Louisiana capitolian. (Baton Rouge, La.) 1879-1881, 1881-02-24

proud tread Of the oppressor, and tht
populace imbruted by ignorance AM
want, were but the ductiIe instrument.
Of the lordly rulers, who moved the
game Of life. This immortal declaration
was, therefore, the evangel ofliberty tt
the oppressed millions Of Europe, and
every successive stage in the expert
ment thus begun, has been watched with
eager interest, and has been copied with
hesitating efforts, until at last, Amerie5
is the bright eNemplar, which is leading
the lettering footsteps Of the nations, to
liberty, to equality, and to fraternity.
Wherever there is free spirit, that feels
the instinNtive impulse Of manhood
within him, he looks across the western
sea, and takes heart of hope from our
example. He sees great people, who
have learned to reconcile liberty with
law, resting order on popular consent,
sustaining religion by voluntary tax,
and protecting property by instructive
respect for personal rights. He sees ed
ucatlon ditfused among the masses, the
humblest free to aspire to the highest
station, and none so proud, that he does
not bow the head to the majesty Of the
people. He sees every man under his
own vine, and fig tree, protected by law,
and public opinion, and he sees grand
nation, the foremost in industries, in
invention, and in material growth,
and which at the same time is the most
formidable among all the nations, with,
out an army, or navy, to threaten
their peace. All these things are being
considered in cottages, and in humble
homes: they are termenting 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 q conservative principle,
which permits the indefinite expansion
of our borders. The old historical plan
of Irrational ACKNOWLEDGEMENT, was by VIC
lent absorption, which led necessarily to
the consolidation of authority in q CEN
trail administration. The inevitable Sc
quence was, a feeble, aud defectiyc 81
ministration in the distant provinces
The prize of empire was located III the
centre, and became the object of preto-
rian struggle. The cohesion of the parts
was thus weakened by extension of
growth, and in the end, the national
unity was lost, in the contests of ambi-
tious factions, Or in the corruptions of q
diseased oligarchy.
but IN America u corrective principle
has been applied, by which unlimited
expansion can be given to the national
growth, and still the national authority
is not overloaded by municipal regula-
lions. nor congestedrby 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. In the clash, and fury of
partisan clamor, attention has been con-
centrated on this principle, only as the
rampant of local rights. My aim is to
direct your minds to it, as great con-
sentative force, which gives easy adjust
ability of orr 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
centripedal forces, that enter into the
government, may be always kept in
equipoise, and the national growth may
go on, until it covers three continents
with the benign blessings of law and
liberty.
In fact, it is impossible to foretell the
outcome of the concurrent action Of the
two principles / have described, in the
evolution OF the forces they represent.
fr The increased activity of all the in
strumentalities, which now give spread
to opinion, and in the growth of 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 Princlpalities:
the golden orient was frozen in impehe-
trable seclusiOn, and the United States
were separated by sublime distances,
and We're stretched along the shores of
oceans, and the banks of navigable rivers
without direct intercommunication, and
burdened by the provincial prejudices,
that are nurtured in isolation.
To-day they are grappled together
with hooks Of steel. Thought flashes
like lightning from centre to circumfer-
ence. Distance is eXtinguished by agen-
cies, which were born konly yesterday.
The propagation, and reproduction of
forces for the social advantage, 90 Oh in
a scale OF geometric progression. 1t
seems, indeed, that the agencies tending
to human amelioration, have come un-
der the operation OF that law ofphysics, !
by which the momentum otialling bodies
increases according to.the square of the
distances. When was boy we We're
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 yeors more wa J