Louisiana capitolian. (Baton Rouge, La.) 1879-1881, 1881-02-26

| - dEEs ~
| homes they are fermenting in the
thought of the olden world; and they
are stimulating the. popular aspirations
/ everywhere, to a more enlarged liberty,
and to more free acknowledgements.
! Side by side, with these elements Of
influence, and of growth, there has been
developed a conservative principle,
(which permits the indefinite expansion
of our borders. The old historical plan
of national ACKNOWLEDGMENT, was by vio-
lent absorption, which led necessarily to
the consolidation of authority in CEN
| trail administration. The inevitable Sc
ouence was, feeble, and defective ad-
ADMINISTRATION in the distant provinces
The prize of empire was. located in the
centre. and became the object of pfeto-
rian struggle. The cohesion, of the parts
| was thus Weakened by extension Of
/. growth, and in the end, the national
unity was lost, i'll the contests of ambi-
tious factions, or in the corruptions Of
diseased oligarchy.
| But in America corrective principle
has been applied by which unlimited
expansion can be given to the national
growth, and still tie national authority
Is not overloaded by municipal regula-
| tons, moro ongested by the apoplexy of
centralized power. That principle is the
local autonomy of the separate States,
and the distribution of domestic admin
istration directly among the people
themselves. III the clash, and fury of
partisan clamOr, attention has been con-
centrated on this principle, only as the
rampant of local rights. Ny aim is to
direct your minds to it, as a great con-
sentative force, which gives easy adjust
ability of our institutions to every local
condition, and which permits infinite
enlargement of our jurisdiction. without
involving the central administration, in
the regulation of complex local affairs.
By restricting the national government
to that paramount jurisdiction, by which,
like the sun leading it's planets, it may
regulate the orbits of local authority,
there is no assignable limit to the extern
sion it may safely receive By this sim
pie adjustment, the centrifugal, and
Gentripedal forces, that enter into the
government, may be always kept in
equipoise, and the national growth may
90 on, until it covers three continents
with the benign blessings of law and
liberty.
In fact, it is impossible to ioretell the
outcome of the concurrent action of the
two principles | have described, in the
evolution of the forces they represent.
In the increased activity of all the in
strumentalities, which now give spread
to opinion, and in the growthof the ten
denotes among civilized men, TO easy
union, and assimilation, there is no
limit to the diffusion OF our principles,
by the peaceful processes of free discus
sion. When first studied geography,
Italy was divided into dozen miserable
| Duchies: Germany was cut up into
clashing, and discordant PrincIpalities;
] the golden orient was frozen III nlpene-
trable seclusion, and the United States
were separated by sublime distances,
and were stretched along the shores of
oceans, and the banks Ofnayigable rivers
without direct intercommunication and
burlened by the provincial prejudices,
that are nurtllred in isolation.
To-day they are grappled together
i with hooks of steel. Thought flashes
like lightning from centre 10 circumfer-
ence. Distance is extinguished by agen-
cies, which We're born only yesterday.
The propagation, and reproduction of
forces for the social advantage, go on in
a scale of geOmetric progression. 1t
seems, indeed, that the agencies tending
to human amelioration, have come IN
der the operation of that law ofphysics,
by which the momentum of falling bodies
increases according to the square Of the
distances. When ! was boy We were
twenty-five millions of people using on
ly the old implements, that Europe had
given us; to-day we are fifty millions,
holding in our hands the Titan fences,
which have been evoked by American
invention: in thirty years more, we
will be one hundred millions, control
lug the machinery of giants, that it be-
wilders the mind to contemplate.
Nor have the moral agencies of social
and political reform, failed to respond
to this wonderful development. The
Press has thrown off the shackles of cen
sOrship. and is everywhere speaking
with voice more imperious than C;e-
saTs. To-day, no government is so
strong, that it does not hearken to in
dignant remonstrance against tyr
amy, no people is SO deaf, that it
does not heed the mandate of en-
lightened opinion. Free thought is
penetrating everywhere with the white
winged carriers of the worlds commerce.
and with the lightnings, that throb
along the wires OF Geographic commn-
nication The whole world is waking
from the sleep Of centuries. Religion
and philosophy are sowing seed in the
multitude, held down for ages by mer-
ciless prescription, and humanity is ri
sing up to claim its birth right. So rapid
is the spread Of all these influences, so
resstless is the march of the predomi-
nant ideas of American civilization,
that | am not afraid to say here now,
that | believe that the child is born, to-
day, which shall see the birth of a grand
republic of cOnfederated nations, spread
ing throughout the earth the divine
blessings of liberty, and peace.
sometimes meet with persons, who,
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