Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1880-02-26
Jay, FEBRUARY 90, 1880.

1880.
obligations, it was, and is government OF
law. Liberty here is not anarchy and license,
but freedom under the restraints of law; free
dom of action under the limitations of law
freedom of person and property under the
protection of law; freedom based upon per-
sonal obligations and personal independence.
And this personal independence, drawn from
the very nature of our institutions and our
system of tenure of property, is the founda-
tion-stone of our political organization, and
the surest guarantee for its perpetuity. There
are two principles in our republicanism, says
the gifted Webster, strictly and purely Amer
lean: Popular government restrained by q
written constitution, and universal education -
These are the great elements of our strength,
and the agencies which have placed us in the
front rank of enlightened nations. The very
desire to participate in the Government and
its management Coupled with the knowledge
that the avenues to its positions are open to
alD stimulates a spirit of enquiry-a desire
for the knowledge necessary to selfgovern.
ment. There are no hereditary honors, no
entailed distinctions here, to stife ambition
and dwarf genius. The "Mill Boy of the
Slashes," and the farmers sou, from the snow
riffs of New Hampshire, lived to electrify
Senates by their eloquence, and filled q nation
with their praise. The young tailor Of Ten.
nessee, fired by the spirit Of our institutions.
seized the highest honors Of the nation and
presided over the destinies of her people.
This spirit of independence elevates and en-.
MOBILES man, and gives tone to society and
government; for it raises society, as has been
truly said, from beneath governments to
participation in them"
Who can estimate the influence of our social
and political system upon the spread of civili-
zation, the success of agriculture, the enlarge
ment of commerce, the development ofscience,
the progress of liberty, the elevation Of So
cietv and well.being of mankind? What
country has given proof to the world Of a
higher civilization under her system Of gov
ernment2 What name has been given to
mankind that is so suggestive of moral gran.
deur, of nobility of character, of unblemished
reputation and spotless patriotism as that Of
Washington? What heavens shine with more
lustre than that which glows and CLEANS
with such brilliant stars as Jefferson and
Adams and Hancock and Hamilton, and
numberless others, of whom it might be said
"Men doubt because so thick they lie,
Ifthese be stars that paint the galaxy"
1t was American genius that, like the son
of Japetus, scaled the heavens and robbed
them of their lightning; and it was our own
Morse that subordinated them to the necessi.
ties of commerce and the demands of en-
lightened progress. It was a New England
pedagogue, who had migrated to Georgia,
that gave the world the cotton gin, which has
so materially aided in the development Of
commerce and the growth of civilization. 1t
was Fulton who called into existence new
science-the practical establishment of steam
navigation revolutionized trade and
changed the whole face Of the material in
dustries of man. Tongue cannot number its
triumphs, for it enters into every art, into
every science, into every industry Of civilized
man-carrying with tits blessings and trans.
mitting to posterity name that will live as
long as an engine runs rail, or vessel
ploughs the sea. It matters not whether in
the domain of science, in the realms of art,
in the kingdom of philosophy, in the walks
of civilization, in the world of letters, in the
paths of commerce, in the forum or in the
sacred desk, in the duties of peace or in the
art of war, in the growth of independence or
in the science of government, America has
reason to be proud Of her contributions to the
civilization Of the world and to be satisfied
with the brightness of the consultations"
that shine in the armament of her glory.
A hundred years ago, she was almost an un-
broken wilderness. But such has been the
expansive nature of her institutions, that her
Thirteen States, with their three million in
habitants, have become thirty-eight, with a
population numbering forty millions. "Her
territorial expansion is rs illimitable as the
continent" Her progress has been an event
full one. Step by step, year by year, her
march has been over mountain sleeps to the
vast wilderness of the west and to day it
may be said her sons can see no limit to her
horizon, for as oneis surveyed, another stretch
es out in endless perspective, and he sees new
fields of conquest and of wealth, as one
sWho climbing some fair height at break of day
Among the Alps or lonely Apprentices, .
Sees at his feet new landscapes spread
New wales, new towering heights, and the arc
or fresh horizons widening at every STEP"
Onward and upward is her progress in all
that constitutes the happiness Of a people and
the glory of great nation. Her civilization,
protected by her government and her laws. is
entering unexplored fields, leveling their hills,
elevating their valleys, arching their streams,
developing their mines, and tunneling their
mountains, while her hardy sons of toll, with
no master but the law, and no law but the
written constitution, look out upon country
diversified in climate, fruitful in soil, unified
in interest, in the full enjoyment Of the bless
ings of free institutions and civil and religious
liberty. These blessings-these Institutions
this country-are yours yours to enjoy, yours
to develop, yours to transmit. A common
danger aud a common destiny make us one
people. A common purpose to form a more
perfect Union; to provide for the common
defence to promote the general welfare and
secure the blessings of peace, made US one
one "in the extinguishment
of State sovereignties," but in the preserva.
ton of those sovereignties, all exercising "leg-
islative, judicial and executive powers" un-
der constitution of "limited, constrain-
ed, severely guarded" general government.
The very conformation of the country, our
dissimilar yet dependent industries, our in
land ooean-the common property Of all
our interstate commerce, our almost ideal
boundaries, our Anglo Saxon civilization and
extraction, our common inheritance of liber-
ty, our blood bought independence, all, all,
conspire to make our people one in mind, one
in union, and one in all that "makes a nation