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A DISCOURSE 
 
 PRONOUNCED AT 
 
 THE CAPITOL OF THE UNITED STATES, 
 
 IN THE 
 
 HALL OF REPRESENTATIVES, 
 
 BEFORE THE 
 
 AMERICAN HISTORICAL SOCIETY, 
 
 AT THEIR 
 
 SECOND ANNUAL MEETING, 
 JANUARY 20, 1837, 
 
 BY THE HON. LEVI WOODBURY, 
 
 A MEMBER OF THE SOCIETY. 
 
 WASHINGTON: 
 PRINTED BY PETER FORCE. 
 
 1837. 
 
:£.^^ 
 
 
 
3 
 
 f Sir : Washington, January 21, 1837. 
 
 L I am charged by the American Historical Society with the agreeable 
 
 ,i duty. of presenting their Vote of Thanks, herewith enclosed, for the eloquent, 
 
 / interesting, and truly American Diicourse delivered before them by you last 
 
 '^ evening, and to request the favor of a copy foi* publication. 
 
 c=J I am, with great respect, 
 
 -K Your most obedient servant, 
 
 ;^ V. MAXCY. 
 
 ^ To the Hon. Levi Woodbury, 
 
 j« Washington, 
 
 
 American Historical Society, 
 
 January 20, 1837. 
 Resolved, That the Thanks of the Society be presented to the Hon. Levi 
 Woodbury for the eloquent, interesting, and truly American Discourse deli- 
 vered before the Society in the Hall of the House of Representatives this 
 evening. 
 
 Resolved, That Virgil Maxcy, Esq., present to the Hon. Levi Woedbury 
 the Vote of Thanks of the Society, and ask of him a copy of hie Discourse 
 for publication. 
 
 Extract from the minutes : 
 
 H. M. MORFIT, Rec. Secretary. 
 
 Sir : Washington, January 23, 1837. 
 
 In reply to the request of the American Historical Society for a copy 
 of my recent Discourse before them, communicated by you in so flattering a 
 manner, I place it at your disposal ; with much regret, however, that leisure 
 has not been enjoyed to make it more wortliy the kindness evinced by the 
 Society. 
 
 I am, sir, very respectfully. 
 
 Your obedient servant, 
 J LEVI WOODBURY, 
 
 j'^ Virgil Maxcy, Esq., Washington. 
 
 u 
 J 
 
 3 
 
 35697, 
 
DISCOURSE 
 
 My remarks this evening will be more particularly addressed 
 to the members of the "American Historical Society," who 
 compose a part of this respectable audience. 
 
 The objects of that Society, as announced in its Coistitutiony 
 are, " to discover, procure, and preserve whatever may relate to 
 the natural, civil, literary, and ecclesiastical history of America 
 in general, and of the United States in particular/' 
 
 It is worthy of notice that these objects, so very important and 
 interesting, are wisely made to embrace a range much wider 
 than the usual topics of history. 
 
 The record merely of battles and changes in dynasties, or a 
 series of chronological tables of all remarkable events, and which 
 constitute the most general idea of the design of history, would, 
 in the brief as well as republidan career of the United States, 
 be literally the '•' short and simple annals of the poor." Not 
 much would be gained by adding to those the pittance, which in 
 these respects is known of the rest of America, — a continent 
 discovered but little more than three out of nearly the sixty 
 centuries which have elapsed since the creation of mankind, 
 and whose population, when not barbarous, has been much dis- 
 persed, comparatively few in numbers, and seldom devoted to 
 undertakings of great novelty or splendor. But, if we enlarge 
 our views, as becomes the elevated position of this society, rais- 
 ing and extending researches from records of important occurren- 
 ces to the true use or dignity of history — the causes and conse- 
 quences of those occurrences, and to every thing having a mate- 
 rial bearing on man here in his social relations, whether natural, 
 civil, rehgious, or literary, in their broadest senses, and we have 
 before us inquiries of a noble and most attractive character, — 
 sufficient also in number to engross the leisure which any or all 
 
 r 
 
of us are able to spare from the occupations of busy life, and 
 ample enough in their scope to employ the severest industry, 
 or tax the loftiest powers of analysis and judgment. It might 
 be granted that naked historical facts may alone form one valu- 
 able branch of attention, and that the mere " honest chronicler" 
 can be useful in his sphere. Yet, unlike the ballad-singer and 
 the bard who precede him in the early stages of society, to grat- 
 ify the natural love of mankind for a knowledge of the past, he 
 must, if discarding all that is fable, or embellishment, become 
 very sterile, unpeople much of the poetic and legendary lore of 
 his predecessors, reduce many marvellous events to a "plain, 
 unvarnished tale," and, like an honest geographer as to the 
 interior of Africa or New Holland, leave large, frequent, and 
 provoking blanks. The only method of properly filling up such 
 wastes in the history of a people recent in their origin, and 
 absorbed chiefly in the arts and pursuits of peace, is that pro- 
 posed in the constitution of our society. 
 
 Without dwelling on the minutiae of the various inquiries thus 
 contemplated, it certainly will be admitted to promise most 
 usefulness, if we devote the chief attention of our association 
 to those topics which, in its peculiar position, are most accessible 
 and most appropriate. But, while our labors are principally 
 dedicated in this manner, nothing of an historical character on 
 American affairs, which can be procured with ease, need be en- 
 tirely neglected, however humble the document, or remote and 
 apparently trivial in bearing. 
 
 If its contents throw new light on the progress, powers, or 
 resources of any State, it is immaterial, whether it be only a 
 newspaper or manuscript, or relate only to the voyage of some 
 hardy fisherman to throw the hook or harpoon in unexplored 
 seas, or to the description of even the smallest insect which 
 glitters in the sunbeam; the shell whose couch is the " blue and 
 boundless sea ;" the ore, that sleeps beneath the mountain's side ; 
 or the plant, whose leaf is sometimes the shroud as well as food 
 for both man and the worm. Strange as it may seem to some, 
 without due reflection, if, singling out our first illustration, they 
 might find that a thorough knowledge of the most diminutive of 
 
the animal creation, its habits and history, may illustrate some 
 of the most striking changes in the industry and comforts of a 
 numerous population. Like that of the Hessian fly, for instance, 
 it might enable large sections of our country to avert its ravages 
 on the great staff of life, and yearly save millions of property 
 from ruin ; or, like that of the ship worm, may assist us to protect 
 valuable portions of our navigation from premature decay ; or, 
 like the cochineal and silk-worm, originate new articles of aid 
 in manufactures or of lucrative commerce. 
 
 A more accurate acquaintance with the signs of valuable 
 minerals may also change the prosperity of whole States, by 
 leading to the discoveries of lead, coal, iron, and salt, or more 
 attractive but less useful gold. This has been evinced in our 
 own day, within our own boundaries ; and the qualities of a new 
 vegetable, better ascertained or more fully employed, like those 
 of tea or coffee, the cane, the hop, or cotton, may revolutionize 
 the pursuits of a large territory, and carry wealth and refinement 
 as well as comfort into the former abodes of poverty and wretch- 
 edness. (Note A.) 
 
 But, at this time, passing by the further particulars of inquiries 
 like these, though your researches as an historical society ought 
 not entirely to overlook any of the various tenants and products 
 as well as qualities and peculiarities of our earth, sea, and air, 
 encouraging the study of nature, and cheering forward our Au- 
 dubons, Nuttalls, and Featherstonhaughs, to explore her secret 
 haunts in her rudest and wildest retreats ; and passing by the 
 history of all the neighbouring nations, colonies, and islands 
 within the limits of the Western hemisphere, though affording 
 much useful matter for warning, and some for imitation, it seems 
 more suitable for us to give precedence to those historical re- 
 searches which are more immediately connected with the pecu- 
 liar position of our society at the capital of these still happy and 
 united States. Fortunately, we are established not only at the 
 seat of their General Government, but not remote fi-om the 
 great marts of commerce; surrounded, at no inconvenient dis- 
 tances, with extensive libraries and flourishing literary institu- 
 tions ; near the centre between the northern and southern frontier 
 
8 
 
 of our extended Union, as well as at the real centre of intercom- 
 munication for foreigners of distinction, and for the army, navy, 
 legislators, judiciary, and travellers of every grade and character. 
 Hence, the opportunity enjoyed here which is greatest, and 
 which should be first and most sedulously improved, is to render 
 complete the history of our own Government, in all its general 
 operations under our present constitution. Here are the records, 
 and the most ready access to correspondence, in connection with 
 so cardinal an object. Much has been already done in several 
 publications in this city to throw light on the formation of the 
 existing system as well as on the official proceedings under the 
 old confederation which preceded it. No small gratitude is due 
 to several now within sound of my voice, for their laudable 
 exertions to enlighten the present generation, on the ability and 
 untiring patriotism displayed in the legislation, diplomacy, and 
 wars, not only of the Revolution but the few years immediately 
 succeeding. (Note B.) 
 
 But, if we duly cherish our own reputation, and aspire to meet 
 the just expectations of the rest of the Union, we ought to 
 exhaust every remaining source of historical illustration on such 
 important points. Further and without doubt successful efforts 
 can be made to exhibit the true causes and consequences of the 
 leading measures of that age of trial, and to give to the interesting 
 events which have followed, under the General Government, even 
 to the present times, their true "form and pressure." On this 
 point much is justly expected from the manuscripts of the vene- 
 rated Madison, whose immediate, elevated, and long agency in 
 those political scenes, gave him opportunities of knowledge pos- 
 sessed by few, if any others. Considering the violent party agita- 
 tions which have prevailed during most of that period ; the history 
 of it, if left to accident or prejudice ; to only single-handed effort, 
 one-sided knowledge, and one-eared justice ; to the mere passions 
 of the moment, or the calumnies, colourings, and distortions of the 
 day ; other nations would be led to form very unfavorable views 
 of the character and tendencies of our Government, and pos- 
 terity would be tempted most unjustly to believe, but for the 
 host of blessings transmitted to them, that their fathers were 
 
little better than the "convicts" they have so often been called 
 in reproach by some of their vrorthless libellers. 
 
 Let it then become a prominent part of our duty as members 
 of this society, to strip from the statue of Truth all such mere- 
 tricious and false disguises. Let it not be said of us, when in- 
 quirers for facts, as Aristophanes describes the Athenians, 
 
 ♦' No matter what the offence, 
 
 «♦ Be't great or small, 
 
 " The cry is tyranny, conspiracy." 
 
 But, when we enter the sacred temple of History, let us put 
 off the partisan of the day, whether in religion or politics, as 
 well as discard our favorite theories of philosophy and political 
 economy, and seek faithfully to do justice to the most calum- 
 niated. 
 
 Let us strive to correct mistakes in fact; remove errors in 
 opinion ; preserve important discoveries and arts from perversion 
 or loss ; illustrate the dark and doubtful in character, and preserve 
 from the corroding tooth of Time every thing among us which 
 may be useful and honorable to the land of our birth and adop- 
 tion as well as to the human race. In this last undertaking, 
 acting in some degree as impartial judges on the bench of pos- 
 terity, we should investigate with ermine unsoiled, and with all 
 those lofty attributes worthy the goddess who holds the equal 
 scales among mortals. 
 
 Hence our scrutiny cannot be pushed too wide or too far. 
 We must take neither Catholic nor Protestant accounts of reli- 
 gious events, neither federal nor republican views of political 
 measures and motives, without due allowance for prejudice, and 
 due comparisons of probabilities and conflicting testimonials. 
 In fine, we should hold the mirror up to facts and nature alone, 
 and invoke every just and honorable feeling to aid us in judg- 
 ment on the long array of the past. 
 
 The particular topics of inquiry in this branch of our history 
 are so numerous that, notwithstandmg their interest to many, the 
 fear of being tedious must prevent me from presenting a special 
 enumeration of them. (Note C.) 
 
 The next most appropriate object of research, and which is 
 
10 
 
 intimately connected with the other as a ramification of it, would 
 be the progress of our foreign relations, whether on this or the 
 Eastern continent. All the archives in relation to them are 
 peculiarly connected with the capital of the Union, and the means 
 afforded here for the correction of errors, by intercourse with 
 the distinguished representatives of other Powers, or by corres- 
 pondence at home and abroad with persons able to communicate 
 valuable information, are unequalled. 
 
 United with this are extraordinary facilities for throwing more 
 light on our early history while dependent on some of those 
 Powers, and of drawing from their official records, through their 
 courteousness and liberality, much that may be useful, not only 
 in respect to our general concerns, but the local annals of vari- 
 ous States on this continent, of whatever foreign origin. 
 
 To all these could be very appropriately added, at this central 
 point, collections of specimens in botany, mineralogy, and con- 
 chology, as well as in several other branches of natural history. 
 Our treasures of marl and of lime, from shells and stones, which 
 may thus be explored and flung open to profitable use in agri- 
 culture and the arts, are probably unrivalled. 
 
 The whole range of Indian history, and the illustration of it 
 by their relics and traditions, come likewise most naturally with- 
 in our appropriate province, situated at the centre of the civil 
 control over Indian concerns, and at the common point of resort 
 and intercommunication for every important tribe. 
 
 What was the origin of these numerous tenants of our forests? 
 What were once their arts ? What do their overgrown mounds 
 and scattered fragments of ruined cities, their romantic traditions, 
 and, among the wildest, some recently given to the world by the 
 enterprising Catlin — what do these and the hidden lore in their 
 singular languages and scattered hieroglyphics and paintings 
 indicate ? What do their historical wampums — their mysterious 
 quipos or Peruvian knots develop to the patient inquirer ? 
 
 What do they all teach of their destinies in by-gone times, 
 when they had neither well-balanced government nor the art of 
 printing to preserve the annals and grandeur of their various 
 careers ? 
 
u 
 
 What disasters drove or what advantages tempted them to 
 erect cities on heights of the Andes, above the tops of the 
 loftiest mountains in our own regions ? When and what earth- 
 quakes or other physical convulsions, by winds and tides, may 
 have separated this great continent from Europe, Asia, or Africa ? 
 What false or bloody religions may have depressed and deluded 
 them ? What inscrutable doom has hung and still hangs over their 
 decay and dispersion ? 
 
 Such inquiries as these, if less useful to provide historical 
 materials to advance the prosperity of this and future ages, are 
 yet objects of liberal curiosity, and debts of gratitude and jus- 
 tice, if not of atonement, in some cases, due to the races which 
 preceded us in these fair and fertile regions. Amid the atrocities 
 almost inseparable from the condition of savage life, those races 
 frequently displayed great hospitality and heroic devotion to our 
 fathers. Their history, thus far, has been too often written only 
 by enemies ; and when, as sometimes is the fact, the authors 
 were smarting under their barbarities, frankness requires us to 
 admit that they have occasionally proved unjust if not vindictive. 
 
 If King Philip, the great Sachem of Pokanoket, could have 
 stood on the summit of Mount Hope and stretched his eyes over 
 the rich rivers and beautiful bays of his Narraganset dominions, 
 and not have sighed at abandoning them, nor amid stifled regrets 
 and pangs at parting, have fought to defend them, he would 
 have been unworthy his station, and have justly deserved the 
 execrations of history. 
 
 We, ourselves, may yet learn useful admonitions from the 
 annals of even such savage examples, if well considered ; and 
 be proud while lamenting, as we ought, their ignorance, supersti- 
 tions, and cruelty, if we, when menaced by invasion from abroad, 
 or by intestine divisions at home, may be able to imitate the ex- 
 hortations and sacrifices to union, the bravery and prudence, if 
 not, in some respects, lofty patriotism of such men as Philip and 
 Tecumseh ! 
 
 But my main purpose on the present occasion is to advert 
 more folly to some of the deductions and influences to be de- 
 rived from historical researches like those previously alluded to, 
 
12 
 
 and pursued, with the spirit enjoined, into the true character of 
 American affairs in general, and especially of our own Govern- 
 ment and people. The lessons of wisdom which our annals, 
 when rightly read, are thus inculcating, constitute t'heir rtiost 
 conspicuous excellence. 
 
 It is thus that history becomes the useful schoolmaster of 
 every age. Its pupils are the living — its lessons the monuments 
 of the dead, in the record of their principles and their deeds. 
 Their virtues are held up for adoption ; their vices for abhorrence ; 
 their errors for correction and warning ; their glory in arts or 
 arms, in literature, in the sciences, or government, for admiration 
 and useful emulation. 
 
 What then has been the peculiar influence of the events 
 which have transpired here since Columbus daringly turned the 
 prow of his vessel into an unknown ocean, and first beheld the 
 shores of a new world darkening the horizon ? Or even since 
 the pilgrim fathers stepped on the rocky beach of the East ? Or 
 the chivalrous Smith landed at Jamestown, surrounded by a new 
 and admiring race ? 
 
 What has been the result on America itself? What on Eu- 
 rope ? What on the world at large ? 
 
 In tracing these inquiries into minute details, it is useful to 
 seek all which has been disclosed that is important as to com- 
 merce and the arts, or letters and arms, and the various and 
 splendid works of nature, as well as human rights and govern- 
 ment, and the last and best hopes of man in religion and the 
 future improvement of our race. In brief, we may ask. What 
 does history teach us has been the true philosophy of the whole ? 
 
 By the discovery of a continent, before unknown, there burst 
 upon the numerous races inhabiting its forests, the knowledge, 
 so marvellous to their untutored minds, of the existence of the 
 Eastern hemisphere, and of a people whose civilization made 
 them appear at first to be demi-gods. This was soon followed 
 by some faint conception of the useful character of the reviving 
 letters, as well as of a religion, calculated, one would have 
 supposed, if properly diffused, not to lead to the extirpation, 
 conquest, or degradation of the aborigines, but rather to their 
 
13 
 
 elevation to all which might rival the loftiest and best in the 
 old world. 
 
 It might at that crisis have been fairly hoped that the change 
 on the Indians themselves would have been more salutary and 
 glorious than even on the Europeans. But, notwithstanding the 
 brilliant visions which illuminated their horizon, history has blast- 
 ed almost every fond anticipation indulged, and has presented the 
 destinies of the former inhabitants of the new continent under 
 almost one indiscriminate and total eclipse. It is true that Eliot 
 and "the good Las Casas" early preached the cross of Christ 
 among them. A Brainard and others have since perished in the 
 cause of Indian reform, burning with enthusiasm to cast down 
 their false gods. Schools have been sometimes established among 
 them ; agriculture and the arts often encouraged. But a deso- 
 lating blight seems to have spread over the whole native race, 
 crushing the expectations of the philanthropist, saddening the 
 heart of the Christian, and almost extinguishing further hopes of 
 great benefits from those exertions which a sense of duty and the 
 calls of humanity still prompt us to persevere in making. 
 
 Mortifying as this has been to the pride of more enlightened 
 human reason, and a purer rehgion, engaged in the civilization of 
 the savages, it is almost equally mortifying that few can agree 
 about the principal causes of these repeated failures. Probably 
 they have been many and various, (note D,) but the discussion 
 of them would occupy much space ; and, amid all the errors and 
 wrongs as well as commendable efforts of two or three centuries 
 on this lamentable subject, the only useful deduction from then: 
 history which time will now permit me to notice, is, that before 
 any thing permanently beneficial can be effected for them, above 
 all, and beyond all, must they be induced to co-operate together, 
 and, burying former animosities and revenges, to unite heartily 
 as one people, in all the great general relations of society. 
 
 This alone will afford leisure, taste, and resources for real civi- 
 lization. They have long been a living monument, we will not 
 say of the judgments oi Heaven, but certainly of the folly conse- 
 quent on divisions among the same race into paltry tribes, and 
 like most of the clans of olden time, wasting their mutual means 
 
14 
 
 and energies in mutual aggression, instead of finding leisure or 
 cherishing propensities for the pursuits of peace and national 
 improvement. 
 
 Perhaps, in the wisdom of Providence, they have in this 
 respect been designed as beacons to warn us from the paths of 
 division and ruin ; and the best philosophy of their history to us, 
 and the most useful lesson to be extracted from it for them, is 
 probably the importance, not only of suitable education in arts 
 as well as in letters, but of union in governments, and union in 
 efforts for cbmmon prosperity, rather than a bhnd indulgence in 
 jealousies of each other, and a preseverance equally relentless 
 and fatal in border hostilities ? 
 
 But, leaving the influence of Europe upon the original inhabi- 
 tants of America, their past fortunes, as well as future prospects, 
 what weal or wo does history prove that the discovery of this 
 country has in return been the means of conferring on the rest 
 of mankind. 
 
 It would be extremely difficult to calculate with accuracy 
 either the stimulus or expansion given to the human mind 
 wherever civilization prevailed, by only the announcement of 
 the ascertained existence of a new world. Imagination had be- 
 fore painted some islands in the blue West, like the Atlantides of 
 Plato ! Tradition, in the North, if not history, had also spoken 
 of Greenland, and such emigrations as that of Madock from 
 Wales, to regions remote and unknown. 
 
 Notwithstanding the denunciations of the Vatican, astronomy 
 too had dared to speculate on the formation and character of the 
 earth as a planet, so as to fill such souls as Columbus with 
 enthusiasm for the search of new continents, or new routes to 
 older and distant kingdoms. But now fancy, fable, hypothesis, 
 tradition, were all to be lost in a glorious and astounding reality ! 
 A new world, vast in extent, abundant in population, and gor- 
 geous with fertility and gold, was laid open to the admiring eyes 
 of the Eastern hemisphere ! What rich themes for the historian ! 
 What a range for the geographer, naturalist, and adventurer ! 
 What visions for the poet ! What fresh incentives and materials 
 for commerce ! What a theatre for the philanthropist ! • 
 
15 
 
 In the more rapid revival of literature and wonderful extension 
 of foreign trade, but still more in the progress of wealth and 
 intelligence among the lower classes, as well as of political rights, 
 and a reformed religion over considerable portions of Europe, 
 since that magnificent discovery, no doubt exists that much is 
 justly to be ascribed to the influences derived from that remarka- 
 ble event. Especially must it be so if coupled with the subse- 
 quent exploration and settlement of America, thus including her 
 bright example since, as well as her strong impulses at first. 
 
 Beside the general expansion, influences, and impulses thus 
 imparted almost every where and to every subject or pursuit, 
 many important articles of commerce were flung open to the 
 Eastern world, and some useful seeds, plants, and animals were 
 transferred to improve and enrich the great discoverers. 
 
 A single American vegetable, the humble potato, has alone 
 more than repaid Europe, in real wealth and comfort, for all the 
 expenses of the discovery, and seems destined to prove a greater 
 blessing to mankind than the whole of the precious ores, which 
 attracted so strongly the first voyagers, or which have since 
 been drawn from the prolific mines of the South. 
 
 But, such topics sink in importance before those improvements 
 in the civil and political condition of mankind which have be- 
 come the great characteiistic as well as glory of this Western 
 hemisphere. Certain it is, that, from the first visit to its shores, 
 or, at all events, from the earliest durable occupation of the ter- 
 ritory which now composes these United States, America was 
 regarded by many as peculiar in its destinies, in connexion with 
 the governments east of the Atlantic, and as fitted, from its dis- 
 tance, attractions, and resources, if not in time to react upon 
 and regenerate Europe itself, at least to drain it of some of its 
 most useful population, and become the asylum of the perse- 
 cuted and oppressed of all nations. 
 
 Whatever may have been the comparative physical powers of 
 its native inhabitants, and whether its vast territory, mountains, 
 rivers, and lakes— its condors and mammoths — were diminutive, 
 and hence, as BufFon and some others supposed, the European 
 man was likely to degenerate here, it is hardly necessary at this 
 
16 
 
 day to discuss. Notwithstanding any such impressions then, this 
 country soon became, not only a refuge for the distressed, whe- 
 ther driven into exile by the ordinary calamities of social life, or 
 by fanaticism, bigotry, and intolerance in religion, or by the vin- 
 dictive bitterness of political hostility, but the chosen abode of 
 myriads of the best and bravest spirits of that chivalrous age. 
 In taunts, by our defamers, we have since been often vilified as 
 a ** colony of outcasts," whose " Adam and Eve emigrated firom 
 Newgate." But, yielding that a very few, as in all new countries 
 may sometimes have " strayed in error's path," yet^ the great 
 mass emigrating hither are well known to have been the enlight- 
 ened and patriotic — such men as " know their rights, and knowing 
 dare maintain ;" having equal readiness and fitness in both body 
 and mind to encounter the perils of inclement seas, fi:ozen 
 shores, and ferocious savages, rather than submit longer to the 
 endurance of the bitter oppressions inflicted on them in Europe 
 by the parasites of power and the tyrants who upheld them. 
 
 In brief, as history has amply shown by their wonderful suc- 
 cess, they were men suited not only at first to subdue a wilder- 
 ness and cope triumphantly with barbarians, but afterwards to 
 wage a victorious struggle with bigotry, persecution, and usurpa- 
 tion, from their former homes. It is true, and their descendants 
 have never otherwise pretended, that not many of them were 
 devotees of the fine arts, or the fashionable, or the titled, fix)m the 
 purlieus of St. James's or Versailles. Without derogating from 
 the proper merits of any of these classes in their proper spheres, 
 or under other political systems, our ancestors are conceded to 
 have been mostly homines res agenda, — ^men truly fitted and 
 thoroughly devoted to the practical affairs of life. But it must 
 not be forgotten that they were, at the same time, men intelli- 
 gent and intrepid in matters of government and religion, as well 
 as in ordinary business ; and being so, that they were such men 
 as ought to, and will, by their unconquerable constancy and skill, 
 not only advance their fortunes and foil opposition, but virtually 
 govern the world, whenever the world is enlightened, moral, 
 and fi:ee. 
 
 They will do this, not because ambitious and designing, but 
 
17 
 
 because best qualified to defend the hearth and the altar when in 
 jeopardy, and, by useful arts and honest industry as well as by 
 arras, to build great and prosperous communities. Like The- 
 mistocles, they and many of their descendants could proudly say, 
 ** I am unable to play on the flute, but I know how to make a 
 large state from a small one." Humble as some of their general 
 traits of character may appear to many, the history of passing 
 events, as well as of the past, shows that their labors have not 
 been lost on Europe any more than on America, and that, by 
 means of them the latter has gradually become not only the 
 land of plenty, but of promise, to large portions of the other 
 empires of the earth. 
 
 From Cromwell and Hampden, who attempted in vain to 
 emigrate hither ; and firom Locke and Berkeley, who generously 
 labored to improve our institutions, as well as from the numbers^ 
 whether Independents, Huguenots, or Catholics, who, undaunted, 
 actually encountered every physical suffering to escape from 
 what were considered worse evils at home of a religious and 
 political character — from their whole heroic efforts, sacrifices, and 
 triumphs, a sphrit or a change in society has moved over the face 
 of this great continent, and at last recrossed the Atlantic. 
 
 It is now pervading the best parts of the old world, and though, 
 since the discovery of America, it has been much assisted by 
 lessons derived from antiquity, and much by the arts, and princi- 
 ples, of several modem nations in Western Europe, calculated to 
 renovate and improve, yet this great change has been more 
 emphatically and immediately the result of exertions, experi- 
 ments, and example here. 
 
 This spirit or change relates chiefly to the wider diffusion of 
 civil and religious liberty. 
 
 The peculiar teachings of our history consist chiefly in point- 
 ing out the causes and preservatives of this spirit, its peculiari- 
 ties, its proper limitations and guards, its consequences in benefits 
 and glories, its perils, securities, and hopes ! 
 
 A few words as to some of its causes. When we look back 
 to the great experiment which has been moving onward here for 
 two centuries, it is at once discovered that httle of our success 
 3 
 
18 
 
 has depended on physical advantages. The Southern portions 
 of this continent have exhibited as mighty rivers, as fertile plains, 
 and lofty mountains, and genial climates, as in the North and 
 West ; and, without wishing to draw comparisons either invidious 
 or derogatory, we are forced to trace the differences of progress 
 in arts, power, and government, to much higher sources. 
 
 In truth, the causes of the great changes now under consider- 
 ation have been imbedded much deeper in mind than in matter, 
 and been accompanied by some of the most remarkable moral 
 phenomena since the creation. 
 
 The condition of many of the first settlers here led them at 
 once to commence, if it did not impose on them the necessity of 
 a thorough course of training for self-government. Hence, most 
 of their rulers were, from the first, voluntarily chosen, and it was 
 not till some stability in business and progress in wealth were 
 attained, chiefly by their own exertions, that many of the colonial 
 establishments were deemed of sufficient importance to tempt 
 from abroad the interference of much regulation, domination, and 
 persecution, in the shape of government. But the neglected 
 condition of the first establishments ; the daring character of the 
 early emigrants; their habits of self-possession and self-legis- 
 lation for most exigencies ; the entire freedom of thought, 
 feeling and opinions they gradually cherished, and the feebleness 
 of delegated power when imposed from so great a distance as 
 Europe, kept up a constant education for independence, which 
 must, without any temerity, or a tax on tea, or the odium of 
 stamp duties, have been consummated on some other early 
 occasion, whenever sufficient strength and numbers were ob- 
 tained, and any slightf provocation occurred to cause an explo- 
 sion. " Coming events" had for some time " cast their shadow 
 before." Their institutions and habits had made men bold, but 
 not bad ; hardy, intelligent, equal, plain-dealing, and just, though 
 enterprising and shrewd ; had promoted the employment of the 
 faculties in useful action rather than the embellishment of them, 
 and had reared gallant soldiers, intelligent farmers, industrious 
 and scientific mechanics, and practical lawyers for leaders, rather 
 than mere scholars, or only the sometimes weak inheritors of 
 office. 
 
19 
 
 Such leaders, too, were not simply the Brutuses or Catos of 
 antiquity, but they were the compatriots of multitudes imbued 
 like themselves with greater useful knowledge, with a higher 
 code of morals and purer religion, and with faculties sharpened 
 and strengthened by the experience in government and improve- 
 ment in arts of two thousand more years. 
 
 The institutions established, as well as the principles cherished, 
 all, therefore, tended to a new, radical, and great result. Unlike 
 most other people in their origin, they experienced here no long 
 infancy of ignorance, or barbarism, but at once started into being, 
 elevated by and enjoying the aid of all the useful improvements 
 as well as learning and morals of the most civilized nations of the 
 known world. 
 
 It is manifest, likewise, that they brought with them, early as 
 on board the May Flower, or late as the arrival of Penn, the 
 elements of future resistance to every species of tyranny over 
 the human mind. Though some of their views were yet crude, 
 and, as might be expected, all the rights of man were not so 
 well understood as after the struggles and popular victories of 
 two more centuries ; still, the stern resolve to be no longer " a 
 mere shadow of what others say anddo," in either politics, reli- 
 gion, or manners, had distinctly appeared in the very causes of 
 the emigration of most of them. The increasing wealth, as well 
 as education and rights of the lower classes in portions of Europe, 
 had previously, though gradually, been developing there for one 
 or two centuries, under every species of thraldom from official 
 opposition in most of her monarchical government?. A settle- 
 ment in America presented not only an asylum to those classes 
 when wronged, whether persecuted for opinion or cloven down 
 in some contest for freedom at home, but a theatre on which 
 their theoretic views of liberty of conscience, and equal rights, 
 removed so far from the strong arm of despotic power, would 
 sooner be allowed a fair trial, without incurring the danger of 
 martyrdom, or of perishing on the scaffold with such men as 
 Sidney, Russel, and Vane. It was more distant, also, from the 
 blandishments, the wiles, and the seductive appliances of a court, 
 and was soon surrounded and sustained chiefly by spirits of a 
 
o 
 
 
 
 kindred training with their own. But, without dwelling longer 
 on such details, the general features of our whole history previous 
 to the Revolution, evince that America, besides being a retreat 
 for the persecuted, was regarded at first and to the last as a 
 favored abode of the hardy and industrious, and the peculiar 
 resort, not of dignitaries in church or state, or drones of any 
 kind, but of those devoted to new enterprises and lucrative 
 commerce, and who would dare to settle on a cold, inhospitable, 
 and iron-bound coast, as readily as on the sunny and fertile 
 banks of the Delaware, the Savannah, or the Mississippi, if 
 they could but plant quiet and free homes among the snow and 
 granite, and fish up a profitable livelihood from the depths of the 
 ocean — trap the beaver among his mountains and lakes, or hunt 
 the whale with success at either the equator or the poles. In 
 fine, whether at the North, the Centre, or the South, it was con- 
 sidered the home, as it is now the glory chiefly of the middling 
 and laborious classes. These classes, accustomed to rely on 
 their own energies in private life, and smarting under taxation, 
 intolerance, and monopolies, in their former abodes, aspired to 
 breathe the freer air of some other region, where, though remote, 
 unfi:iended, and solitary — though strangers at first, and environed 
 by almost every species of peril, they might be governed in 
 public life also, by their own judgments, as well as by their own 
 interests and useful laws. Most of the emigrants, and their 
 descendants, were likewise persons very equal in rank, business, 
 property, and education, and such mainly as felt the strongest 
 attachment to the great republican doctrines of liberty, as taught 
 by the school of Harrington and Hampden. Above all, they 
 were men deeply impressed with religious principle as a guide, 
 a»d their constant efforts were to acquire for themselves, and 
 transmit, unimpaired, to others, a full knowledge of their duties, 
 no less than a full enjoyment of their rights and powers, as 
 being free, enlightened, accountable, and immortal. ' In these 
 last circumstances are concentrated two cardinal and conservative 
 principles of then* whole system. They are the principles which, 
 fundamental in their nature, chiefly sustained them before, as well 
 as during, the crisis of the great struggle for independence, and 
 
21 
 
 which have since contributed most essentially to push forward 
 our country with such rapidity to its present unexampled condi- 
 tion of prosperity. Those principles were the promotion and 
 indispensable necessity, under their free institutions, of a high 
 degree of practical education and sound morals. Without these, 
 whatever other numerous advantages our ancestors possessed 
 in their Saxon origin — their general equality — soils so exu- 
 berant—fisheries so polific, and navigable waters so extensive, 
 they either would have been incapable of self-government, from 
 ignorance of the true extent of their rights and the proper safe- 
 guards for them by means of suitable Constitutions and laws ; or 
 they would have become so impracticable, divided, and weak, as 
 to have passed under a foreign yoke. Or they would have 
 proved so unprincipled and craven as to have bartered the sub- 
 stance for the shadow, and accepted, at the Revolution, if not 
 chains, yet an unequal compromise with the parent country, for 
 the aggrandizement of a few, which would have forever branded 
 them with dishonor. Or since, as well as previously, they would, 
 without just pretence, have made claims and resorted to ferocious 
 outrages on individuals or feebler nations, from whatever cause 
 obnoxious, which would have destroyed the confidence of the 
 world in their integrity, and, if not leading to counter revolutions 
 or restorations, would probably have wrecked many of their 
 most valuable institutions. But, elevated and ameliorated by 
 those principles, they were always men as different from Romulus 
 and Remus, and their wolfish aggressions on the neighboring 
 people, and from the Barbarossas of more modern eras, as were 
 the Christian from the Pagan codes of morals, or the nature of 
 the education of the Puritans from that of banditti and buc- 
 caneers. 
 
 Nor ever since (we may justly exult) has the spirit of plunder 
 or conquest been allowed to stain a single page of our annals. 
 On the contrary, we see every where, and in every thing, the 
 astonishing results of that practical education, and those sound 
 morals, operating on a people so fortunately situated. From the 
 very outset it taught them the importance not only of free 
 schools, libraries, and colleges, as means or instruments for ad- 
 
22 
 
 vancement — but what precedes even them in time and utility — 
 strict parental discipline at the fire-side, thorough acquisition of 
 trades and professions, and the beneficial instructions of the 
 pulpit and the forum. • 
 
 It taught them also to make actual experiments as well as im- 
 provements on what had already been learned, or, in some sense, 
 to combine study and practice, by mingling in the administration 
 of justice as jurors ; exercising fearlessly the right of voting at the 
 polls ; and all, or nearly all, taking a constant and legal, as well 
 as large part in the management of those miniature republics, 
 consisting of districts and towns, as well as in the disposal of 
 county and state affairs. 
 
 Their system of free-schools was generally one of the strong- 
 est foundation-stones of the whole fabric ; and we can trace in 
 their legislative records, the establishment of them as early as the 
 first twenty-five years of their settlement. Most persons, though 
 childless, wisely considered their property and persons so fully 
 protected and benefited by the education of the children of 
 others, as to make the tax for this purpose just and salutary. 
 This system, in various ways, is believed to have since extended 
 its ramifications or influences over most of the Union ; and 
 though in some States yet unattempted in form, and in many yet 
 deficient in attention to inculcate the elements of great moral and 
 political truths as fully as a knowledge of mere letters, it has, 
 with admirable retributive justice, called to its aid, in other 
 States, all the taxes and penalties inflicted on the minor vices of 
 society. (Note E.) 
 
 But, besides these and much more of details connected with 
 the origin and progress of elementary education here, and which 
 however interesting, want of time compels me to omit, our his- 
 tory exhibits a favorable change of late years on the subject of 
 books of useful knowledge, in their greater cheapness and multi- 
 plicity, as well as increased practical tendency. 
 
 The libraries of this country, whether public or private, are 
 also becoming larger and more valuable, and the progress of 
 invention by stereotype printing, by improvements in the manu- 
 facture of paper, and by steam presses, has contributed much to 
 
23 
 
 facilitate the acquisition of knowledge, for both the ordinary and 
 more select purposes of life. The daily press has thus become 
 another most powerful auxiliary in teaching ; and the number of 
 newspapers in America is computed to have increased so as to 
 be more than half as great as that which the wealth, popula- 
 tion, and intelligence of the whole of Europe now circulate. 
 While on some subjects all mankind feel and act much alike, our 
 ancestors were wisely aware that a conventional mode of think- 
 ing on others is often formed very early, and in great strength, 
 by books and associates. 
 
 Hence arose in part their great sagacity, foresight, and dili- 
 gence in respect to early education ; and thus, while in the view 
 of the unlettered Indian, we, as they did, by our system of edu- 
 cation, spoil his children for the chase and the inclination for 
 interminable and ferocious war, we shall, it is to be hoped, always 
 continue by means of it to spoil our own children for most of 
 the purposes of either sloth, slavery, or despotism ; and while, 
 by proper elementary works, by competent teachers, and liberal 
 pecuniary encouragement, we shall be able to point in every 
 village school to such spoiled children as our Franklins and Han- 
 cocks once were, a constant progress will be secured, as well in 
 the useful arts of life as in the preservation and improvement of 
 our liberties. 
 
 In another branch of common instruction this country has 
 advanced so far beyond most others, as to become a model for 
 foreigners to examine and imitate. Thus, under the influence of 
 just sentiments of humanity for even the lowest of our erring 
 race, some of the States, and many private associations, have 
 pushed education, literary and religious, not only into the alms- 
 house, but the very cell of the criminal — and while enuring the 
 body to habits of useful industry and accustoming the appetites 
 to temperance, it has been attempted to superadd hopes of 
 durable reformation, by increasing the knowledge of the rights 
 of others, and strengthening the sense of duty to respect these 
 rights. The means of higher education have likewise long 
 existed here, and of late been much enlarged, though, for 
 reasons hereafter detailed, they have usually been deemed of 
 
24 
 
 secondary importance. Our practical intelligence always taught 
 us to rely on the skilful surgeon rather than the mechanic, for 
 amputating a broken limb ; and though the mere literary classes 
 have rather been regarded as the capital or ornament of the 
 column than the column itself, which supports the social edifice, 
 their labors have done much to solace, refine, and stimulate 
 others, and often, as in the case of Davy and Napier, Black and 
 Newton, have helped essentially to advance even the common 
 arts and improvements of mankind. 
 
 Sound learning and true liberty have thus justly been descri- 
 bed as leaning on each other for support ; and if any tendency 
 has ever been indulged here in public feeling towards any kind 
 of monarchy, it has been as much the real, though unacknow- 
 ledged monarchy of the learned professions and men of letters, as 
 of the middling classes. The evident leaning, however, of the 
 former class, has of late been, as they become more numerous, 
 to spread wider among the latter, and to mingle more intimately 
 with them, in practical studies and active pursuits, so as to begin 
 to form rather a real republic of letters, more broad and equal, 
 like our civil rights, and higher in the estimation of the whole 
 community. All its members are thus more inclined to be, and 
 to be acknowledged as actual worJcing men, in their appropriate 
 'spheres ; nor do most of them deem it at all derogatory to labor 
 there quite as hard as those who guide the plough or wield the 
 sledge and hammer. 
 
 If it be asked why our history has not been more prolific in 
 institutions well calculated to aid in attainments of the very high- 
 est character in polite literature and the severe sciences, and 
 what have been the consequences on our national character, and 
 the progress of society here ? we answer, that, without detracting 
 at all firom the utility of these pursuits, in proper circumstances, 
 and by people of affluence or leisure, it must be manifest (and 
 no American need blush at the acknowledgment) that the whole 
 fabric of our political system has been, and still is, in respect to 
 education, founded on the difiusion of elementary knowledge 
 more widely among the people at large, rather than on the pro- 
 motion of greater acquirements within narrow limits. It seeks 
 
25 • 
 
 likewise, to bring infbnnation immediately useful to every door, 
 and to tempt all to listen and learn, rather than to carry what 
 is abstruse or ornamental into the higher circles alone, or to 
 encourage those pursuits which, by their elegance or refinement 
 in taste, are calculated principally to amuse the learned or fash- 
 ionable, or to employ the leisure of the wealthy in an old and 
 dense population. 
 
 This policy has been better suited to our youthful and equal 
 institutions. It comported well with our condition in regard 
 to the cultivation of vast and fertile regions of territory yet 
 unimproved, and with a rapidly-increasing population, requiring 
 first to be supplied with sound practical information on political 
 rights and duties, with agricultural skill, and with manufactures 
 and mechanic arts of prime necessity. Hence, though science, 
 here as elsewhere, has more than once " walked the fiirrow with 
 the consul swain," yet, in the first instance, and no astonishment 
 need be entertained abroad at the fact, we have generally (and 
 commendably) been much more eager to become good axemen, 
 ploughmen, and swordsmen than mere book-men. We have 
 been more ambitious in such a stage of our national career to fill 
 the hive of industry with new swarms, ready to distil honey and 
 defend it, rather than to consume it. What have been some of 
 the most striking consequences from this policy concerning edu- 
 cation and equality of rights, as exhibited in our history, and 
 more especially in later years? The whole mind of society, 
 instead of the intellects of a few, has thus been excited. We 
 have, in one sense, fostered a levelling principle ; but it has been 
 to level up, rather than down — ^by raising the low, rather than 
 lowering the high. 
 
 The general influence of such a system has been to promote 
 utility, instead of ornament or display ; to ask the cui bono as to 
 every project, private or public ; to advance the comforts rather 
 than the luxuries of life ; to gratify the wants of the many rather 
 than the caprices of the few ; to carry " plenty through a smiling 
 land" to every fireside, rather than the means of voluptuousness 
 to the rich alone ; to improve morals, school the feelings severe- 
 ly, and respect the decencies of society, more than embellish 
 4 
 
26 
 
 manners ; to encourage simplicity of life, directness of purpose, 
 and purity as well as manliness and inflexibility of conduct ; to 
 strengthen rather than to polish, even at the risk sometimes of 
 roughness, if not ixideness ; and in lieu of effeminacy or an ex- 
 traordinary mass of mental acquirements, to promote decision of 
 character, and secure to all the perfect knowledge and use of a 
 few great and simple truths in politics, religion, and civil rights, 
 so as in all respects to form useful, " high-minded men," instead 
 of " starred and spangled courts." 
 
 History show^s that the public policy forced on us by the same 
 salutary influences, has been to cultivate peace, commerce, and 
 mutual benevolence with all nations, rather than to indulge in 
 arms or conquest, and to rely on reason and justice for our rights 
 more than on the arts of diplomacy or the ultima ratio regum. 
 But, at the same time, we have done this without hazarding any 
 unwise neglect of the latter, or declining a resort to force when 
 required by honor or duty — reason before arms, but arms before 
 disgrace. It shows, also, that though originally planted in most 
 cases amidst idolatry and heathenism, we became, by the surpas- 
 sing excellence of our political systems, as far removed from the 
 propagation, by Mahometan violence, of the divine tenets of the 
 Bible, though anxious peacefully to send them for the conversion 
 of all nations, as we are removed from the fierce Corsair spirit of 
 plunder, or the lust of warlike empire, which have so often 
 inflamed and devastated much of the earth. 
 
 Hence have sprung our leisure, taste, and success in such 
 numerous improvements in the arts of common life. In the best 
 and widest pursuit of man, what various experiments on new 
 seeds, crops, and dressings, on new farming-tools and new 
 domestic animals, have penetrated almost every glade and moun- 
 tain, and threaded almost every stream from the St. Croix to the 
 Sabine ! 
 
 Among the models which crowd our patent office — I should 
 say which once crowded it — that pride and emblem of Ameri- 
 can ingenuity whose recent loss we all deplore — the plough, the 
 barrow, the threshing-machine, the winnowing-raill, the hoe, and 
 the churn, with a myriad of other instruments, improved or 
 
27 
 
 invented to facilitate the various operations of agricultural in- 
 dustry, filled a large space, and showed strongly the practical 
 tendency to absorb here so great a share of intellectual exertion, 
 in the accomphshment of only useful results. How many have 
 thus achieved in substance what Swift pronounced to be more 
 praiseworthy than all the labors of mere politicians — the saluta- 
 ry, if not splendid improvement, of making two blades of grass 
 grow where only one grew before. 
 
 The mechanic arts, as connected with agriculture and manu- 
 factures, have also profited greatly by this general impulse of the 
 public mind. It is true that many of the greatest changes in the 
 machinery for spinning and weaving have originated elsewhere ; 
 but they have been readily adopted, and much improved, in this 
 country ; and, aided by the wonderful results from the cotton- 
 gin, whose invention and merits are exclusively American, have 
 caused an entire revolution in the household economy of many 
 of the States, and studded thousands of our waterfalls with 
 thrifty villages. Performing here, by machinery, in the cotton 
 manufactory alone, what a century ago would have required the 
 manual labor of at least twenty millions of people, v^e have with 
 avidity seized not only on that but all other labor-savmg inven- 
 tions, and done our full share in bettering and increasing what 
 has in various ways contributed nearly as much as the introduc- 
 tion of printing, or gunpowder, to advance the wealth, comfort, 
 inteUigence, and consequent privileges of the middling classes 
 among mankind. 
 
 The daughters of the mechanic or farmer, by such results, are 
 able to wear ornaments which royalty would once have envied, 
 and by other discoveries and improvements of a recent date, are 
 decked with laces fi:om our own sea-island cottons, of which both 
 the fineness and elegance exceed all, either known or fancied, by 
 the Sapphos or Cornelias of antiquity. The same impulse has 
 led us to push researches still more deeply into commercial 
 enterprises with distant regions — whether to the Frozen ocean, 
 '* the furthest Ind," or the isles of the Pacific ; and whether to 
 bring back rich returns for our ice and rocks in the East, or for 
 the abundant staples of the South. But, above all, after devi- 
 
28 
 
 sing numerous changes to facilitate intercourse at home by newly- 
 planned bridges and improved roads and canals, this impulse has 
 at last, as has been better said in substance elsewhere,* placed 
 upon them and on navigable waters, not only fleeter and more 
 capacious vehicles and vessels, but substituted for animal power 
 and sails, through American as well as English perseverance and 
 skill, an element which has outstripped the winds in speed, 
 almost annihilated time and space, and seems destined to advance 
 the progress of nearly every art which civilizes and enriches 
 man. 
 
 This new power has been taught, also, to enter the workshop 
 and manufactory, as well as to course roads, rivers, and oceans — 
 to speed the plough, the shuttle, and the spinning-wheel, as well 
 as empty docks, excavate harbors, and plunge into the deepest 
 mines. It is a curious historical fact that, though we are by 
 some denied the merit of having first applied steam with success 
 to navigation, and are confessedly a less numerous, less wealthy, 
 less commercial, and less scientific people than our competitors 
 for this great improvement, there are now upon our various 
 waters more than six hundred steamboats to their four or five 
 hundred, and, firom the large size of many of our vessels, a 
 greater excess in proportion of tonnage employed in steam navi- 
 gation. By the frigate Fulton, we were first, also, to apply it 
 to purposes of vvar, that great theatre where, perhaps, its greatest 
 powers may yet be developed. By a singular combination of 
 mechanical intelligence and skill, in several other instances we 
 have converted philosophy into a means of security as well as 
 wealth; and if Franklin, alone, had lived, and dared, as he 
 dared, and drawn, as he drew, the lightning of heaven harmless 
 fi-om the clouds, it would have been an epoch in useful inventions 
 and practical application of science to the safety of social life 
 which alone would have immortalized the country of his birth. 
 
 Why are these themes so exhilarating and so engrossing to an 
 American ? Not that he is boastful of being the discoverer of 
 more new powers than others, though he has succeeded in their 
 application to more new and useful purposes, and which last, 
 
 *_Edinburgh Review. 
 
29 
 
 Lord Bacon considered as almost equally commendable, while it 
 is manifestly quite as beneficial ; nor merely that he filled your 
 patent office with more than ten thousand models of inventions 
 and improvements — but that he has done those, and at the 
 same time successfully introduced numberless others, without 
 patents, and without hesitation, from a peculiar characteristic 
 of our people, growing out of their wide-spread and practical 
 education, evinced in their universal eagerness to better their 
 condition — in their constant aspirations for advancement in the 
 world — and in their readiness to adopt, at once, every advan- 
 tage within their grasp, from regions however remote. Van- 
 quishing all obstinate prejudices against novelty or innovation — 
 existing too often still in benighted monarchies, and aided by the 
 diversified origin of portions of our population, whether from the 
 British Islands, the Rhine, or the Alps, the Seine, the Baltic, or 
 the Tagus, our liberality and tolerating spirit have thus sought to 
 extract and cherish every excellence from every climate and 
 government, in every science and art. This flexibility of dispo- 
 sition, without servilely aping the habits of any one nation, has 
 contributed to convert the country into a sort of social Pantheon, 
 to receive within its limits the professed advantages of all other 
 people, and as recommended by the great author of the Novum 
 Organum, to bring them all ad eocperimentum cruds. 
 
 We are, in fact, the great laboratoiy of the world, to try 
 every doubtful substance in the crucible. 
 
 In this mode our progress in the useful arts as well as in gov- 
 ernment, has been much accelerated, without serious political 
 hazards or convulsions ; and our history has exhibited a feature 
 from which still higher hopes of advancement among us here- 
 after may, with propriety, be indulged. 
 
 Seizing, readily, on all the treasures scattered through the 
 records of the last six thousand years, or discovered and gleaned, 
 from time to time, by our enterprising commerce in every habi- 
 table quarter of the globe, we make the whole world, in some 
 degree, tributary to our progress. We take our stoves and 
 wooden pavements as quickly from Russia as our machinery 
 from England. We drink our tea as agreeably coming from the 
 
30 
 
 worshippers of the Grand Lama, on the opposite side of the 
 globe, as if we brought it from Brazil ; and find our drugs as 
 medicinal, and our figs as palatable from the Turk and the plains 
 of Troy, as if they grew in Florida or Mexico. 
 
 We have drawn likewise for supplies of national names and 
 examples, on Pagan as well as Christian — ancient as well as 
 modem — civilized and savage models, wherever we find any 
 thing deemed worthy of imitation. We seek all — visit all — 
 imitate all — trade with all. We only ask if benefits can be 
 received or conferred. In declaring our independence of foreign 
 control, we never regarded ourselves as independent of either 
 the commerce, arts, or literature of the great commonwealth of 
 all civilized people — nor independent, whether individually or 
 collectively, of the duties of kindness and reciprocal interchange 
 of advantages ; but rather independent of any political domina- 
 tion not freely established by ourselves, independent in our sys- 
 tems of legislation, independent in our modes of thought and 
 action, aiid independent, as it becomes us always to be, as well 
 as unmindful, of the frowns of the rest of the world, while con- 
 vinced that, in the cause of conferring the greatest good on the 
 greatest number, we are engaged in a cause which conscience 
 approves, and pursue it by means to which reason and virtue 
 have long given their sanction. But, conscious, from the spirit- 
 ual principle within, when not debased, that " men would be 
 angels," and are often rashly aspiring, one of the great excellen- 
 cies in our progress has been its general caution and moderation, 
 and its vigilance not to be misled by that ambitious and restless 
 principle. Though aiming at almost every thing — attempting 
 almost every thing — accomplishing almost every thing, practica- 
 ble, yet we have still been regulated by the severe training be- 
 fore alluded to — and have been restrained in most cases, however 
 much has been said and speculated to the contrary, from wasting 
 our resources and energies on impracticable schemes, attracted 
 merely by their splendor or novelty. Whether mere day dreams 
 of speculators as to moneyed enterprises at home, or enthusiastic 
 theories for new political crusades abroad have been urged upon 
 us, we have generally looked in all things to the cardinal test of 
 
31 
 
 utility and safety ; and, however the shore may be strewed with 
 occasional wrecks, the great mass of society have not usually 
 looked thus in vain. Trying if not exhausting most of all that 
 has yet been discovered — gleaning from all the known world — we 
 are now, by the Southern exploring expedition, if favorable op- 
 portunities offer, about to push still further our researches into un- 
 known latitudes — and if not adding to the treasures of science in 
 perfecting the researches of astronomers, geographers, and na- 
 turalists, at least to increase the extent and security of trade in old 
 if not new channels — on old if not new objects — and to perform 
 an act of justice to other nations in contributing our share to the 
 laudable efforts hitherto made by a number of them in the great 
 cause of discovery. At least we shall no longer be censured for 
 holding back our common exertions, common contributions, and 
 common sacrifices to advance the knowledge of the surface of 
 the earth, and in that way to improve our species. (Note F.) 
 
 This practical education, chastened and controlled as it has 
 been in most cases by sound morals, has in fact rendered our 
 history in many respects more like a picture of the imagination 
 than a representation of real life, as man has existed in other 
 ages and under different institutions. 
 
 Far be it from me to be understood as supposing that there 
 has been no new impulse imparted elsewhere to the arts, or to 
 human rights since Vandal irruptions have ceased to overwhelm 
 nations, and that no salutary progress is making abroad in ma- 
 ny governments by means of improved commerce and better 
 examples, in the increase of democratic principles — liberal ideas 
 — ^useful inventions — or more widely diffused education. 
 
 But my inquiries are limited, by the character of our society, 
 solely to American history, and my claims in behalf of America 
 or the United States in particular, are only to their striking 
 influences or reactions on Europe itself — to their more rapid 
 progress in improvements merely useful — to their more solid 
 foundations of equal liberty and more liberal and concentrated 
 application of all that exists elsewhere of practical profit and 
 good for man at large, rather than the higher classes — than what 
 has heretofore distinguished him in most other countries. 
 
32 
 
 During the century and a half which preceded the Revolu- 
 tion, increasing, though under foreign restraint, from handfuls of 
 feeble emigrants to a population of three millions, and opening 
 respectable commercial intercourse abroad, we penetrated with 
 the axe and plough to the first mountain ridges of our extensive 
 territory. Even this was deemed a marvel, and excited the 
 envy and cupidity of others to check our prosperity, monopolize 
 our trade, and control our progress. 
 
 But, when emancipated from every species of interference 
 from abroad, by achieving independence, and left to form those 
 constitutions, establish those equal laws, which our condition jus- 
 tified, and to excite that enterprise and industry to operate more 
 widely, which had already contributed so much to make us what 
 we were, and to sanction all we hoped to be, history shows that, 
 within about a half a century, or little more than the moiety of 
 the life of many an individual, that population proceeded to in- 
 crease from three to fifteen millions, that territory more than 
 doubled, and widened from the Atlantic and its declivities to the 
 Pacific ; that foreign commerce augmented fi*om a few thousand 
 dollars in value yearly to over one hundred and fifty millions, 
 each, of imports and exports ; manufactures, released firom 
 colonial thraldom, extended in many branches, not only to supply 
 fully the domestic demand, but added several millions to our 
 foreign trade ; agriculture bringing new staples to perfection, and, 
 aided by mechanical ingenuity, furnished a raw material in cot- 
 ton, for almost the whole of Europe as well as America ; pro- 
 vided ourselves, in a large degree, with many of the other 
 essentials of life, such as salt, iron, sugar and woollens, and 
 scattered comfort and civilization, not only fi-om the seaboard to 
 the Alleghanies, but from the AUeghanies to the great monarch 
 of rivei-s, and from him rapidly westward, till, ere long, it must 
 reach the Rocky mountains, if not the Western ocean. With- 
 in the same brief period, that history describes us to the rest of 
 mankind as having created a navy, secondary in size and effi- 
 ciency to only two or three in the world ; as having formed and 
 sustained various institutions of enviable excellence, and done 
 more to illustrate and perfect political economy than half the 
 
33 
 
 ages and authors which preceded us ; because, uniting in our sys- 
 tem the practical man and philosopher, and making one co- 
 operate with the other in furnishing facts for science, and science 
 for facts. 
 
 We have also conducted triumphantly several foreign wars 
 and negotiations, and discharged all the burdens of one to 
 two hundred millions of national debt, incurred in securing our 
 independence and subsequent national privileges, as well as in 
 enlarging our territory and building up all our inestimable insti- 
 tutions and great works of public convenience or improvement. 
 Last, but not least, besides rendering common the use of written 
 constitutions for the safety of human rights, in almost every quar- 
 ter of the globe, not merely rights political, but rights civil and 
 social, and well adapted to secure the whole against the causes 
 and from the consequences of both violated charters and broken 
 compacts ; we have, above all, furnished in the person and by 
 the efforts of Roger Williams, the self-denying but resolute 
 seceder, on the margin of an humble river, now adorned with 
 manufactories, churches, and colleges, the splendid triumph of 
 the great doctrine which soon spreading to Maryland and Penn- 
 sylvania, now pervades the whole Union, of entire liberty of 
 conscience, and total freedom in religious matters from the dicta- 
 tion of civil power. 
 
 These are the obelisks and pyramids we have raised — ^the 
 triumphal arches, built for posterity to admire ! These have 
 been a few of the consequences of our principles. It is by 
 these, and efforts such as these, that our march is still forward in 
 a career of prosperity as unexampled as it is glorious. When 
 our opinions are misrepresented — our institutions vilified — our 
 ancestors and rulers assailed — ^we can proudly point to our his- 
 tory and say, " By their fruits ye shall know them." 
 
 Though in many respects we have ceased to be the infant 
 Hercules, yet in others we are still, as Burke once beautifully 
 said of us, quite in the gristle of youth, and it is hoped, aspire 
 not to reach the hardiness of manhood in all things, till every 
 useful application of science to art, every practical progress in 
 the great business of life as well as in government has been 
 
34 
 
 attempted, and the whole moral grandeur of our national position 
 and principles developed. 
 
 In such an indefatigable career in the pursuit of general use- 
 fulness to all, and by all, it is true, and far from derogatory, that 
 we may not yet have collected the libraries of Gottingen or 
 Oxford, because our true policy has been rather in the first 
 instance to collect and educate a population suited to subdue the 
 wilderness, establish manufactures, and extend commerce. 
 
 Nor may we have exhibited critics in the classics like Scali- 
 ger, Bentley or Johnson, because our earlier wants have been 
 for critics in the forms of government, like Madison, and critics 
 in the forms of law or administration of justice, like Wilson or 
 Kent. We may not have educated mathematicians like Euler 
 and La Place, or philosophers like Boyle, because our similar 
 geniuses, such a Bowditch, have been more engaged in transla- 
 ting and applying the reasonings of others to navigation and 
 practical life, and, as Franklin, Fulton, Godfrey, and a host of 
 inventors and benefactors, in rendering useful to their country 
 the doctrines, sciences, and discoveries of former ages as well as 
 their own. Nor have we produced Byrons, Raphaels, and 
 Canovas, nor courted the muses and the graces with as distin- 
 guished success in those thousand other attractive forms so com- 
 mon in older countries, because our ambition has rather been 
 directed to what naturally precedes those in society^ to the per- 
 formance of deeds worthy the immortality conferred by the poet, 
 the painter, and the sculptor. 
 
 It is mortifying to see our position in these respects so 
 often and so obstinately misunderstood. The pert sarcasms 
 of many might have been spared, had they reflected that 
 the judicious here never presented claims for any peculiar dis- 
 tinction, however brilliant, occasionally, has been the success 
 of many among us in belles-lettres, and all those pursuits which 
 are the usual result of only great wealth and the amplest leisure. 
 On the contrary, we have, with much superior wisdom, consi- 
 dering our true position, and probably with not less real talent, 
 and certainly with equal industry, been principally devoted to 
 the business much more natural, appropriate, and important, in 
 
3b 
 
 our youthful stage of society and with our vast physical resour- 
 ces, to the useful business of converting forests into fruitful fields, 
 bridging rivers, spanning mountains with roads, uniting seas by 
 canals, and making every hill and valley vocal with beings, in- 
 dustrious, moral, intelligent, and happy, by training, as far and. 
 fast as practicable, the whole population, whether wealthy or in- 
 digent, native or alien, to self-government, and the enjoyment as 
 well as preservation of equal rights and well-regulated liberty. 
 
 What do your annals show^ has been the result of all this ? 
 Not the highest perfection in what the community generally, or 
 the Government, never sought — In poetry, painting, statuary, 
 monumental piles, or splended architecture — but great success 
 in the wise objects of their true ambition — in the enlightenment 
 and comforts of the population at large, for whom and by whom 
 the country has been conquered, planted, civiUzed, and ruled. 
 By that policy and success we have, instead of remaining a 
 people among whom to read was so rare when America was 
 discovered as to confer an exemption from punishment by 
 the benefit of clergy, become a universally reading people. 
 Without the help of kings, peers, or prelates, as legislators, we 
 have also became a writing and " calculating" people, more 
 versed in the best elements of education than many of their 
 titled ancestors ; and among whom their language is, by the wide 
 action of the press on the people and the people on the press, 
 spoken with more purity and uniformity than the language of any 
 country of similar size in Europe. A people better clothed than 
 half the subjects of the proudest Edwards; a people better 
 housed than those of the Henries ; better furnished and fed than 
 Elizabeth's, and better protected in every valuable right than 
 those of all the Williams and Louises of any age and nation. 
 A people, in fine, who, rather than their rulers, are sovereign in 
 all things, and being an educated and moral people, can be, and 
 are, behind and over all their governments, safely empowered, 
 as sovereign, to change or destroy at pleasure every institution 
 and law, and reconstruct them in the peaceful mode established 
 by their constitutions. 
 
 This consideration leads me to a brief notice of a few other 
 
36 
 
 circumstances which have transpired here in connexion with our 
 new constitutions and new systems of jurisprudence, which are 
 among the most interesting to the human race of any that re- 
 sulted from the discovery of America. As before suggested, 
 while presenting during a century and a half, a theatre on which 
 the oppressed and enterprising might exhibit more freely their 
 various principles, aspirations, and experiments, for the improve- 
 ment of man, the training for self-government on those princi- 
 ples, and in forms most acceptable to the majority of the gov- 
 erned, seemed at length to be nearly completed, when the Revo- 
 lution rendered us independent, and prostrated every barrier which 
 had before existed against putting all those principles into more 
 efficient practice. The fruit of liberty had become nearly ripe 
 for plucking, and hence was not destined to be in its taste, as in 
 France, Spain, Italy, and elsewhere, so often hke the apples of 
 Sodom. Our fathers had read, reflected, and reasoned deeply, 
 and knew society must be held together by some strong cement, 
 or the inherent love for the state of nature and individual inde- 
 pendence which actuates most human beings, would lead to 
 separation or dissolution, if not to mutual aggression. That 
 cement is usually a clear conviction of benefits to be derived 
 from society, or is mere arbitrary power, accompanied sometimes 
 by fraud and delusion. We had rid ourselves from the domina- 
 tion of any portion of such power in our former oppressors, and 
 were to commence the task of moulding institutions which might 
 in some way secure to us more perfect freedom, and at the same 
 time be adapted to confer equal if not greater protection and 
 prosperity . But a continuance of monarchy was so abhorred in 
 any shape that it seems scarcely to have been dreamed of. Yet, 
 in rejecting that or any other arbitrary power, as a cement or 
 preservative, whether foreign or domestic in its origin, and how- 
 ever derived, it became obvious to the reflecting that an extraor- 
 dinary substitute must be found in some other elements of politi- 
 cal cohesion. Hence the prophets of royal prerogative were full 
 of mischievous predictions as to the incapacity of our people to 
 govern themselves, and as to an early catastrophe of the whole 
 system. Even the friends of equaj rights began to feel some 
 
37 
 
 slight apprehensions at the prospect. But having ascertained, 
 during the old confederation, that there must be a given or suffi- 
 cient quantity of pov^rer in order to make a nation, hke a planet, 
 revolve steadily in its proper orbit ; and hence, if one kind of it, 
 that from an arbitrary origin, was diminished, the other kind, 
 that from a voluntary origin, and resting in the general informa- 
 tion and sound moral principles of the community, mth laws and 
 government more beneficial and equal, established by them must 
 be proportionally strengthened or increased — the founders of 
 our present constitutions set about their new duties with earnest- 
 ness and vigor. The wise, the good, and the talented through- 
 out the land, all with a chivalrous spirit, co-operated in rousing 
 the intelligence and virtue of the people to increased efforts 
 in establishing institutions productive of the greatest benefits, 
 not only to the separate States but to the Union. They 
 thus guarded us against "the dark and dishonest intrigues" 
 of kings abroad or demagogues at home, and prevented us fi-om 
 falling again into colonial dependance, or into those divisions, 
 anarchy, and licentiousness, which are the bane of all national 
 improvement. They co-operated, also, in creating those securi- 
 ties for property and person as well as for State rights — ^in fulfil- 
 ling those obligations of public in^debtedness, and in yielding that 
 equal protection to all branches of industry which good faith and 
 national prosperity required ; and in rallying, on every fit occa- 
 sion, to the aid of order, law, and liberty, all the intellectual and 
 moral energies of the whole population. 
 
 The true philosophy which, therefore, was made to pervade 
 our new constitutional and legislative systems, was the offspring 
 of this discovery of a necessity to make those systems a source 
 of increased advantages to all affected by them, and to strengthen 
 or secure government by greater attention to education and 
 morals, and by making more frequent invocations to their aid 
 in the absence of arbitrary power and severer laws. Hence 
 they began by offering benefits alone, and by removing all 
 restraints fi-om expatriation by those who at any time might be- 
 come discontented with their portion derived from the conimon 
 fund of advantages, political and social, or be dissatisfied with 
 
38 
 
 the umpirage of that majority in the Government which, though 
 so often pronounced a tyrant, must lay the basis of all free 
 society. They next were careful to leave neither individual 
 nor State without a due share of rights, not only in the Govern- 
 ment itself, but under it ; to recognise politically no distinction of 
 plebeian or patrician, and generally none of Cathohc, Jew, or 
 Protestant ; to control neither the person nor property, where the 
 individual had been educated to the self-management of them, 
 except so far as was indispensable for mere public objects ; to 
 disclaim all power not voluntarily conferred ; to make all govern- 
 ment be regarded as a blessing, when and so far as it was resort- 
 ed to, rather than an unnecessary restraint, and to impart civil 
 power to and over none in any case, further than was necessary 
 to enforce justly the laws of the majority. As a general rule, 
 nothing but gross ignorance or vice were ever permanently put 
 to the ban of exclusion from a proportionate participation in 
 public affairs. 
 
 In order to ensure more certainly the faithful discharge of 
 official duty, by all to whom power was with jealousy con- 
 fided, one great characteristic of tlieir political system has 
 been its more complete separation of the legislative, execu- 
 tive, and judicial departments of the Government from mixture, 
 and thus rendering the discharge of duties under each of them 
 more simple and easy. They also established much more rigid 
 checks and balances in legislation itself, and official accountabili- 
 ty has been greatly and almost constantly on the increase, by 
 shortening the term of office, as well as surrounding it with other 
 new guards and responsibilities. This frequent and full reckon- 
 inof between the electors and the elected, exacts a more rigorous 
 responsibility than generally has characterized any other govern- 
 ment, however popular and free ; and, while it may be open to 
 the imputation of some encroachment upon individual and official 
 independence, it secures, what in our system is generally deemed 
 more essential, a conformity in official action with the known 
 will and wishes of those who made and conferred the office, and 
 who are chiefly to benefit or suffer by all the measures of men 
 in office. It constitutes, also, a more effectual preventive to the 
 
39 
 
 usurpations of power — power, which, in its general tendencies, 
 is often insidious, voracious, and selfish ; which is apt to increase 
 its appetite by indulgence, and which, unless vigilantly watched 
 and frequently summoned to account, is prone to steal from 
 the many to the few, till every vestige of real liberty is lost. 
 The amplest authority was conferred to constitute a government 
 both salutary and efficient for all useful purposes, but not a 
 pittance for pageantry or oppression. 
 
 It will be perceived, from only these general suggestions, how 
 different has been the character of our efforts here for self-gov- 
 ernment, from what they have often been elsewhere, whether in 
 ancient or modem history ; and how strikingly most of the caus- 
 es of their difference can be traced to that practical education 
 and sound morals which have so thoroughly pervaded this coun- 
 try, and which may well be deemed the strongest citadel of our 
 constitutions. On our Northern border, some sixty years since, 
 the Colony whose co-operation was anticipated in the great 
 struggle for independence, was visted by a mission from the old 
 Congress, of whom Dr. Franklin was one, and well provided 
 with pamphlets and manifestoes. The inhabitants, however, 
 were found so generally ignorant as to be unable to read them ; 
 and their condition in this respect appeared so hopeless, that, on 
 his return, he recommended that the next embassy should con- 
 sist of school-masters. What a signal illustration of his sagacity, 
 and of the importance of education, is their history since ! — 
 showing that, after half a century more, they still remain in the 
 same provincial subjection to a distant empire, and in almost the 
 same torpid condition, as to the great principles of liberty. 
 
 Montesquieu and some others have mentioned virtue alone as 
 the preserving element in popular governments. But this is an 
 error, if virtue can be separated from intelligence, almost as fatal 
 as that of supposing education alone to be sufficient. Our whole 
 history shows that both have been intimately combined when- 
 ever we have prospered highly, and one or the other has always 
 been defective, both in America and elsew4iere, whenever a 
 signal failure in self-government has occurred. 
 
 It shows, also, that the two, united, become, in a democracy, 
 
40 
 
 the predominant if not only legitimate substitutes for arbitrary- 
 power. That they are our great Mentors — one to instruct us 
 in our duties as well as rights, and the other to impel us onward 
 to the performance of them ; one to enlighten, the other to con- 
 vince ; one to prepare us for right action, the other to make us 
 act, or to give us proper motives for exertion. The conviction 
 of these momentous truths was therefore so deep, it led our an- 
 cestors to commence the indulgence of equal rights, in no case, 
 till knowledge existed and correct principles had been thoroughly 
 inculcated in respect to the use and character of those rights ; 
 instead of commencing, as in many other regions, the rude 
 levelhng of all distinctions of political rank and civil privilege^ 
 before many of those about to participate in them were acquaint- 
 ed with their true limitations or design, and before they were 
 gradually trained, like those ancestors and ourselves, almost from 
 the cradle, in their correct exercise and necessary discipline. 
 Without this training, or the education and morals indispensable 
 to perfect it, a grant of equal political power and consequently 
 of almost unrestrained liberty, would be not only a harbinger but 
 an invitation to unbridled license — to plunder, conflagration, and 
 indiscriminate butchery. Such a course stands, therefore, con- 
 demned by reason, condemned by experience, condemned by all 
 history. It would evince a hatred rather than love of our spe- 
 cies, and prove a curse to all within its sanguinary and fanatical 
 influence. Notwithstanding, therefore, some arrogant taunts on 
 this subject from abroad, it would be usurpation and tyranny for 
 any of the Governments under our restricted systems to attempt 
 to adopt such a course towards any class of unfortunate beings, 
 over whom no such authority has ever been confided to them by 
 the people or the States, and probably from a just jealousy never 
 will be confided. At the same time it would as clearly be the 
 height of folly if not insanity for any Governments which may 
 ever possess such authority, to offer at once perfect equality to 
 candidates so uneducated, undisciplined, and in almost every 
 respect grossly unqualified. 
 
 But when, how, and where the process ought to begin, are 
 questions that have been perplexing in all countries as well as 
 
41 
 
 here— that belong exclusively to such Governments alone as 
 possess the power, and for their decision on which they are 
 politically amenable to no other human tribunal, but only subject 
 to that moral judgment of civilized mankind, and the great Gov- 
 ernor of the universe, to which all intelligent beings are equally 
 subject, for the correct discharge of every duty. 
 
 The practical education and views of our fathers in all things, 
 led them, also, to devise new provisions, new guards, and new 
 inducements for the preservation of the rights they established. 
 Their history shows that, unlike many other reformers, they did 
 not deem it sufficient to proclaim equahty merely on parchment, 
 or only in some organic law or charter, like a constitution — ^but 
 they carried, gradually though firmly, in sCbstance though not 
 in exact form or with abstract and mathematical precision, the 
 general principle of equality into common legislation and the 
 usages of the social system, so as to secure what they had sought 
 diligently, and to prevent the stone they had with great toil 
 rolled to the summit from rushing back, as too often has been 
 the case, and crushing, in an unguarded moment, the political 
 labors of years. 
 
 To notice a few more of the particular consequences firom 
 this policy, it may be added that the tenure and distribution of 
 property of intestates were in time rendered equal ; and this 
 alone struck deep and wide the roots of great uniformity of 
 condition into our whole social system. The feudalties, unequal 
 inheritances, and mortmains of monarchy, in respect to landed 
 property, were also slowly abolished, breaking up with them 
 most of the overgrown proprietary estates, and large possessions 
 of every kind, and introducing almost universal freeholds and 
 fee simples, so that every citizen could feel and be in some 
 degree lord of the soil. The creation of exclusive privileges and 
 monopolies of all kinds was discountenanced in theory, though 
 not always sufficiently in practice. But, in progress of time, 
 the useful substitute has begun to spread, which is more conge- 
 nial to the intelligence of the present age and to the preserva- 
 tion of equality of rights, to permit and protect joint associations 
 
 for useful objects and under salutary restrictions, but seldom to 
 6 
 
42 
 
 make them exclusive. The elective franchise was also by 
 degrees conferred on man himself, rather than the soil or estate 
 he owned. Property as well as person was protected, but not 
 made a new power or independent dominion in the State. The 
 aristocracy of mere money, as well as the aristocracy of birth, 
 was in time equally renounced in theory, and the progress of 
 these improvements in changing many antiquated notions and 
 abolishing certain remains of monarchical privileges or analogies, 
 hke the growth of the human frame, was wisely gradual, and in 
 accordance with the acquisition of new authority, and the greater 
 experience and intelligence of the community, and not so quick 
 as to blind with sudden or excessive light, or to bewilder the 
 weak, or to break down the unpractised with the excessive 
 weight of unusual power and responsibility. The administra- 
 tion of laws and the enjoyment of equal freedom were not at 
 once rashly conferred on infants in years or acquirements, on the 
 incapable, the convict and the slave ; but the dispensation of 
 justice was allowed to be aided by all who were qualified to be 
 jurors ; legislation intrusted to and perfected by all who were 
 educated and represented in it ; arms allowed to be in the hands 
 of all who had any thing to defend ; and all the laws, like the 
 shell of the marine animal, formed not to suit others, or by 
 others, such as the inheritable Lycurguses or Solons of a mon- 
 archy, but to suit as well those who needed the laws as those 
 the laws were destined to protect. Pursuing the analogy, they 
 were thus afterwards changed with ease, as the growth and 
 necessities of the community demanded. Thus have we wisely, 
 but therefore slowly and in clear cases, moulded most of our 
 legislation to suit the rights of our people, and the nature of 
 their social condition. 
 
 Led by the sympathies in favour of our species, usually at- 
 tendant on intelligence and virtue widely diffused, the public 
 have sought reform and improvement with such commendable 
 zeal and generosity, that even the lowest have not been over- 
 looked. The real pauper, from infirmity of body or mind, has 
 been not only maintained by law, but, when capable, has been 
 furnished with useful instruction, to enlarge his faculties and 
 
43 
 
 elevate his soul. Imprisonment for debt has also been generally 
 abolished ; humane and relief societies multiplied ; asylums and 
 hospitals for the insane, as well as sick, liberally established ; 
 and an eagerness evinced, by means of similar institutions, to 
 pour intelligence, if not sound, even into the deaf; letters, if 
 not light, into the blind ; and language, if not speech, into the 
 dumb. The penal code has been stripped of most of its Draco 
 principles — abandoning sanguinary floggings, pillories, and tor- 
 tures, as well as barbarous executions, it has become almost 
 universally one of comparative mildness as well as of reforma- 
 tion. Beyond the spirit of the age elsewhere, and far outstrip- 
 ping its progress in these respects in all other countries, the 
 greatest efforts have been made to prevent, rather than severely 
 to punish, the largest class of crimes, and to rely more on the 
 schoolmaster, the spelling-book, and the bible, for safety or im- 
 provement, than on the stocks, or the whipping-post, or the 
 })rison. 
 
 When man has thus been carefully educated to his political 
 position, and all around him is in just keeping with it, the bar- 
 riers of advancement are soon prostrated, and he becomes, in 
 fact and in theory, the only monarch of the soil — the only au- 
 thor of his own laws — the sole arbiter, in most respects, of his 
 own destiny. Then it is, that he possesses every motive, human 
 and divine, to act, not with rashness, precipitancy, folly, or 
 wickedness. The ballot-box is then the sovereign remedy for 
 most political evils, instead of mobs, or riots, or revolution. 
 The conflicts of opinion and interest are there, for a time, 
 adjusted; injustice, extravagances, and excesses, defeated or 
 chastened ; and the differences of tastes or desires — the inevita- 
 ble strifes of liberty and independence — are, for an allotted sea- 
 son, either softened or compromised, so far as regards their 
 political operation, by the conclusive, though often mixed de- 
 cision of the majority. Defeat, as well as occasional victory, 
 come so often and unexpectedly, that the whole habit of the 
 country is to bear both with moderation, if not philosophic 
 resignation, and to rely on another trial at the polls, in due time 
 for the correction of any former errors, rather than on a resort 
 
44 
 
 to force. If the decisions there in regard to men and measures, 
 produced by intrigue or temporary excitement, look sometimes 
 like caprice, and prove to be real injuries to the voters them- 
 selves, as well as to others, they are usually soon reversed, on 
 fuller information. For, as Lord Mansfield, (no strong finend of 
 popular rights) once conceded, " the people are almost always 
 in the right. The great may sometimes be in the wrong, but 
 the great body of the people are always in the right." Revolu- 
 tion or rebellion, which, in extreme cases, ever will and must be 
 exercised by those suffering under flagrant oppression, hopeless 
 and irremediable in any other mode, is the extreme medicine, to 
 be applied only in those extreme cases, and is not to become 
 with impunity daily food. Indeed, when the supposed sufferer 
 helps both to make and administer the laws, and if dissatisfied 
 with the decisions of the majority, can generally withdraw, if, 
 after repeated peaceable trials, unable to change them, there is 
 little apology for an appeal to any demoralizing and disorganiz- 
 ing measures. Having a country and a government of his own 
 to be saved, he is generally ready to sink or swim with their 
 political destinies. But, if irregularities occur, under the deep 
 impulses of an over-sensitive love of liberty, or a sudden delu- 
 sion as to facts and principles, the true policy of our system is, 
 and always has been, to indulge in leniency, if not forgiveness, 
 and to seek future reformation by additional teaching in both 
 letters and morals, rather than by inexorable severity. A rea- 
 soning, enlightened, and moral population, are to be managed 
 rather by reason than force, and, under all disappointments and 
 disasters, possess an inherent recuperative energy that prevents 
 either despair or ruin. In such a population there is a vis 
 medicatrix which will sustain the state against very violent 
 shocks, and restore its institutions to a condition of safety or 
 stability, after subtle encroachments or great indiscretion in 
 departures from sound principles. Constitutions as well as laws, 
 after deliberately established, are not thus in practice fickle as 
 the breeze. But the disposition is wisely cherished, and very 
 prevalent in our annals, to alter only what is manifesdy wrong, 
 and with great pertinacity to abide by whatever is found, after 
 
45 : 
 
 due experiment, not in a great degree prejudicial to the common 
 weal or to individual liberty and enterprise. While properly 
 making all things in theory liable to change, as greater expe- 
 rience and information might require, our ancestors, since the 
 Revolution, have dealt with caution and delicacy in legislation 
 for the transactions of real hfe, and seldom entered into too 
 minute and vexatious details, or countenanced very sudden inno- 
 vations. They well knew that " the world had been governed 
 too much," and that it was more secure and often more advan- 
 tageous to stand by tried laws and institutions, though in some 
 respects defective, than to embark constantly on doubtful schemes 
 of supposed improvement in any thing and every thing which 
 restlessness, rashness or ambition, passion or ignorance, might 
 feel disposed to hazard. Hence, they bore various oppressions 
 and much rank injustice, long as they were bearable and any 
 hope was left of peaceable redress, previous to their resort to 
 forcible resistance ; and hence, the strongest reliance can always 
 be since placed on the permanency of our institutions and laws, 
 so long as they confer in any reasonable degree the benefits 
 anticipated from them. Their maxims and practice have always 
 been to advance, but to advance cautiously, fesiina lente. 
 
 It is true our people have generally sought liberty in all things, 
 so far as consistent with the preservation of the social system in 
 safe operation ; and that they have trusted for protection much 
 more to the better restraints of good education and sound morals, 
 than to frequent changes or- great severity in their laws. It is 
 also true that, in doubtful exigencies, their general bearing has 
 always been in favor of increasing liberty ; but still it has not 
 been liberty independent of law, or opposed to it, but liberty in 
 conformity to law. They have sought the law of liberty, rather 
 than the liberty to dispense with the law. 
 
 The freedom of the press, for instance, however perverted at 
 times, or occasionally lowered in its legitimate influence by 
 groundless and indiscriminate animadversions, was, at an early 
 day, fully established here, unchecked except by being made 
 legally subject to punishment for flagrant wrongs. 
 
 Froin Milton's " speech for the liberty of unlicensed printing," 
 
46 
 
 puMished about the lime many of our fathers emigrated hither, 
 lo the expiration of tJie celebrated sedition law, as well as since, 
 the idea has " grown with our growth," that a still more effec- 
 tive remedy to prevent tlie licentiousness of the press, or the 
 tongue through the press, is rather to be found in public intelli- 
 gence and sound morals, than in the prison, or the pillory, or in 
 personal violence inflicted thoughtlessly on its indiscreet con- 
 ductors. However, then, we may lament its occasional prostitu- 
 tion, mingled, it is admitted, with many excellencies, and how- 
 ever we may regret the manifold abuses of free discussion and 
 liberty of speech as well as of the press, yet they all rest on 
 imperishable principles. Experience shows that real merit lives 
 down most calunmies, and that time so far destroys or corrects 
 the evils, whether of the press or the tongue, that of all the 
 dunces who assailed the Popes, Chathams, or Burkes, of former 
 days, their slanders and themselves have mostly sunk into one 
 common oblivion, except as preserved by the unnecessary notice 
 of those they vilified. 
 
 True liberty here in any thing, never can be the mere Gothic 
 license of irregularity or violence. The numerous examples of 
 history, as well as ordinary intelligence and plain common sense, 
 teach us that such a liberty is more full of disasters, more 
 ruinous to the cause of uniformity in rights, security of person 
 or property, orderly happiness, and prosperous greatness, than a 
 tyranny the most miserable, partial, and bloody. Such a liberty 
 lays the axe at the root of society itself, and renders every thing 
 a prey to the inequality and injustice of mere brute force, 
 ignorant passion, or unbridled wickedness. If any thing called 
 law then remains, " lust will become a law, and envy will become 
 a law, and covetousness and ambition will become laws." But 
 the liberty sanctioned by our fathers, and pervading all our insti- 
 tutions, is the liberty created and sustained not only by law, but 
 that kind of law which, with calmness and sound deliberation, is 
 previously promulgated by an enlightened public will, to be the 
 true rule of right ; and of the pure spirit of which, in the 
 eloquent description of Hooker, " no less can be acknowledged 
 than that her seat is the bosom of God, her voice the harmony 
 
47 
 
 of the world." It is the liberty not to trample on the rights of 
 the weak and the poor, any more than to assail and undermine 
 those of the strong or the rich ; but the liberty, even fastidious 
 or scrupulous, to enjoy those rights, as fully by the one class as 
 the other, both under the shield of legal protection, but neitlier 
 under monopolies, and both equally invulnerable under the broad 
 panoply of sacred constitutions, wholesome statutes, and upright 
 as well as intelligent judicial tribunals. Nor is liberty considered 
 here, as it often is abroad, to consist properly in opposition to 
 the existing government — a government in most countries im- 
 posed on the people at large no less than on the wretched, by 
 conquest, doubtful inheritance, or force and usurpation — but it is 
 evinced rather by a support of the useful operations of that 
 government here, which all have virtually united in devising and 
 profiting by. As little is liberty displayed here by a bitter dis- 
 like to the laws, on the ground that " the world is not one's 
 friend, nor the world's law," because the law here is usually the 
 friend, the child, the ally of all, as all who are qualified, help to 
 make the law, all repose under its shelter, and most people duly 
 appreciate the benefit of enforcing it. Hence, as a general 
 truth, every eye here is vigilant, and every hand armed to detect 
 and punish ordinary offences, as well as to expose official misde- 
 meanors ; and the pride, ambition, interest, and duty of the 
 whole community, are arrayed on the side of order, and in sup- 
 port of their own constitutions and laws. Nor ought they ever 
 to grant the liberty to oppress any one class, party, or sect, but 
 the liberty to all of them, of enjoying freedom of speech and 
 discussion within the limits before mentioned, and of obtaining 
 immunity from oppression, and redress for injury, through the 
 established legal channels. Not, in their private capacity, to be 
 their own avengers, and redress wrongs, either of person or pro- 
 perty, punish crimes, make and unmake laws, constitutions, or 
 appointments to office ; but to do them all in the respective 
 methods, regular, public, and constitutional, which equality, 
 justice, sound knowledge, sound morals, and all the lessons and 
 admonitions of history point out as salutary and safe : that is, 
 through the jury ; on the magistrate's bench ; in authorized con- 
 
48 
 
 veiitious ; legislative assemblies ; at the ballot-box, or the pollsy 
 and in proper executive stations. 
 
 Liberty thus regulated and enforced, becomes the champion 
 rather than antagonist of law, and the strongest bulwark of 
 social order. Fortunate people! Happy country, if all the 
 teachings of its history, in these respects, are not lost upon us 
 and our posterity. 
 
 While the blind instincts of an uneducated or a vicious popu- 
 lation often hurry them into sedition, refractory insubordination, 
 and every species of lawless violence, the informed mind, and 
 strong moral sense of the great mass among us, make them con- 
 scious that, however sophistry may elsewhere disguise the great 
 truth, or false systems of policy may delude or degrade the lower 
 classes, and then subject them to endure, tamely, humiliation 
 from their fellow-mortals, or inflame them into madness and 
 forcible vengeance against oppression, the just rule of conduct 
 is always the same in public as in private afiairs, and that in the 
 end it is as ruinous to one as the other to have the right known 
 and yet the wrong pursued. They are aware that if the popu- 
 lation are habituated to think and act, even in politics alone, as 
 mere Cossacks, serving, whether individuals, corporations, or 
 parties, solely because the pay is highest, and the labor and 
 danger, are supposed to be least; and if such mercenaries 
 ever inquire into what is right, and knowledge in them, as in 
 other cases, becomes power, still, without sound morals as its 
 director and restraint, it becomes but the power of the blinded 
 Cyclops, in his cave, useless to himself and harmless to his 
 enemies. Or, if like Sampson's, destructive to his enemies, it 
 is at the same time equally destructive to its possessor, crushing 
 himself, ere long, with them, under the ruins of the overturned 
 pillars of the social edifice. 
 
 We have not leisure to travel through the more modern revo- 
 lutions, in the American annals, and to gather the numerous 
 illustrations on this subject, written on the fair fields of South 
 America, or Mexico, in blood and tears. Indeed, the first disco- 
 verers of the new world seem to have been, in many respects, 
 the very least of its regenerators ; and it is most lamentable in 
 
49 
 
 their history, that they have received ahnost as httle benefits in 
 return at home, as they were unfortunate in conferring abroad. 
 
 In conclusion, therefore w^hile meditating upon our own aston- 
 ishing progress, as developed in history, and discriminating with 
 care the origin alike of our perils and securities as a people, 
 does it not behove us to weigh well the importance of our 
 present position ? Not our position merely with regard to foreign 
 Powers. From them we have, by an early start and rapid pro- 
 gress in the cause of equal rights, long ceased to fear much 
 injury or to hope for very essential aid, in our further efforts for 
 the thorough improvement of the condition of society in all tLat 
 is useful or commendable. Nor our position, however the true 
 causes may be distorted or denied — our elevated position, in 
 prosperity and honorable estimation, both at home and abroad. 
 But it is our position, so highly responsible, as the only country 
 where the growth of self-government seems fully to have ripened 
 and to have become a model or example to other nations ; or, as 
 the case may prove, their scoff and scorn. 
 
 To falter here, and now, would, therefore, probably be to 
 cause the experiment of such a government to fail forever. It 
 is not sufficient, in this position, to loathe servitude, or to love 
 liberty with all the enthusiasm of Plutarch's heroes. But we 
 must be warned by our history how to maintain liberty — how to 
 grasp the substance rather than the shadow — to disregard rheto- 
 rical flourishes, unless accompanied by deeds — not to be cajoled 
 by holiday finery, or pledges enough to carpet the polls, where 
 integrity and burning zeal do not exist to redeem them — nor to 
 permit ill-vaulting ambition to volunteer and vaunt its profes- 
 sions of ability as well as wiUingness to serve the people against 
 their own government — any more than demagogues, in a rougher 
 mood, with a view to rob you, sacrilegiously, of those principles, 
 or undermine, with insidious pretensions, those equal institutions 
 which your fathers bled to secure. Nor does true reform, how- 
 ever frequent in this position, and under those institutions, 
 scarcely ever consist in violence, or what usually amounts to 
 revolution, the sacred right of which, by force or rebellion, in 
 extreme cases of oppression, being seldom necessary to be exer- 
 7 , 
 
50 
 
 cised here, because reform is one of the original elements of 
 those institutions, and one of their great, peaceable, and pre- 
 scribed objects. However the timid, then, may fear, or the 
 wealthy denounce its progress, it is the principal safety-valve of 
 our system, rather than an explosion to endanger or destroy it. 
 We should also weigh well our delicate position as the sole 
 country whither the discontented in all others resort freely, and 
 while conforming to the laws, abide securely ; and whither the 
 tide of emigration, whether for good or evil, seems each year 
 setting with increased force. 
 
 When we reflect on these circumstances, with several others, 
 which leisure does not permit me to enumerate ; and when we 
 advert to some of the occurrences in our social and political 
 condition, within the few last years, appearing worse, it is feared, 
 than the slight irregularities and outbreaks of great freedom, on 
 such periodical excitements as elections ; and looking rather, in 
 some cases, like more grave departures from legal subordination, 
 and attended, as they have been, on different occasions, and in 
 different quarters, by no feeble indications of obliquity of princi- 
 ple, in morals as well as politics, evinced by violent aggressions, 
 not only on person and property, but the rights of conscience and 
 of free discussion— while we see all this, what does our delicate 
 and peculiar position teach, as to the perils of American liberty? 
 What warning spirit breathes from those events ? What infer- 
 ences should philosophy and sober judgment draw from their 
 history ? 
 
 Is it not manifest that the danger now to be guarded against is 
 one arising rather from too little than too much control on the 
 part of the Government ; too little rather than too much rever- 
 ence for the constitution, the supremacy of the laws, and the 
 sacredness of personal rights as well as those of property ; and 
 if not an undue homage to mere wealth, still too great presump- 
 tuousness from the enjoyment of such unexampled prosperity ? 
 Looking higher and deeper, is there not seen, also, too much 
 indifference beginning to be entertained in some quarters, with 
 regard to the perpetuity of the Union ? — that political marriage 
 of the States, upon which, like that of our first parents, " all 
 
51 
 
 heaven and happy constellations shed their selectest influence." 
 Does there not exist too great an apathy respecting our impera- 
 tive and lofty duty not to disappoint, in any way, the aspirations 
 and the confidence of the patriot or the philanthropist, in every 
 country directed towards us for the conservation of all the best 
 hopes of the human race ? Suspecting, then, some such evil 
 tendencies — feeling such doubts, and fearing such dangers, what 
 do our annals point out as the true republican remedy to check 
 them ? Not, we trust, a revival — in substance any more than in 
 form— of the stronger arm of monarchical power which preceded 
 the Revolution. By no means. Not, in any crisis, rushing for 
 preservation from outrage or for rescue from anarchy and licen- 
 tiousness to stronger systems of government — to what, it is 
 hoped, we all deprecate and dread in unnecessary restraints on 
 individual liberty and more arbitrary establishments, under the 
 pretence of aids, though in reality often the most dangerous 
 weapons wielded by the arm of civil power. Never, never. 
 Nor yet a change in our codes of law, harshly increasing their 
 severity, conferring unequal privileges, or perpetuating exclusive 
 powers, at the expense of the birthright and liberties of others. 
 Nor an elevation of property and its possessors to greater domi- 
 nion over the rights of persons, when its strides have already been 
 so coUossal, and its influence so overwhelming. 
 
 Neither ought we to indulge in despondency, however appre- 
 hensive, with the great blind bard of modern times, that, in some 
 respects, we " have fallen on evil days and evil tongues ;" and 
 however conscious that, as a people, we are not entirely free 
 from foibles, errors, and crime, in this erring world, and have not 
 been able to reach every excellence as a nation, or to mature 
 every political security of which our constitutions are suscepti 
 ble, in the brief period of about half a century. 
 
 On the contrary, it behoves us to look our perils and difficul- 
 ties, such as they are, in the face. Then, with the exercise of 
 candor, calmness, and fortitude, being able to comprehend fully 
 their character and extent, let us profit by the teachings of 
 almost every page in our annals, that any defects under our 
 existing system have resulted more from the manner of admin- 
 
52 
 
 istering it than from its substance or form. We less heed new 
 laws, new institutions, or new powers, than we need, on all occa- 
 sions, at all times, and in all places, the requisite intelhgence 
 concerning the true spirit of our present ones ; the high moral 
 courage under every hazard, and against every offender, to exe- 
 cute with fidelity the authority already possessed ; and the manly 
 independence to abandon all supineness, irresolution, vacillation, 
 and time-serving pusillanimity, and enforce our present mild 
 system with that uniformity and steady vigor throughout, which 
 alone can supply the place of the greater severity of less free 
 institutions. To encourage us in renewed efforts to accomplish 
 every thing on this subject which is desirable, our history con- 
 stantly points her finger to a most efficient resource and indeed 
 to the only elixir, to secure a long life to any popular govern- 
 ment, in increased attention to useful education and sound morals, 
 with the wise description of equal measures and just practices 
 they inculcate on every leaf of recorded time. Before their 
 alliance the spirit of misrule will always in time stand rebuked, 
 and those who worship at the shrine of unhallowed ambition 
 must quail. Storms in the political atmosphere may occasion- 
 ally happen by the encroachments of usurpers, the corruption or 
 intrigues of demagogues, or in the expiring agonies of faction, or 
 by the sudden fury of popular phrensy ; but with the restraints and 
 salutary influences of the allies before described, these storms will 
 purify as healthfully as they often do in the physical world, and 
 cause the tree of liberty, instead of falling, to strike its roots 
 deeper. In this struggle the enlightened and moral possess 
 also a friend, auxiliary and strong, in the spirit of the age, 
 which is not only with them, but onward, in every thing to 
 ameliorate or improve. When the struggle assumes the form of 
 a contest with power in all its subtlety, or with undermining and 
 corrupting wealth, as it sometimes may, rather than with turbu- 
 lence, sedition, or open aggression, by the needy and desperate, 
 it will be indispensable to employ still greater vigilance — to 
 cherish earnestness of purpose, resoluteness in conduct — to apply 
 hard and constant blows to real abuses, rather than milk-and- 
 water remedies, and encourage not only bold, free, and original 
 
oi 
 
 thinking, but determined action. In such a cause our fathers 
 were men whose hearts were not accustomed to fail them through 
 fear, however formidable the obstacles. Some of them were 
 companions of Cromwell, and embued deeply with his spirit and 
 iron-decision of character, in whatever they deemed right : " If 
 Pope, and Spaniard, and devil, (said he,) all set themselves 
 against us, though they should compass us about as bees, as it is 
 in the 18th Psalm, yet in the name of the Lord we will destroy 
 them." We are not, it is trusted, such degenerate descendants 
 as to prove recreant, and fail to defend, with gallantry and firm- 
 ness as unflinching, all which we either derived from them, or 
 have since added to the rich inheritance. 
 
 New means and energies can yearly be brought to bear on 
 the further enlightening of the public mind. Self-interest, re- 
 spectability in society, official rank, wealth, superior enjoyment, 
 are all held out as the rewards of increased intelligence and good 
 conduct. The untaught in letters, as well as the poor in estate, 
 cannot long close their eyes or their judgments to those great 
 truths of daily occurrence in our history. They cannot but feel 
 that the laws, when duly executed, ensure these desirable ends 
 in a manner even more striking to themselves and children, 
 drudges and serfs as they may once have been, than to the 
 learned, wealthy, or great. They see the humblest log-cabin 
 rendered as secure a castle as the palace, and the laborer in the 
 lowest walks of life as quickly entitled to the benefit of a habeas 
 corpus when imprisoned without warrant of law, as the highest 
 in power, and assured of as full and ready redress for personal 
 violence, and of indemnity as ample for injury to character or 
 damage to property. Not a particle of his estate, though but a 
 single ewe-lamb in the Western wilderness, or the most sterile 
 acre on the White mountains, can be taken away with impunity, 
 though by the most powerful, without the voluntary consent of 
 the indigent owner, nor even be set apart for public purposes, 
 without the same necessities and the same just compensation 
 awarded as in case of the greatest. 
 
 To any man thus situated, any thing agrarian about property 
 would be as ruinous, looking to the prosperity of himself and to 
 
54 
 
 his family in future, as it would be to the wealthy now. Politi- 
 cal and civil rights being made equal, it becomes much better, 
 no less for the poor but well-informed and enterprising, than for 
 the cause of society and virtue at large, as well as the present 
 safety of the rich, that the future acquisitions of property, power, 
 and honor, should all generally be rendered proportionate to the 
 future industry, good conduct, and improved talents of every 
 individual. 
 
 Thus labor and capital here are made to have but one true 
 interest, and to find that " self-love and social are the same." 
 
 The scourges of avarice, in its too great voracity for wealth or 
 capital, will alw^ays be the irregular depredations on it of labor, 
 if left badly paid or badly taught, and the true blessings of 
 labor will be its honest and timely acquisitions of capital, if 
 made able to learn and practise its appropriate duties as well as 
 rights. Then, though steadfast and zealous in resisting the 
 seductions of power, the timidities of sloth, the effeminacy of 
 luxury, and the mercenary, sordid spirit of mere gain, the work- 
 ing classes, will, at the same time, be careful to shape and crowd 
 forward all their claims in subjection to order, and in the safe 
 channels of law and well-regulated liberty. 
 
 It would hardly be necessary, before this assembly, to advance 
 any further arguments deduced from our history in proof of the 
 peculiar importance, or indeed vitality, of sound morals as well 
 as sound education, in such a government as ours, at all times, 
 and more especially in periods of increased peril. They, indeed 
 always constitute a power higher than the law itself, and possess 
 a healthy vigor much beyond the law. Nor, under our admira- 
 ble system, does the promotion of morality require any, as mere 
 citizens, to aid it, through political favor, to the cause of any 
 particular creed of religion, however deep may be our individual 
 convictions of its truth or importance beyond all the world can 
 give or the world take away. Our public associations for pur- 
 poses of government now wisely relate to secular concerns alone. 
 
 Surely, any of us can be the worthy descendants of the 
 Puritans without being, after the increased lights of two hun- 
 dred more years, puritanical, in the indulgence of bigotry or in 
 
65 
 
 placing any reliance on the dangerous, and it is hoped exploded, 
 union of church and state for public security. 
 
 On the contrary, the progress of temperance, the improvement 
 in household comforts, the wider diffusion of knowledge as well 
 as of competency in property, and the association, so intimate 
 and radical, between enlarged intelligence and the growth of 
 moral worth and even religious principle, with the advantages all 
 mutually confer and receive, constitute our safest dependance 
 and exhibit a characteristic, striking and highly creditable to our 
 whole country, as well as in some degree to the present age. 
 If, constantly reinforced by those exertions of the enlightened, 
 the virtuous, and the talented, which they can well spare, and 
 which duty, honor, and safety demand, they seem to encourage 
 strong hopes that the arm of the law will not hereafter be so 
 often palsied by any moral indifference among the people at 
 large, or in any quarter, as to its strength to guide as well as 
 hold the helm. 
 
 At such a crisis, therefore, and in such a cause, yielding to 
 neither consternation nor despair, may we not all profit by the 
 vehement exhortations of Cicero to Atticus : " If you are asleep, 
 awake ; if you are standing, move ; if you are moving, run ; if 
 you are running, fly." 
 
 All these considerations warn us — the grave-stones of almost 
 every former republic warn us — that a high standard of moral 
 rectitude, as well as of intelligence, is quite as indispensable to 
 communities in their public doings as to individuals, if they would 
 escape from either degeneracy or disgrace. 
 
 There need be no morbid delicacy in employing on this sub- 
 ject a tone at once plain and fearless. Much of our own history 
 unites in admonishing all, that those public doings should be 
 characterized, when towards the members of the same con- 
 federacy, not by exasperations or taunts, but by mutual conces- 
 sions, in cases of conflicting claims — by amicable compromises 
 where no tribunal is provided for equal arbitration — by exact 
 justice to the smallest as well as to the largest State ; and 
 through all irritations and rebuffs, the more bitter often because 
 partaking of the freedom of their family oiisin, by an inflexible 
 
56 
 
 adherence to that spirit of conciliation, and to that cultivation of 
 harmony, through mutual affection and mutual benefits rather 
 than force, which, honorable, if not always honored, formed and 
 has hitherto sustained our happy Union. 
 
 When towards other nations they should evince what Ander- 
 son, half a century ago, considered " the best temper of govern- 
 ment, neither to do a wrong or take it." By the aid of such an 
 example here, with our abhorrence of the spirit of conquest, 
 and our devotion to a mutual interchange among all nations of 
 only favors, rather than injuries, it is believed that the art of 
 printing, so widely diffused as it has been of late, and the 
 greater facilities of communication between most parts of the 
 known worid by means of an increasing commerce and wider 
 employment of machinery and steam, are fast creating a great 
 tribunal, even on earth, for the moral judgment, and we hope, 
 improvement of all nations. Pubhc opinion is in this way year- 
 ly becoming more pervading among every civilized people, 
 more enlightened, and, therefore, with safety and advantage, 
 more omnipotent. May it not be hoped that all nations as well 
 as our own are thus receiving some stronger impulses towards a 
 higher state of refinement, both intellectual and moral ? 
 
 In fine, it is believed that our convictions must strengthen, as 
 researches into history and its true philosophy penetrate wider 
 and deeper ; that, should the experiment of self-government and 
 increased civil freedom fall in this country, where the most 
 flattering prospect appears to exist of perfecting far as practica- 
 ble the condition of our species, and accompHshing soonest the 
 probable though in some degree mysterious end of their creation, 
 it requires not the spirit of prophecy to predict that less hope 
 exists in favor of the success of such an experiment elsewhere, 
 and that any nearer approach to the golden age of equal liberty, 
 and the more universal diffusion of moral and religious as well 
 as intellectual and political light, must be regarded as reserved 
 only for some Utopia of the imagination, or some miraculous 
 mlllenium of Christianity. 
 
f f 
 
59 
 
 NOTES 
 
 [Several portions of the preceding Address were omitted in 
 the delivery, from fear of being tedious. A few details were 
 originally flung into Notes, which are annexed.] 
 
 A. — Page 7. 
 
 Three or four illustrations of our recent progress on some of these subjects 
 may perhaps be usefully noticed. 
 
 COTTON. 
 
 1. — The exports of raw cotton, in 1825, amounted to - 176,500,000 pounds. 
 Do in 1835, do - 386,500,000 " 
 
 2. — Raw cotton consumed or manufactured in the United 
 
 States in 1825, amounted to .... 50,000,000 " 
 Do in 1835, amounted to 100,000,000 " 
 
 3. — Imports of cotton goods into United States, from all countries, 
 
 in 1825, value - $12,509,516 
 Do in 1835, only . 15,367,585 
 
 4. — Exports of cotton goods from United States in 1825, foreign 3,784,692 
 Do domestic so small not designated. 
 
 Do in 1835, foreign . 3,697,837 
 
 Do domestic - 2,858,681 
 
 See more in the Tables and Notes on Cotton, submitted by me to Congress 
 at its last session. 
 
 COAL. 
 
 Quantity of Coal imported into the United States. 
 
 In 1825, bushels, 722,255; value $108,527. 
 
 In 1835, do. 1,679,119; do. 143,461. 
 The domestic product, though vastly increased, does not prevent the im- 
 ports from having nearly doubled in quantity in ten years, though the price 
 has sensibly fallen. 
 
60 
 
 LEAD. 
 
 Statement of the quantity and value of Lead imported into the United States 
 during the years ending on the 30th September, 1825, and on the 30th Sep. 
 tember, 1835. 
 
 Quantity, lbs. Value. 
 Year ending 30th September, 1825, - - 5,867,520 $293,864 
 
 Do. do. 1835, - - 1,006,472 35,663 
 
 The domestic product now supplies almost the whole consumption. 
 
 SALT. 
 
 1. — The salt manufactured in the United States amounted, in 1830, to above 
 three and a half millions of bushels ; two-fifths of which was made in the 
 State of New- York. 
 
 2. — Salt made in 1835, about 5,000,000 bushels — the proportion manufac- 
 tured in New-York being about the same. 
 
 3. — Quantity imported in 1830, about 5,374,046 bushels ; in 1835, about 
 
 5,375,364 bushels. 
 
 The domestic product now supplies all the increased consumption by our 
 additional population, and near half of all the consumption of the whole 
 Union. 
 
 These remarks and statistical details on the above and other articles, with 
 numerous similar ones, might be largely extended, if space permitted and the 
 occasion were suitable. 
 
 B.— Page 8. 
 
 The republication of the Journals of the Old Congress, the printing of the 
 Proceedings of the Convention which formed the Constitution, and the col- 
 lection and publication of our Diplomatic Correspondence, have done for this 
 branch of history much service. They have been followed, as illustrative oS 
 a still later period, by the State Papers of Wait, the Executive Senate Jour- 
 nals, and the new Documents, as well as excellent arrangement of the old 
 ones, both Executive and Legislative, in the compilation ordered by C ongress 
 a few years since, under the memorial of, and printed by, Messrs. Gales &. 
 Seaton. Much is anticipated from the work, now partly completed by 
 Messrs. Force & Clark, illustrating the Documentary History of the Ajneri~ 
 can Revolution. 
 
 C— Page 9. 
 
 The particulars for inquiry would especially includie its legislation and 
 judiciary, its army and navy, commerce, agriculture, and manufactures, its 
 mints, currency and banks, its medals and coins, its hospitals and fine arts, 
 its revenues and expenditures, exports and invports, the extent and character 
 of all public property, elections and wars, roads and canals, temperatures and 
 
 
61 
 
 storms, the most important vegetables and animals, wild or domestic, and the 
 national civil improvements and enterprises of every essential character, from 
 breakwaters, dry docks, and various public buildings, to the manufacture and 
 uniformity of weights and measures, and the advancing survey of our exten- 
 sive sea-coasts. More connected with the diflferent States, but still within the 
 scope of our researches, at the centre of them all, would be the character 
 and progress of these several subjects among each of them, adding the great 
 features in their local occupations and manners, amusements, theatres, and 
 fashions, religion and literature, diseases and superstitions, pauper systems, 
 statistics of crime, marriages, deaths, and population, police, and general 
 state of the arts, education, and morals. 
 
 A portion of these inquiries, with other similar ones, and their continuance 
 yearly, would afford a most interesting, useful, and ample employment for 
 some public department of Government, furnished with power and resources 
 to push them widely, and with energy and accuracy. Whether called a 
 home department, a domestic one, or one for the interior, would be of less 
 importance than the powers conferred, and the talent and industry exclusive- 
 ly devoted to it. 
 
 D.— Pago 13. 
 
 A small number of the causes of failures in Indian civilization can be 
 accurately detected from our histories, and fully exposed for warning and 
 correction. 
 
 Sometimes the love of conquest has irritated a jealous race, and defeated all 
 prospect of immediate improvement. Sometimes a zeal without knowledge 
 has too hastily required their assent to principles of religion and conduct, 
 which only a high degree of intelligonce could properly appreciate. Some- 
 times the cursed thirst for gold has wantonly plunged them into wars. Some- 
 times an encroaching spirit for more fertile valleys and prairies has goaded 
 them into border wars, or vindictive and bloody aggressions and ruin ! Some- 
 times, in self-defence, we may have fomented their internal divisions, and 
 aggravated their neighbouring jealousies, revenges, and hostilities ! Some- 
 times they have refused the useful arts, because more laborious than the 
 chase ! Sometimes derided letters, because more enervating and unmanly 
 than war ! Sometimes our traders have tempted their appetites for the poi- 
 sonous distillations of art, rather than encourage them in agriculture or man- 
 ufactures ! Sometimes we have acted without system or principle, and, in 
 the festering feelings from savage obstinacy and atrocities, have left almost 
 every thing to private cupidity or avarice, and afterwards, by the recoil of the 
 spring, resorted to measures more strict and uniform than their undisciplined 
 condition rendered at first wise. The true philosophy of their history seema 
 to be, that the Indians, if we would do any thing to improve them durably, 
 must be more regarded as in a state of pupilage, being, in many respects, but 
 children of a larger growth; as too ignorant for forming many wise institu- 
 
62 
 
 tions of tlieir own, and hence properly subject to discreet restraints by us on 
 their moral errors as well as political power, through a useful internal police 
 and government, prescribed for them in the true spirit and kindness of guar- 
 dians rather than of conquerors. Wayward children ! They are also to be 
 gradually weaned from the wild habits of the forest and thirst for war, 
 animated with new tastes and ambitions, and invested with the individual 
 rights of property, and encouraged to the cultivation and acquisition of the 
 soil and the arts of civilized life. All this is to be pursued with system and 
 perseverance, till the whole native mass becomes changed, and adequate to 
 the task of entire and judicious self-government. 
 
 Then, and not till then, can they usefully be permitted, encouraged and 
 confirmed in the equal and independent exercise of it. 
 
 We must begin to erect the social edifice among thran at the foundation, 
 and broadly — not at the summit, or, like an inverted pyramid, liable to be 
 overturned by every breath of discontent. 
 
 E.— Page 22. 
 
 Some of the Eastern States, beside special school funds, literary funds, and 
 large sums voluntarily contributed yearly by individuals for private instruc- 
 tion, now raise, by ordinary taxation, an amount equal to near half a dollar 
 per head on their whole population. This, in the New England States alone, 
 would amount to almost a million of dollars annually, or if adopted in the 
 whole Union, to six or seven millions. 
 
 The colleges in our country which confer degrees, without enumerating 
 numerous academies, or any inferior schools, private or public, have increased 
 to the large number of near 100, with near 7,000 undergraduates. These are 
 yearly becoming better adapted to the purposes of general education, and 
 most of them less confined than formerly to the mere special advancement in 
 any of the learned professions ; while others, more exclusively designed for the 
 last, have multiplied so as to make near 40 theological seminaries, about 25 
 medical schools, and 8 or 10 law schools. Many lyceums and institutes of a 
 useful character have been added, and tlie whole course of instruction, within 
 a few years, has received a much wider and more practical range. Congress 
 has conducted liberally in this respect, as well as about higher seminaries, by 
 large grants of valuable lands to most of the new States ; and has also made 
 wise provision for educating its young officers in the army and navy. How 
 much further it will feel authorized to go on these points, in the old States, 
 or in aid of the endowments of universities, at the Seat of Government, by 
 liberal foreigners for the diffusion of useful knowledge, are questions not ap- 
 propriate for discussion on the present occasion. 
 
 V 
 
 F.— Page 31. 
 
 What more ought still to be expected from us, from the spirit of ad venture 
 to distant regions, resulting from equal rights, liberal enterprise, and j usl rela- 
 
63 
 
 tions, more firmly established and more fostered and aided by Government ? 
 How much more when our citizens, individually, or by private associations, 
 under the guide of their persevering intelligence, have already spread their 
 explorations for so many objects of novelty and curiosity, as well as profit, 
 over so many regions of the globe, however remote, barbarous, or dangerous ? 
 When, beside their whaling from the icebergs of the north to the equator, in 
 every sea, they have sought out the seal on many a coral reef; discovered and 
 cut sandal wood for China upon one island ; cured for her biche le mer on 
 another ; imported pearl-shells from others, for ornamental and useful manu- 
 factures ; gathered pepper on the coast of Sumatra ; collected wool in the 
 wilds of New-HoUand, and furs on the northwest coast ; penetrated the for- 
 ests of eastern Africa for India-rubber, to meet the demands for its vastly 
 increasing use here in many of the most important purposes of manufacture 
 and social comfort ; established commercial relations with a Sultan in the 
 Gulf of Arabia and the Red Sea, whose navies are larger and dominions 
 wider than those of Solomon in his most palmy days ; enabled us to form 
 useful treaties with Kings in the farthest East, and to bring home countless 
 other articles from Asia, Europe, and Africa, calculated to solace, enrich or 
 improve the human family. 
 
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