The Port Gibson reveille. [volume] (Port Gibson, Miss.) 1890-current, 1890-06-27
The Future of the United States.

80
The Future of the United States.
1t must not be imagined that the i'm
pulse of the British race in the United
States can be arrested. The dismem-
berment of the Union, and the hostili-
ties which might ensue, the abolition of
republican institutions, and the tyran-
nical government which might succeed,
may retard the impulse, but they can
not prevent the people from ultimately
fulfilling their destinies. Future events,
whatever they may be, will not deprive
the Americans Of their climate or their
inland seas, their great rivers or their
exuberant soil. Nor will bad laws, rev.
olutions and anarchy be able to obliter-
ate that love of prosperity and spirit of
enterprise which seem to be the dis
tinctive characteristics of their race. or
extinguish altogether the knowledge
which guides them on their way.
Thus, in the midst of the uncertain
future, one event at least is sure. At
a period which may be said to be near,
the AnglO-Americans alone will cover
the immense space between the polar
regions and the tropics, extending from
the coasts of the Atlantic to those
of the Pacific ocean. The territory
which will probably be occupied by the
Anglo-Americans, may perhaps equal
three quarters of Europe in extent. The
climate Of the Union is, upon the whole,
preferable to that of Europe, and its
natural advantages are as great; it is
therefore evident that its population
will at some future time be proportion
ate to our own.
Many ages must elapse before the
different offsets of the British race in
America will cease to present the same
physiognomy; and the time can not be
foreseen at which a permanent inequal-
ity of condition can be established in
the new world. Whatever differences
may arise from peace or war, freedom
or oppression, prosperity or want, the
great Anglo-American family will all
preserve at least a similar social condi-
ton, and will hold in common the Gus
toms and opinions to which that social
has given birth.
AT the present time, the nations
seem TO be advancing to unity. Our
means of intellectual intercourse unite
the remotest parts Of the earth; and
men can not remain strangers to each |
other, or be ignorant of what is taking
place in any quarter Of the globe. The J
is that there is less differ
ence at the present day between Euro
peans and their descendants in the new
world, than there was between certain
towns in the thirteenth century, which
we're separated only by river. If this
tendency brings foreign nations closer
together, much more must it prevent
descendants of the same people from
becoming aliens to each other.
The time will therefore come when
l500O0,000 Of men will be living in
North America, equal in condition, all
belonging to one family, owing their or
gin to the same cause, and preserving
she same civilization, the same language,
he same religion, the same habits, the
same manners, and imbued with the
'ame opinions propagated under the
'ame forms. The rest is uncertain, but
his is certain; and it is fact new to
he wOrld,-a fact which the imagina-
ion strives in vain to grasp.
There are two great nations in the
world, which, starting from different
,oints, tend towards the same end. III,
lllude tothe Russians and to the Amer
cans. Both have grown up unnoticed;
md they have suddenly placed them
elves in the front rank among the ma
ions, so that the world has learned ,
heir existence and their greatness al
most at the same time.
All other nations seem nearly to have
cached their natural limits, but these
re still in the act of growth. All the ,
'thers have stopped or continue 10 adj
'ance with extreme difficulty; these a.
one are proceeding with ease and celer- ;
ty along a path to which no limit can !
'e perceived. The American struggles
gainst the obstacles which nature op- ,
,oses to him; the adversaries of the /
Russians are men. The conquests of
he Americans are therefore gained by
he plowshare those of the Russians {
y the sword. The principal instru- 2
nent of the former is freedom; of the
after, servitude. Their starting-point {
} different, and their courses are not
he same; yet each of them seems :
marked out by the will of Heaven to
way the destinies of half the globe :
hridned from Ine0aeriILo