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 UrnPRO^ETIC VOICES ABOUT AMERICA: A MONOGRAPH. 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 [From the Atlantic Monthly for September, 
 
 HE' discovery of America by Chris- 
 ;'2;'*A topher Columbus is the greatest 
 event of all secular history. Besides 
 the potato, the turkey, and maize, which 
 it introduced at once for the nourish- 
 ment and comf(^t of the Old World, 
 this discovery opened the door to in- 
 fluences infinite in extent and benefi- 
 cence. Measure them, describe them, 
 picture them, you cannot. While this 
 continent was unknown, imagination 
 invested it with proverbial magnifi- 
 cence. It was the Orient. When af- 
 terwards it took its place in geogra- 
 phy, imagination found another field 
 in trying to portray its future history. 
 If the Golden Age is before, and not 
 behind, as is now happily the prevail- 
 ing faith, then indeed must America 
 share at least, if it does not monopo- 
 lize, the promised good. 
 
 Before the voyage of CoJumbus in 
 1492, nothing of America was really 
 known. A few scraps from antiquity, 
 a few rumors from the ocean, and a few 
 speculations from science, were all that 
 the inspired navigator found to guide 
 him. Foremost among all these were 
 the well-known verses of the Spaniard' 
 Seneca, in the chorus of his " Medea," 
 which for generations had been the fin- 
 ger-point to an undiscovered world. 
 
 " Venient annis sjecula seris 
 Quibus Oceanus vincula rerum 
 Laxet, et ingens pateat tellus, 
 Tethysque novos detegat orbes ; 
 Nee sit terris ultima Thule." * 
 
 " In tardy years the epoch will come 
 in which the ocean will unloose the 
 bonds of nature, and the great earth 
 will stretch out, and the sea will dis- 
 close new worlds ; nor will Thule be 
 the most remote on the globe." 
 
 Two, if not more, different copies of 
 these verses are extant in the hand- 
 writing of Columbus, — precious auto- 
 graphs ; one in the sketch of his work 
 on the Prophecies, another in a letter 
 addressed to Queen Isabella; and it 
 
 * Seneca, Medea, Act II. v. 371. 
 
 7-] 
 
 would seem as if there was still a third 
 entered among his observations of lu- 
 nar eclipses at Hayti and Jamaica. By 
 these verses the great discoverer sailed. 
 But Humboldt, who has illustrated the 
 enterprise with all that classical or 
 mediaeval literature affords,* does not 
 hesitate to declare his conviction, that 
 the discovery of a new continent was 
 more completely foreshadowed in the 
 simple geographical statement of the 
 Greek Strabo, who, after a long life of 
 travel, sat down in the eighty-fourth 
 year of his age, during the reign of 
 Augustus, to write the geography of 
 the world, including its cosmography. 
 In this work, where are gathered the 
 results of ancient study and experience, 
 the venerable author, after alluding to 
 the possibility of passing direct from 
 Spain to India, and explaining that the 
 inhabited world is that which we in- 
 habit and know, thus lifts the curtain : 
 " There may be in the same temperate 
 zone izuo and indeed more inhabited 
 la?ids, especially nearest the parallel of 
 Things or Athens, prolonged into the 
 Atlantic Ocean." f This was the voice 
 of ancient science. 
 
 Before the voyage of Columbus, 
 Pulci, the Itahan poet, in his Morganie 
 Afaggiore, sometimes called the last 
 of the romances and the earliest of the 
 Italian epics, reveals an undiscovered 
 world beyond the Pillars of Hercules. 
 
 " Know that this theory is false ; kis bark 
 The daring mariner shall urge far o'er 
 The ■western wave, a smooth and level plain. 
 Albeit the earth is fashioned like a wheel. 
 Man was in ancient days of grosser mould. 
 And Hercules might blush to learn how far 
 Beyond the limits he had vainly set 
 The didlest sea-boat soon shall wing her tutty. 
 " Men shall descry another hemisphere. 
 Since to one common centre all things tend ; 
 So earth, by curious mystery divine 
 Well balanced, hangs amid the starry spheres. 
 A t oitr Antipodes are cities, states, 
 A nd thronged empires, ne^er divined of yore. 
 * Humboldt, Examefi critique de la Geographie, 
 Tome I. pp. loi, 162. See also Humboldt, Kosmos, 
 Vol. II. pp. 516, 556, SS7, 645. 
 t Strabo, Lib. I. p. 65 ; Lib. II. p. 118. 
 
IT/ 79 
 
 276 
 
 ^rophetic Voices about America. 
 
 [September, 
 
 But see, the sun speed-s on his western path 
 To glad the nations with expected light." * 
 
 This translation is by our own emi- 
 nent historian, Prescott, who first called 
 attention to this testimony,! which is not 
 mentioned even by Humboldt. Leigh 
 Hunt referred to it at a later day.f 
 Puici was born in Florence, 1431, and 
 died there, 1487, five years before Co- 
 lumbus sailed, so that he was not aided 
 by any rumor of the discovery which 
 he so distinctly predicts. 
 
 Passing from the discovery, it may 
 not be uninteresting to collect some of 
 the prophetic voices about the future 
 of America, the "All-Hail Hereafter" of 
 our continent. They will have a lesson 
 also. Seeing what has been already 
 fulfilled, we may better judge what to 
 expect. I shall set them forth in the 
 order of time, prefacing each prediction 
 with an account of the author sufficient 
 to explain its origin and character. If 
 some are already familiar, others are lit- 
 tle known. Brought together into one 
 body, on the principle of our national 
 Union, E pluribits uman, they must 
 give new confidence in the destinies of 
 the Republic. 
 
 Of course I shall embrace only what 
 has been said seriously by those whose 
 words are important ; not an oracular 
 response, which may receive a double 
 interpretation, like the deceptive replies 
 to Croesus and to Pyrrhus ; and not a 
 saying, such as is described by Sir 
 Thomas Browne when he remarks, in 
 his " Christian Morals," that " many 
 positions seem quodlibetically consti- 
 tuted, and, like a Delphian blade, will 
 cut both ways." § Men who have lived 
 much and felt strongly see further than 
 others. Their vision penetrates the 
 future. Second sight is little more than 
 clearness of sight. Milton tells us, 
 
 " That old experience does attain 
 To something like prophetic strain." 
 
 Sometimes this strain is attained even 
 in youth. 
 
 * PuIci, Mor^ante Ma!:giore, Canto XXV. st. 
 2E9, 230. 
 
 t Prescott, Ferdinand and Isabella, Vol. 11. 
 pp. 117. 118. 
 
 X Leigh Hunt, Stories from the Italian Poet.s. p. 171. 
 
 § Browne, Works, Pickering's edition. Vol. IV. 
 p. 81. 
 
 famous author "plainly discovers his 
 expectation to be th#same with that 
 
 Sir Thomas Browne. — 16S2. 
 
 Dr. Johnson called attention to a 
 tract of Sir Thomas Browne entitled, 
 "A Prophecy concerning the Future 
 State of Several Nations," where the 
 " plainly 
 be th#s: 
 
 entertained later with more confidence 
 by Dr. Berkeley, that America will be 
 the seat of the fifth empire^ * The 
 tract is vague, but prophetic. 
 
 Sir Thomas Browne was born igtli 
 October, 1605, and died 19th October, 
 1682. His tract was published, two 
 years after his death, in a collection 
 of Miscellanies, edited by Dr. Tenison. 
 As a much-admired author, some of 
 whose writings belong to our English 
 classics, his prophetic prolusions are 
 not unworthy of notice. They are 
 founded on verses entitled " The Proph- 
 ecy," purporting to have been sent to 
 him by a fmend. Among these are the 
 following : — 
 
 " When New England .shall trouble New Spain, 
 When Jamaica shall be lady of the isles and the 
 
 main ; 
 When Spain shall be in America hid, 
 And Me.xico shall prove a Madrid ; 
 IVhen Africa shall no more sell out their Macks 
 To vtake slaves and drudges to the A merican 
 
 tracts ; 
 
 IVhcn A merica shall cease to send out its treas- 
 ure. 
 But employ it at home in A merican pleasure ; 
 IP' hen the Ne7v World shall the Old invade. 
 Nor count them their lords but tlieir fellows in 
 trade ; 
 
 Then think strange things have come to light. 
 Whereof but few have had a foresight." f 
 
 Some of these words are striking, es- 
 pecially when we consider their early 
 date. The author of the " Religio Medi- 
 ci " seems in the main to accept the 
 prophecy. In a commentary on each 
 verse he seeks to explain it. New 
 England is " that thriving colony which 
 hath so much increased in his day " ; 
 its people are already "industrious," 
 and when they have so far increased 
 "thnt the neighboring country will not 
 contain them, they will range still far- 
 
 * Johnson, Life of Sir Thomas Browne. 
 t Browne, Works, Vol. IV. pp. 332, 233. 
 
 Bob. AtK«« 
 MTar 28 06 
 
r 
 
 1867.] 
 
 Sir Thomas Browne. — Bishop Berkeley. 
 
 ther, and be able in time to set forth 
 '^ great armies, seek for new possessions, 
 ' or tJia/ce considerable and conjoined mi- 
 ' grations." The verse about Africa will 
 be fulfilled " when African countries shall 
 no longer make it a common trade to 
 sell away their people." And this may 
 come to pass " whenever they shall be 
 well civilized and acquainted with arts 
 and affairs sufficient to employ peojile 
 in their countries." It would also come 
 to pass " if they should be converted 
 to Christianity, but especially into Ma- 
 hometism ; for then they would nev- 
 er sell those of their religion to Ic 
 slaves unto Christians." The verse 
 about America is expounded as fol- 
 lows : — 
 
 " That is, when America shall be bet- 
 ter civilized, new policied, and divided 
 between great princes, it may come to 
 pass that they will no longer suffer their 
 treasure of gold and silver to be sent 
 out to maintain the luxury of Europe 
 and other ports ; but rather employ it 
 to their own advantages, in great ex- 
 ploits and undertakings, magnificent 
 structures, wars, or expeditions of their 
 own." * 
 
 The other verse, on the invasion of 
 the Old World by the New, is thus ex- 
 plained : — 
 
 " That is, when America shall be so 
 well peopled, civilized, and divided into 
 kingdoms, they are like to have so little 
 regard of their originals as to acknozvl- 
 edge no subjection nnto them j they may 
 also have a distinct commerce them- 
 selves, or but independently with those 
 of Europe, and may hostilely and pirat- 
 ically assault them, even as the Greek 
 and^^Roman colonies after a long time 
 dealt vvilh their original countries." f 
 
 That these speculations should arrest 
 the attention of Dr. Johnson is some- 
 tliing. They seem to have been in part 
 fulfilled. An editor remarks that, " To 
 judge from the course of events since 
 Sir Thomas wrote, we may not unrea- 
 sonably look forward to their more com- 
 plete fulfilment." % 
 
 * Browne, Works, Vol. IV. p. 236. 
 
 t Ibid. 
 
 t Ibid., p. 231, note. 
 
 Bishop Berkeley. — 1726. 
 
 It is pleasant to think that Berkeley, 
 whose beautiful verses predicting the 
 future of America are so often quoted, 
 was so sweet and charming a character. 
 Atterbury wrote of him, " So much un- 
 derstanding, knowledge, innocence, and 
 humility I should have thought con- 
 fined to angels, had I never seen this 
 gentleman." Swift said, "He is an ab- 
 solute philosopher with regard to mon- 
 ey, title, and power." Pope let drop 
 a tribute which can never die, when he 
 said, 
 
 " To Berkeley every virtue under Heaven." 
 Such a person was naturally a seer. 
 
 He is compendiously called an Irish 
 prelate and philosopher; he was born 
 in Kilkenny, 1684, and died in Oxford, 
 1 753. He began as a philosopher. While 
 still young, he wrote his famous treatise 
 on " The Principles of Human Knowl- 
 edge," in which he denies the existence 
 of matter, insisting that it is only an 
 impression produced on the mind by 
 Divine power. After travel for several 
 years on the Continent, and fellowship 
 with the witty and learned at home, 
 among whom were 'Addison, Swift, 
 Pope, Garth, and Arbuthnot, he con- 
 ceived the project of educating the abo- 
 rigines of America, which was set forth 
 in a tract, published in 1725, entitled, 
 " Scheme for Converting the Savage 
 Americans to Christianity by a College 
 to be erected in the Summer Islands, 
 otherwise called the Isles of Bermuda." 
 Persuaded by his benevolence, the min- 
 isters promised twenty thousand pounds, 
 and there were several private subscrip- 
 tions to promote what was called by the 
 king " so pious an undertaking." Berke- 
 ley possessed already a deanery in Ire- 
 land, with one thousand pounds a year. 
 Turning away from this residence, and 
 refusing to be tempted by an Eng- 
 hsh mitre, oitered by the queen, he 
 set sail for Rhode Island, " which lay 
 nearest Bermuda," where, after a te- 
 dious passage of five months, he ar- 
 rived, 23d January, 1729. Here he lived 
 on a farm back of Newport, having 
 been, according to his own report, " at 
 
278 
 
 Prophetic Voices about America. 
 
 [September, 
 
 great expense for land and stock." In 
 familiar letters he has given his impres- 
 sion of this place, famous since for fash- 
 ion. " The climate," he says, " is like 
 that of Italy, and not at all colder in the 
 winter than I have known it everywhere 
 north of Rome. This island is pleas- 
 antly laid out in hills and vales and ris- 
 ing grounds, hath plenty of excellent 
 springs and fine rivulets and many de- 
 lightful landscapes of rocks and prom- 
 ontories and adjacent lands. The 
 town of Newport contains about six 
 thousand souls, and is the most thriv- 
 ing, flourishing place in all America 
 for its bigness. It is very pretty and 
 pleasantly situated. I was never more 
 agreeably surprised than at the first 
 sight of the town and its harbor." * 
 He seems to have been contented here, 
 and when his companions went to Bos- 
 ton stayed at home, " preferring," as he 
 wrote, "quiet and solitude to the noise 
 of a great town, notwithstanding all 
 the sohcitations that have been used to 
 draw us thither." f 
 
 The money which he had expected, 
 especially from the ministry, failed, and 
 after waiting in vain expectation two 
 years and a half, he returned to Eng- 
 land, leaving an infant son buried in 
 the yard of Trinity Church, and bestow- 
 ing upon Yale College a library of eight 
 hundred and eighty volumes, as well as 
 his estate in Rhode Island. During his 
 residence at Newport he had preached 
 every Sunday, and was indefatigable in 
 pastoral duties, besides meditating, if 
 not composing, "The Minute Philoso- 
 pher," which was published shortly af- 
 ter his return. 
 
 He had not been forgotten at home 
 during his absence ; and shortly after 
 his return he became Bishop of Cloyne, 
 in which place he was most exemplary, 
 devoting himself to his episcopal du- 
 ties, to the education of his children, and 
 the pleasures of composition. 
 
 It was while occupied with his plan 
 of a college, especially as a nursery for 
 the Colonial churches, shortly before 
 sailing for America, that the future 
 
 * Berkeley, Works, Vol. I., Life prefixed, p. 53. 
 t Ibid., p. 55. 
 
 seemed to be revealed to him, and he 
 wrote the famous poem, the only one 
 to be found among his works, entitled, 
 "Verses on the Prospect of Planting 
 Arts and Learning in America." * The 
 date may be fixed at 1726. Such a 
 poem was an historic event. I give 
 the first and last stanzas. 
 
 " The Muse, disgusted at an age and clime 
 Barren of every glorious theme, 
 In distant lands now waits a better time. 
 Producing subjects worthy fame. 
 
 " IVesiward the course of empire takes its way ; 
 The first four acts already past, 
 A fifth shall close the drama with the day ; 
 Time's noblest offspring is the last." 
 
 It is difficult to exaggerate the value 
 of these verses, which have been so 
 often quoted as to become one of the 
 commonplaces of literature and poli- 
 tics. There is nothing from any oracle, 
 there is very little from any proph- 
 ecy, which can compare with them. 
 The biographer of Berkeley, who wrote 
 in the last century, was very cautious, 
 when, after calling them "a beautiful 
 copy of verses," he says that "another 
 age will, perhaps, acknowledge the old 
 conjunction of the prophetic character 
 with that of the poet to have again 
 taken place." f The vates of the Ro- 
 mans was poet and prophet ; and such 
 was Berkeley. 
 
 The sentiment which prompted the 
 prophetic verses of the good Bishop 
 was widely ditfused ; or, perhaps, it 
 was a natural prompting. J Of this 
 an illustration is afforded in the life of 
 Benjamin West. On his visit to Rome 
 in 1760, the young artist encountered 
 a famous improvvisatore, who, on learn- 
 ing that he was an American come to 
 study the fine arts in Rome, at bnce 
 addressed him with the ardor of inspi- 
 ration, and to the music of his guitar. 
 After singing the darkness which for 
 so many ages veiled America from the 
 eyes of science, and also the fulness 
 of time when the purposes for which 
 America had been raised from the deep 
 would be manifest, he hailed the youth 
 
 * Berkeley, Works, Vol. II. p. 443- 
 t Ibid., Vol. I., Life prefixed, p. 15. 
 J Grahame, Hiitory of the United States, Vol. IV. 
 pp. 136, 448. 
 
186;.] 
 
 Turzot. 
 
 279 
 
 before him as an instrument of Heaven 
 to raise there a taste for those arts which 
 elevate man, and an assurance of refuge 
 to science and knowledge, when, in the 
 old age of Europe, they should have for- 
 saken her shores. Then, in the spirit 
 of prophecy, he sang : — 
 
 " But all things of heavenly origin^ 
 like the glorious suti, move westward j 
 and truth and art have their periods of 
 shining and of night. Rejoice then, O 
 venerable Rome, in thy divine destiny ; 
 for though darkness overshadow thy 
 seats, and though thy mitred head must 
 descend into the dust, thy spirit im- 
 mortal and undecayed already spreads 
 towards a new world.^^ * 
 
 John Adams, in his old age, dwelling 
 on the reminiscences of early life, re- 
 cords that nothing was " more ancient 
 in his memory than the observation 
 that arts, sciences, and empire had 
 travelled westward, and in conversa- 
 tion it was always added, since he was 
 a child, that their next leap would be 
 over the Atlantic into America." With 
 the assistance of an octogenarian neigh- 
 bor, he recalled a couplet that had been 
 repeated with rapture as long as he 
 could remember : — 
 
 " The Eastern nations sink, their glory ends, 
 And empire rises where the sun descends." 
 
 It was imagined by his neighbor that 
 these lines came from some of our ear- 
 ly pilgrims, — by whom they had been 
 " inscribed, or rather drilled, into a rock 
 on the shore of Monument Bay in our 
 old Colony of Plymouth." f 
 
 Another illustration of this same 
 sentiment will be found in Burnaby's 
 "Travels through the Middle Settle- 
 ments of North America, in. 1759 and 
 1760," a work which was first published 
 in 1775. In his reflections at the close 
 of his book the traveller thus re- 
 marks : — 
 
 " An idea, strange as it is visionary, 
 has entered into the minds of the gen- 
 erality of mankind, that empire is travel- 
 ling westward : and every one is looking 
 forward with eager and i?npatient ex- 
 pectation to that destined motnent tuhen 
 
 * Gait, Life of West, Vol. I. pp. n6, 117. 
 
 t John Adams, Works, Vol. IX. pp. 597-599. 
 
 A merica is to give the law to the rest 
 of the world.'''' * 
 
 The traveller is none the less an au- 
 thority for the prevalence of this senti- 
 ment because he declares it " illusory 
 and fallacious," and records his convic- 
 tion that " America is formed for hap- 
 piness, but not for empire." Happy 
 America ! What empire can compare 
 with happiness ! But, to make amends 
 for this admission, the jealous traveller, 
 in his edition of 1796, after the adop- 
 tion of our Constitution, announces that 
 " the present union of American States 
 will not be permanent, or last for any 
 considerable length of time," and "that 
 that extensive country must necessarily 
 be divided into separate states and 
 kingdoms." f Thus far the Union has 
 stood against all shocks, foreign or 
 domestic ; and the prophecy of Berke- 
 ley is more than ever in the popular 
 mind. 
 
 Turcot.— 1750. 
 
 Among the illustrious names of 
 France there are few equal to that 
 of Turgot. He was a philosophei 
 among ministers, and a minister among 
 philosophers. Malesherbes said of 
 him, that he had the heart of L'Hopital 
 and the head of Bacon. Such a person 
 in public affairs was an epoch for his 
 country and for the human race. Had 
 his spirit prevailed, the bloody drama 
 of the French Revolution would not 
 have occurred, or it would at least 
 have been postponed. I think it could 
 not have occurred. He was a good 
 man, who sought to carry into govern- 
 ment the rules of goodness. His ca- 
 reer from beginning to end was one 
 continuous beneficence. Such a nature 
 was essentially prophetic, for he dis- 
 cerned the natural laws by which the 
 future is governed. 
 
 He was of an ancient Norman family, 
 whose name suggests the^^^^ Tlior j he 
 was born at Paris, 1727, and died, 1781. 
 Being a younger son, he was destined 
 for the Church, and commenced his 
 
 * Biirnaby, Travels, p. 115. 
 t Ibid., Preface, p. 21. 
 
28o 
 
 PropJietic Voices about America. 
 
 [September 
 
 studies as an ecclesiastic at the an- 
 cient Sorbonne. Before registering an 
 irrevocable vow, he announced his re- 
 pugnance to the profession, and turned 
 aside to other pursuits. Law, litera- 
 ture, science, humanity, government, 
 now engaged his attention. He as- 
 sociated himself with the writers of 
 the Encyclopaedia, and became one of 
 its contributors. In other writings 
 he vindicated especially the virtue of 
 toleration. Not merely a theorist, he 
 soon arrived at the high post of in- 
 tendant of Limousin, where he devel- 
 oped a remarkable talent for adminis- 
 tration, and a sympathy with the peo- 
 ple. He introduced the potato into 
 that province. But he continued to 
 employ his pen, especially on questions 
 of political economy, which he treated 
 as a master. On the accession of Louis 
 XVI. he was called to the cabinet as 
 Minister of the Marine, and shortly 
 afterwards he gave up this place to be 
 the head of the finances. Here he be- 
 gan a system of rigid economy, founded 
 on a curtailment of expenses and an 
 enlargement of resources. The latter 
 was obtained especially by a removal 
 of disabilities from trade, whether at 
 home or abroad, and the substitution 
 of a single tax on land for a complex 
 multiplicity of taxes. The enemies of 
 progress were too strong at that time, 
 and the king dismissed the reformer. 
 Good men in France became anxious 
 for the future ; Voltaire, in his distant 
 retreat, gave a shriek of despair, and 
 addressed to Turgot some remarkable 
 verses entitled Epitre d tut Homme. 
 Worse still, the good edicts of the min- 
 ister were rescinded, and society was 
 13ut back. 
 
 The discarded minister gave himself 
 to science, literature, and friendship. 
 He welcomed Franklin to France and 
 to immortality in a Latin verse of mar- 
 vellous felicity. He was already the 
 companion of the liberal spirits who 
 were doing so much for knowledge 
 and for reform. By writing and by 
 conversation he exercised a constant 
 influence. His "ideas" seem to illu- 
 mine the time. We may be content 
 
 to follow him in saying, " The glory of 
 arms cannot compare with the happi- 
 ness of living in peace." He antici- 
 pated our definition of a republic, when 
 he said " it was formed uj^on the 
 equality of all the citizens" — good 
 words, not yet practically verified in 
 all our States. Such a government 
 he, living under a monarchy, bravely 
 pronounced the best of all ; but he 
 added that he "had never known a 
 constitution truly republican." This 
 was in 1778. With similar plainness 
 he announced that " the destruction of 
 the Ottoman empire would be a real 
 good for all the nations of Europe," 
 and — he added still further — for hu- 
 manity also, because it would involve 
 the abolition of negro slavery, and be- 
 cause to st!:ip "our oppressors is not 
 to attack, but to vindicate, the com- 
 mon rights of humanity." With such 
 thoughts and a.spirations, the prophet 
 died. 
 
 But I have no purpose of writing a 
 biography, or even a character. All 
 that I intend is an introduction to 
 Turgot's prophetic words relating to 
 America. When only twenty-three 
 years of age, while still an ecclesiastic 
 at the Sorbonne, the future minister 
 delivered a discourse on the Progress 
 of the Human Mind, in which, 'after de- 
 scribing the commercial triumphs of 
 the ancient Phoenicians, covering the 
 coasts of Greece and Asia with their 
 colonies, he lets drop these remarkable 
 words : — 
 
 "Les colonies sont comme des fruits 
 qui ne tiennent ^ I'arbre que jusqu'k 
 leur maturite ; devenues sufifisantes ^ 
 elles-mcmes, elles firent ce que fitdepuis 
 Carthage, — ce qjwfcra unjour PAme- 
 riquc.'''' * 
 
 " Colonies are like fruits, which hold 
 to the tree only until their maturity ; 
 when sufficient for themselves, they did 
 that which Carthage afterwards did, — 
 that which sotne day America will do.''^ 
 
 On this most suggestive declaration, 
 
 * Turcot, O'.uvres, Tome II. p. 66. See also 
 Condorcet, CKimrcs, Tome IV., \'ic de Tin-got; 
 Louis Blanc, Hisioire de la Rivolution Fra?igazse, 
 Tome I. pp. 527 - S33. 
 
1867.] 
 
 John Adams. 
 
 281 
 
 Dupont de Nemours, the editor of Tar- 
 get's works, published in 1808, remarks 
 in a note as follows : — 
 
 "It was in 1750 that M. Turgot, 
 being then only twenty -three years 
 old, and devoted in a seminary to the 
 study of theology, divined, foresaw the 
 revolution which has formed the Unit- 
 ed States, — which has detached them 
 from the European power apparently the 
 most capable of retaining its colonies 
 under its domination." 
 
 At the time Turgot wrote, Canada 
 was a French possession ; but his words 
 are as applicable to this colony as to the 
 United States. When will this fruit be 
 ripe .'' 
 
 John Adams. — 1755, 1776, 17S0, 1785, 
 1787. 
 
 Next in time among the prophets 
 was John Adams, who has left on 
 record at different dates several pre- 
 dictions which show a second-sight of 
 no common order. Of his life I need 
 say nothing, except that he was born 
 19th October, 1735, and died 4th July,- 
 1826. I mention the predictions in the 
 order of their utterance. 
 
 I. While teaching a school at Worces- 
 ter, and when under twenty years of age, 
 he wrote a letter to one of his youthful 
 companions, bearing date \ith October, 
 1755, which is a marvel of foresight. 
 Fifty-two years afterwards, when al- 
 ready much of its prophecy had been 
 fulfilled, the original was returned to its 
 author by the son of his early comrade 
 and correspondent, Nathan Webb, who 
 was at the time dead. In this letter, 
 after remarking gravely on the rise and 
 fall of nations, with illustrations from 
 Carthage and Rome, he proceeds : — 
 
 " England began to increase in power 
 and magnificence, and is now the great- 
 est nation of the globe. Soon after the 
 Reformation, a few people came over 
 into this New World for conscience' 
 sake. Perhaps this apparently trivial 
 incident may transfer the great seat of 
 empire to America. It looks likely to 
 me J for if we can remove the turbulent 
 Gallics, our people, according to the 
 
 exactest computations, will, in another 
 century, become more numerous than 
 England itself Should this be the 
 case, since we have, I may say, all the 
 naval stores of the nations in our hands, 
 it will be easy to obtain the mastery of 
 the seas ; and then the united force of 
 all Europe will not be able to subdue 
 us. The only way to keep us from set- 
 ting up for ourselves is to disunite us. 
 Divide et iinpera. Keep us in distinct 
 colonies, and then, some great men in 
 each colony desiring the monarchy of 
 the whole, they will destroy each others' 
 influence, and keep the country in eqiii- 
 librio.''^ * 
 
 On this letter his son, John Quincy 
 Adams, remarks : — 
 
 " Had the political part of it been 
 written by the minister of state of a 
 European monarchy, at the close of a 
 long life spent in the government of 
 nations, it would have been pronounced 
 worthy of the united wisdom of a Bur- 
 leigh, a Sully, or an Oxenstiern 
 
 /;/ one bold outline he has exhibited by 
 anticipation a long succession of pro- 
 phetic history, thefulfihncnt of which is 
 barely yet in progress, rcspondi?ig ex- 
 actly hitherto to his foresight, but the 
 full accomplishment of which is re- 
 served for the development of after 
 ages. The extinction of the power 
 of France in America, the union of the 
 British North American Colonies, the 
 achievement of their independence, and 
 the establishment of their ascendency 
 in the community of civilized nations 
 by the means of their naval power, are 
 all foreshadowed in this letter, with a 
 clearness of perception and a distinct- 
 ness of delineation which time has 
 done little more than to convert into 
 historical fact."t 
 
 2. The Declaration of Independence 
 bears date 4th July, 1776, for on that 
 day it was signed ; but the vote which 
 determined it was on the 2d July. On 
 the id July, John Adams, in a letter 
 to his wife, wrote as follows : — 
 
 " Yesterday the greatest question 
 
 * John Adams, Works, Vol. I. p. 23. See also 
 Vol. IX. pp. 591, 592- 
 t Ibid., Vol. I. pp. 24, 25. 
 
252 
 
 Prophetic Voices about America. 
 
 [September, 
 
 was decided which ever was debated 
 in America, and a greater, perhaps, 
 never was nor will be decided among 
 men I am surprised-at the sud- 
 denness as well as greatness of this 
 revolution. Britain has been filled 
 with folly, and America with wisdom. 
 At least this is my judgment. Time 
 must determine. // is the will of 
 Heaven thai the two countries should 
 
 be sundered forever Tlie day is 
 
 past. The second day of July, 1776, 
 will be the most memorable epocha in 
 the history of America. / ant apt to 
 believe that it will be celebrated by suc- 
 ceeding generations as the great anni- 
 -versary festival. It ought to be com- 
 memorated, as the day of deliverance, 
 by solemn acts of devotion to God Al- 
 mighty. It ought to be solemnized 
 with pomp and parade, with shows, 
 games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and 
 illuminations, from one end of this 
 continent to the other, from this time 
 forward, forevermore. You will think 
 me transported with enthusiasm, but I 
 am not. I am well aware of the toil 
 and blood and treasure that it will cost 
 us to maintain this Declaration, and 
 support and defend these States. Yet, 
 through all the gloom, I can see the ray 
 of ravishing light and glory ; and that 
 posterity will triuj/iph in that day^s 
 transaction, even although we should 
 rue it, which I trust in God we shall 
 not." * 
 
 Here is a comprehensive prophecy, 
 first, that the two countries would be 
 separated forever ; secondly, that the 
 anniversary of Independence would be 
 celebrated as a great annual festival ; 
 and, thirdly, that posterity would tri- 
 umph in this transaction, where, through 
 all the gloom, shone rays of ravishing 
 light and glory ; all of which has been 
 fulfilled to the letter. Recent events 
 give to the Declaration additional im- 
 portance. For a long time its great 
 promises that all men are equal, and 
 that rightful government stands only 
 on the consent of the governed, were 
 disowned by our country. Now that at 
 last they are beginning to prevail, there 
 
 • John Adams, Works, Vol. 1. pp. 230, 232. 
 
 is increased reason to celebrate the day 
 on which the mighty Declaration was 
 made, and new occasion for triumph in 
 the rays of ravishing light and glory. 
 
 3. Here is another prophetic passage 
 in a letter dated at Paris, lyh July, 
 1780, and addressed to the Count de 
 Vergennes of France, pleading the 
 cause of the colonists : — 
 
 "The United States of America are 
 a great and powerful people, whatever 
 European statesmen may think of them. 
 If we take into our estimate the num- 
 bers and the character of her people, the 
 extent, variety, and fertility of her soil, 
 her commerce, and her skill and ma- 
 terials for ship-building, and her sea- 
 men, excepting France, Spain, England, 
 Germany, and Russia, there is not a 
 state in Europe so powerful. Breaking 
 off such a nation as this from the Eng- 
 lish so suddenly, and uniting it so 
 closely with France, is one of the most 
 extraordinary events that ever hap- 
 pened among mankind." * 
 
 Perhaps this may be considered a 
 statement rather than a prophecy ; but 
 it illustrates the prophetic character of 
 the writer. 
 
 4. In an official letter to the Presi- 
 dent of Congress, dated at A nistcrdani, 
 ^th September, 1780, the same writer, 
 while proposing an American Academy 
 for refining, improving, and ascertain- 
 ing the English language, thus predicts 
 the extension of this language : — 
 
 " English is destined to be in the next 
 and succeeding centuries more generally 
 the language of the world than Latin 
 was in the last or Freitch is i?i the pres- 
 ent age. The reason of this is obvious, 
 — because the increasing population in 
 America, and their universal connec- 
 tion and correspondence with all na- 
 tions, will, aided by the influence of 
 England in the world, whether great 
 or small, force their language into gen- 
 eral use, in spite of all the obstacles 
 that may be thrown in their way, if any 
 such there should be." f 
 
 In another letter of an unofficial char- 
 acter, dated at Amsterdam, 22,d Septefn- 
 
 * Ibid., Vol. VII. p. 227. 
 t Ibid., p. 250. 
 
186;.] 
 
 G a Hani. 
 
 283 
 
 ber, 1780, he thus repeats his proph- 
 ecy : — 
 
 "You must know I have undertaken 
 to prophesy that English -will be the 
 most respectable language in the world, 
 and the most universally read and spo- 
 ken in the next century, if not before the 
 close of this. American population will 
 in the next age produce a greater num- 
 ber of persons who will speak English 
 than any other language, and these per- 
 sons will have more general acquaint- 
 ance and conversation with all other 
 nations than any other people."* 
 
 This prophecy is already accom- 
 plished. Of all the European langua- 
 ges, EngHsh is most extensively spo- 
 ken. Through England and the Unit- 
 ed States it has become the language 
 of commerce, which, sooner or later, 
 must embrace the globe. The German 
 philologist, Grimm, has followed our 
 American prophet in saying that it 
 " seems chosen, like its people, to rule 
 in future times in a still greater degree 
 in all the corners of the earth." f 
 
 5. There is another prophecy, at 
 once definite and broad, which proceed- 
 ed from the same eminent quarter. In 
 a letter dated London, ijth October, 
 1785, and addressed to John Jay, who 
 was at the time Secretary for Foreign 
 Affairs under the Confederation, John 
 Adams reveals his conviction of the 
 importance of France to us, "while 
 England held a province in America " ; % 
 and then, in another letter, dated 21st 
 October, 17S5, reports the saying of 
 people about him, ^'- that Canada and 
 Nova Scotia must soon be ours; there 
 must be war for it ; they know how it 
 will end, but the sooner the better. 
 This done, we shall be forever at 
 peace ; till then, never." § These inti- 
 mations foreshadow the prophecy which 
 will be found in the Preface to his 
 " Defence of the American Constitu- 
 tions," written in London, while he 
 was Minister there, and dated at Gros- 
 venor Square, \st January, 1787 : — 
 
 * John Adams, Works, Vol. IX. p. 510. 
 t Keith Johnston, Physical Atlas, p. 114. 
 \ John Adams, Works, Vol. VIII. p. 322. 
 § Ibid. p. 33. 
 
 " The United States of America have 
 exhibited, perhaps, the first example of 
 governments erected on the simple 
 
 principles of nature Thirteen 
 
 governments thus founded on the nat- 
 ural authority of the people alone, with- 
 out a pretence of miracle or mystery, 
 and which are destined to spread over 
 the northern part of that whole quarter 
 of the globe, are a great point gained in 
 favor of the rights of mankind. The 
 experiment is made, and has completely 
 succeeded." * 
 
 Here is foretold nothing less than 
 that our system of government is to 
 embrace the whole continent of North 
 America. 
 
 Galiani. — 1776, 1778. 
 
 Among the most brilliant persons in 
 this list is the Abbe Galiani, a Neapol- 
 itan, who was born in 1728, and died at 
 Naples in 1787. Although Italian by 
 birth, yet by the accident of official res- 
 idence he became for a while domesti- 
 cated in France, wrote the French lan- 
 guage, and now enjoys a French repu- 
 tation. His writings in French and his 
 letters have the wit and ease of Voltaire. 
 
 Galiani was a genius. Whatever he 
 touched shone at once with his bright- 
 ness, in which there was originality as 
 well as knowledge. He was a finished 
 scholar, and very successful in lapidary 
 verses. Early in life, while in Italy, he 
 wrote a grave essay on Money, which 
 contrasted with another of rare humor 
 suggested by the death of the public 
 executioner. Other essays followed, 
 and then came the favor of that con- 
 genial pontiff, Benedict XIV. In 1760 
 he found himself at Paris, as Secretary 
 of the Neapolitan Embassy. Here he 
 mingled with the courtiers officially, ac- 
 cording to the duties of his position, 
 but he fraternized with the liberal and 
 sometimes audacious spirits who ex- 
 ercised such an influence over socie- 
 ty and literature. He was soon recog- 
 nized as one of them, and as inferior to 
 none. His petty stature was forgotten, 
 when he conversed with inexhaustible 
 
 * John Adams, Works, Vol, IV. p. 293. 
 
284 
 
 Prophetic Voices about Ameiica. [September, 
 
 faculties of all kinds, so that he seemed 
 an Encyclopaedia, Harlequin, and Ma- 
 chiavelli all in one. The atheists at the 
 Thursday dinner of D'Hplbach were 
 confounded, while he enforced the ex- 
 istence of God. Into the questions of 
 political economy which occupied at- 
 tention at the time he entered with a 
 pen which seemed borrowed from the 
 French Academy. His Dialogues sicr 
 le Commerce des Bles had the success 
 of a romance ; ladies carried this book 
 on corn in their work-baskets. Re- 
 turning to Naples, he continued to live 
 in Paris through his correspondence, 
 especially with Madame d'Epinay, the 
 Baron d'Holbach, Diderot, and Grimm.* 
 
 Among his later works, after his re- 
 turn to Naples, was a solid volume — 
 not to be forgotten in the History of 
 International Law — on the "Rights of 
 Neutrals," where a difficult subject is 
 treated with such mastery that, half 
 a century later, D'Hautefeuille, in his 
 elaborate treatise, copies from it at 
 length. Galiani was the predecessor 
 of this French writer in the extreme 
 assertion of neutral rights. Other 
 works were left at his death in manu- 
 script, some grave and some humor- 
 ous ; also letters without number. The 
 letters he had preserved from Italian 
 savans filled eight large volumes ; those 
 from savans, ministers, and sovereigns 
 abroad filled fourteen. His Parisian 
 correspondence did not see the light 
 till 181 8, although some of the letters 
 may be found in the contemporary cor- 
 respondence of Grimm. 
 
 In his Parisian letters, which are ad- 
 dressed chiefly to that clever individu- 
 ality, Madame d'Epinay, the Neapoli- 
 tan Abbe shows not only the brilliancy 
 and nimbleness of his talent, but the 
 universality of his knowledge and the 
 boldness of his speculations. Here are 
 a few words from a letter dated at Na- 
 ples, 1 2th October, 1776, in which he 
 brings forward the idea of "races," so 
 important in our day, with an illustra- 
 tion from Russia : — 
 
 * Biographic Universeile of Michaud ; also of 
 Didot ; Louis Blanc, Histoire de la Revolution 
 Franfaise, Tome I. pp. 390, 545 - 551. 
 
 "All depends on races. The first, 
 the most noble of races, comes natural- 
 ly from the North of Asia. The Rus- 
 sians are the nearest to it, and this is 
 the reason why they have made more 
 progress in fifty years than can be got 
 out of the Portuguese in five hun- 
 dred."* 
 
 Belonging to the Latin race, Galiani 
 was entitled to speak thus freely. 
 
 1. In another letter to Madame 
 d'Epinay, dated at Naples, iZth May, 
 1776, he had already foretold the suc- 
 cess of our Revolution. Few prophets 
 have been more explicit than he was in 
 the following passage : — 
 
 " Livy said of his age, which so 
 much resembled ours, 'Ad haec tem- 
 pora ventum est quibus, nee vitia nos- 
 tra, nee remedia pati possumus,' — ' We 
 are in an age where the remedies hurt 
 as much as the vices.' Do you knojv 
 the reality ? The epoch has come of 
 tlie total fall of Europe, and of trans- 
 inigratio7i into Ainerica. All here turns 
 into rottenness, — religion, laws, arts, 
 sciences, — and all hastens to renew it- 
 self in America. This is not a jest ; nor 
 is it an idea drawn from the English 
 quarrels ; I have said it, announced it, 
 preached it, for more than twenty years, 
 and I have constantly seen my prophe- 
 cies come to pass. Therefore, do not 
 buy your house in the Chaiissee d An- 
 ting you mnst buy it in Philadelphia. 
 My trouble is that there are no abbeys 
 In America."! 
 
 This letter was written some months 
 before the Declaration of Independence 
 was known in Europe. 
 
 2. In another letter, dated at A'a- 
 ples, Tth February, 1778, the Abbd al- 
 ludes to the "quantities" of English 
 men and women who have come to Na- 
 ples " for shelter from the American 
 tempest," and adds, " Meanwhile the 
 Washingtons and Hancocks will be fa- 
 tal to them."t In still another, dated 
 at Naples, 25 July, 1778, he renews 
 
 * Galiani, Correspondence, Tome II. p. 221. 
 See also Grimm, Correspondence, Tome IX. p. 
 282. 
 
 t Galiani, Tome II. p. 203 ; Grimm, Tome IX. 
 p. 285. 
 
 } Galiani, Tome II. p. 275. 
 
186;.] 
 
 Adam Smith. — Governor Potvnall. 
 
 285 
 
 his prophecies in language still more 
 explicit: — 
 
 " You will at this time have decided 
 the greatest revolution of the globe ; 
 namely, if it is America "which is to 
 reign over Europe, or if it is Europe 
 which is to continue to reign over 
 America. I will wager in favor of 
 America, for the reason merely physi- 
 cal, that for five thousand years genius 
 has turned opposite to the diurnal mo- 
 tion, and travelled from the East to the 
 West." * 
 
 Here again is the idea of Berkeley 
 which has been so captivating. 
 
 Adam Smith. 
 
 [776. 
 
 In contrast with the witty Italian is 
 the illustrious philosopher and writer 
 of Scotland, Adam Smith, who was 
 born 5th June, 1723, and died 17th July, 
 1790. His fame is so commanding that 
 any details of his life or works would 
 be out of place on this occasion. He 
 was a thinker and an inventor, through 
 \i\-\om mankind was advanced in knowl- 
 edge. 
 
 I say nothing of his " Theory of 
 Moral Sentiments," which constitutes 
 an important contribution to the science 
 of ethics, but come at once to his great 
 work of political economy, entitled "In- 
 quiry into the Nature and Sources of 
 the Wealth of Nations," which first ap- 
 peared in 1776. Its publication marks an 
 epoch which is described by Mr. Buckle 
 when he says: "Adam Smith contrib- 
 uted more, by the publication of this sin- 
 gle work, toward the happiness of man, 
 than has been effected by the united 
 abihties of all the statesmen and legis- 
 lators of whom history has preserved 
 an authentic account." The work is 
 full of prophetic knowledge, and espe- 
 cially with regard to the British colo- 
 nies. Writing while the debate with 
 the mother country was still pending, 
 Adam Smith urged that they should 
 be admitted to Parliamentary repre- 
 sentation in proportion to taxation, so 
 that their representation would enlarge 
 with their growing resources ; and here 
 
 * Galiani, Tome II. p. 275. 
 
 he predicts nothing less than the trans- 
 fer of empire. 
 
 " The distance of America from the 
 seat of government, the natives of that 
 country might flatter themselves, with 
 some appearance of reason too, would 
 not be of very long continuance. Such 
 has hitherto been the rapid progress of 
 that country in wealth, population, and 
 improvement, that, in the course of lit- 
 tle more than a century, perhaps, the 
 produce of America might exceed that 
 of British taxation. The seat of the 
 empire would then naticrally remove 
 itself to that part of the empire which 
 contributed most to the getteral defence 
 and support of the whole. ''^ * 
 
 In these tranquil words of assured 
 science this great author carries the 
 seat of government across the Atlan- 
 tic. 
 
 Governor Pownall. — 1777, 1780, 
 1785. 
 
 Among the best friends of our coun- 
 try abroad during the trials of the Rev- 
 olution was Thomas Pownall, called by 
 one biographer " a learned antiquary 
 and politician," and by another " an 
 English statesman and author." Lat- 
 terly he has so far dropped out of sight, 
 that there are few who recognize in him 
 either of these characters. He was 
 born, 1722, and died at Bath, 1805. 
 During this long period he held sever- 
 al offices. As early as 1745 he became 
 secretary to the Commission for Trade 
 and Plantations. In 1753 he crossed 
 the ocean. In 1755, as Commissioner for 
 Massachusetts Bay, he negotiated with 
 New York, New Jersey, and Pennsyl- 
 vania, in union with New England, the 
 confederated expedition against Crown 
 Point. He was afterwards Governor 
 of Massachusetts Bay, New Jersey, 
 and South Carolina, successively. Re- 
 turning to England, he was, in 1761, 
 Comptroller-General of the army in Ger- 
 many, with the military rank of Colonel. 
 He sat in three successive Parliaments 
 until 1780, when he passed into private 
 
 * Smith, Wealth of Nations, Book IV. cap. 7, 
 part 3. 
 
286 
 
 Prophetic Voices about America. 
 
 [September, 
 
 life. Hildreth gives a glimpse at his 
 personal character, when, admitting 
 his frank manners and Hberal politics, 
 he describes his " habit^ as rather 
 freer than suited the New England 
 standard." * 
 
 Pownall stands forth conspicuous 
 for his championship of our national 
 independence, and especially for his 
 foresight with regard to our national 
 future. In both these respects his 
 writings are unique. Other English- 
 men were in favor of our independence, 
 and saw our future also ; but I doubt 
 if any one can be named who was his 
 equal in strenuous action, or in minute- 
 ness of foresight. While the war was 
 still proceeding, as early as 1780, he 
 openly announced, not only that inde- 
 pendence was inevitable, but that the 
 new nation, " founded in nature and 
 built up in truth," would continually 
 expand ; that its population would in- 
 crease and multiply ; that a civilizing 
 activity beyond what Europe could 
 ever know would animate it ; and that 
 its commercial and naval power would 
 be found in every quarter of the globe. 
 All this he set forth at length with 
 argument and illustration, and he called 
 his prophetic words " the stating of the 
 simple fact, so litde understood in the 
 Old World." Treated at first as " un- 
 intelligible speculation " and as " un- 
 fashionable," the truth he announced 
 was neglected where it was not reject- 
 ed, but generally rejected as inadmissi- 
 ble, and the author, according to his 
 own language, "was called by the 
 wise men of the British Cabinet a 
 Wild Man, unfit to be employed." 
 But these writings are a better title 
 now than any office. In manner they 
 are diffuse and pedantic ; but they hard- 
 ly deserve the cold judgment of John 
 Adams, who in his old age said of 
 them, that "a reader who has patience 
 to search for good sense in an uncouth 
 and disgusting style will find in those 
 writings proofs of a thinking mind." f 
 
 He seems to have written a good 
 
 * Hildreth, History of the United States, Vol. II. 
 p. 476. 
 
 t John Adams, Works, Vol. X. p. 241. 
 
 deal. But the works which will be re- 
 membered the longest are not even 
 mentioned by several of his biogra- 
 phers. Rose, in his Biographical Dic- 
 tionary, records works bj him, entitled 
 Antiquities of Ancient Greece ; Ro- 
 man Antiquities dug up at Bath ; Ob- 
 servations on the Currents of the 
 Ocean; Intellectual Physics; and also 
 contributions \q \\\^ Archaologia. Gor- 
 ton in his Biographical Dictionary adds 
 some other titles to this list. But nei- 
 ther mentions his works on America. 
 This is another instance where the 
 stone rejected by the builders becomes 
 the head of the corner. 
 
 At an early date Pownall compre- 
 hended the position of our country, 
 geographically. He saw the wonder- 
 ful means, of internal communication 
 supplied by its inland waters, and 
 also the opportunities of external com- 
 merce supplied by the Atlantic Ocean. 
 On the first he dwells, in a memorial 
 drawn up in 1756 for the Duke of Cum- 
 berland.* Nobody in our own day, 
 after the experience of more than a 
 century, has portrayed more vividly the 
 two masses of waters, — one composed 
 of the great lakes and their dependen- 
 cies, and the other of the Mississippi 
 and its tributaries. The great lakes are 
 described as " a wilderness of waters 
 spreading over the country by an in- 
 finite number and variety of branch- 
 ings, bays, and straits." The Missis- 
 sippi, with its eastern branch, called 
 the Ohio, is described as having, " so 
 far as we know, but two falls, — one at 
 a place called, by the French, St. An- 
 toine, high up on the west or main 
 branch " ; and all its waters " run to the 
 ocean with a still, easy, and gentle 
 current." The picture is completed by 
 exhibiting the two masses of water in 
 combination: — 
 
 "The waters of each respective mass 
 — not only the lesser streams, but 
 the main general body of each going 
 through this continent in every course 
 and direction — have by their approach 
 to each other, by their communication 
 
 * Pownall, Administration of the Colonies, Appen- 
 dix, p. 7. 
 
1867.] 
 
 Governor Powjiall. 
 
 to every quarter and in every direction, 
 an alliance and unity, and form one 
 ma.^s, or one whole."* 
 
 Again, depicting the intercommuni- 
 cation among the several waters of the 
 continent, and how " the watery element 
 claims and holds dominion over this 
 extent of land," he insists that all shall 
 see these two mighty masses in their 
 central throne, declaring that " the great 
 lakes which lie upon its bosom on one 
 hand, and the great river Mississippi 
 and the multitude of waters which run 
 into it, form there a communication, — 
 an alliance or dominion of the watery 
 element, that commands throughout the 
 whole ; that these great lakes appear to 
 be the throne, the centre of a dominion, 
 whose influence, by an infinite number 
 of rivers, creeks, and streams, extends 
 itself through all and every part of the 
 continent, supported by the communi- 
 cation of, and alliance with, the waters 
 of the Mississippi."! 
 
 If these means of internal commerce 
 were vast, those afforded by the Atlan- 
 tic Ocean were not less extensive. The 
 latter were developed in the volume 
 entitled " The Administration of the 
 Colonies," the fourth edition of which, 
 published in 1768, is now before me. 
 This was after the differences between 
 the Colonies and the mother country 
 had begun, but before the idea of inde- 
 pendence had shown itself. Pownall 
 insisted that the Colonies ought to be 
 considered as parts of the realm, entitled 
 to representation in Parliament. This 
 was a constitutional unity. But he por- 
 trayed a commercial unity also, which 
 he represented in attractive forms. The 
 British isles, and the British posses- 
 sions in the Atlantic and in America, 
 were, according to him, "one grand 
 marine dominion," and ought, there- 
 fore, by policy, to be united into one 
 empire, with one centre. On this he 
 dwells at length, and the picture is pre- 
 sented repeatedly.J It was incident to 
 the crisis produced in the world by the 
 predominance of the commercial spirit 
 
 * Pownall, Administration of the Colonies, Ap- 
 pendix, p. 6. 
 t Ibid., p. 9. 
 } Pownall, Colonies, pp. 9, 10, 164. 
 
 287 
 
 which already began to rule the powers 
 of Europe. It was the duty of Eng- 
 land to place herself at the head of this 
 great movement. 
 
 " As the rising of this crisis forms 
 precisely the object on which govern- 
 ment should be employed, so the 
 taking leading measures towards the 
 forming all those Atlantic and Amer- 
 ican possessions into one empire, of 
 which Great Britain should be the com- 
 mercial and political centre, is X\\^ pre- 
 cise duty of government at this crisis." 
 
 This was his desire. But he saw 
 clearly the resources as well as the 
 rights of the Colonies, and was satisfied 
 that, if power were not consolidated un- 
 der the constitutional auspices of Eng- 
 land, it would be transferred to the 
 other side of the Atlantic. Here his 
 words are prophetic : — 
 
 " The whole train of events, the 
 whole course of business, must perpet- 
 ually bring forward into practice, and 
 necessarily in the end into establish- 
 ment, either an American or a British 
 union. There is no other alternative." 
 
 The necessity for union is enforced 
 in a manner which foreshadows our 
 • national Union : — 
 
 " The Colonial Legislature does not 
 answer all purposes ; is incompetent 
 and inadequate to many purposes. 
 Something more is necessary, — either 
 a common Pinion among themselves, or 
 a common union of subordination un- 
 der the one general legislature of the 
 state." * 
 
 Then, again, in another place of the 
 same work, after representing the dec- 
 larations of power over the Colonies as 
 little better than mockery, he prophe- 
 sies again : — 
 
 " Such is the actual state of the 
 really existing system of our dominions, 
 that neither the power of government 
 over these various parts can long con- 
 tinue tender the present mode of admin- 
 istration, nor the great interests of com- 
 merce extended throughout the whole 
 long subsist under the present system of 
 the laws of trade." \ 
 
 * Pownall, Administration of the Colonies, p. 165. 
 ^ • t Ibid., p. 164. 
 
Prophetic Voices about America. 
 
 [September, 
 
 Recent events may give present inter- 
 est to his views, in tiiis same work, on 
 the nature and necessity of a paper cur- 
 ency, where he follows Franklin. The 
 principal points of his plail were, that 
 bills of credit, to a certain amount, 
 should be printed in England for the 
 use of the Colonies ; that a loan-office 
 should be estabhshed in each Colony to 
 issue bills, take securities, and receive 
 the payment ; that the bills should be 
 issued for ten years, bearing interest at 
 five per cent, — one tenth part of the 
 sum borrowed to be paid annually, with 
 interest ; and that they should be a 
 legal tender. 
 
 When the differences had flamed 
 forth in war, then the prophet became 
 more earnest. His utterances deserve 
 to be rescued from oblivion. He was 
 open, and almost defiant. As early as 
 -zd December, 1777, some months before 
 our treaty with France, he declared, 
 from his place in Parliament, "that the 
 sovereignty of this country over Amer- 
 ica is abolished and gone forever " ; 
 " that they are determined at all events 
 to be independent, and will be so "y and 
 "that all the treaty this country can 
 ever expect with America is federal, 
 and that, probably, only commercial." 
 In this spirit he said to the House: — 
 " Until you shall be convinced that 
 you are no longer sovereigns over 
 America, but that the United States 
 are an independent, sovereign people, 
 — until you are prepared to treat with 
 them as such, — it is of no consequence 
 at all what schemes or plans of concil- 
 iation this side of the House or that 
 may adopt." * 
 
 The position taken in Parliament he 
 maintained by writings, and here he 
 depicted the great destinies of our 
 country. He began with a work enti- 
 tled " A Memorial to the Sovereigns of 
 Europe," which was published early in 
 1780, and was afterwards, through the 
 influence of John Adams, while at the 
 Hague, abridged and translated into 
 French. In this remarkable produc- 
 tion independence was the least that he 
 
 - Parhameiitary History, Vol. XIX. pp. 527, 528. 
 See also p. 1157. 
 
 claimed for us. Thus he foretells our 
 future : — 
 
 " North America is become a new 
 primary planet in the system of the 
 world, which, while it takes its own 
 course, must have effect on the orbit of 
 every other planet, and shift the com- 
 mon centre of gravity of the whole sys- 
 tem of the European world. North 
 America is de facto an independent 
 power, which has taken its equal sta- 
 tion with other powers, and must be 
 
 so de jiwe The independence of 
 
 America is fixed as fate. She is mis- 
 tress of her own future, knows that 
 she is so, and will actuate that power 
 which she feels she hath, so as to estab- 
 lish her own system and to change the 
 system of Etirope." * 
 
 Not only is the new power to take an 
 independerlt place, but it is " to change 
 the system of Europe." For all this 
 its people are amply prepared. " Stand- 
 ing on that high ground of improve- 
 ment up to which the most enlightened 
 parts of Europe have advanced, like 
 eaglets, they commence the first efforts 
 of their pinions from a towering advan- 
 tage." f Then again, giving expression 
 to this same conviction in another form, 
 he says : — 
 
 " North America has advanced, and 
 is every day advancing, to growth of 
 state, with a steady and continually ac- 
 celerating motion, of which there has 
 never yet been any example in Eu- 
 rope." J "It is a vitality, liable to many 
 disorders, many dangerous diseases ; 
 but it is young and strong, and will 
 struggle, by the vigor of internal healing 
 principles of life, against those evils, 
 and surmount them. Its strength will 
 grow with its years." § 
 
 He then dwells in detail on "the 
 progressive population " here ; on our 
 advantage in being " on the other side 
 of the globe, where there is no enemy " ; 
 on the products of the soil, among 
 which is "bread-corn to a degree that 
 has wrought it to a staple export for 
 
 * Pownall, Memorial to the Sovereigns of Europe, 
 PP- 4. 5- 
 
 t Ibid., p. 43. 
 I Ibid., p. 56. 
 § Ibid., p. 69. 
 
186;.] 
 
 Governor Pownall. 
 
 289 
 
 the supply of the Old World " ; on the 
 fisheries, which he calls " mines of 
 more solid riches than all the silver of 
 Potosi " ; on the inventive spirit of the 
 people ; and on their commercial activ- 
 ity. Of such a people it is easy to pre- 
 dict great things ; and our prophet an- 
 nounces, — 
 
 1. That the new state will be "an 
 active naval power," exercising a pecu- 
 liar influence on commerce, and, through 
 commerce, on the political system of the 
 Old World, — becoming the arbitress of 
 commerce, and, perhaps, the mediatrix 
 of peace.* 
 
 2. That ship -building and the sci- 
 ence of navigation have made such 
 progress in America, that her people 
 will be able to build and navigate cheap- 
 er than any country in Europe, even 
 Holland, with all her economy, f 
 
 3. That the peculiar articles to be 
 had from America only, and so much 
 sought in Europe, must give Ameri- 
 cans a preference in those markets. :j: 
 
 4. That a people " whose empire 
 stands singly predominant on a great 
 continent " can hardly " suffer in their 
 borders such a monopoly as the Euro- 
 pean Hudson Bay Company " ; that it 
 cannot be stopped by Cape Horn or 
 the Cape of Good Hope ; that before 
 long they will be found "trading in the 
 South Sea and in China"; and that the 
 Dutch " will hear of them in the Spice 
 Islands." § 
 
 5. That by constant intercommunion 
 of business and correspondence, and 
 by increased knowledge with regard to 
 the ocean, "America will seem every 
 day to approach nearer and nearer to 
 Europe " ; that the old alarm at the sea 
 will subside, and "a thousand attrac- 
 tive motives will become the irresisti- 
 ble cause of an altnost general emi- 
 gration to the Neiv World'''' ; and that 
 "many of the most useful, enterprising 
 spirits, and much of the active property, 
 will go there also." || 
 
 * Pownall, Memorial to the Sovereigns of Europe, 
 pp. 74. 77- 
 t Ibid., p. 82. 
 X Ibid., p. 83. 
 § Ibid., p. 85. 
 II Ibid., p. 87. 
 VOL. XX. — NO. 119. 19 
 
 6. That " North America will be- 
 come a free port to all the nations of 
 the world indiscriminately, and will ex- 
 pect, insist on, and demand, in fair reci- 
 procity, a free market in all those na- 
 tions with whom she trades " ; and 
 that, adhering to this principle, she 
 must be, in the course of time, the 
 chief carrier of tlie commerce of the 
 whole world." * 
 
 7. That America must avoid compli- 
 cation with European politics, or "the 
 entanglement of alliances," having no 
 connections with Europe other than 
 commercial;! — all of which at a later 
 day was put forth by Washington in 
 his Farewell Address, when he said, 
 " The great rule of conduct for us, in 
 regard to foreign nations, is, in extend- 
 ing our commercial relations, to have 
 with them as little political concern as 
 possible." 
 
 8. That similar modes of living and 
 thinking, the same manners and same 
 fashions, the same language and old 
 habits of national love, impressed on 
 the heart and not yet effaced, the very 
 indentings of the fracture where North 
 America is broken off from England, 
 all conspire naturally to a rejuncture by 
 alliance.% 
 
 9. That the sovereigns of Europe, 
 " who have despised the unfashioned, 
 awkward youth of America," and have 
 neglected to interweave their interests 
 with the rising States, when they find 
 the system of the new empire not only 
 obstructing, but superseding, the old 
 system of Europe, and crossing all their 
 settled maxims, will call upon their 
 ministers and wise men, " Come, curse 
 me this people, for they are too mighty 
 for me."§ 
 
 This appeal was followed by two oth- 
 er memorials, "drawn up solely for the 
 king's use, and designed solely for his 
 eye," dated at Richtnond, fanuary, 
 1782, in which the author most persua- 
 sively pleads with the king to treat with 
 the Colonies on the footing of indepen- 
 
 * Pownall, Memorial to the Sovereigns of Europe, 
 pp. 80, 97. 
 t Ibid,, p. 78. 
 X Ibid., p. 93. 
 § Ibid., p. 91. 
 
290 
 
 Prophetic Voices about America. 
 
 [September, 
 
 dence, and with this view to institute a 
 preliminary negotiation "as with free 
 states de facto under a truce." On the 
 signature of the treaty of peace, he 
 wrote a private letter to Frankhn, dated 
 at RichfHOftd, iZth February, 1783, in 
 which he testifies again to the magni- 
 tude of the event, as follows : — 
 
 "My old Friend, — I write this to 
 congratulate you on the establishment 
 of your country as a free and sovereign 
 power, taking its equal station amongst 
 the powers of the world. I congratu- 
 late you, in particular, as chosen by 
 Providence to be a principal instrument 
 in this great Revolution, — « Revolu- 
 tion that has stranger /narks of Divine 
 interposition, superseding the ordinary 
 course of human affairs, than any other 
 event which this world has experi- 
 enced.^'' 
 
 He closes this letter by saying that 
 he thought of making a tour of Ameri- 
 ca, adding that, " if there ever was an 
 object worth travelling to see, and wor- 
 thy of the contemplation of a philoso- 
 pher, it is that in which he may see the 
 beginning of a great empire at its foun- 
 dation." * He communicated this pur- 
 pose also to John Adams, who an- 
 swered him, that " he would be re- 
 ceived respectfully in every part of 
 America, — that he had always been 
 considered friendly to America, — and 
 that his writings had been useful to 
 our cause." f 
 
 Then came another work, first pub- 
 lished in 1783, entided, " A Memorial 
 addressed to the Sovereigns of America, 
 by Governor Pownall," of which he gave 
 the mistaken judgment to a private 
 friend, that it was " the best thing he 
 ever wrote." Here for the first time 
 American citizens are called " sover- 
 eigns." At the beginning he explains 
 and indicates the simplicity with which 
 he addresses them : — 
 
 " Having presumed to address to the 
 Sovereigns of Europe a Memorial .... 
 permit me now to address this Memo- 
 rial to you, Sovereigns of America. I 
 shall not address you with the court 
 
 * Franklin, Works, Vol. IX. p. 491. 
 
 t John Adams, Works, Vol. VIII. p. 179. 
 
 titles of Gothic Europe, nor with those 
 of servile Asia. I will neither address 
 3'our Sublimity or Majesty, your Grace 
 or Holiness, your Eminence or High- 
 mightiness, your Excellence or Honors. 
 What are tides, where things them- 
 selves are known and understood ? 
 What title did the Republic of Rome 
 take .'' The state was known to be sover- 
 eign and the citizens to be free. What 
 could add to this .? Therefore, United 
 States and Citizens of America, I ad- 
 dress you as you are." * 
 
 Here again are the same constant 
 sympathy with liberty, the same confi- 
 dence in our national destinies, and 
 the same aspirations for our prosperity, 
 mingled with warnings against disturb- 
 ing influences. He exhorts that all our 
 foundations should be " laid in nature " ; 
 that there should be "no contention 
 for, nor acquisition of, unequal domina- 
 tion in men " ; and that union should 
 be established on the attractive prin- 
 ciple by which all are drawn to a com- 
 mon centre. He fears difficulty in 
 making the line of frontier between us 
 and the British Provinces "a hne of 
 peace," as it ought to be ; he is anxious 
 lest something may break out between 
 us and Spain ; and he suggests that pos- 
 sibly, " in the cool hours of unimpas- 
 sioned reflection," we may learn the 
 danger of our "alliances," — referring 
 plainly to that original alliance with 
 France which, at a later day, was the 
 occasion of such trouble. Two other 
 warnings occur. One is against Sla- 
 very, which is more noteworthy, be- 
 cause in an earlier memorial he enu- 
 merates among articles of commerce 
 " African slaves carried by a circuitous 
 trade in American shipping to the West 
 India market." f The other warning is 
 thus strongly expressed : — " Every in- 
 habitant of America is, de facto as well 
 as de jure, equal, in his essential, in- 
 separable rights of the individual, to 
 any other individual, and is, in these 
 rights, independent of any power that 
 
 * Pownall, Memorial to the Sovereigns of Amer- 
 ica, pp. 5, 6. 
 
 t Pownall, Memorial to the Sovereigns of Europe, 
 p. 83. 
 
186;.] 
 
 David Hartley. 
 
 •91 
 
 any other can assume over him, over 
 his labor, or his property. This is a 
 principle in act and deed, and not a 
 mere speculative theorem." * 
 
 I close this strange and striking testi- 
 mony, all from one rnan, with his fare- 
 well words to Franklin. As Pownall 
 heard that the great philosopher and 
 negotiator was about to embark for the 
 United States, he wrote to him from 
 Lausanne, tinder date of 2>d July, 
 1785, as follows : — 
 
 " Adieu, my dear friend. You are go- 
 ing to a New World, formed to ex- 
 hibit a scene which the Old World 
 never yet saw. You leave me here in 
 the Old World, which, like myself, be- 
 gins to feel, as Asia hath felt, that it 
 is wearing out apace. We shall never 
 meet again on this earth ; but there is 
 another world where we shall, and 
 where ive shall be understood.^'' 
 
 Clearly Pownall was not understood 
 in his time ; but it is evident that he 
 understood our country as few English- 
 men since have been able to under- 
 stand it. 
 
 David Hartley. — 1775, 1785. 
 
 Another friend of our country in 
 England was David Hartley. He was 
 constant and even pertinacious on our 
 side, although less prophetic than Pow- 
 nall, with whom he co-operated in pur- 
 pose and activity. His father was Hart- 
 ley the metaphysician, and author of 
 the ingenious theory of sensation. The 
 son was born 1729, and died at Bath, 
 1813. During our revolution he sat in 
 Parliament for Kingston - upon - Hull. 
 He was also the British plenipotentiary 
 in negotiating the definitive Treaty of 
 Peace with the United States. He, too, 
 has dropped out of sight. In the bio- 
 graphical dictionaries he has only a few 
 lines. But he deserves a considerable 
 place in the history of our independ- 
 ence. 
 
 John Adams was often austere, and 
 
 * Pownall, Memorial to the Sovereigns of Amer- 
 ica, p. 55. 
 
 sometimes cynical in his judgments. 
 Evidently he did not like Hartley. In 
 one place he speaks of him as " talk- 
 ative and disputatious, and not always 
 intelligible";* then, as "a person of 
 consummate vanity " ; f and then, again, 
 when he was appointed to sign the 
 definitive Treaty, he says, "it would 
 have been more agreeable to have fin- 
 ished with Mr. Oswald " ;% and, in still 
 another place, he records, " Mr. Hart- 
 ley was as copious as usual." § And yet, 
 when writing most elaborately to Count 
 de Vergennes on the prospects of the 
 negotiation with England, he introduces 
 opinions of Hartley at length, saying 
 that he was " more for peace than any 
 man in the kingdom." || Such testi- 
 mony may well outweigh the other ex- 
 pressions, especially as nothing of the 
 kind appears in the correspondence of 
 Franklin, with whom Hartley was much 
 more intimate. 
 
 The Parliamentary History is a suf- 
 ficient monument for Hartley. He was 
 a frequent speaker, and never missed 
 an opportunity of pleading our cause. 
 Although without the immortal elo- 
 quence of Burke, he was always clear 
 and full. Many of his speeches seem 
 to have been written out by himself. 
 He was not a tardy convert. He be- 
 gan as " a new member " by support- 
 ing an amendment favorable to the 
 Colonies, 5th December, 1774. In 
 March, 1775, he brought forward " prop- 
 ositions for conciliation with Ameri- 
 ca," which he sustained in an elaborate 
 speech, where he avowed that the 
 American Question had occupied him 
 already for some time : — 
 
 "Though I have so lately had the 
 honor of a seat in this House, yet I 
 have for many years turned my thoughts 
 and attention to matters of public con- 
 cern and national policy. This ques- 
 tion of America is now of many years' 
 standing." 1[ 
 
 In the course of this speech he thus 
 
 * John Adams, Works, VoL IX. p. 517. 
 
 t Ibid., Vol. III. p. 137. 
 
 X Ibid.. Vol. VIII. p. 54. 
 
 § Ibid., Vol. III. p. 363. 
 
 II Ibid., Vol. VII. p. 226. 
 
 IT ParliaraenUry History, Vol. XVIII. p. 553. 
 
292 
 
 Prophetic Voices about Anterica. 
 
 [September, 
 
 acknowledges the services of New Eng- 
 land at Louisburg : — 
 
 " In that war too, sir, they took 
 Louisburg from the French, single- 
 handed, without any European assist- 
 ance, — as mettled an enterprise as any 
 in our history,— an everlasting memo- 
 rial of the zeal, courage, and persever- 
 ance of the troops of New England. 
 The men themselves dragged the can- 
 non over a morass which had always 
 been thought impassable, where nei- 
 ther horses nor oxen could go, and 
 they carried the shot upon their backs. 
 And what was their reward for this for- 
 ward and spirited enterprise, — for the 
 reduction of this American Dunkirk ? 
 Their reward, sir, you know very well ; 
 it was given up for a barrier to the 
 Dutch." * 
 
 All his various propositions were 
 negatived ; but he was not disheart- 
 ened. On every occasion he spoke, 
 — now on the budget, then on the 
 address, and then on specific proposi- 
 tions. At this time he asserted the 
 power of Parliament over the Colonies, 
 and he proposed on the 2d November, 
 1775, that 3- test of submission by the 
 Colonists should be the recognition of 
 an act of Parliament, " enacting that 
 all the slaves in America should have 
 the trial by jury." f Shortly afterwards 
 on tlie ^tJi December, ^775, he brought 
 forward another set of "propositions 
 for conciliation with America," where, 
 among other things, he embodied tlie 
 test on slavery, which he put forward 
 as a compromise ; and here his language 
 belongs, not only to the history of our 
 Revolution, but to the history of anti- 
 slavery. While declaring that in his 
 opinion Great Britain was " the ag- 
 gressor in everything," he sought to 
 bring the two countries together on a 
 platform of human rights, which he 
 thus explained : — 
 
 " The act to be proposed to America, 
 as an aiispiciotis deginnitig to lay the 
 first stone of tmiversal liberty to man- 
 kind, should be what no American could 
 hesitate an instant to comply with, 
 
 * Parliairentary History, Vol. XVIII. p. 556. 
 t Ibid., p. 846. 
 
 namely, that every slave in North 
 America should be entitled to his trial 
 by jury in all criminal cases. America 
 cannot refuse to accept and enroll such 
 an act as this, and thereby to re-estab- 
 lish peace and harmony with the parent 
 state. Let us all bs re-united in tJiis, 
 as a foundation to extirpate slavery 
 from the face of the earth. Let those 
 who seek justice and liberty for the77i- 
 selves give that justice and liberty to 
 their fellow-creatures. With respect 
 to putting a final period to slavery 
 in North America, it should seem 
 best that, when this country had led 
 the way by the act for jury, each 
 Colony, knowing their own peculiar 
 circumstances, should undertake the 
 work in the most practicable way, 
 and that they should endeavor to es- 
 tablish seme system by which slavery 
 should be in a certain term of years 
 abolished. Let the only contention 
 henceforward between Great Britain 
 and America be, which shall exceed the 
 other in zeal for establishing the funda- 
 mental rights of liberty for all 7nan- 
 kind.'''' * 
 
 The motion was rejected ; but 
 among the twenty-three in its favor 
 were Fox and Burke. During this 
 same month the unwearied defender 
 of our country came forward again, 
 declaring that he could not be "an 
 adviser or a well-wisher to any of the 
 vindictive operations against America, 
 because the cause is unjust ; but at the 
 same time he must be equally earnest 
 to secure British interests from de- 
 struction," and he thus prophesies : — 
 
 " The fate of America is cast. You 
 may bruise its heel ; but you cannot 
 crush its head. It will revive again. 
 The 71CW world is before them. Liberty 
 is theirs. They have possession of a 
 free government, their birthright and 
 inheritance, derived to them from their 
 parent state, which the hand of violence 
 cannot wrest from them. If you will 
 cast them off, my last wish is to them. 
 May they go and prosper ! " 
 
 Again, on the loth May, 1776, he 
 vindicated anew his original proposi- 
 
 * Parliamentary History, Vol. XVIII. p. 1050. 
 
1867.] 
 
 David Hartley. 
 
 29- 
 
 tion, and here again he testifies for 
 peace and against slavery. 
 
 "For the sake of peace, therefore, 
 I did propose a test of compromise 
 by an act of acceptance, on the part of 
 the Colonists, of an act of Parliament 
 which should lay the foundation for 
 the extirpation of the horrid custom of 
 slavery in the New World. My motion 
 was simply an act of compromise and 
 reconciliation ; and, as far as it was 
 a legislative act, it was still to have 
 been applied in correcting the laws of 
 slavery in America, which I considered 
 as repugnant to the laws of the real.n 
 of England and to the fundamentals l.I 
 our constitution. Such a compromise 
 would at the same time have saved the 
 national honor." * 
 
 All gratitude to the hero who at this 
 early day vowed himself to the abo- 
 lition of slavery. Hartley is among 
 the first of abolitionists, with hardly a 
 predecessor except Granville Sharp, 
 and in Parliament absolutely the first. 
 Clarkson was at this time fifteen years 
 old, Wilberforce sixteen. It was only 
 in 1787 that Clarkson obtained the 
 prize for the best Latin essay on the 
 question, " Is it right to make men 
 slaves against their will?" It was 
 not until 1791 that Wilberforce moved 
 for leave to bring in a bill for the abo- 
 lition of the slave-trade. Surely it is a 
 great honor for one man, that he should 
 have come forward in Parliament as an 
 avowed abolitionist, while he was at 
 the same time a vindicator of our inde- 
 pendence. 
 
 Again, on the 15th May, 1777, Hart- 
 ley pleaded for us, saying : — 
 
 "At sea, which has hitherto been 
 our prerogative element, they rise 
 against us at a stupendous rate ; and 
 if we cannot return to our old mutual 
 hospitalities towards each other, a very 
 few years will show us a most formida- 
 ble hostile marine, ready to join hands 
 
 with any of our enemies I will 
 
 venture to prophesy thet the principles 
 of a federal alliance are the only terms 
 of peace that ever will and that ever 
 
 » Parliamentary History, Vol. XVIII. p. 1356. 
 
 ought to obtain between the two coun- 
 tries." * 
 
 On the 15th June, immediately after- 
 wards, the Parliamentary History re- 
 ports briefly : — 
 
 " Mr. Hartley went upon the cruel- 
 ties of slavery, and urged the Board of 
 Trade to take some means of mitigat- 
 ing it. He produced a pair of hand- 
 cuffs, which he said was a manufacture 
 they were now going to establish."! 
 
 Thus again the abolitionist reap- 
 ^peared in the vindicator of our inde- 
 pendence. On the 22d June, 1779, he 
 brought forward another formal motion 
 " for reconciliation with America," and, 
 in the course of a well-considered 
 speech, denounced the ministers for 
 " headstrong and inflexible obstinacy 
 in prosecuting a cruel and destructive 
 American war." t On the 3d Decem- 
 ber, 1779, in what is called " a very 
 long speech," he returned to his theme, 
 inveighing against ministers for " the 
 favorite, though wild. Quixotic, and im- 
 practicable measure of coercing Amer- 
 ica." § These are only instances. 
 
 During this time he had maintained 
 a correspondence with Franklin, which 
 appears in the " Diplomatic Correspond- 
 ence of the Revolution," and all of 
 which attests his desire for peace. In 
 1778 he came to Paris on a confidential 
 errand, especially to confer with Frank- 
 Hn. It was on this occasion that John 
 Adams met him and judged him se- 
 verely. In 1783 he was appointed a 
 commissioner to sign the definitiv^e 
 Treaty of Peace. 
 
 These things belong to histor3\ 
 Though perhaps not generally known, 
 they are accessible. I have presented 
 them partly for their intrinsic value 
 and their prophetic character, and 
 partly as an introduction to an un- 
 published letter from Hartley which I 
 received some time ago from an Eng- 
 lish friend who has since been called 
 away from important labors. The 
 letter concerns emigration to our coun- 
 
 * Parliamentary History, Vol. XIX. pp. 259, 260. 
 t Ibid., p. 315. 
 X Ibid., p. 904. 
 § Ibid., p. 1 190. 
 
294 
 
 Prophetic Voices about America. 
 
 [September, 
 
 try and the payment of the national 
 debt. 
 
 The following indorsement will ex- 
 plain its character : — 
 
 " Note. This is a copy of the ma- 
 terial portion of a long letter from D. 
 Hartley, the British Commissioner in 
 Paris, to Lord Sydenham, January, 
 1785. The original was sold by C. 
 Robinson, of 21 Bond Street, London, 
 on the 6th April, 1859, at a sale of Hart- 
 ley's MSS. and papers chiefly relating 
 to the United States of America. !• 
 was Hartley's copy, in his own hand. 
 
 " The lot was No. 82 in the sale cata- 
 logue. It was bought by J. R. Smith, 
 the London bookseller, for ^2 6s. od. 
 
 " I had a copy made before the sale. 
 " Joseph Parkes. 
 
 "London, i8 July, '59." 
 
 The letter is as follows : — 
 
 " My Lord,— In your Lordship's last 
 letter to me, just before my leaving 
 Paris, you are pleased to say that any 
 information which I might have been 
 able to collect of a nature to promote 
 the mutual and reciprocal interests of 
 Great Britain and the United States of 
 America would be extremely accept- 
 able to his Majesty's government. 
 .... Annexed to this letter I have 
 the honor of transmitting to your 
 Lordship some papers and documents 
 which I have received from the Ameri- 
 can Ministers. One of them (No. 5) 
 is a Map of the Continent of North 
 America, in which the land ceded to 
 them by the late treaty of peace is divid- 
 ed, by parallels of latitude and longi- 
 tude, into fourteen new States. The 
 whole project, in its full extent, would 
 take many years in its execution, and 
 therefore it must be far beyond the 
 present race of men to say, ' This 
 shall be so.' Nevertheless, those who 
 have the first care of this New World 
 will probably give it such directions and 
 inherent infiuences as may gnide and 
 control its course and revohitions for 
 ages to come. But these plans, being 
 beyond the reach of man to predes- 
 tinate, are likewise beyond the reach 
 of comment or speculation to say what 
 
 may or may not be possible, or to pre- 
 dict what events may hereafter be pro- 
 duced by time, climates, soils, adjoining 
 nations, or by the unwieldy magnitude 
 of empire, and the future population of 
 millions superadded to millions. The 
 sources of the Mississippi may be un- 
 known. The lines of longitude and 
 latitude may be extended into unex- 
 plored regions, and the plan of this 
 new creation may be sketched out by 
 a presumptuous compass, if all its in- 
 termediate uses and functions were to 
 be suspended until the final and precise 
 accomplishment, without failure or de- 
 viation, of this unbounded plan. But 
 this is not the case ; the immediate 
 objects in view are limited and precise ; 
 they are of prudent thought, and within 
 the scope of human power to measure 
 out and to execute. The principle in- 
 deed is indefinite, and will be left to the 
 test of future ages to determine its 
 duration or extent. I take the liberty 
 to suggest thus much, lest we should 
 be led away to suppose that the coun- 
 cils which have produced these plans 
 have had no wiser or more sedate views 
 than merely the amusement of draw- 
 ing meridians of ambition and high 
 thoughts. There appear to me to be 
 two solid and rational objects in view : 
 the first is, by the sale of lands nearly 
 contiguous to the present States (re- 
 ceiving Congress paper in payment ac- 
 cording to its scale of depreciation) to 
 extinguish the prese?tt national debt, 
 which I understand might be dis- 
 charged for about twelve millions ster- 
 ling. 
 
 " If your Lordship will cast your eye 
 upon the map to the south and east of 
 the Ohio and the Mississippi, you will 
 see many millions of acres, which, val- 
 ued at a single dollar per acre, would 
 discharge many millions sterling. The 
 whole space within the boundaries 
 lately conceded to the United States, 
 together with the unoccupied lands 
 eastward of the great rivers, may 
 perhaps contain near half a million 
 of square miles (in acres, perhaps three 
 hundred millions, more or less). A 
 sixth part of this, the nearest parts 
 
My.] 
 
 David Hartley. 
 
 295 
 
 being likewise the most valuable, would 
 discharge the whole of their national 
 debt. It is a new proposition to be 
 offered to the numerous common rank 
 of mankind in all the countries of the 
 world, to say that there are in America 
 fertile soils and temperate climates in 
 which an acre of land may be pur- 
 chased for a trifling consideration, 
 which may be possessed in freedom, 
 together with all the natural and civil 
 rights of mankind. The Congress have 
 already proclaimed this, and that no 
 other qualification or name is necessary 
 but to become settlers, without distinc- 
 tion of countries or persons. The 
 European peasant, who toils for his 
 scanty sustenance in penury, wretch- 
 edness, and servitude, will eagerly fly to 
 this asylum for free and industrious la- 
 bor. The tide of immigration may set 
 strongly outward from Scotland, Ire- 
 land, and Canada to this new land of 
 promise. A very great proportion of 
 men in all the countries of the world 
 are without property, and generally are 
 subject to governments of which they 
 have no participation, and over whom 
 they have no control. The Congress 
 have now opened to all the world a sale 
 of landed settlements where the liberty 
 and property of each individual is to be 
 consigned to his own custody and de- 
 fence. The first settlers, as the seed- 
 lings of a new State, will be under a 
 temporary government of their own 
 choice, provided it be similar to some 
 one of the present American govern- 
 ments. But as soon as their numbers 
 shall amount to twenty thousand, their 
 temporary government is to cease, and 
 they are to establish a permanent gov- 
 ernment for themselves, and when- 
 ever such new State shall have of free 
 inhabitants as many as shall be in any 
 one the least numerous of the original 
 States. These are such propositions 
 of free establishments as have never 
 yet been offered to mankind, and can- 
 not fail of producing great effects in the 
 future progress of things. The Con- 
 gress have arranged their offers in the 
 most inviting and artful terms, and 
 lest individual peasants and laborers 
 
 should not have the means of removing 
 themselves, they throw out inducements 
 to moneyed adventurers to purchase 
 and to undertake the settlement by 
 commission and agency, without per- 
 sonal residence, by stipulating that the 
 lands of proprietors being absentees 
 shall not be higher taxed than the 
 lands of residents. This will quicken 
 the sale of lands, which is their object. 
 For the explanation of these points, I beg 
 leave to refer your Lordship to the doc- 
 wments annexed, Nos. 5 and 6, namely, 
 the Map and Resolutions of Congress, 
 dated April, 1784. There is another 
 circumstance would confirm that it is 
 the intention of Congress to invite 
 moneyed adventurers to make pur- 
 chases and settlements, which is the 
 precise and mathematical mode of di- 
 viding and marking out for sale the 
 lands in each new proposed State. 
 These new States are to be divided 
 by parallel lines running north and 
 south, and by other parallels running 
 east and west. They are to be divided 
 into hundreds often geographical miles 
 square, and then again into lots of one 
 square mile. The divisions are laid 
 out as regularly as the squares upon 
 a chessboard, and all to be formed into 
 a Charter of Compact. 
 
 "They may be purchased by pur- 
 chasers at any distance, and the titles 
 may be verified by registers of such 
 or such numbers, north or south, east 
 or west ; all this is explained by the 
 document annexed. No. 7, viz. The 
 Ordinance for asceriaming the mode 
 of locating and disposing of lands in 
 the Western Territory. This is their 
 plan and means for paying off their na- 
 tional debt, and they seem very intent 
 upon doing it. I should observe that 
 their debt consists of two parts, namely, 
 domestic and foreign. The sale of lands 
 is to be appropriated to the former. 
 
 "The domestic debt may perhaps be 
 nine or ten millions, and the foreign 
 debt two or three. For payment of 
 the foreign debt it is proposed to lay 
 a tax of five per cent upon all imports 
 until discharged, which, I am informed, 
 has already been agreed to by most 
 
PropJietic Voices about Ameiica: 
 
 [September, 
 
 of the States, and probably will soon 
 be confirmed by the rest. Upon the 
 whole, it appears that this plan is as 
 prudently conceived and as judiciously 
 arranged, as to the end proposed, as 
 any experienced cabinet of European 
 ministers could have devised or planned 
 any similar project. The second point 
 which appears to me to be deserving 
 of attention, respecting the immense 
 cession of territory to the United States 
 at the late peace, is a point luJiich will 
 perhaps in a few years become an un^ 
 paralleled phenomenon in the political 
 ■world. As soon as the national debt 
 of the United States shall be discharged 
 by the sale of one portion of those 
 lands, we shall then see the Confed- 
 erate Republic in a new character, as 
 a proprietor of lands, either for sale 
 or to let upon rents, while other na- 
 tions may be struggling under debts too 
 enormous to be discharged either by 
 economy or taxation, and while they 
 may be laboring to raise ordinary and 
 necessary supplies by burdensome im- 
 positions upon their own persons and 
 properties. Here will be a nation pos- 
 sessed of a new and unheard of financial 
 organ of stupendous magnitude, and in 
 process of time of unmeasured value, 
 thrown into their lap as a fortuitous 
 superflitity, and almost withojct being 
 sought for.' 
 
 " When such an organ of revenue 
 begins to arise into jDroduce and ex- 
 ertion, what public uses it may be ap- 
 plicable to, or to what abuses and 
 perversions it might be rendered sub- 
 servient, is far beyond the reach of 
 probable discussion now. Such discus- 
 sions would only be visionary specu- 
 lations. However, thus far it is obvious 
 and highly deserving of our attention, 
 that it cannot fail becoming to the 
 American States a most important in- 
 strument of national power, the pro- 
 gress and operation of which must 
 hereafter be a most interesting object 
 of attentiojt to the British Atnerican 
 dominions which are in close vicinity 
 to the territories of the United States, 
 and I should hope that these considera- 
 tions would lead us, inas?/tuch as we 
 
 value those parts of our dominions, 
 to encourage conciliatory and amicable 
 correspondence between them and their 
 neigJibors. 
 
 " I have thus, my Lord, endeavored to 
 comply with your Lordship's commands 
 to the best of my power, in stating such 
 information to his Majesty's govern- 
 ment as I have been enabled to collect 
 of such nature as may tend to the 
 mutual and reciprocal interest of Great 
 Britain and the United States of Amer- 
 ica. I do not recollect at present any- 
 thing further to trouble your Lordship 
 with. If any of the foregoing points 
 should require any further elucidation, 
 I shall always be ready to obey your 
 Lordship's summons, or to give in any 
 other way the best explanations in my 
 power." 
 
 Count d'Aranda. — 1783. 
 
 The Count d'Aranda was one of the 
 first of Spanish statesmen and diplo- 
 matists, and one of the richest sub- 
 jects of Spain in his day ; born at Sara- 
 gossa, 171 8, and died 1799. He, too, 
 is one of our prophets. Originally a 
 soldier, he became ambassador, gover- 
 nor of a province, and prime minister. 
 In the latter post he displayed charac- 
 ter as well as ability, and was the ben- 
 efactor of his country. He drove the 
 Jesuits from Spain and dared to op- 
 pose the Inquisition. He was a phi- 
 losopher, and, like Pope Benedict XIV., 
 corresponded with Voltaire. Such a 
 liberal spirit was out of place in Spain. 
 Compelled to resign in 1773, he found 
 a retreat at Paris as ambassador, where 
 he came into communication with 
 Franklin, Adams, and Jay, and finally 
 signed the Treaty of Paris, by which 
 Spain acknowledged our independence. 
 Sliortly afterwards he returned to Spain 
 and took the place of Florida Blanca as 
 prime minister. 
 
 Franklin, on meeting him, records, 
 in his letter to the secret committee of 
 Congress, that he seemed "well dis- 
 posed to us." * Shortly afterwards he 
 
 * Franklin, Works, Vol. VIII. p. 194. 
 
1867.] 
 
 Count d'Aranda. 
 
 297 
 
 had another interview with him, which 
 he thus chronicles in his journal : — 
 
 "■^Saturday, June zgth [1782]. — We 
 went together to the Spanish Ambassa- 
 dor's, who received us with great civili- 
 ty and politeness. He spoke with Mr. 
 Jay on the subject of the treaty they 
 
 were to make together On our 
 
 going out, he took pains himself to 
 open the folding-doors for us, which is 
 a high compliment here, and told us he 
 would return our visit {rendre son de- 
 voir)^ and then fix a day with us for 
 dining with him." * 
 
 Adams, in his journal, describes a 
 Sunday dinner at his house, then a 
 "new building in the finest situation 
 of Paris," f being a part of the incom- 
 parable palace, with its columnar front, 
 which is still admired as it looks on the 
 Place de la Concorde. Jay also de- 
 scribes a dinner with the Count, who 
 was " living in great splendor, with an 
 assortment of wines the finest in Eu- 
 rope," and was " the ablest Spaniard he 
 had ever known " ; showing by his con- 
 versation " that his court is in earnest," 
 and appearing "frank and candid, as 
 well as sagacious." J These hospi- 
 talities have a peculiar interest, when 
 it is known, as it now is, that Count 
 d'Aranda regarded the acknowledgment 
 of our independence with "grief and 
 dread." But these sentiments were dis- 
 guised from our ministers. 
 
 After signing the Treaty of Paris, by 
 which Spain acknowledged our inde- 
 pendence, D'Aranda addressed a me- 
 moir secretly to King Charles III., in 
 which his opinions on this event are set 
 forth. This prophetic document slum- 
 bered for a long time in the confiden- 
 tial archives of the Spanish crown. 
 Coxe, in his " Memoirs of the House 
 of Bourbon in Spain," which are found- 
 ed on a rare collection of original docu- 
 ments, makes no allusion to it. The 
 memoir appears for the first time in a 
 volume published at Paris in 1837, and 
 entitled Gojivernement de Charles III., 
 
 * Franklin, Works, Vol. IX. p. 350. 
 t John Adams, Works, Vol. III. p. 379. 
 t Jay, Life of John Jay, Vol. I. p. 140; Vol. II. 
 p. lOI. 
 
 Roi dEspagne, ou Instntclion reservee 
 a la Junte dJEiatpar ce Monarque. Pub- 
 liee par D. Andre Muriel. The editor 
 had already translated into French the 
 Memoirs of Coxe, and was probably 
 led by this labor to make the supple- 
 mentary collection. An abstract of the 
 memoir of D'Aranda appears in one of 
 the historical dissertations of the Mex- 
 ican authority, Alaman, who said of it 
 that it has "a just celebrity, because 
 results have made it pass for a proph- 
 ecy."* I translate it now from the 
 . P'rench of Muriel. 
 
 '■'■Memoir commnnicated secretly to the 
 King by his Excellency the Count 
 dAranda, on the Independc^nce of 
 the English Colotties, after having 
 signed the Treaty of Paris of 1783. 
 " The independence of the English 
 colonies has been acknowledged. This 
 is for me an occasion of grief and dread. 
 France has few possessions in Ameri- 
 ica ; but she should have considered 
 that Spain, her intimate ally, has many, 
 and that she is left to-day exposed to 
 terrible shocks. From the beginning, 
 France has acted contrary to her true 
 interests in encouraging and seconding 
 this independence ; I have so declared 
 often to the ministers of this nation. 
 What could happen better for France 
 than to see the English and the colo- 
 nists destroy each other in a party war- 
 fare which could only augment her 
 power and favor her interests ? The 
 antipathy which reigns between France 
 and England blinded the French Cabi- 
 net ; it forgot that its interest consist- 
 ed in remaining a tranquil spectator 
 of this conflict ; and, once launched 
 in the arena, it dragged us unhappily, 
 and by virtue of the family compact, 
 into a war entirely contrary to our 
 proper interest. 
 
 " I will not stop here to examine the 
 opinions of some statesmen, our own 
 countrymen as well as foreigners, which 
 I share, on the diffictdty of preservi/ig 
 our power in America. Never have so 
 extensive possessions .^ placed at a great 
 
 * Alaman, Disertaciones sobre la Historia de la, 
 Refublica Megicana, Tomo III. pp. 351, 352. 
 
Prophetic Voices about America. 
 
 [September, 
 
 distance from the metropolis, been long 
 preserved. To this cause, applicable 
 to all colonies, must be added others 
 peculiar to the Spanish possessions ; 
 namely, the difficulty of succoring them 
 in case of need ; the vexations to which 
 the unhappy inhabitants have been ex- 
 posed from some of the governors ; the 
 distance of the supreme authority to 
 which they must have recourse for the 
 redress of grievances, which causes 
 years to pass before justice is done to 
 their complaints ; the vengeance of the 
 local authorities to which they con- 
 tinue exposed while waiting ; the diffi- 
 culty of knowing the truth at so great 
 a distance ; finally, the means which the 
 viceroys and governors, from being 
 Spaniards, cannot fail to have for ob- 
 taining favorable judgments in Spain ; 
 all these diiTerent circumstances will 
 render the inhabitants of America dis- 
 contented, and make them attempt ef- 
 forts to obtain independence as soon 
 as they shall have a propitious occa- 
 sion. 
 
 " Without entering into any of these 
 considerations, I shall confine myself 
 now to that which occupies us from the 
 dread of seeing ourselves exposed to 
 dangers from the new power which we 
 have just recognized in a country where 
 there is no other in condition to arrest 
 its progress. This Federal Republic is 
 born a pygmy, so to speak. It required 
 the support and the forces of two pow- 
 ers as great as Spain and France in 
 order to attain independence. A day 
 will come wiien it will be a giant, even 
 a colossus formidable in these conniries. 
 It will then forget the benefits which it 
 has received from the two powers, and 
 will dream of nothing but to organize 
 itself. Liberty of conscience, the facility 
 for establishing a new population on 
 immense lands, as well as the advan- 
 tages of tlie new government, will draw 
 thither agricnlturists and artisans front 
 all the nations ; for men always run 
 after fortune. A nd in a few years we 
 shall see with true grief the tyran7iical 
 existence of this same colossus of which 
 I speak. 
 
 " The first movement of this power, 
 
 when it has arrived at its aggrandize- 
 ment, will be to obtain possession of 
 the Floridas, in order to dominate the 
 Gulf of Mexico. After having ren- 
 dered commerce with New Spain diffi- 
 cult for us, it will aspire to the con- 
 quest of this vast empire, which it will 
 not be possible for us to defend against 
 a formidable power established on the 
 same continent, and in its neighbor- 
 hood. These fears are well founded, 
 Sire ; they will be changed into reality 
 in a few years, if, indeed, there are not 
 other disorders in our Americas still 
 more fatal. This observation is justi- 
 fied by what has happened in all ages, 
 and with all nations which have begun 
 to rise. Man is the same everywhere ; 
 the difference of climate does not 
 change the nature of our sentiments ; 
 he who finds the opportunity of acquir- 
 ing power and of aggrandizing himself, 
 profits by it always. How then can 
 we expect the Americans to respect 
 the kingdom of New Spain, when they 
 shall have the facility of possessing 
 themselves of this rich and beautiful 
 country ? A wise policy counsels us 
 to take precautions against evils which 
 may happen. This thought has occu- 
 pied my whole mind, since, as Minister 
 Plenipotentiary of your Majesty, and 
 conformably to your royal will and in- 
 structions, I signed the Peace of Paris. 
 I have considered this important affair 
 with all the attention of which I am 
 capable, and after much reflection drawn 
 from the knowledge, military as well as 
 political, which I have been able to ac- 
 quire in my long career, I think that, 
 in order to escape the great losses with 
 which we are threatened, there remains 
 nothing but the means which I am 
 about to have the honor of exhibiting 
 to your Majesty. 
 
 " Your Majesty must relieve yourself 
 of all your possessions on the continent 
 of the two Americas, preserving only 
 the islands of Cuba and Porto Rico in 
 the northern part, and some other con- 
 venient one in the southern part, to 
 serve as a seaport or trading-place for 
 Spanish commerce. 
 
 " In order to accomplish this great 
 
186;.] 
 
 Burns. 
 
 299 
 
 thought in a manner becoming to 
 Spain, three infantas must be placed in 
 America, — one as king of Mexico, an- 
 other as king of Peru, and the third as 
 king of the Terra Firma. Your Ma- 
 jesty will take the title of Emperor." 
 
 I have sometimes heard this remark- 
 able memoir called apocryphal, but 
 without reason, except because its fore- 
 sight is so remarkable. The Mexican 
 historian Alaman treats it as genuine, 
 and, after praising it, informs us that the 
 proposition of Count d'Aranda to the 
 king was not taken into consideration, 
 which, according to him, was "disas- 
 trous to all, and especially to the peo- 
 ple of America, who in this way would 
 have obtained independence without 
 struggle or anarchy." * Meanwhile all 
 the American possessions of the Span- 
 ish crown, except Cuba and Porto 
 Rico, have become independent, as 
 predicted, and the new power, known 
 as the United States, which at that 
 time was a " pygmy," has become a 
 " colossus." 
 
 D'Aranda was not alone in surprise 
 at the course of Spain. The English 
 traveller Burnaby, in his edition of 
 1796, mentions this as one of the rea- 
 sons for the success of the colonists, 
 and declares that he had not supposed, 
 originally, " that Spain would join in a 
 plan inevitably leading by slow and 
 imperceptible steps to the final loss of 
 all her rich possessions in America."! 
 This was not an uncommon idea. One 
 of John Adams's Dutch correspondents, 
 under date of 14th September, 1780, 
 writes he has heard it said twenty times, 
 that, " if America becomes free, it will 
 some day give the law to Europe ; it 
 will seize our islands and our colonies 
 of Guiana ; it will seize all the West 
 Indies ; it will swallow Mexico, even 
 Peru, Chili, and Brazil ; it will take from 
 us our freighting commerce ; it will pay 
 its benefactors with ingratitude." $ Mr. 
 Adams also records in his diary, un- 
 
 * Alaman, Disertaciones, Tomo III. p. 333. 
 t Burnaby, Travels in North America, Preface, 
 p. 10. 
 
 \ John Adams, Works, Vol. VII. p. 254. 
 
 der date of 14th December, 1779, on 
 his landing at Ferrol in Spain, that, ac- 
 cording to the report of various per- 
 sons, "the Spanish nation in general 
 have been of opinion that the Revolu- 
 tion in America was of bad example to 
 the Spanish colonies, and dangerous to 
 the interests of Spain, as the United 
 States, should they become ambitious, 
 and be seized with the spirit of con- 
 quest, might aim at Mexico and Peru."* 
 All this is entirely in harmony with the 
 memoir of the Count d'Aranda. 
 
 Burns. — 1788. 
 
 From Count d'Aranda to Robert 
 Burns, — from the rich and titled min- 
 ister, faring sumptuously in the best 
 house of Paris, to the poor ploughboy 
 poet, strugghng in a cottage, — what a 
 contrast ! Of the poet I shall say noth- 
 ing, except that he was born 25th Janu- 
 ary, 1759, and died 21st July, 1796, in 
 the thirty-seventh year of his age. 
 
 There is only a slender thread of 
 Burns to be woven into this web, and 
 yet, coming from him, it must not be 
 neglected. In a letter dated Wi No- 
 vember, 1788, after saying a friendly 
 word for the unfortunate house of 
 Stuart, he thus prophetically alludes 
 to our independence : — 
 
 " I will not, I cannot, enter into the 
 merits of the cause, but I dare say the 
 American Congress, in 1776, will be 
 allowed to be as able and as enlight- 
 ened as the English Convention was 
 in 1688 ; ajid that their posterity will 
 celebrate the centenary of their deliver- 
 ance from us, as duly and sincerely as 
 we do ours from the oppressive meas- 
 ures of the house of Stuart. '''' f 
 
 The year 1788, when these words 
 were written, was a year of commemora- 
 tion, being the hundredth from the fa- 
 mous revolution by which the Stuarts 
 were excluded from the throne of Eng- 
 land. The " centenary " of our inde- 
 pendence is not yet completed ; but 
 long ago the commemoration began. 
 
 ♦John Adams, Works, Vol. III. p. 234. 
 t Currie, Life and Works of Burns, p. 266; Gra- 
 ham*, History of United States, Vol. IV. p. 462. 
 
300 
 
 PropJietic Voices about At 
 
 [September 
 
 On the coming of that hundredth anni- 
 versary, the prophecy of Burns will be 
 more than fulfilled. 
 
 Fox. — 1794. "^ 
 
 In quoting from Charles James Fox. 
 the statesman, minister, and orator, I 
 need add nothing, except that he was 
 born 24th January, 1749, and died 13th 
 September, 1806, and that he was an 
 early friend of our country. 
 
 Many words of his, especially during 
 our Revolution, might be introduced 
 here ; but I content myself with a sin- 
 gle passage of a later date, which, 
 besides its expression of good-will, is a 
 prophecy of our power. It will be found 
 in a speech on his motion for put- 
 ting an end to war with France in the 
 House of Commons, 30M May, 1794. 
 
 " It was impossible to dissemble that 
 we had a serious dispute with America, 
 and although we might be confident 
 that the wisest and best man of his 
 age, who presided in the government 
 of that country, would do everything 
 that became him to avert a war, it 
 was impossible to foresee the issue. 
 America had no fleet, no army ; but in 
 case of war she would find various 
 means to harass and annoy us. Against 
 her we could not strike a blow that 
 would not be as severely felt in Lon- 
 don as in America, so identified were 
 the two countries by commercial inter- 
 course. To a contest with such an 
 adversary he looked as the greatest pos- 
 sible misfortune. If we commenced 
 another crusade against her, we might 
 destroy her trade, and check the pro- 
 gress of her agriculture, but we must 
 also equally injure ourselves. Des- 
 perate, therefore, indeed, must be that 
 war in which each wound inflicted on 
 our enemy would at the same time 
 inflict one upon ourselves. He hoped 
 to God that such an event as a war 
 with America would not happen." * 
 
 All good men on both sides of the 
 ocean must join with Fox, who thus 
 early deprecated a war between the 
 United States and England, and por- 
 
 * Parliamentary History, Vol. XXXI. p. 627. 
 
 trayedthe consequences. Time, which 
 has enlarged and multiplied the rela- 
 tions between the two countries, makes 
 his words more applicable now than 
 when he first uttered them. 
 
 George Canning. — 1826. 
 
 George Canning was a successor 
 of Fox, in the House of Commons, as 
 statesman, minister, and orator ; he 
 was born nth April, 1770, and died 
 8th August, 1827, in the beautiful villa 
 of the Duke of Devonshire, at Chis- 
 wick, where Fox had died before. Un- 
 like Fox in sentiment for our country, 
 he is nevertheless associated with a 
 leading event of our history, and is the 
 author of prophetic words. 
 
 The Monroe Doctrine, as it is now 
 familiarly called, proceeded from Can- 
 ning. He was its inventor, promoter, 
 and champion, at least so far as it 
 bears against European intervention in 
 American aflfairs. Earnestly engaged 
 in counteracting the designs of the 
 Holy Alliance for the restoration of 
 the Spanish colonies to Spain, he 
 sought to enlist the United States in 
 the same policy, and when Mr. Rush, 
 who was at the time our Minister at 
 London, replied that any interference 
 with European politics was contrary to 
 the traditions of our government, he 
 argued that, however just such a policy 
 might have been formerly, it was no 
 longer applicable, — that the question 
 was new and complicated, — that it was 
 " full as much American as European, to 
 say no more," — that it concerned the 
 United States under aspects and inter- 
 ests as immediate and commanding as 
 those of any of the states of Europe, — 
 that "they were the first power on that 
 continent, and confessedly the leading 
 power"; and he then asked, "Was it 
 possible that they could see with in- 
 difference their fate decided upon by 
 Europe ? Had not a new epoch ar- 
 rived in the relative position of the 
 United States toward Europe, which 
 Europe must acknowledge ? Were the 
 great political atid commercial interests 
 which hung upon the destinies of the 
 
[86;.] 
 
 George Canning. — Richard Cobden. 
 
 301 
 
 new continent to be canvassed and 
 adjusted in this hemisphere, without 
 the co-operation, or even the knowl- 
 edge, of the United States ? " With 
 mingled ardor and importunity the 
 British Minister pressed his case. At 
 last, after much discussion in the Cabi- 
 net at Washington, President Monroe, 
 accepting the lead of Mr. Canning, put 
 forth his famous declaration, where, 
 after referring to the radical difference 
 between the political systems of Europe 
 and America, he says, that " we should 
 consider any attempt on their part to 
 extend their systems to any portion of 
 this hemisphere as dangerous to our 
 peace and safety" and that, where gov- 
 ernments have been recognized by us 
 as independent, " we could not view 
 any interposition for the purpose of 
 oppressing them, or controlling in any 
 other manner their destiny, by any 
 European power, in any other light 
 than as a manifestation of an 7in- 
 friendly disposition toward the United 
 States y * 
 
 The message of President Monroe 
 was received in England with enthusi- 
 astic congratulations. It was upon all 
 f tongues ; the press was full of it ; the 
 ' securities of Spanish America rose in 
 the market ; the agents of Spanish 
 .^America were happy.f Brougham ex- 
 claimed, in Parliament, that " no event 
 had ever dispersed greater joy, exulta- 
 tion, and gratitude over all the freemen 
 of Europe." Mackintosh rejoiced in 
 the coincidence of England and the 
 United States, "the two great com- 
 monwealths, for so he delighted to call 
 them ; and he heartily prayed that they 
 may be forever united in the cause of 
 justice and liberty." J The Holy Alli- 
 ance abandoned their purposes on this 
 continent, and the independence of the 
 Spanish colonies in America was estab- 
 lished. Some time afterwards, on the 
 occasion of assistance to Portugal, when 
 Mr. Canning felt called to review and 
 
 \J* Annual Message to Congress of 2d December, 
 
 jj: Rush, Memoranda of Residence at London, 
 "Vol. II. p. 458 ; Wheaton, Elements of International 
 Law, pp. 97- 112, Dana's note. 
 X Stapleton, Life of Canning, Vol. II. pp. 46, 47. 
 
 vindicate his foreign policy, he assumed 
 the following lofty strain. This was in 
 the House of Commons, \zth December, 
 1826: — 
 
 " It would be disingenuous not to ad- 
 mit that the entry of the French army 
 into Spain was, in a certain sense, a dis- 
 paragement, — an affront to our pride, 
 — a blow to the feelings of England. 
 But I deny that, questionable or cen- 
 surable as the act may be, it was one 
 that necessarily called for our direct 
 and hostile opposition. Was nothing 
 then to be done 1 If France occupied 
 Spain, was it necessary, in order to 
 avoid the consequences of that occupa- 
 tion, that we should blockade Cadiz ? 
 No. I looked another way. I sought 
 materials for compensation in another 
 hemisphere. Contemplating Spain, such 
 as our ancestors had known her, I re- 
 solved that, if France had Spain, it 
 should not be Spain 'with the Indies.' 
 / called the New World into existence 
 to resist the balance of the Old.'''' * 
 
 The republics of Spanish America, 
 thus called into independent existence, 
 were to redress the balance of the Old 
 World. If they have not contributed 
 the weight thus vaunted, the growing 
 power of the United States is ample to 
 compensate any deficiencies on this 
 continent. There is no balance of 
 power which it cannot redress, if occa- 
 sion requires. 
 
 Richard Cobden. — 1849. 
 
 Coming to our own day, we meet 
 a familiar name, now consecrated by 
 death, — Richard Cobden ; born 3d 
 June, 1804, and died 2d April, 1865. In 
 proportion as truth prevails among men, 
 his character will shine with increas- 
 ing glory until he is recognized as the 
 first Englishman of his time. Though 
 thoroughly English, he was not insu- 
 lar, and he served mankind as well as 
 England. 
 
 His masterly faculties and his real 
 goodness made him a prophet always. 
 He saw the future, and strove to hasten 
 
 r* Canning, Speeches, Vol. VI. pp. io8, log. 
 
302 
 
 Prophetic Voices about America. 
 
 [September, 
 
 its promises. The elevation and happi- 
 ness of the human family were his daily 
 thought. He knew how to build as 
 well as to destroy. Througl^ him dis- 
 abilities upon trade and oppressive 
 taxes were overturned ; also a new 
 treaty was negotiated with France, 
 quickening commerce and intercourse. 
 He was never so truly eminent as 
 when bringing his practical sense and 
 enlarged experience to commend the 
 cause of Permanent Peace in the world 
 by the establishment of a refined sys- 
 tem of International Justice, and the 
 disarming of the nations. To this 
 great consummation all his later labors 
 tended. I have before me a long letter, 
 dated at London, jth November, 1849, 
 where he says much on this absorbing 
 question, from which, by an easy transi- 
 tion, he passes to speak of the proposed 
 annexation of Canada to the United 
 States. As what he says on the latter 
 topic concerns America, and is a pro- 
 phetic voice, I have obtained permis- 
 sion to copy it for this collection. 
 
 "Race, religion, language, traditions, 
 are becoming bonds of union, and not 
 the parchment title-deeds of sovereigns. 
 These instincts may be thwarted for the 
 day, but they are too deeply rooted in 
 nature and in usefulness not to prevail 
 in the end. I look with less interest to 
 these struggles of races to live apart 
 for what they want to undo, than for 
 what they will prevent being done in 
 future. They will warn riders that 
 henceforth the acquisition of f)-esh terri- 
 tory, by force of artjts, will only bring 
 embarrassments and civil war, instead 
 of that increased strength which, in 
 ancient times, when people were passed, 
 like flocks of sheep, from one king to 
 another, always accompanied the incor- 
 poration of new territorial conquests. 
 
 " This is the secret of the admitted 
 doctrine, that we shall have no more 
 wars of conquest or ambition. In this 
 respect 7<77^ are differently situated, hav- 
 ing vast tracts of unpeopled territory to 
 tempt that cupidity which, in respect of 
 landed property, always disposes indi- 
 viduals and nations, however rich in 
 acres, to desire more. This brings 
 
 me to the subject of Canada, to which 
 you refer in your letters. 
 
 " I agree with you, that nature lias 
 decided that Canada and the Unit- 
 ed States must becoine one, for all 
 purposes of free interco77tmunication. 
 Whether they also shall be united in 
 the same federal government must de- 
 pend upon the two parties to the union. 
 I can assure you that there will be 
 no repetition of the policy of 1776, on 
 our part, to prevent our North Ameri- 
 can colonies from pursuing their in- 
 terest in their own way. If the people 
 of Canada are tolerably unanimous in 
 wishing to sever the very slight thread 
 which now binds them to this country, 
 I see no reason why, if good faith and 
 ordinary temper be observed, it should 
 not be done; amicably. I think it would 
 be far more hkely to be accomplished 
 peaceably,- if the subject of annexation 
 were left as a distinct question. I am 
 quite sure that we should be gainers, to 
 the amount of about a million sterling 
 annually, if our North American colo- 
 nists would set up in life for themselves 
 and maintain their own establishments, 
 and I see no reason to doubt that they 
 might be also gainers by being thrown 
 upon their own resources. 
 
 "The less your countrymen mingle 
 in the controversy, the better. It will 
 only be an additional obstacle in the 
 path of those in this country who see 
 the ultimate necessity of a separation, 
 but who have still some ignorance and 
 prejudice to contend against, which, if 
 used as political capital by designing 
 politicians, may complicate seriously a 
 very difficult piece of statesmanship. 
 It is for you and such as you, who 
 love peace, to guide your countrymen 
 aright in this matter. You have made 
 the most noble contributions of any 
 modern writer to the cause of peace ; 
 and as a public man I hope you will 
 exert all your influence to induce Amer- 
 icans to hold a dignified attitude and 
 obsprve a ' masterly inactivity ' in the 
 controversy which is rapidly advancing 
 to a solution between the mother coun- 
 try and her American colonies." 
 
 A prudent patriotism among us will 
 
186;.] 
 
 Lucas Alaman. 
 
 303 
 
 appreciate the wisdom of this counsel, 
 which is more needed now than when 
 it v.- IS written. The controversy which 
 C^bden foresaw "between the mother 
 country and her American colonies " is 
 yet undetermined. The recent crea- 
 tion of what is somewhat grandly called 
 " The Dominion of Canada " marks 
 one Stage in its progress. 
 
 Lucas Alaman, 
 
 1852. 
 
 From Canada I pass to Mexico, and 
 close this list with Lucas Alaman, the 
 Mexican statesman and historian, who 
 has left on record a most pathetic 
 prophecy with regard to his own coun- 
 try, intensely interesting to us at this 
 moment. 
 
 Little can be gathered here with re- 
 gard to this remarkable character. His 
 name does not appear in any biographi- 
 cal or bibliographical dictionary, — not 
 in the late editions of Michaud or Bru- 
 net, — although his public life and his 
 literary labors might claim for him a 
 place in biography and bibliography. 
 From the title-page of one of his vol- 
 umes it appears that, besides being a 
 member of the Mexican Society of 
 Geography and Statistics, and also of 
 the Fine Arts, he was a corresponding 
 member of several foreign societies, 
 among which were the Royal Academy 
 of History at Madrid, the Royal In- 
 stitute of Sciences in Bavaria, the 
 Philosophical Society of Philadelphia, 
 and the Massachusetts Historical So- 
 ciety. It is only in the dearth of 
 authentic information with regard to 
 him that I mention these circumstan- 
 ces. It does not .xppear when he died. 
 The Preface to .ne last volume of his 
 History is dated i8th November, 1852 ; 
 and, as his name is not noticed in Mex- 
 ican affairs since then, it is not unrea- 
 sonable to suppose that he died shortly 
 after this date, although his death first 
 appears in the Transactions of the 
 Massachusetts Historical Society for 
 1861. 
 
 Alaman figured in the Mexican Cor- 
 tes, and also as Minister of Foreign 
 Affairs, especially under President 
 
 Bustamente. In the latter capacity he 
 inspired the respect of foreign diplo- 
 matists. One of these, who had oc- 
 casion to know him officially, says of 
 him, in answer to my inquiries, that 
 he "was the greatest statesman which 
 Mexico has produced since her inde- 
 pendence." His portrait, as engraved 
 in one of his volumes, resembles the 
 late Mr. Clayton of Delaware. He was 
 one of the few persons in any coun- 
 try who have been able to unite liter- 
 ature with public life, and obtain hon- 
 ors in each department. 
 
 His first work was " Dissertations 
 on the History of the Mexican Repub- 
 lic," Discrtaciones sobre la Historia de 
 la Repiiblica Megicana, in three vol- 
 umes, published at Mexico, 1844. In 
 these he considers the original conquest 
 by Cortez ; its consequences ; the con- 
 queror and his family ; the propaga- 
 tion of the Christian religion in New 
 Spain; the formation of the city of 
 Mexico ; the history of Spain and the 
 house of Bourbon. All these topics 
 are treated somewhat copiously. Then 
 followed the " History of Mexico, from 
 the First Movements which prepared 
 its Independence in 1808, to the pres- 
 ent Epoch," {Historia de Mejico desde 
 los priiJieros Moviinientos que prepara- 
 ron a sti Independencia en el A ho de 
 1808 /lasla la Epoca presented) in five 
 volumes, published at Mexico, the 
 first bearing date 1849, ^"d the fifth 
 1852. From the Preface to the first 
 volume, it appears that the author was 
 born in Guanajuato, and witnessed there 
 the beginning of the Mexican revo- 
 lution in 1810, under Don Miguel Hi- 
 dalgo, the curate of Dolores ; that he 
 was personally acquainted with the cu- 
 rate and with many of those who had a 
 principal part in the successes of that 
 time ; that he was experienced in pub- 
 lic affairs, as deputy and as member 
 of the cabinet; and that he had known 
 directly the persons and things of which 
 he wrote. His last volume embraces 
 the government of Iturbide as Emper- 
 or, and also his unfortunate death, end- 
 ing with the establishment of the Mex- 
 ican Federal Republic in 1824. The 
 
304 
 
 P'/ophetic Voices about America. 
 
 [September, 
 
 work is careful and well considered. 
 The eminent diplomatist already men- 
 tioned, who had known the author of- 
 ficially, writes that " no one was better 
 acquainted with the history and causes 
 of the incessant revolutions in his un- 
 fortunate country, and that his work on 
 this subject is considered by all re- 
 spectable men in Mexico a chef-ifaji- 
 vre for purity of sentiments and patri- 
 otic convictions." 
 
 It is on account of the valedictory 
 words of this History that I have intro- 
 duced the name of Alaman on this occa- 
 sion. They are as follows : — 
 
 " Mexico will be, without doubt, a 
 land of prosperity from its natural ad- 
 vantages, but it will not be so for 
 the races which now inhabit it. As it 
 seemed the destiny of the peoples who 
 established themselves therein at dif- 
 ferent and remote epochs to perish from 
 the face of it, leaving hardly a memory 
 of their existence ; even as the nation 
 which built the edifices of Palenque, and 
 those which we admire in the penin- 
 sula of Yucatan, was destroyed without 
 its being known what it was nor how it 
 disappeared ; even as the Toltecs pe7'- 
 ished by the hands of barbai'ous tribes 
 coining from the North, no record of 
 them remaining but the pyramids of 
 Cholulu and Teotihuacan ; and, final- 
 ly, even as the ancient Mexicans fell 
 beneath the power of the Spaniards, 
 the comitry gaining itifiniiely by this 
 chancre of dominion, but its ancient mas- 
 ters being overthrozvn; — so likewise its 
 present inhabitants shall be ruined and 
 hardly obtain the compassion they have 
 merited, and the Mexican nation of our 
 days shall liave applied to it what a cel- 
 ebrated Latin poet said of one of the 
 most famous personages of Roman his- 
 tory, STAT MAGNI NOMINIS UM- 
 BRA,* — nothing more remains than 
 the shadow of a name illustrious in 
 -another time. 
 
 " May the Almighty, in whose hands 
 is the fate of nations, and who by ways 
 hidden from our sight abases or exalts 
 
 * In the original text of Alaman this is printed in 
 large capitals, and it is explained in a note as said 
 by Lucan in his Pharsalia, with regard to Pompey. 
 
 them, according to the designs of his 
 providence, be pleased to grant unto 
 ours the protection by which he has 
 so often deigned to preserve it from 
 the dangers to which it has been ex- 
 posed." * 
 
 Most affecting words of prophecy ! 
 Considering the character of the author 
 as statesman and historian, it could 
 have been only with inconceivable an- 
 guish that he made this terrible record 
 with regard to the land whose child 
 and servant he was. Born and reared 
 in Mexico, honored by its important 
 trusts, and writing the history of its 
 independence, it was his country, hav- 
 ing for him all that makes a country 
 dear ; and yet thus calmly he consigns 
 the present people to oblivion, while 
 another enters into those happy places 
 where nature is so bountiful. Thus 
 does a Mexican leave the door open to 
 the foreigner. 
 
 Conclusion. 
 
 Such are some of the prophetic voi- 
 ces about America, differing in char- 
 acter and importance, but all having 
 one augury, and opening one vista, 
 illimitable in extent and vastness. 
 Farewell to the idea of Montesquieu, 
 that a repubhc can exist only in a small 
 territory. 
 
 Ancient prophecy foretold another 
 world beyond the ocean, which in the 
 mind of Christopher Columbus was 
 nothing less than the Orient with its 
 inexhaustible treasures. Then came 
 the succession of prophets, who dis- 
 cerned the future of this continent, be- 
 ginning with that rare genius, Sir 
 Thomas Browne, who, in the reign of 
 Charles II., while the settlements were 
 in their infancy, predicted their growth 
 in power and civilization ; and then 
 that rarest character. Bishop Berkeley, 
 who, in the reign of George I., while 
 the settlements were still feeble and 
 undeveloped, heralded a Western em- 
 pire as " Time's noblest offspring." 
 
 These voices are general. Others 
 
 * Alaman, Historia, Tomo V. pp. 954, 9SS- 
 
186;.] 
 
 Conclusion. 
 
 305 
 
 more precise followed. Turgot, the 
 philosopher and minister, saw in youth, 
 with the vision of genius, that all colo- 
 nies must at their maturity drop from 
 the parent stem, like ripe fruit. John 
 Adams, one of the chiefs of our own 
 history, in a youth illumined as that 
 of Turgot, saw the predominance of 
 the Colonies in population and power 
 followed by the transfer of empire to 
 America; then the glory of Independ- 
 ence and its joyous celebration by 
 grateful generations ; then the triumph 
 of our language ; and, finally, the estab- 
 lishment of our republican institutions 
 over all North America. Then came the 
 Abbe Galiani, the Neapolitan French- 
 man, who, writing from Naples while 
 our struggle was still undecided, gayly 
 predicts the total downfall of Europe, 
 the transmigration to America, and the 
 consummation of the greatest revolu- 
 tion of the globe by establishing the 
 reign of America over Europe. There 
 is also Adam Smith, the illustrious phi- 
 losopher, who quietly carries the seat of 
 government across the Atlantic. Mean- 
 while Pownall, once a Colonial Gover- 
 nor and then a member of Parliament, 
 in successive works of great detail, fore- 
 shadows independence, naval suprem- 
 acy, commercial prosperity, immigra- 
 tion from the Old World, and a new 
 national hfe, destined to supersede the 
 systems of Europe and arouse the 
 "curses" of royal ministers. Hartley, 
 also a member of Parliament, and the 
 British negotiator who signed the defin- 
 itive treaty of Independence, bravely 
 announces in Parliament that the New 
 World is before the Colonists, and that 
 liberty is theirs ; and afterwards, as 
 diplomatist, instructs his government 
 that, through the attraction of our pub- 
 he lands, immigration will be quick- 
 ened beyond precedent and the national 
 debt cease to be a burden. D'Aranda, 
 the Spanish statesman and diplomatist, 
 predicts to his king that the United 
 States, though born a " pygmy," will 
 soon be a "colossus," under whose 
 influence Spain will lose all her Ameri- 
 can possessions except only Cuba and 
 Porto Rico. Burns, the truthful poet, 
 VOL. XX. — NO. 119. 20 
 
 looks forward a hundred years, and 
 beholds our people rejoicing in the 
 centenary of their independence. Fox, 
 the liberal statesman, foresees the in- 
 creasing might and various relations 
 of the United States, so that a blow 
 aimed at them must have a rebound as 
 destructive as itself. Canning, the 
 briUiant orator, in a much-admired 
 flight of eloquence, discerns the New 
 World, with its republics just called 
 into being, redressing the balance of 
 the old. Cobden, whose fame will be 
 second only to that of Adam Smith 
 among all in this catalogue, calmly pre- 
 dicts the separation of Canada from the 
 mother country by peaceable means. 
 Alaman, the Mexican statesman and 
 historian, announces that Mexico, which 
 has already known so many successive 
 races, will hereafter be ruled by yet 
 another people, who will take the place 
 of the present possessors ; and with 
 these prophetic words, he draws a pall 
 over his country. 
 
 ^1 these various voices, of different 
 times and countries, mingle and inter- 
 twine in representing the great future 
 of our Repubhc, which from small be- 
 ginnings has already become great. 
 It was at first only a grain of mustard- 
 seed, " which is, indeed, the least of all 
 seeds ; but when it is grown, it is the 
 greatest among herbs and becomes a 
 tree, so that the birds of the air come 
 and lodge in the branches thereof." 
 Better still, it was only a little leaven, 
 but it is fast leavening the whole con- 
 tinent. Nearly all who have prophe- 
 sied speak of " America " or " North 
 America," and not of any Hinited circle, 
 colony, or state. It was so, at the 
 beginning, with Sir Thomas Browne, 
 and especially with Berkeley. During 
 our Revolution the Colonies, strug- 
 gling for independence, were always 
 described by this continental designa- 
 tion. They were already "America," 
 or " North America," thus incidentally 
 foreshadowing that coming time when 
 the whole continent, with all its vari- 
 ous States, shall be a Plural Unit, with 
 one Constitution, one Liberty, and one 
 Destiny. The theme was also taken 
 
3o6 
 
 Prophetic Voices about Ai 
 
 [September, 
 
 up by the poet, and popularized in the 
 often quoted lines : — 
 
 " No pent-up Utica contracts your powers, 
 But the whole boundless continent is yours." * 
 
 Such grandeur may justly excite anx- 
 iety rather than pride, for duties are in 
 corresponding proportion. There is 
 occasion for humility also, as the indi- 
 vidual considers his own insignificance 
 in the transcendent mass. The tiny 
 polyp, in its unconscious life, builds the 
 everlasting coral ; each citizen is little 
 more than the industrious insect. The 
 result is accomplished by continuous 
 and combined exertion. Millions of cit- 
 izens, working in obedience to nature, 
 can accomplish anything. Of course, 
 war is an instrumentality which a true 
 civilization disowns. Here some of 
 our prophets have erred. Sir Thomas 
 Browne was so much overshadowed by 
 his own age, that his vision was dark- 
 ened by " great armies," and even " hos- 
 tile and piratical attacks " on Europe. 
 It was natural that D'Aranda, schooled 
 in worldly aifairs, should imagine ^|lie 
 new-born pow^r ready to seize the 
 Spanish possessions. Among our own 
 countrymen, Jefferson looked to war for 
 the extension of dominion. The Flori- 
 das, he says on one occasion, "are 
 ours on the first moment of war, and 
 until a war they are of no particular 
 necessity to us." f Happily they were 
 acquired in another way. Then again, 
 while declaring that no constitution 
 
 * By Jonathan M. Sewall, in an epilogue to Addi- 
 son's tragedy of " Cato," written in 1778 for the 
 Bow Street Theatre, Portsmouth, N. H. 
 
 t Jefferson's Works, Vol. V. p. 444. 
 
 was ever before so calculated as ours 
 for extensive empire and self-govern- 
 ment, and insisting upon Canada as a 
 component part, he calmly says that 
 " this would be, of course, in the first 
 war." * Afterwards, while confessing a 
 longing for Cuba, "as the most inter- 
 esting addition that could ever be made 
 to our system of States," he says that 
 " he is sensible this can never be ob- 
 tained, even with her own consent, 
 without war." f Thus at each stage is 
 the baptism of blood. In much better 
 mood the good Bishop recognized em- 
 pire as moving gently in the pathway 
 of light. All this is much clearer now 
 than when he prophesied. It is easy 
 to see that empire obtained by force 
 is unrepublican, and offensive to that 
 first principle of our Union according 
 to which all just government stands 
 only on the consent of the governed. 
 Our country needs no si'ch ally as 
 war. Its destiny is mightier than 
 war. Through peace it will have ev- 
 erything. This is our talisman. Give 
 us peace, and population will increase 
 beyond all experience ; resources of 
 all kinds will multiply infinitely ; arts 
 will embellish the land with immortal 
 beauty ; the name of Republic will be 
 exalted, until every neighbor, yielding 
 to irresistible attraction, will seek a 
 new life in becoming a part of the 
 great whole ; and the national example 
 will be more puissant than army or 
 navy for the conquest of the world. 
 
 * Jefferson's Works, Vol. V. p. 444. 
 
 t Ibid., Vol. VII. p. 316. See also pp. aS8, 399. 
 
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