBRUARY IL, 1866.
Senators, Representatives of america ::

GOD IN HISTORY.
That God rules in the affairs of men is as
certain as any truth of physical science. On
the great moving power which is from the
beginning, hangs the world of the senses and
the world of thought and action. Eternal
wisdom marshals the great procession of the
nations, workingi patient continuity through
the ages never hating and never abrupt en-
comprising all events in its oversight, and
ever effecting its will, though mortals may
slumber in apathy or oppose with madness.
Kings are lifted up or thrown down, nations
come and go, republics flourish and wither,
sdynasties pass away like tale that is told
I'M nothing is by chance, though men in their
nce of causes may think SO. The deeds
q ~ ne Governed, as we'll as judged, by
I9 q eternity. The caprice of fleet
III ences bends to the immovable ON
nipote which plants its foot on all the cen
turies, aud Has neither change of purposcnor
repose Sometimes, Ikea messenger through
the thick darkness of night, it steps along
mysterious ways; but when the hour strikes
for people, or for mankind, to pass into a
new form of being, unseen hands draw the
bolts from the gates of futurity; an all
subduing influence prepares the mind ofmen
for the coming revolution; those who plan
resistance find themselves in conflict with the
will of Providence, rather than with human
devices; and all hearts and all understand
ings, most of all the opinions and influences
of the unwilling, are wonderfully attracted
and compelled to bear forward the change
which becomes more an obedience to the law
of universal nature than submission to the
a rbitro N, ont of mon
GROWTH OF THE AMERICAN REPUBLIC.
In the fullness of time republic rose up
in the wilderness of America. Thousands of
years had passed away before this child of
the ages could be born From whatever
there was of good in the system of former
centuries she drew her, nourishment, the
wrecks of the past were her warnings With
the deepest sentiment of faith fixed in her
inmost nature, she disenthralled religion from
bondage to temporal power, that her wor-
ship 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 jurisprudence of
Rome; the medieval municipalities the leu.
tonic method of representation the politi-
cal 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 it 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 hu-
man life, she compiled perenniel political
philosophy, the primordial principles Of ma
tional ethics. The wise men of Europe
sought the best government in mixture of
monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy; and
America went behind these names to extract
from them the vital elements of social forms,
and blend them tremendously in the free
commonwealth, which comes nearest to the
illustration of the natural equality of all men.
She entrusted the guardianship ofestablished
rights to law; the movements of reform to
the spirit of the people, and drew her force
from the happy reconciliation of both.
TERRlToRIAL EXTENT OF THE REPUBLIC.
Republics had heretofore been limited to
small cantons or cities and their dependencies !;
America, doing that of which the like had
not before been known upon the earth, or
believed by kings and statesmen to be posi-
BILE, extended her republic 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 the only daugh-
ter of freedom went out into all the lands of
the earth; from her the human race drew
hope.
PROPHECIES ON THE CONSEQUENCES OF
SLAVERY.
Neither hereditary monarchy nor heredi-
tary aristocracy planted itself on our soil |;
the only hereditary condition that fastened
itself upon us was servitude. Nature works
IN sincerity and is ever true to its law. The
bee hives honey, the viper distils poison the
vine stores its juices, and so do the popuy and
the upas In like manner, every Thought and
every action ripens its seed, each in its kind
In the individual man, and still more in a
nation, just idea gives life, and progress,
and glory false conception portends disas-
ter, shame and death. Ahundred and twen-
ty years ago, West jersey Quaker wrote /:
8" This trade Of importing slaves is dark
gloominess over the land; the consequences
Will be grievous to posterity" At the North
the growth Of slavery was arrested by natu-
al causes; IN the region nearest the tropics
it throve rsnkly, and worked itself into the
organism Of the rising States Virginia stood
between thetwo; withsoil and climate andre
sources demanding free labor, and yet cana
BILE Of the profitable employment. Of fh6
slave. She was theland of great statesmes, (;
and they saw the danger of her being
whelmed under the rising food in time to
struggle against the decisions of avarice and
pride. Ninety -four years ago the Legislature
of Virginia addressed the British king say
ing that the trade in slaves was " of great in
humanity was onn0sed To the securifu and