Year: 1861

thirteen feeble colonies. along the Atlantic
slope, to thirtyfour powerful States with nu


merous Others in process OF formation, and Oh
their way for admittance into the Union
Two strong European powers have withdrawn
from the continent, leaving US the fruits oil
their possessions Great and prosperous States
and cities and towns teeming with the ee-
ments OF enterprise and social culture. and
abounding with institutions Of religion and
learning, have arisen, as if by magic. on the
far distant Pacific, where we have only paused,
!, lest to cross it might put US on our return
voyage, and bring US nearer home and the
river which the ambition of our early history
eSsayed to fix for our western limit. now runs
nearest our eastern boundary. Numerous alb
original nations have been displaced before
the prevailing current of our arts and arms.
and free principles, and whoever listens NAV
hear the pattering feet of coming millions !;
and whoever will look back upon tue past and
forward upon the future must see that there
are further races for US to civilize, educate and
absorb and that new trumphs await US in the
cause of progress and civilization. Thus have
we passed from infancy from childhood to ro-
bust and buoyant youth, and from youth to
vigorous manhood, and with an overgrowth so
superabundant, we should neither be surprised
nor alarmed, that we have provoked foreign
envy as we'll as unwilling admiraton-that
cankers of discomfort are gndwing at our
heart-strings, and that we are threatened with
checks, and trials, and reverses.


The continent of North America presents
to the observing mind one great geographical
system, every portion of which, under the
present facilities for intercommunication may
be more accessible to every other than were
the original States to each other at the time
the Confederacy was formed. 1t is destined at
no distant day to become permanently the
commercial center, when France and England
will pay tribute to New ork, and the Roths
childs and the Barings will sell exchange on
Wall street at Il premium; and it requires no
romantic stretch of the Imagination to believe
that the time is at hand when man, regarding
his own wants, yielding to his own impulses
and acting in obedience to laws more potent
than the laws of blind ambition, will ordain
that the continent shall be united in political
as well as natural bonds, and form but one
great Union-a free, sefgoverned Confede-
rated Republic, exhibiting to an admiring
world the results that have been achieved for
mans freedom and elevation in this Western
Hemisphere


In ordinary times, a correct taste would sug-
gest that npon occasions like the present, all
subjects of political concern. however measured
by moderation and seasoned with philosophy,
and historic truth, should be left for discussion
to some appropriate forum, and those only
considered which are more in sympathy with
the objects of the societies of Amherst but
when the glorious edifce which protects and
Ill IL IL =, G
Ephesian dome, the patriotic scholar, before
he sits down to his favorite banquet, will raise
his voice and nerve his arm to aid in extin
gushing the flames that he may preserve to
posterity institutions without which all the
learning of the schools would be but mockerv
and give place to violence, and ignorance, and
barbarism. This is cmphatically a utilitarian
age, and when the foundations upon which the
ark Of our political safety rest are threatened,
rehellion is waited on every breeze and the
rude din of arms greets US on either hand,
menacng our very existence as a great and
prosperous people letters may sympathise with
the danger, and become silent in our midst as
well as laws.


Bad government is the enemy of knowledge.
Under its destructive reign learning is neglect
ed ignorance is honored and commended, and
free opinion is prosecuted as an enemy of state
Its schools are military deSpotsms and the
dungeon, the rack, and the gibbet are its teach
ers Under its naughty sway, the energies of
mind are bowed and broken, the spirit sub
dued and restrained in its search for susten-
ance, and literature and the sciences droop,
languish and die This glorious Union is our
world; while we maintain its integrity all the
nations of the earth, the lofty and the lowlv,
must recognize our supremacy and pay us ho-
mage diSiointcd, forming two or more frag-
mentary Republics, we shall deserve and re-
ceive less consideration than the States of
Barbary and now that we are threatened
with destruction, let US, as one people, from
the North and the South, the East and the
West, rising above the narrow instincts of
parties and OF associations, relume our lamps
of liberty, as the Vestals replenished their sa-
cred fire, though not extinguished, from the
rays of the morning sun. Let us renew our
covenant, and swear upon the holy altars of
our faith to maintain and defend it and its
glorious emblem, the stars and stripes, so re-
plete with pleasing memories, ard if there are
any who dislrust their frmness, and fear they
may he sednced or may fall out by the way
slde or be frightened from their purpose, let
them like Fernando Cortez, burn the means
Of retreat behind them, and they may remain
faithful to the end.


When the sunlight of the last Autumn was
supplanted by the premonitions Of Winter, by
drifting clouds and eddying leaves, and the
flight of birds to mlder cline, our land was
emphatically blessed. We were at peace with
all the powers of earth, and enjoying undis-
turbcd domestic happiness. A benefcent
Providence had smiled upon the labors of the
husbandman, and our granaries groaned under
the burden of their golden treasures Iudus-
try found labor and compensation, and the
poor mans latch was never raised except in
the sacred name of friendship or by the au-
thorIty of law. No taxation consumed, no
destitution appalled,, no sickness wasted but
health and joy beamed frcm every face. The
fruits of toll from the North and the South,
the East and the West, were bringing to our
feet tie contributions OF the earth and trade,
which for a time had fallen back to recover
breath from previous over-exertion, had re-
sumed her place where merchants most do
congregate." The land was replete with glad
ness, and vocal with thanksgiyings of its sons
and daughters, upon the vast prairies of the
West, up its sunny hill slopes and through
its smiling valleys, along its majestic rivers
and down its meandering streamlets, and its


institutions of learnlng and religion and char
ity echoed back the sound:


" But bringing up the rear of this bright host,


A spirit of a different aspect waved


His wings, like thunder-clouds above some coast,


Whose barren beach with frequent wrecks is