Year: 1861

ton TO party, and boast Of having always
followed its leaders, proof of attachment
to your country, you may claim that de-
fence OF the acts of any administration
whether it agrees or whether it conflicts
with moral principle and right, is an exhib>
it OF patriotism but in so doing you are
only abusing noble words and paving The
wayfor.an utter extinction of their true
meaning, and an ultimate justification of
DR.. Johnson's sentence, that Patriotism
is the last refuge of scoundrel." We
must keep this fact distinctly in our
minds, or the history of of all national
failures will find fearful repetition in tn {
days OF our children.


Our national security is based upon, and
must proceed from, our devotion and f.
deity TO our great national idec. Every
people have their representative value,
and they manifest it by working out
through their laws and customs an effort
for some special observance. 1t will not
do to say that departure from the law
may, under certain circumstances, be JUS
titiable we must guard, with miser's
vigilance, the great palladium of our lib
critics, and while we swear to support the
Constitution, we must also resolve TO fight
those who set at it defiance, whether the
assault comes from without or from within.
A departure however trifling, and SEEM
ingly harmless, will open the door for q
future train OF evils which must sooner or
later, sbroud the sun of our glory in end
less night.


Look at Greece. Her great mission, ct
one time was to develope and to beautify
art, to cultivate and to polish the human
mind. BY the Greeks, ard by them alone,
literature, philosophy and the fine arts
were treated as important concerts OF
State, and employed as powerful engines
of policy hence he was considered the
best patriot OF ancient Greece, who had
the wisest and widest conceptions of the
capacities and genius of Greece, and who
labored to paint that idea willingly before
the national mind and direct the flame
OF national aspirations famed by is hero
ic memory up TO the noblest possibilities
of Grecien endearance. But in time
Greece became unfaithtul to her national
idea, and sank into comparative barba-
rism. In her last days she became sem
suous, and divided into fierce factions
Her occasional Hastings of genius were
mere limitations OF her great originals -
and thus Ceasing to manifest her real val
ue, size was overthrown by a superior
power.


-. So, too, that most gigantic power that
ever overshadowed the earth old Rome
possessed at first and long continued to
work out its own idea, virtue, including
personal courage, and personal integrity,
was its great glory. No nation ever existed
on the face OF the earth wherein such res,
pect was paid to authority, and such alle~
glance TO honor as in Rome But after
five centuries ofron rule of uninterrupted
prosperity, laXity and careessness erept
in, and brough. with them, or indeed
were of themselves, the seeds of the ma
tons dissolution and of death. Slowly
bnt surely the work of corruption spread,
ard wrought out the ruin of the Empire.
For four hundred years that COLOSSAL
frame of iron lay in the death-struggle.-
Old Rome was hard to die. But at last,the
nation that had been so noted for its vir-
ne, became as infamous Tor its destitution
of principle, and was blotted out of exis-
tence IN shame.


These are few illustrations, Mr.. Presi.
dent, but certainly they will suffice to
show that there is such thing as a Nat
ional Idea, and that the downfall of the
nation may be looked for when it ceases
to cherish and develop that idea, provided
that of itself it is not inconsistent with
eternal right. If we are wise we will not
believe with the page of history thus
open ia us that our own nation will be an
exception to this hitherto unvarying law.
We should rather seek to understand how
far we have been true TO the obligations
we owe our country, and il now swerving
either to the right or the left, we may re-
turn to that Idea, and thus have reason to
boastthat the patriots who gave it nation
al existence are our fathers.


II is hardly possible that we should err
in determining what our National Idea is. .
The poorest child has it in its power to
read, and to understand it. The, hills and
valleys of our glorious old Commonwealth
have echoed to the steps of some of those
from whose pure minds It was fashioned
and formed. Only few hundred miles
from here, in the commercial city Of
Philadelphia, stands the Hall where with
firm nerve they pledged life, fortune. and
sacred honor, to its defence. There
hrngs the venerable bell, be, ring, as by
the Inspiration of prophecy, the sentence
which tells better than many words could
express, the true mission of my coun
try and in that Hall, ynd around that
bell, as 10y greater than prophets shrine
numbers from every quarter of our land,
and others from far distant shores, daily
assembled, foolish and blind are they who
in that sacred place, and with the shad-
ows of our fathers standing out from its
walls, cannot see, and DO not know, the
American Idea, and cannot feel a response
in tLeir own hearts 10 its sell. evident
truth.


But Mr. President, Ladies and Gentle.
men, the hands on the dial admonish me
that must close, The position in which
we are now placed is one of most fearful
suggestions. As we look upon it in the
light of history and | desire not to al.
, lude to the present unfortunate state of
affairs uEder which our country is now
groaning-my heart sinks within me when
| contrast less than one year ago with the