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 vMlTllSOMAN lli;i'l)Sir. 
 
ORATION, 
 
 DELIVERED AT THE 
 
 iE§l|||t§|g| Mca§l»| 
 
 MANCHESTER, MARYLAND, 
 
 JXJL-Y 4, ISSr 
 
 CHARLES HENRY FOSTER, 
 
 Ego fateor, me his studiis esse dediti.m : ceteros pudeat, si qua ita se literis 
 abdiderunt, ut mhil possint ex his ad communem afferre fructum.-CicERo 
 
 ' BALTIMORE: 
 PRINTED BY JAMES YOUNG, 
 
 No. 114 Baltimore street 
 
 1857. 
 

 CORRESPONDENCE 
 
 Independent Academy,"! 
 • Manchester, Md., July 9, 1857. j 
 
 C. H. Foster, Esq., Sir : — In pursuance of the wish of the students, we 
 
 were appointed a Committee to wait on you for the purpose of soliciting a 
 
 copy of your Oration, delivered at the Independent Academy, Manchester, Md., 
 
 on the 4th inst., for publication. Deeming it, sir, a rare production of study 
 
 and patriotism, we most humbly hope you will comply with the unanimous 
 
 desire of the students of our institution. 
 
 Yours respectfully, 
 
 W. S. LURTY, 
 
 W. HICKMAN, \ Committee: 
 
 E. H. O'BRIEN. 
 
 Manchester, Md., \ 
 July 11, 1857. / 
 
 Gentlemen : — The Address was prepared especially for you, and without 
 
 any purpose on my part of making a further use of it. It is, therefore, at your 
 
 service as you request. 
 
 I am, gentlemen, very truly yours, 
 
 C. H. FOSTER. 
 
 To Messrs. W. S. Lurty, W. Hickman, E. H. O'Brien, Committee. 
 
ORATION. 
 
 Cadets : 
 
 The day whose sun has latest lighted us from sleep to wakefulness, 
 suggests, in its vivid memories, the theme of Patriotism. The place 
 wherein we stand— these academic shades— yonder institution dedi- 
 cated to learning, datum ad literas deumque^ no less remind me of the 
 claims of Culture. Thus these two elements of the higher life of hu- 
 manity, are met. Side by side they take their places in our sight to- 
 day, and, by their regal nature, by the large dominancy they hold over 
 the souls of men, they command from us, not alone a passing recogni- 
 tion, as to honored guests, but the full gift of whatever tribute we 
 have brought hither. Turning away, then, from those other but in- 
 ferior themes, which, in virtue of the occasion we commemorate, might 
 claim regard, I accept the omen of the hour, and pay my homage to 
 these imperial presences. 
 
 I will ask your attention, therefore, for the time which it falls to me 
 to detain you, to a consideration of the relations of Culture and Patri- 
 otism. For I cannot find merely an accidental union in their present 
 meeting, but must look upon them as joined in a beneficent and provi- 
 dential harmony. Proud and secure as is each in its own individual 
 empire, sovereign as they are, each of them, in their independent digni- 
 ties and several rights, it would still seem as though the noblest flower 
 of both were foreordained, in the pre-established concord of things, to 
 appear only in their express and permanent alliance. The one is a 
 sentiment, having its lodgment in the universal heart of man, and anchor- 
 ing his devotion and undying love to the soil of his nativity; a questionless 
 instinct inwrought so deeply in the fabric of our nature as calmly to 
 
defy all scrutiny ; a potential voice, bidding us to venerate, with no 
 unwilling honors, the ties of country, nation, home and race. The 
 other gives development to the various forces of our being, calling forth 
 all of them to a nobler estate, and to an ampler sphere of action; alike 
 dignifying the individual man, and aggrandizing, by its kindly influence, 
 that great aggregation of individuals, society. Patriotism is the large 
 love for those akin to us in the remen\brances of that connnon and 
 glorious ancestry, whose heroism we all cherish as a joint renown; 
 Avh(jse virtues, while we emulate them v.'ith eager zeal, animate us, by 
 the whispers of revered traditions, to prove ourselves not unworthy of 
 our mutual sires. So that, as we, alike, remember, reverently, the 
 founders of our State, whose stalwart arms builded the heritage which 
 we enjoy as lords ; we find a growing spirit of fraternity bind- 
 ing us together as a compact Avhole, and teaching us, by the most 
 significant monitions, that ours is a united destiny, and that the genera- 
 tions of our posterity have a common future. Culture, which is but 
 mental thrift, comes in to aid in our endeavors to improve and beautify 
 the land which it is given us to dwell in ; to make comely and durable 
 the institutions that have descended to us; to advance our race to a 
 higher rank amongst the tribes of men. Thus, Patriotism supplies the 
 impelling force, while Culture furnishes the means and agencies of a 
 national progress. While Patriotism at first gropes blindly towards the 
 goal. Culture gives direction to its effort, and leads it to success. 
 Through Culture, all the tendencies of our complex humanity, and this 
 of Patriotism with the rest, are brought from their truant waywardness, 
 and taught, by a prudent discipline, the true uses of their exercise. 
 Patriotism bears then to Culture, the relation of a docile child to a 
 discreet and virtuous teacher ; nor can there be any rational alarm 
 lest the yielding trustfulness of the one in the other may be abused. 
 There is no slightest peril of perversion, from unwise or harmful 
 counsels, while Patriotism sits as a \)u\n\ at the feet of such a sage. 
 Through the genial tuitioi: of Culture, Patriotism becomes intelligent; 
 her vague instincts ripen into insight and foresight ; her erratic energies 
 
are trained to steady and persistent effort; lier impulses are developed 
 into conscious aims; and she is, thenceforward, a force endowed with 
 all tiie elements of conquest, fitted to ally herself to destiny. 
 
 The positive benefit of Culture, in its relation to Patriotism, is, then, 
 in its education ; in the wise direction of its else untutored and wasted 
 energy ; in the instruction of it in its intrinsic capacities ; in the enlarge- 
 ment of its practical efficiency; in refining and intensifying it to a 
 prompt exactitude and concentration of action ; in the gladiatorial disci- 
 pline of its entire being. There would be peril, however, to the State, 
 in the expansion and training of this sentiment, without some chastening 
 influences to moderate its ardor, — some prudent limitations which should 
 be laws to its activity and keep it within due bounds. Otherwise, it 
 might break forth into anarcliy, and defeat the very objects it proposed. 
 But Culture has its restraining government, no less than its impelling 
 inspirations. If its judicious guidance be obeyed, there need be no 
 dangers to the State ; unless, indeed, the State be founded on a lie, 
 and repudiate the rights of man. Then, Culture and Patriotism, both 
 of them, are full of hazards. Neither of them can have any sympathy 
 for despotism. If not utterly exiled, they must hide in corners, and 
 speak only hypocrisy and falsehood. For Culture is, in its true ^ 
 charadter, of necessity, humane. It cannot hesitate to exclaim with 
 Terence : JYihil humani a me alienum pufo. I speak not of a merely 
 elegant and superficial scholarship, which revels in trifles, and deals 
 with nothing nobler than polite learning and fine art; but of that 
 hardier, manlier Culture, which acknowledges tiie authority of tiiought; 
 which pays homage to eternal principles; which finds its aliment in 
 the teachings of Philosophy and Ethics. This, the only genuine Culture 
 is the friend of individual man. It can never strike hands witli tyran- 
 ny, and become the minister of its purposes; it can never urge a de- 
 frauded people to submission. And so witli Patriotism, this, too, is 
 essentially popular in its sympathies ; and reaches out with eagerness 
 toward democracy as its proper sphere. 
 
 For, my readings of history allow me to make no doubt that Patri- 
 
otism, cardinal and organic as it is in the nature of man, flourishes best 
 and most healthfully, under the benign protection of free government. 
 Wherever the sovereignty of a realm is centred in the person of one 
 man, wherever the people are ignored as an active element of the State, 
 tliere can be no earnest and efficient Patriotism ; it exists only as a smoul- 
 dering fire, dead save in the possibility, at some better epoch, of a re- 
 surrection, to become a living power. Tlie vast armies of Xerxes, 
 Alexander and the Roman CcBsars, were but serfs and implements. 
 Their obedience was not a genuine loyalty, but a grovelling submission 
 to superior power. For the true loyality is found in freedom. It is 
 voluntary, not slavish and compelled. Upon those historic pages 
 where crowns and kings and thrones appear, Avhile no single word tells 
 us of the recognition of a people, you shall not find any i-ecord of 
 patriotic deeds, any legend of devoted loyalty. Despotism and Patri- 
 otism cannot co-exist. It is true we may find scattered here and there, 
 some touching story of personal devotedness on the part of a soldier 
 to his tyrant, some instance of heroic self-sacrifice where a valor- 
 ous adherent has interposed his life to save a despotic monarcli 
 from death at tlie hands of a foeman on the battlefield, or from the covert 
 stroke of the assassin ; but these are only the few exceptions which 
 relieve the otherwise monotonous chronicle of conquest and oppression 
 from its blank denial of individual humanity. Similar incidents of the 
 self-forgetfulness of slaves and of romantic attachment to masters, 
 may be foiuid in all the records of servitude. But tliey cannot fairly 
 be cited as proceeding from any sentiment at all approacliing Patriotism, 
 that broad and intelligent affection which sets no man, whether self or 
 the king, higher than country. It is true that the grandeur of a con- 
 solidated empire, like those of Persia, Macedon and Piome, holtling in 
 possession, by the strong hand of usurpation, wide regions of territory ; 
 dominating perhaps over the sea as well as the land; gigantic in 
 its material resources ; with myriads of men, its obedient and facile vas- 
 -alsj and able to concentrate the whole weight of its colossal strength 
 upon a single point, at a dash of the dictator's pen; — the greatness of 
 
such an empire might inspire the songs of a pampered poet, and the epic of 
 a Virgil, or the hallads of a singing Horace, might be offered as tribute 
 to the imperial master, who, in his single person, was the epitome of 
 the nation, the lord paramount of the State. But it is only the high 
 and stimulating sense of citizenshii), of individual manhood, of allegi- 
 ance to a country which is a fatherland rather than a prison, that could 
 summon forth the inspiriting hymns of freedom ; — those exultant strains, 
 quivering with the very soul of Patriotism, in which the goddess Lib- 
 erty herself would seem to have talcen the muse's place ; — those best 
 fruits of poesy since the world began, — noble utterances, which, echo- 
 ing deathlessly around our planet, shall prove, forever, awakening 
 voices to break the slumbers of every house of bondage. Such strains 
 reverberate along all the corridors of history, celebrating many a re- 
 freshing episode of liberty in the long process of mankind. They are 
 the best possessions of humanity; for they are winged words of might, 
 which can never be silenced or recalled ; which all men in time shall 
 hear; and to which all souls shall respond rejoicingly. They are the 
 evangel of freedom to all peoples. For the poets are, truly, prophets, 
 and the intuition of their entrancing dreams is laden with the wisdom 
 of veritable foresight. Their songs are purchased by the patronage of no 
 Maecenas, or Louis XIV, but they come as the spontaneous ollering of 
 grateful hearts. The servile muse may produce as much of grace, 
 and voluptuous elegance, and tenderness ; but it cannot reach the gran- 
 deur, the high elation, the massiveness of manhood, the nobility of 
 enthusiasm, the vigor of language, the militant clang of melody, the 
 tirmness of resolve, the sublime fatalism of will, which distinguish the 
 lyrics of the free. The songs of slaves may be compared to the 
 delicately carved cameoes of the ancients, over each of which, some 
 enslaved craftsman has toiled, binding down eye and brain and muscle 
 to a stone, for years. The songs of freemen are rather like those 
 stately gothic structures, whose noble architecture in itself typifies and 
 promises the dignity of labor and the perfectness of Art, while it asks 
 no degrading service, no sacrifice of the manhood of the workman. It 
 
was only from the heart of a freeman that there could issue these 
 clarion words : 
 
 A people's voice ! we are a people yet, 
 Tlio' all men else their nobler dreams forget, 
 Confused by brainless mobs and lawless powers ; 
 Thank Him who isled us here, and roughly set 
 Ilis Saxon in blown seas and storming showers. 
 We have a voice, with which to pay the debt 
 Of boundless love and reverence Ifnd regref 
 To those great men who fought, and kept it ours. 
 And keep it ours, O God, from brute control ; 
 O statesmen, guard us, guard the eye, the soul 
 Of Europe ; keep our noble England whole ; 
 And save the one true seed of freedom sown 
 Bstwixt a people and their ancient throne. 
 That sober freedom out of which there springs 
 Our loyal passion for our temperate kings. 
 
 So it is, and has been, and, by the necessity of an iron law, must it 
 be for evermore. Unde'- the reign of violence and tyranny, there may 
 be idyls of Anacreon and Moschus, the soft notes of lutes and lyres, — 
 an exquisiteness of fine poetic fervor, — the light dalliance of pleasure, — 
 the gaiety of serfs who are careless of the morrow so that they have 
 delights to-day, who think not of rights so that they find enjoyments, — 
 there may be beauty in artistic labor, — there may be a satisfied content 
 in sense; but it is only when a People is recognized in the State, — it 
 is only when tlie best nobility of life is confessed to be a free man- 
 hood, — it is only when the badges of royalty are distributed amongst 
 the masses, so that each man has a fragment of the old-time crown and 
 sceptre, and is, in some sort, a sovereign, — that human life becomes a 
 grand and solemn drama, in wliich we are, each of us, actors needed to 
 the completeness of the whole ; it is only then that the worthier issues 
 of thought and deed appear. Then it is. that the sentiment of Patriot- 
 ism, of burning and glad devotion to tliat social whole of which every 
 individual is an honored part; — that sentiment, which, in the earlier 
 
stages of the human march, was but a vague and glimmering instinct, 
 significant only like the rudimentary fossils in old geologic iformations, 
 as being prophetic of an unfulfilled creation ; — then it is that it receives 
 Its full and fair development, and rules our souls as a daily and poten- 
 tial thought. Then does the true fealty to the State begin. Then, for 
 the first time, can there be such a crime as treason. 
 
 The conduct of my argument is now disclosed. I deny that Pa- 
 triotism, in its genuine manifestation, can exist in any community 
 Avhich ignores the separate rights of men. I maintain that, in propor- 
 tion as government is popular in character; in proportion as it becomes 
 admitted that the State was made for persons, and not persons for the 
 State ; as it becomes admitted that the nation can have no right superior 
 to what the one man possesses ; so will the love of country strengthen 
 till it becomes a mighty cable, whose stout strands are woven of all 
 the household ties of the nation, — a dominant idea made all the stronger 
 by the associations of hearthstones and homes, by the bonds of kindred 
 interests and a community of benefits. Such a State can hold its place 
 against a world in arms. Thus has Switzerland for centuries, pre- 
 served her freedom in the face of European kingcraft ; and looked down, 
 securely, from her mountain fastnesses, upon raging armies ; knowing 
 that her name could never disappear from the roll of peoples, so long 
 as one Swiss survived. I claim that, as the individual becomes identi- 
 fied with his country,— an integral portion of the State, his Patriotism 
 will partake of the strong and eager quality of |elf-love; the national 
 defence will appear a matter of self-perservation, and the national glory 
 and greatness Avill seem to transfigure him with their briglitening 
 beams. 
 
 Patriotism, therefore, this implanted affection, this radical instinct 
 of our nature, is no less than a prophecy, speaking, through long and 
 toilsome generations of bondage, in the soul of each separate man, of 
 the final establishment of freedom as the rightful estate of humanity, 
 the deserved reward of ages of conflict and endeavor. For, since this' 
 sentiment attains its complete unfolding, and its most genuine expres- 
 
10' 
 
 sion only in free government ; since it is here most definitely pro- 
 nounced ; it points, clearly, from out the darkness of old tyrannies, to 
 the realization of republicanism, to the coronation of the people as the 
 only king. It announces the idea of liberty, as another and holier 
 emotion of our nature — worship, announces the idea of God. 
 
 Poland and Hungary, have given us, in later times, the most con- 
 spicuous examples of the love of country. But he errs widely who 
 sees only the spirit of nationality, as the inspiration of Polish and 
 Hungarian heroes in their persistent struggles against despotism. The 
 patriots were identified, by every interest and relationship, with the 
 ancient realms which they strove to rescue from the oblivion that 
 threatened to engulph them. As every Israelite, wheresoever his lot is 
 cast, carries with him thither the old Hebrew commonwealth ; as the 
 memories of Solomon and Samuel, and the goodly fellowship of the 
 prophets, accompany the Jew, through all his wanderings ; so did 
 each soldier of Hungary and Poland feel himself an essential element 
 of bis State, pledged to defend her, and fight manfully as her knight, 
 so long as his life endured. Those were ideal contests, with the most 
 tremendous material forces ; a sentiment, illuminated and aggrandized 
 by vivid imaginings, alas ! never to be realized, nerved him to the shock", 
 and spiritual aids came down to him like angels, amidst the dust of battle. 
 
 To speak of American Patriotism were a needless task. The labors 
 and hardships of the founders of these states have been made classical 
 forever ; so that the last quarter of the eighteenth century embraces 
 what is truly our heroic age. Tfie war of Revolution was not alto- 
 gether a Nvar of military arms. It was, in the truest sense, an intel- 
 lectual struggle. After full discussion on both sides of the Atlantic, 
 the cause of the colonies had been amply vindicated 5 and Pitt was as 
 true a champion of our independence, in the British Parliament, as 
 was Adams in the Continental Congress. In this, more signally than in 
 any other conflict which history records, was the power of principles 
 exhibited. For Right is Might. That cause which has strong con- 
 victions of justice upon its side, is already half victorious, for, 
 " Thrice is he armed who hath his quarrel just. " 
 
11 
 
 The declaration of American Independence was no rash nor sudden 
 movement. It was the authoritative and collective expression of the 
 sentiment of the colonies; a sentiment which had been arrived at 
 through intent counsels and severe deliberations ; which was shared by 
 nearly ti.e whole body of the people ; which was based upon the 
 plainest rudiments of political ethics, and Avhich the judgment of 
 impartial history has approved already. The country was ripe for it; 
 indeed, in some localities it had been anticipated, as at Mecklenburg, 
 North Carolina. The questions at issue between Great Britahi and the 
 colonies had been fairly argued ; and the decision had been left with 
 confidence to the common sense of mankind. So each soldier fought, 
 through all that arduous seven years fight, with the energy and courage 
 of a personal encounter. The victory, if won, was to be a triumph of 
 the people; and the inspiring vision of freedom within their reach, 
 should they but approve themselves worthy to obtain it, aroused a 
 Patriotism so intense, so unanimous, so unconquerable, as to stand, for 
 all the past and for all time to come, unmatched ; a devotedness of life, 
 fortune, fame, — all tb.at is dear to man, which no struggle that may en- 
 gage humanity, in any age hereafter, can surpass or parallel. 
 
 Nor did this spirit of Patriotism abdicate its power upon the victori- 
 ous issue of our arms. It then assumed a polemic character. The 
 conflict of opinions that ensued upon the Revolutionary epoch, Avas, 
 no less than that, an agonistic era. It was a battle of ideas and princi- 
 ples. Out of the chaos of opinions, two leading ideas very soon 
 emerged. Democracy and Federalism. The result of their combat is 
 found in the [Constitution of the United States. Opposite and irre- 
 concilable as these ideas at first appeared, each tempered the ultraism of 
 the other, a salutary compromise took place ; find they have, both of 
 them, to-day, their record in that noble charter which commemorates 
 our erection into a single nation. 
 
 Thus do we stand, on this eighty-first anniversary of the proclama- 
 tion of our separateness as a sovereign society ; 
 
 " The heir of all the ages, foremost in the files of time. " 
 
12 
 
 For, not alone the events of our own colonial history, or of our national 
 existence, have contributed to make us what we are. The storehouse 
 of antiquity opens to supply us with abundant treasures ; our regal 
 dowry comes to us gathered from all the generations who have gone 
 before ; we find meet patterns of wisdom and moderation amidst the 
 citizens of the old republics. The philosophies of Greece, the maxims 
 of Rome, the hard experiences of disappointed peoples, — Poland, Italy. 
 France and Hungary; all are ours; ours with their lessons of true 
 greatness, and their admonitions to unsleeping vigilance; ours with their 
 examples, their precepts, their warnings, their inspirations. 
 
 The scholar, certainly, should be the sincerest patriot. Our govern- 
 mental system, in the nice adjustment of its forces, in the harmony 
 and oneness of its action, demonstrates forcibly the practical value of 
 ideas. The foundations of it are laid in abstract truths. It is built not 
 upon special social necessities; not upon traditionary prepossessions; 
 not upon forced expedients ; but upon tlie axioms of a fresh political 
 philosopliy; upon pure principles of etliics; upon thoughts, which, when 
 just, are the most solid of all building stones. To our fathers, when 
 they set out to erect this mighty structure, in which dwell at this mo- 
 ment, so many millions of freemen, it was as if the old globe had 
 dissolved, with all its crimes and woes, and the world had begun anew. 
 They wrought, therefore, unencumbered by incongruous materials, at 
 liberty to choose or to reject at will ; and the product of their work 
 is now before all our eyes. 
 
 Such a system, having such a basis, and such a superstructure, with 
 the countless opportunities it presents to independent, self-reliant effort, 
 with its hopeful possibilities of national development, inaugurated with 
 omens whose happy portent has, already, been more than realized, 
 furnishes, as a mere study for the student even, the best attractions. 
 The simple calculations of the mathematician seeking to conjecture 
 one probable status in population and territory, a century hence, pre- 
 dicated upon our advancement hitherto, outstrip the most enthusiastic 
 visions that could have cheered the heart of a poet of the Revolution. 
 
13 
 
 When, ascending from tliese merely safe deductions, casting aside our 
 estimates, we reflect that Providence has given us evident and ample 
 tokens of His cherishing care, v/hen we consider that the threads of 
 our destinies are in the hands of Him who determines, in "his wisdom, 
 the fate of nations; when we read our future by the light of that'his- 
 tory, which one, speaking wiser than he knew, has called philosophy 
 teaching by example ; we cannot but believe, with undoubting faith, 
 that the most hopeful dreams of philosophers and poets, if they be just 
 and rational, may here be all fulfilled. Tn this new field, kindly thrown 
 open to humanity as another Eden, by our Heavenly Father, that our 
 race, suffering under the accumulated wrongs of ages, might again take 
 heart, and, under better auspices, re-enter upon its work, we may trust 
 that the hopes, that echo down to us along the centuries, may at length, 
 be realized. For the poets were not wrong, because their predictions 
 had no fulfilment. There were, always, stubborn institutions, deep 
 rooted prejudices, harsh and uimianageable facts, which were fatal to^ 
 success. So that the errand of the poets is not over. Always the 
 guides and teachers of men, it is still their mission to unfold the possi- 
 ble. That possible it is for us to make the actual. To us Americans, 
 hitherto, thought has appeared, constantly, as the herald of fresh 
 victories. The corner stone of our commonwealth is an idea. Ideas 
 are the inspirations of our political contests, and it is some doctrine 
 which triumphs, with every partizan success. Thus party and 
 faction have their uses, in our civil economy; finding their office in 
 separating the good from the evil, the beautiful from the uncomely, the 
 true from the false. The very fanaticisms of the age are evidences of 
 inward health ; for the counsels of that strong conservatism, which is 
 a peculiar characteristic of American mind, will correct the vices in 
 them all, while it will not fail to accept the salutary hints they furnish, 
 and apply them towards such reforms as a candid scrutiny may show 
 to be demanded. 
 
 The duty of the scholar appears, then, plain. Pledged to a "deter- 
 mined conservation of the Union," he will not forget the majesty of 
 
14 
 
 the separate States; for lie knows that out of the States, acting as inde- 
 pendent governments, came all the powers and sanctions of the Union, 
 and that their original sovereignty is not totally surrendered to the con- 
 federacy, but only divided with it. And, furthermore, while he recog- 
 nizles his State as having strong claims upon his loyalty, he will remem- 
 ber, none the less, the inviolable sacredness of private rights. He will 
 oppose the wanton vagaries and impracticable schemes of merely specu- 
 lative politicians ; but he can never denounce radicalism as entirely 
 futile, or refuse to meet, witli candor, the theories of innovation. He 
 will welcome the largest freedom of discussion, confident that "error 
 may be safely tolerated, if truth be left free to combat it. " Confessing 
 the need of permanence in our institutions and policy, he should, yet, 
 gladly hail all auguries of progress. Whether he enter upon the tem- 
 pestuous sea of politics, with its strifes and bitternesses, or pass his life 
 in some more quiet walk of eflbrt, his duty to his country will be 
 always a word of power to summon him to his post, in any time of 
 danger. A student of all which pertains to the common weal, he will 
 not fail to come forwanl, if ever the fury of faction threaten the safety of 
 the republic, to do what in him lies to restore quietude and order, and 
 to bring back contentment to the body of the people. If changes be 
 necessary to the welfare of the masses, he will not be so wedded to 
 old forms, as to set himself against them, since he believes that govern- 
 ment is ordained for the masses, not they for it. The national system 
 will appear to him, not a mere machine, 
 
 "To wheels of steel and iron pinions bound," 
 
 but rather, as the Scandinavians figured the universe, like the great tree 
 Igdrasil, rooted in the core of the world, branching towards the 
 heavens, and quick with forces of perpetual growth. By the habitual 
 faith he cherishes in the large possibilities of America, and in the great 
 tlestiny which awaits us in the future, his Patriotism will be deepened 
 and expanded, until he comes to look upon his country as the nucleus 
 of a world-wide confederacy of free republics, which shall at last 
 
15 
 
 gather into its league all the sons of men, and bring in, at its comple- 
 tion, the new golden age, the reign of Peace, and Truth, and Universal 
 Freedom. His soul can then commune with that of the bard, who 
 sings : 
 
 I dipt into the Future, far as human eye could see, 
 Saw the vision of the world, and all the wonder that should be ; 
 Saw the heavens fill with commerce, argosies of magic sails, 
 Pilots of the purple twilight, dropping down with costly bales ; 
 Heard the heavens fill with shouting, and there rained a ghastly dew. 
 From the nations' airy navies, grappling in the central blue ; 
 Far along the world-wide whisper of the South wind rushing warm. 
 With the standards of the peoples, plunging through the thunder storm; 
 Till the war-drum throbbed no longer, and the battle flags were furled. 
 In the Parliament of man, the Federation of the world; 
 There the common sense of most shall hold a fretful realm in awe, 
 And the kindly earth shall slumber wrapt in universal law. 
 
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