Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2016 https://archive.org/details/historyofgreatre00peck_0 JJESSE lo (PE«K, ©a®. 3i)r' IrrBtMt ITT rwm a THE HISTORY OF The Great Republic CONSIDERED FROM A CHRISTIAN STAND-POINT. By JESSE T. PECK, D.D. BOSTON : A.. W. LO'VET^.ZTTG-. . 1877. Entered, according to Act ci Coogreu, in the rear iKS, by JESSE T. PECK. D.D, In the Clerk’s 06Bce of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York. /3Dk To Rev. Reuben Reynolds, who taught him the alphabet, and afterwards, at an important period of life, determined the sphere of his studies and labors ; to the memory of his deceased sister, Elizabeth, who gave him all the valuable instructions in the art of speaking he ever received, and by the force of whose clear, thorough teaching, and elevated Christian womanhood, his young mind was filled with noble aspirations ; to Amos R. Avery, M.D., whose gentle words, and kind, persistent efforts, in the schoolroom and elsewhere, strongly aided his struggling boyhood ; to Rev. Henry Halstead, under whose searching appeals, on the day of his conversion, he was power- fully convinced of sin ; to Rev. D. D. Whedon, D.D., one of his earliest and best classical teachers, and who inspired his first hope of success in the use of the pen ; to his excellent brother, George Peck, D.D., who in his childhood tenderly bore him to school, who with truly paternal care superintended his education and preparation for the ministry, and whose character as a man and minister has ever been his noblest model ; to Rev. E. Foster, who almost literally compelled him to write this book ; and his I ; faithful Wife, to whose energetic promptings, and constant, earnest encouragement, he must refer all his important literary enterprises, — This Work IS MOST RESPECTFULLY AND GRATEFULLY DEDICATED by the author. w c\ ' Embellishments, FINE STEEL PORTRAITS. COLUMBUS. ARCHIBALD ALEXANDER. ROGER WILLIAMS. CHARLES SUMNER. COTTON MATHER. MAJOR-GENERAL MITCHELL. WASHINGTON. ABRAHAM LINCOLN. JOHN ADAMS. SAMUEL LEWIS. BISHOP ASBUKY. FRANCIS WAYLAND. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. GENERAL GRANT. JOHN JAY. BISHOP McILVAINE. THOMAS JEFFERSON. BISHOP SIMPSON. • PATRICK HENRY. COMMODORE FOOTE. JONATHAN EDWARDS. CHIEF-JUSTICE CHASE. CHIEF-JUSTICE MARSHALL. MAJOR-GENERAL HOWARD. JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. GEORGE T. DAY. HENRY CLAY. GEORGE PEABODY. DANIEL WEBSTER. GEORGE H. STUART. CHIEF-JUSTICE McLEAN. SCHUYLER COLFAX. THEODORE FRELINGHUYSEN. THE AUTHOR. ‘•a/ f| . I PREFACE. The time has come for the reconsideration of the history of the United States. The moral revolution which our recent struggle has developed indicates the existence of profounder principles and a loftier purpose in the origin, structure, and development of the Great Republic, than any heretofore distinctly recognized by historical writers. Ameri- can history, witliin the Last few years, has brought out vices so deep and threatening, has sliown in collision forces so formidable and terrific, and has reve.aled a moral grandeur so far above the precedents of mod- ern civiliz.ation, that there is reason to believe the wisest men of our times will be compelled to reconstruct their theories of government and of the powers .and destiny of man. The stand-point which reveals distinctly the force by which the im- probabilities of our progress have been achieved must be more com- manding than any which has heretofore only shown to the world an energetic people struggling for ascendency among the nations of the earth. If we are to obtain a view of the real contents of our historical globe, it must certainly be by a clearer light and a more searching ex- amination than any which have thus far revealed only its outer crust. I am aware that I thus present the problems of American and also of general history in a way to make any attempt to solve them aijpear formidable and ambitious. It may well be supposed that the writer would enter upon a task of such difficulty and magnitude with timid shrinking and very humble anticipations. His only explanation is, that the theory of mor.al and political as well as jshysical phenomena, if true, when once clearly defined, is very simple. If, from the fragmentary or elaborate te.achings of clear minds and able pens along the line of nar- rative or philosophic.al history, or from the revelations of the Holy Bible and the Divine Providence, or by a candid, thorough, prayerful scrutiny of the events of his times, he has been able to identify and clearly ex- press the true and only principle which can adequately explain the facts of our remarkable career, then he, or any man of good common under- Vlll PREFACE. Bt.nmlin", may search and think and write profit.ably, tliongh by no means exhaustively, in the use of that principle. Let it therefore be stated, that the theory of this book is, that God is the rightful, actual Sovereign of all nations; that a purpose to advance the human race beyond all its precedents in intelligence, goodness, and potcer, formed this Great Republic; and that religion is the only life- force and organizing poteer of liberty. If this is true, then all writers of American history must rise to this point of observation, or fail. Itniaybeclaimcd, without ostentation, that the writer has been, for at least a quarter of a century, a c.areful student of his country’s history; this, however, without a thought of attempting any of the functions of an historian. But gradu.ally the princi|des recognised in this bo(»k assumes of distinguished Americans, all acknowledged Christians, pr men who have received their distinction from their Christian birth, education, and prin- ciples. The first is a group of distinguished philanthropists. We have selected these men from the large number of noble Americans whom wo deem most worthy of honor as lovers of their race. The second is a group taken from the number of our great statesmen and orators. The third is a group of celebrated Ameiican divines. They repre- sent the thorough I’urit.an and six different Christian denominations: and, taken together, they are distinguished among the hosts of Christian ministers who can be claimed exclusively by yo church ; whose reputa- tion and influence as teachers of religion, and leaders of soul-liberty, make them truly national. The fourth is a group of civilians and warriors, whose opinions and acts have entered largely into the history of American jurisprudence and of the em.ancipation of the nation. Here also the choice h.as been from a large number of truly great and national men, with the idea of representing true Christianity, either direct and personal or generally diffused, from different j)eriods of our history, and portions of our country. Our readers will discover that this volume, though not professing to present the full details of our country’s progress, will answer the most valuable purposes of a new history of the United States, grouping the more important events, and using them, with a large number of facts not in any #f our histories, to present to the Ainencan jieoplc a truthful picture of the Great Republic as it is nml ought to be. Among the most valuable works quoted in this volume, it gives us pleasure to mention Bancroft’s ami Hildreth’s Histories of the United States; Cooper’s Naval History of the United States; Greene’s Histori- cal View of the American Revolution; The Pulpit of the American Revolution; Sir Morton Peto’s Resources and Prospects of America; Stevens’s History of the Methodist-Episcop.al Church ; Baird’s Religion in America; Statistical History, by Goss; Partridge on the Making of the American Nation and on Democracy; The Power of Prayer, by Irenajus Prime ; The American Conflict, by Greeley ; America Before Europe, by Count de Gasparin ; Decisive Battles of the War, by Swin- ton ; The Eighth Census of the United States, by Kennedy; Our Country, its Trials and Triumphs, by George Peck, D.D. ; Mineral Re- ANALYSIS AND AUTHOIUTIES. 3 sources of the United States, by J. Ross Brown .and James M. Taylor; and Cliristian Life and Cli.aracter of tlie Civil Institutions of the United States, by B. F. Morris, — a valu.able “ compilation,” Avhich the writer had not seen until half of the copy of this work, including the Preface, had been sent to the printer. The author would also gratefully acknowledge his obligations to Alexander Delmar, Director of the Bureau of Statistics at Washington, for important public documents; and to his friends, named in the proper places, for valuable papers contributed from their respective points of observation. If the .authors of quotations have been inadvertently omitted in our notes of reference, we hope this gen- eral .acknoM'ledgment may be deemed sufficient. In addition to the above, the author has consulted God in History, by Reed; God in History, by Gumming; The Civil Policy and Civil War of Americ.a, by Draper; Wyoming, its History and Romantic Adven- tures, by George Peck; New-York Convention M.anual, by Hough; Appleton’s American Cyclopaedia; Grant and Sherman, their Campaigns and Generals, .and Farragut and our Naval Commanders, by Headley; The Lost Cause, by Pollard ; The Women of the War, by Frank More; Putnam’s Rebellion Record; and a great v.ariety of official documents and repoi ts. 1 . ^ i -* ■ : a tv>* ■ ‘•'* , ■ ' . * * ’ • . .‘ -^ *«tr ^ j •*V 1 .; .«Ti^;iTV 100 ' _ * ,«OlT0: J UbjTTJirl . » 4 M|k"> * ■ ^ .,. ; #*, -vM) 4W?4tAA^*^*a*..i r .f -..• 't . . .-'Y Wi . If, . •.■•^fa»!^-»- :# * .. • ., KonvjfAHjw^r ooui^j^j 4 « ^ r* ^ VL»,V I* • ' .j 4 aomjtio ■ I ' * «Hr ^ * a»in» » 4 i U I 41 amAJio ‘* lf«H T»}M>^ .... • ‘-?.i 4 • .5 V 1 wkW lojii ^ i:_ : ^ /i' ■*, .V 4 «T 7 aJK) rVt,^ t IW* N«CJ»«X 1 ^ It > 1 ^/ iui ^ CONTENTS. INTRODUCTION. THE GOD OP NATIONS. PAOX. The God of the Hebrews 13 The God of Ancient Gentile Peoples 14 The God of Modem Nations 16 PERIOD I. — PREPARATION. CHAPTER I. THE DISCOVERT. The Old Northmen 20 Columbus and the New World 21 The Wisdom of God above the Folly of Man 22 CHAPTER n. THE COUNTRY PROVIDED. The Area of Freedom 25 Zone and Climates 25 Abundant Supplies for Future Want . . . .^ 27 CHAPTER in. COLONIZATION OVERRULED. France Unsuccessful 31 Spain meets with Insuperable DifiBculties 32 The English, Dutch, and Swedes controlled 34 CHAPTER IV. ENGLISH SUCCESS. The Epoch and the First Colonists of Virginia 36 Despotism and Religion in Virginia 33 6 6 CONTENTS. Grave Errors 41 God’s Method 43 •African Slavery 4 S CHAPTER V. RELIGION AND CIVIL LIDERTT IN VIRGINIA. Neither Clear nor Dark 48 Providence and Progress 50 Christianity the Life-force and Organizing Power of Liberty .... 52 Liberty asserts her Rights, and advances 55 CHAPTER VI. THE SOUTHERN GROUP COMPLETED. Maryland ' 59 Delaware 63 North Carolina 66 South Carolina 71 Georgia t . 76 Review 80 CHAPTER VII. A NEW ENGLAND EMERGES FROM THE OLD. Puritanism in England 85 The Puritans beeome Pilgrims in Search of Liberty 91 The Pilgrims have found Liberty 98 CHAPTER VIII. COLONIZATION AND LIBERTY IN MASSACHUSETTS. The Men and the Time 102 Plymouth Colony 104 Liberty reveals her Form and Strength 105 Colonies increase 107 Christianity and Freedom in Massachusetts 112 Limitations of Liberty in Massachusetts 116 CHAPTER IX. THE NORTHERN GROUP COMPLETED. Maine 121 New Hampshire 124 Connecticut 128 Rhode Island 130 New York 138 New Jersey 140 Pennsylvania H2 The Great West 147 Providence and War-discipline 149 CONTENTS. 7 PERIOD II. — INDEPENDENCE. CHAPTER I. MIND-BATTLES POINT TO A DISINTHKALLED NATIONAL LIFE. The Right of Soil 152 The Rights of Trade 156 The Right of Representation and Free Legislation 158 The Right of Taxation 161 The Right of Free Speech, a Free Ballot, and a Free Press 163 The Right of Constitutional Liberty, and of Union for the Common Defence . 167 All these Rights denied, but never surrendered 173 Struggles of Religious and Civil Liberty in America 182 Accessory Forces . . » 189 A New Inspiration 200 CHAPTER n. THE TIME CHOSEN SHOWS THE PROVIDENTIAL ADVENT OF THE NATIONAL LIFE. Historical Cycles must precede 208 Despotie Governments and Imperishable Ideas 209 The Grand Crisis of History 211 CHAPTER III. WAR INDICATES AN HEROIC NATIONAL LIFE. Lexington and Bunker Hill 215 Saratoga and Bennington 217 Trenton .and Princeton 222 War on the Sea 225 Cornwallis and Yorktown 233 Tlie Heroism of the National Life 243 CHAPTER IV. PATRIOTISM DEMONSTRATES A SUSTAINED NATIONAL LIFE. Patriotism, British, and then American 247 Patriotism in Office 250 The True Inspiration of American Patriotism 252 CHAPTER V. THE DECLARATION ASSERTS AN INDEPENDENT NATIONAL LIFE. Wise Deliberation and Diplomacy 256 The Declaration 264 Superior Wisdom 263 8 CONTENTS. CHAPTER VI. DISCIPLINE IN8DBE8 A VIOOROD8 NATIONAL LIFE. Trials from Poverty 274 Trials from Disloyalty and Treason 277 Trials from Defeat 260 Trials from a Spirit of Compromise 284 CHAPTER VII. niSTORT RECORDS AN ACKNOWLEDOEO NATIONAL LIPR The English acknowledge American Independence 288 European Governments aeknowledgo the new Nation 291 Would the American People acknowledge the Independence of the National Life f 293 CHAPTER VIII. THE CONSTITUTION REVEALS AN ORGANIC NATIONAL LIFE. The Old Articles of Confederation 302 The Federal Convention 306 The Constitution formed 309 CHAPTER IX. TRUE CHRISTIANITT AN INDESTRDCTIDLE NATIONAL LIFE. The Religions Element in the Formation of the Republic 320 The Religion of the Nation ia OflBcial Acts and Public Men .... 326 The Religion of America constructs a Grand and Durable Government . . 332 PERIOD III. — DEVELOPMENT. CHAPTER I. DEVELOPMENT OF POPULATION. Increase of Population 336 Sources of Population 337 Character of Population 338 The American Race 342 CHAPTER II. DEVELOPMENT OF LIBERTT. Personal Liberty Justice and Loyalty in Liberty 350 Education and Religion in Liberty 351 Extent and Sphere of Liberty 353 CHAPTER III. DEVELOPMENT OF GOVERNMENT. A Popular Government A Representative Government CONTENTS. 9 A National Government 360 A Rcsi>onsibIe Government 366 A Strong Government 368 CHAPTER IV. DBYELOPMBNT OF INTERNAL BE80CRCBS. Products of the Soil 376 Manufactures and Machines 380 Precious Metals 384 Other Minerals and Ores 392 * CHAPTER V. DETBLOFMBNT OF COMMERCE. Value of Exports 406 Imports and Exports 408 Internal Commerce .,..410 Shipping 413 CHAPTER VI. DEVELOPMENT OP THE WAR-POWER. Self-respect of the Nation 416 Sandwich and Queenstown 419 Naval Engagements 421 Campaigns from the West and East 425 Washington and Baltimore 429 Plattsburg 431 New Orleans 433 CHAPTER Vn. DEVELOPMENT OF LEARNINO AND THE ARTS. Public Schools . 438 Sunday Schools 442 Academics 446 Colleges and Universities 448 The Press 452 Steam Navigation 455 Railroads 457 The Safety Steam-generator 461 Telegraphy 463 Architecture 468 Painting 470 Sculpture 472 Photography 476 CHAPTER VIII. DEVELOPMENT OP MANHOOD AND HHMAHITT. True Manhood 479 Asylums for the Deaf and Dumb 482 2 10 CONTENTS. Asylums for the Blind Asylums for the Insane 4H6 Asylums for Idiots and Inebriates 490 CHAPTER IX. DEVELOPMENT OF NATURAL DEPRAVITT. Intemperance 492 Licentiousness 495 Socialism and Spiritism 496 Mormonism 499 Corruption i* Religion and Politics 504 CHAPTER X DEVELOPMENT OP TRUE RELIOION. The Protestant-Episcopal Church 513 Congregational Churches 518 The Baptist Church 523 The Presbyterian Church 530 The Methodist-Episcopal Church 537 Other Churches 545 The American Bible Society 552 The American Sunday-school Union 553 The American Tract Society, Boston 554 The American Tract Society, New York 554 The American Seamen’s Friend Society 556 Young Men’s Christian Association 557 The Great Revival 560 Pervading Christianity 561 PERIOD IV. — EMANCIPATION. CHAPTER I. AMERICAN SLAVERY. Men enslaved 564 Mind subjugated 565 Government inthralled 566 Civilization fettered 568 The Press and the Pulpit bound . . 569 CHAPTER n. THE GREAT MORAL CONTLICT. Christianity revolts 573 Humanity pleads 576 Justice denounces • 579 Political Parties temporize 581 The Strain and the Recoil 583 Another Grand Crisis in History 587 CONTENTS. 11 CHAPTER in. THE WAR OF SLAVERY AND FREEDOM. Secession 590 Treason and Rebellion 593 Fort Slimier * . . 598 Providential Adjustments 601 Bull Run 604 Ball’s Bluff 612 Port Royal 614 Roanoke Island 617 Fort Donelson 619 Forts Jackson and St. Philip 625 “ The Monitor ” and “ The Merrimack ” 631 The Peninsula 634 Antietam 641 Vicksburg 643 Fredericksburg 646 Gettysburg 648 Shenandoah Valley 655 Lookout Mountain 656 The Bloody March to Richmond 659 The Triumphal March from Atlanta to the Sea 662 Richmond 663 Christianity and the War 666 Murderous Revenge 672 CHAPTER IV. THE TRIUMPH OF LIBERTY. The Great Proclamation 676 Black Warriors * 677 The Victories of Blood and of Truth 679 The Great Amendment 680 PERIOD V. — MISSION. CHAPTER I. THE NEW NATION. Organic Unity and Regenerated Patriotism 686 The Transition 687 Impartial Suffrage 689 Universal Education 690 The New American Church 692 The New American Manhood 694 12 CONTENTS. CHAPTER n. THX OBEAT REPUDLIO IN BI8TOBY. Rcpablicanism paues out of ita Experimental into iu Historical Feriad . . 698 The People, as Sovereigns, advance to the Rank of a First-class Power . . 700 Population, and Influence Abroad 700 The Nations of Earth acknowledge, respect, and trust the Great Republic . . 703 CHAPTER m. OOD IB THE 80TKKZI0N. Rebellion is Ruin 705 Loyal Obedience is Safety and Success 706 The United States a great Christian Power 707 The Representative of Progress 709 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. INTKODUCTION. THE GOD OP NATIONS. I PROPOSE to examine the history of the United States of America from a Christian stand-point. The divine administration of human affairs is a profound study. There is reason to believe that no event in that administration stands alone; that, however small or com- paratively unimportant, it must be in some way intimately related to the grand scheme of a general Providence. I am well aware that an effort to ascertain the position of the great American Republic in that scheme, and correctly inter- pret the acts of God in its origin, structure, and government, is a very grave responsibility ; and I make the attempt with much self-distrust, but with humble dependence upon God for help. Our task requires careful attention to the teachings of his- tory in regard to the asserted rights of divine sovereignty. The Hebrew commonwealth as well as the Jewish church was a theocracy. The great Father sought thus to realize the highest idea of government among men. He appeared in personal form, revealing a glory infinitely above the glory of man. He uttered words of deepest tenderness and love, of highest wisdom and authority, that the people might be subdued by his grace, and awed by his power. He traced . ' 13 14 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. their laws upon tablets of rock, and openly took upon him- self the vindication of their rights, and the punishment of their crimes, that they might know and love and fear their true and righteous Governor. The Hebrews, in their folly, became restless under this direct divine administration. Faith became un.stcady, and national sins obscured the spiritual power in which they had been accustomed to confide. From the example of sur- rounding nations, they were seized with an unconquerable desire for a human sovereign. Had it been the recognition of a human representative of diviue sovereignty, there had been no curse in it. But as events showed, and God revealed, it w’as the practical rejection of Jehovah as the supreme civil authority of the nation ; and endless direful calamities followed. “And the Lord said unto Samuel, Hearken to the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee : for they have not rejected thee; but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them.” God permitted this uprising of human rebellion that its extreme wickedness might ap- pear. But he did not abdicate the throne: thereafter, as before, he asserted all the rights of unimpaired sovereignty. Let the summary judgments which fell upon the nation, the anointing and dethroning of kings, the slaughters and discomfitures in battle, the captivity in Babylon, and the destruction of Jerusalem, attest the fact, that the rebellion of man has no tendency to destroy or supersede the sover- eignty of God. THE GOD OF ANCIENT GENTILE PEOPLES. Special divine government does not exclude, but reveals, the general. It does not show the limitation, but the method, of governmental prerogatives. Mistaken inferences from his evident sovereignty over one nation are corrected by author- ity. In another connection, but conclusively here, St. Paul demands, “ Is he the God of the Jews only ? Is he not also THE GOD OF NATIONS. 15 of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also.” Broadly and triumphantly it is asserted, as in the Psalms, ‘‘God is the King of all the earth.” Grant that earthly potentates reject him, and attempt to usurp his throne : faithful his- tory reveals him still “ the Lord of lords, and King of kings” The four great monarchies of the East filled up the space allowed them in human history ; and, one after another, the divine Sovereign laid them aside. The prophet of God fore- saw these startling events, and yet another of grander pro- portions and significance : “And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed ; and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces, and consume all these kingdoms; and it shall stand forever:” showing the con- summation of all special purposes in one great, general pur- po.se, — the subordination of all anti-Christian civil powers to the righteous rule of God’s Messiah. So the giving of the ceremonial and civil law to the Jews, only organized preparatory events for the grand inaugura- tion of that universal government, whose laws of order were written on Sinai with the finger of God, and whose law of liberty was traced on Calvary in the blood of the Redeemer. Tlie great Jehovah visibly exercised the rights of sover- eignty over Abraham and his descendants ; but he was none the less arbiter of events in Egypt and Assyria. The God who guided Israel through the sea and the desert and Jor- dan dashed down the walls of Jericho, and overthrew the vile idolaters of Canaan. The right to colonize the He- brews implied the right to make summary disposition of the corrupt nations, whose crimes had forfeited all rights in the land “ flowing with milk and honey.” lie whose sovereignty punished rebellious Israel brought proud Babylon into the dust. He whose justice over- whelmed guilty Jerusalem buried the dishonored glory of 16 THE GREAT REPUBLia Tyre and Athens and Rome. Cyrus and Alexander and Tamerlane were as verily the chosen instruments of his sovereign power as Nebuchadnezzar, Autiochus, or Titus. He was no more a sovereign over the remnant of Israel than over the hosts of Sennacherib when “ The Angel of Death spreoil his wings on the blast, And breathed in the face of the foe as he passed." The history of the divine government, as set forth in the Bible, and in contemporaneous records so far as they ex- tend, shows clearly that God claimed to be the Supreme Ruler of all nations, and that they rose and fell under the control of his omnipotent hand. THE GOD OF MODERN NATIONS. Because distinct acts of divine sovereignty are recorded in sacred history of ancient peoples and kingdom!^ only, is it hence to be inferred that modern nations have no God? Did he assert his divine prerogatives over Palestine and Egypt and Rome, and renounce all control over England and France, Austria and Prussia, Russia and Ameiica? Was he scrupulously exact to watch over the establishment of laws and dynasties, and puni.sh national crimes, in olden times? and is he indifferent to the same great events amid the ongoings and upheavals of later days? Was it only in the days of Saul and Rehoboam, Xerxes and Alexander, Hannibal and Caesar, that it could be truthfully said, “For promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south : but God is the Judge ; he putteth down one, and setteth up another”? To affirm this, it would be necessary to show, with respect to rights, that asserted acts of divine control were then a usurpation ; or that the human race has .somehow since out- grown the obligations of allegiance to the great Sovereign of the universe ; or that the government of God is based upon accidental facts, and not upon unalterable relation.s. Who would dare to assert either ? THE GOD OF NATIONS. 17 To say this with respect to probabilities, it must be assumed that the divine nature has changed ; so that he has lost his regard for the right, or his fatherly concern for his sLilfering children on earth ; so that he has now no purpose to avenge the victims of an unjust judge, to arrest the proud career of oppression, to execute justice and judgment in the earth. It must be shown that his known interfer- ences, by omnipotent crushing power, with nations and sov- ereigns whose iniquities rose to heaven, were the result of accident or impulse rather than of essential rectitude and immutable principles. What man would dare to be so irrev- erent as to say this ? To affirm that the government of God over nations is un- necessary, it must be assumed that men as individuals need divine law, supervision, and aid, but, when organized into communities, they lose their dependence and responsibility ; that it is of the utmost importance to have divine control over the minutest acts which bear upon the individual, but none whatever over those momentous volitions which realize or crush the dearest hopes of millions ; that the moral ele- ment perishes as soon as the life of society becomes organic, and indefinitely powerful for weal or woe ; that, as individ- uals, our fellow-citizens are responsible to God, but as legis- lative, judicial, and executive officers, they are wholly unac- countable to him ; that a government can have no God, no religion, no Bible, no prayers, no account to render to “ the Judge of all the earth;” that the safety of the nation is wholly in the wisdom and patriotism of men, or subject to the mad ambition of demagogues, and the accidental whirl of political campaigns, with no pitying eye looking down from heaven, no hope from the interference of omnipotent justice, no retribution awaiting the blood-thirsty tyrant He who has such ideas of God and man, of goodness and sin, might assert that there is no necessity for practical divine sovereignty over nations. Finally, to deny the certainty of just as all-seeing and 18 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. all-pervading a control over modern a.s over ancient nations, one must ignore all prophecy and all history. See what subduing of kingdoms appears, what breaking-down of op- pression, what turning and overturning, what arraignment.s of rulers, what “gnawing of tongues for pain,” what out- beamings of the Sun of Righteousness, showing that the grand prophetic era hastens when “the kingdom and do- minion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High, whose kingdom is an eveilasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him.” See with what unerring accuracy, as in past ages, history is literally record- ing the events of prophecy. As certainly, therefore, as it is now as ever the right of God to reign ; that he is now, as in ancient times, the common Father of our guilty race, the unchangeable “Judge of all the earth;” that his great and free volitions are controlled by principles of unerring righteousness; that men arc, of themselves, blind and reckless in regard to the dcare.st inter- ests of man, and wickedness is intensified by power, so that there is actually no hope for the down-trodden, but in God, — as sure as the verification of prophecy by inevitable history, so certainly is Jehovah to-day the Sovereign of all nations; and the American Republic is responsible to him. "Auk ©©[LCJCSllBQJSo k JC S SStU y X » •« P^*‘ PERIOD I. PREPARATIOK CHAPTER I. THE DISCOVERY “ The history of the world is nothing but the development of the idea of freedom. Philosophy concerns itself only with the glory of the idea mirroring itself in history, and the process of its development. That history is this process of development, and realiza- tion of spirit, is the justification of God in history.” — Hegel. The old civilization required a new life. The race de- manded an accession of ideas, a new theatre for the exer- cise of its powers and the realization of the divine purpose in the creation. Up to near the close of the fifteenth cen- tury, human governments had revealed little more than the struggles of liberty with the repressions of despotism ; and God evidently intended a new and nobler development of the human race, a larger sphere for the manifestation of his providence and the exposition of his plans of sovereign con- trol over individuals and nations. He had given to man, as man, a strong love of liberty, the due expression and proper growth of which required room for free and independent action. Amid the despotic governments of the Old World, this would have been a moral impossibility. Such contiguity to old corrupt forms would have resulted inevitably in the infection of any new system,' however just in itself. On the side of oppression, there was power; and a novel theory must have room and oppor- tunity to experiment. 10 20 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. Precisely ailapted to the necessities and mi.ssion of a free government, God had reserved a continent in which the savage state of its predatory tribes invited tlie coming-in of a high and purifying civilization. Without forgetting the just rights of the native Indians, which the white man was sacredly bound to respect, it is philosophically and histori- cally certain that Infinite Wisdom chose this land for the home of a broader liberty and higher Christian civilization than had been before known among men, and decreed the gradual occupancy of the Western World by the represen- tatives of a new social order. Upon the authority of ancient Icelandic manuscripts, brought forward by the di.stinguished antiquarian of Copen- hagen, Professor C. Rafn, it is confidently allirnied that the old Northmen discovered this continent some five hundred years in advance of Columbus. Greenland was di.scovered in 983 by Erik the Red ; and it is u.ssertcd that his son, Leif the Fortunate, in the year 1000, with thirty-five hardy mariners, landed at Ilelluland (Newfoundland), Markland (Nova Scotia), and Vineland (New England). He is said to have remained in the latter place for some time, where he erected large house.s, called after him Leifbudis (Leif’s booths). Two years later, Thorwald, a distingui.shed brother of Leif, prosecuting these daring discoveries farther south, received his death-wound from the natives, and de.sircd to be buried at the Cape, where he thought it “pleasant to dwell ; ” supposed to be “ Cape or Point Aldeston, not far from the Pilgrim city, Plymouth, State of Ma.s.sachusett.s, where the fearless Thorwald, shortly before the sad termination of life, chiselled in Runes the exploits of his gallant crew.” * In 1006, it is alleged that Thorfinn Karlsefne, “a man destined to become great,” an Icelandic merchant, sailed to Greenland, where he married “ Gudrid, the widow of Thor- stein (a third son of Erik the Red);” after which, in three vessels, accompanied by his wife, and a crew of a hundred * History of Scandinavia, by Prof. Paul C. Binding, of Copenhagen, pp. 77, 78. THE DISCOVERY. 21 and sixty-five men, he sailed to Vineland, where Gudrid “ bore him a son called Snorre, who was the very first child of European parents born in America.” It would seem that these “ grim-visaged sea-kings of the North ” continued their explorations, and attempts at settle- ments, down to 1347. But, by some strange influence of an invisible power, they disappeared from the continent. God threw a veil over it again until the plans of his wisdom should mature. He shut it up from the further gaze of the avaricious European until the fulness of the time was come ; and then he produced the man, the idea, the impulse, which led to its discovery. COLUMBUS AND THE NEW WORLD. Who can fail to trace the evidences of the Divine in the history of Columbus ? Whence came the splendid poetry of that conception, which gave to him another world in the ideal before the knowledge of the real had become practica- ble ? Why was he so far in advance of his age and contem- poraries as to give him the reputation of a madman, not among the low and the vulgar alone, but among scholars, and courts far above him in opportunities and learning ? Whence that lofty heroism, that indomitable perseverance, which knew no danger; which defied poverty, jealousy, and the boldest combinations of secular and ecclesiastical power? It was not human. It was too elevated and far-reaching, too patient and enduring, too potent in resisting and wear- ing out opposition, too fruitful in expedients, and creative in resources, to admit of the idea for a moment. God only could have furni.shed such amazing foresight, such superhu- man energies. He felt the stirrings of divinity within him, and claimed that he was inspired for his great mission of discovery. Still unaware of the grand designs of that Provi- dence which guided him through all his wonderful career, he was, in his sphere, as verily the chosen instrument of 22 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. God as Moses or Joshua or Elijah. Heaven directed the winds that filled his sails and brought him to the unknown land. What he had discovered he did not know ; what im- pulses he had given to thought and enterprise, what new life he had poured into the mind of his age, he by no means understood. How much more was necessary to the realiza- tion of the plans of Providence, and who would be the hon- ored agents of continental discoveries, he could not tell ; nor was it in any way important. He had fulfilled his luLssion. He was not to be the successful founder of empire. He was not to wear the diadem of royalty. Neither heir nor kindred was to be the inheritor of the vast domain which rose up dimly before him. This was God’s realm, and he would take the charge of its great future. Columbus could receive his discharge from cares and from earth. He was henceforth immortal. THE WISDOM OF GOD ABOVE THE FOLLY OF M.\N. It is intensely interesting to observe the control of superior power over the devices of men for the accomplishment of high providential purposes. The success of Columbus aroused the spirit of enterprise; and navigators from different nations, with ideas wholly their own, embarked for new discoveries. But how very absurd were their views ! how blind they were with respect to their true mission ! Portugal and Spain were moved by cupidity to adven- turous expeditions in search for gold ; but God u.sed their hardy mariners to reveal other lands in the Western oceans. A Papal bull had divided the world of discovery between them, assuming original proprietorship of unknown as well as known portions of the globe ; but God roused the spirit of exploration in another quarter. John and Sebastian Cabot sailed in 1497, under the au- spices of England, to look for land, but especially for a north- western passage to Asia. It was not material what were their THE DISCOVERY. 2)3 views. They might be wild and irrational: but God conducted them to the coast of Labrador, and made use of their enter- prise to establish the claims of England to the first discovery of the continent ; thus indicating a purpose to give the domi- nant influence in the New World to the Anglo-Saxon race. In 1498, the younger Cabot, a truly great mind, moved by the same blind idea of the north-western passage, wa^s available in the divine plans to open to the mind of Eng- land new sources of wealth in his further discoveries, of which he was never to become the proprietor. Why, let us ask, were these illustrious navigators not permitted to live and die in Venice, or to prosecute their adventures as Italians? The answer plainly is. The Italian people were not suited in the eyes of God to the task of founding the great empire of freedom. In 1551, the Portuguese thought they saw great gain in the returns of the ships of Gaspar Cortereal, freighted with Indians, torn from their hunting-grounds, and doomed to in- exorable slavery ; but Providence intended and used the voyages of this daring mariner to reveal to the world some seven hundred miles of the North-American coast. Three years later, it appeared that God had given to Ameri- go Vespucci the idea of a new continent, and sent him out to explore its hidden lands, and report, as he did, to Lorenzo de Medici, the accession of an additional quarter to the globe ; to which, as the only desirable reward of his enterprise, he had the honor of giving his name. France, in 1523, must also undertake the discovery of “ a western passage to Cathay;” and to John Verrazzani of Florence was conceded the honor of this fresh attempt to gain the treasures of that fiibled land for royal coffers. This was upon the surface ; but a profounder purpose appeared in conducting him to North Carolina, and far along the coast southward and northward, where “ the groves, spread- ing perfumes far from shore, gave promise of the spices of the East, and the color of the earth gave promise of abun- THE GREAT RErCBLIC. . 24 dance of gold ” As God willed, he brought to the knowledge of the world the spacious harbors of New York and Newport, and the rugged shores of New England ; but no French mon- arch was ever to reign over this wonderful coast, the pur- poses of which were yet wrapped in profoundest mystery. The brave and reckless Ferdinand de Soto could march with the air of a conqueror through Florida, as he hail done through Pern ; and advance to the Alleghanies and the great Mississippi, as he did in 1542 : but he could bequeath no permanent empire to the Spanish throne. The grand Valley of the Mississippi was reserved by a higher Sover- eign for the hosts of freedom in the great future. So of every act in the scene of di.scovery, revealing at the same time the narrow earthly schemes of human ambi- tion, and the stern reservations and broad purposes of the Infinite Mind. Whether thirst for gold or lust of power, am- bition for fame or the vagaries of fevered brains, prompted the efforts of kings and of daring navigatoi*8, human plans were tolerated and developed just so far as the profound purposes of God would allow, and no farther, and then de- feated, or pressed into the service of the exalted power, which in wisdom infinite rose above and ruled over all ; and the divine plan of human freedom became the controlling law of discovery upon the Western continent. So God or- dained, and history reveals. CHAPTER II. THE COUNTRY PROVIDED. “ It is t!ic goodliest soil under the cope of heaVen ; the most pleasing territory of the world. The continent is of a huge and unknown greatness ; and very well peopled and towned, thougli savagely. The climate is so wholesome, that we have not one sick since we touched the laud.” — Lane, 1585. If the time had come for the recognition of higher capa- bilities of freedom and moral power in the human race, God would certainly furnish territory large enough, and sufficient in natural resources, for the development of a great and numerous people. This he could do, and he only. “ The earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof ; the world, and they that dwell therein.” His omnipotent jiower called this globe out of nothing when “ the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy.” “ He stretcheth out the north over the empty place, and hangeth the earth upon nothing.” He, as sovereign Proprietor, could dispose of these conti- nents and islands according to the laws of his infinite wisdom. He might at his discretion assign them temporarily to the wild bea.sts, or to roaming savages, or daring offenders against his sovereign laws ; but, when the purposes of his providence required it, he would surely order their possession by the people designed to illustrate his creative power and his administrative wisdom. AREA, ZONE AND CLIMATES. The vast extent of the Western World favored the idea of establishing here a model nation, with the opportunity of 4 25 26 THE GREAT REPUDLia working out, as an example to the nations, the problem of government by the people. It was not necessary that the whole of this domain should be given at once. There must be room for enlargement ; and the gradual extension of territory has accorded precisely with the exigencies of the Republic. Not including the recent accession of Russian America, it has reached 3,250,000 square miles : of land alone there are 3,010,370 square miles, or 1,926,086,800 broad acres! This is a “territory nearly ten times as large as that of Great Britain and France combined ; three times as large as France, Great Britain, Austria, Prussia, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Holland, and Denmark, together ; one and a half times as large as the Russian Empire in Europe ; one-sixth less only than the area covered by the fifly-nine or sixty empire.s, states, and republics of Europe ; of equal extent with the Roman Empire or that of Alexander.” This is ample for the present It is large, like the plans of God ; and how utterly vain it has been thus far, and hereafter must be, for man to oppose these plans 1 The great Proprietor of earth will give his favored nation room. The position at first assigned us on the continent strikingly illustrates the divine wisdom. Had our lot fallen in extreme latitudes, a symmetrical and full development of body and mind would have been impossible. We are at a proper remove from the eternal frosts of the north and the burn- ing zone of the south. Taking a vast sweep through the heart of a continent, from ocean to ocean, there are no advantages possible to a cultivated people \Ndiich are not included in the country provided. So wisely and beneticently has God chosen our inherit- ance for us. Sir Morton Peto says, “ As regards climate, the whole of the United States is within the temperate zone. The settler, however, in selecting his residence, can have any temperature he chooses, from St. Petersburg to Canton. He may settle in a cold or warm climate, according to his health, his habits, his predilections, or the object which he seeks, THE COUNTRY PROVIDED. 27 whether he desires to faroi, to fish, to hunt, to graze cattle, to cultivate garden-lands or vine-yards. He can select the shores of the lakes or of the ocean, live on or above the tidal waters of magnificent rivers, and have his choice of mountain or valley.” ABUNDANT PROVISION FOR FUTURE WANT. Nothing more strikingly indicates the mind and presence of God than clear and extended foresight. Anticipating the future by minute and ample arrangements for the demands of an immense population is the work of Omniscience alone. This our great Father has done everywhere ; a manifestation of paternal beneficence which the inhabitants of earth in all lands are under sacred obligations to recognize, and answer with unfailing gratitude and love. It is eminently so in this land of liberty. Who can look out upon our extended and productive soil, our towering mountains and Eden vales, our magnificent lakes and rivers, and not feel that they are the creation of Infinite Power for the most benevolent ends ? In their immense proportions and exhaustless resources, in their wealth of beauty and over- powering grandeur, they speak of God so distinctly, that all must hear. If Providence designed to build up a great nation of free- men, he would demand of them a marked development of taste, and imbue them with a love of the beautiful and the sublime. But this w’ould imply arrangements for the grati- fication and development of the finer and more elevated feelings of natural and cultivated humanity. A large, un- interrupted plain would not have been suited to this pur- pose. A land of inorasses, and ditches of stagnant pools and dikes, would want the inspiration which so high a purpose implies. But no element of beauty or sublimity, no natural source of inspiration, is lacking here. Graceful hills and grand mountain -ranges break up the monotony of the 28 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. plains ; vastness and variety everywhere expand and elevate the soul. Who can ascend one of our lofty heights, and look out upon the panorama below and around him, without feelings of wonder and delight? Whether you gaze upon the extended shores of New England, the vast prairie.s of the West, the gardens of the South, the forests of the North, or the valleys and hills of the Pacific coast, you behold a wealth of beauty and grandeur utterly beyond the power of description. The field of natural science is immense and inexhaustible. If God had designed, as he surely did, that the American people should be especially thoughtful and scholarly; that choice minds should here develop their best powers of obser- vation, analysis, and generalization, — he could not have more distinctly indicated his plan than by the endless variety in every department of natural history distributed through this large territory. The lover of llowers, the entomologist, the geologist, the mineralogist, indeed all students of Nature, find here their most intense interest gratified. How benignly did God in his works of old adjust all this to the culture and development of a refined people ! How evidently did he, moreover, design that our vast lakes and navigable rivers and extended coast should call out the com- mercial activity necessary to the highest civilization ! Dr. Baird, in his “Religion in America,” well says, “No con- tinental country in the world, of equal extent, can compare with the United States in regard to advantages for commerce. On the north, the great lake.s, and their outlet the St. Law- rence, drain portions of ten States and Territories, wdiich include 112,049 square miles; on the east, fifteen States touch the Atlantic, and the portion of the country which slopes in that direction contains 514,416 square miles; the Pacific slope contains 700,000 square miles ; while the four States and a half which border on the Gulf of Mexico con- tain 325,5-37 square miles. This leaves to the great Central Basin, drained by the Mississippi and its branche.s, no less THE COUNTRY PROVIDED. 29 than 1,217,562 square miles, in which are already at least 10,000,000 inhabitants.” Our shore line reaches 33,069 miles, and “ the extent of our navigable rivers is more than 40,000 miles.” ' IIow clear also is the divine purpose that the mechanical exigencies of the coming ages here should be furnished with materials and inducements to render available the strongest propensities for invention and discovery, affording to the use- ful arts their highest development, and providing that the American mind should lead the world in the great depart- ments of steam and electricity ! What resources of agriculture, what quantities of the precious metals, of coal, iron, and timber, were produced here long ages before they would be wanted, that when this goodly land should swarm with an industrious, enterprising popula- tion, there should be no want of bread, or valuable exchanges, or materials for comfort and toil needed for the highest prog- ress and destiny ! W e mean not that any of the natural advantages enumer- ated in this chapter are restricted to this country : but they are here in a degree of perfection, in a richness of variety, and upon a scale so vast as to indicate the largest designs of a beneficent Creator with regard to the nation to be estab- lished here. The immigrants with Newport affirmed that “ heaven and earth seemed never to have agreed better to frame a place for man’s commodious and delightful habita- tion.” “ Take four of the best kingdoms in Christendom,” said Sir Thomas Dale twenty-six years later, “and put them all together, they may no way compare with this country, either for commodities, or goodness of soil.” Let two contrasts suffice to place our views upon this gen- eral subject in the strongest light. Russia, the most power- ful despotic government on the globe, must forever suffer from the severity of her climate and her vast fields of ice. What but empire itself would her emperor not give for the 30 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. single harbor of Now York or of San Francisco, with sen room for cominancling the commerce and fighting the battles of the world ? Is there no special Providence in shutting up the greatest rival* power on earth within the frozen North, while the great oceans of the Ea.st and West, and finally of the globe, furnish sea room for the nation of free- men ? England, the great representative of the transition state, the power through which free principles are to pass out to the nations of Europe and the Kast, has extensive colonies and vast territory ; but there is a wide difierence between her remote and scattered provinces and the compact ex- tended domain of i^n^srican freedom. Now, let it be remembered that all these ample provisions and adjustments were made in the remote past for a people, and order of civilization, known only to Omni.science, and how clear the evidence that the Infinite Mind has prepared this country for some notable progress in the history of the race, and the manifestation of his power and glory in the exercise of his own sovereignty 1 CHAPTER III. COLONIZATION OVERRULED. How quick was the love of gain to assume that a new world was thrown open to its adventurers; that whether the discovered land were ancient India or Ophir, or a suc- oession of islands or a continent, it must be seized as the rightful possession of craving selfishness to fill up the coffers of individuals, of companies, and of monarchs, with shining gold and precious gems! But how distinctly did Providence say. as colony after colony came to this virgin land, “ I have not chosen you ” I It reminds one of the scene in the house of Jesse, when the prophet of God was there to anoint a king. One after another, the sons of this Bethlehemite passed by ; but the elect of J eho vah was not there. From the shepherd’s field came up at last the ruddy boy who was the chosen monarch of Israel’s hosts. Thus passed the greedy throngs who thought to claim this magnificent in- heritance, only to be whelmed by the surges of disaster until “ there was none of them.” FRANCE UNSUCCESSFUL. Cartier, the gallant navigator of gallant France, could resolve to colonize New France in the region of the St. Law- rence, and in 1535 take his d^arture with absolution and the benediction of the bishop; but he must be defeated by influences against which no human foresight could provide. Roberval could feel the elevation of his commission from Francis I. as “lord of the unknown Norirabza, and viceroy, 31 32 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. , • with full regal authority ” * over New France ; but he must be thwarted by contentions with his predecessor and rival, Cartier. Fifty years later, the Marquis de la Roche would try it again, but entirely fail. Chauvin and Pontgravd would make the effort in IGOO, but without success. Champlain could found a settlement, but no French nation. The French monarch could cede by patent the whole Atlantic coast, from the future Philadelphia to Montreal, to the noble Calvinist De Monts, with religious toleration for the persecuted Hu- guenots; but hostile savages, fierce winds, and shipwrecks, with successive discouragements to all future attempts of sovereign and adventurers, would deny to the French people the permanent occupancy of the future territory of freedom. AVc mourn the tragic end of the colony of French Protc.s- tants in Carolina attempted under the auspices of the great Admiral Coligny, and we execrate the cruel Roman-Catho- lic bigotry which doomed them to indiscriminate slaughter; but it was not possible that they should establish French nationality here, nor that their murderers should ultimately profit by their enormous crime. The Huguenots would at length find a home in the bosom of the free Republic. SPAIN MEETS WITH INSUPERABLE DIFnCDLTIES. Spain was heroic, and covetous of empire, and would defy all hardships to gain it in the New World. Look at this desperate struggle against the plans of Providence. Columbus discovered America in 1492, for so God willed ; but neither he nor his successors could make it a Spanish province, nor convert it into a continent of Romanists. The pope, as we have seen, commanded the division of “ the undiscovered world ” betwee^ Portugal and Spain ; but the Power above would not suffer the order to be obeyed. The valiant Ponce de Leon, from his discovery of Florida in 1513, dazzled with charms of w'ealth and power, struggled Bancroft, i. 22. COLONIZATION OVERRULED. 33 with unparalleled energy for eight years to effect a perma- nent settlement, in the vast territory called by that name, on the Atlantic sea-board ; but an Indian arrow sent him to Cuba to die. The bewildering ambition of the reckless Narvaez, in a similar attempt five years later, overwhelmed him and his comrades with still more signal disaster. In 1520, Lucus Vasquez de Ayllon, with the cruel purpose of capturing Indians to be used as slaves on St. Domingo plantations, discovered a fertile coast, which promised afflu- ence and dominion; and obtained from the Spanish monarch the right to conquer and govern “Chicora,” the future South Carolina: but calamity and disgrace terminated his proud career. Who can read without exciting interest the romantic story of Francisco de Coronado, seduced by the false accounts of the Franciscan friar Marcus de Niza, moving out from Mexico with his grand army to search for the seven great cities of “ Cibola ” and the fabled wealth of mighty princes, enduring incredible hardships, traversing the wilds of Colo- rado, and the Valley of the Del Norte, over the regions of vast future States, large and rich enough for empires, and then reporting as he did to the Emperor Charles V. that “ the region was not fit to be colonized ” ? Who can trace the history of this brave man, without reaching the convic- tion that he was designed by Heaven as an explorer, while his nation would not be permitted to appropriate his dis- coveries ? And with what feelings of wonder, and even pity, do we follow the daring career of Ferdinand de Soto, seeking for wealth and glory in the great Valley of the Mississippi, dreaming of conquests and donnnion, wearing out his heroic men and his own iron constitution, at last bowing his stub- born will to the only Power he could not defy, and sinking beneath the turbid waters of the great river, without estab- lishing the permanent control of his nation over a single 6 34 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. acre of the land to be required in after-ages for the develop ment of the Great Republic ! Spaniards could become great discoverers and great con- querors on the Western hemisphere; they could clfect settle- ments and establish governments which would remain for a period longer or shorter, as Providence willed : but they could on no account annex to the Spanish monarchy the regions set apart for ‘‘the union” of freemen, or hold their own colonists to loyal obedience, against the instincts of inde- pendence which would ultimately give law to the continent. On the 8th of September, 1505, the bigoted Catholic Philip II. “was proclaimed monarch of all North America ; ” but God did not sanction it. St Augustine, by more than .forty years the oldest town in the United State.s, was founded in the same year: but it did not grow and become great like other cities of the Republic; it could not be permanently Spanish; nor could the founding of the distant Santa Ft* and the establishment of New Mexico sixteen years later, under the indomitable spirit of the Franciscan friar Augustin Ruyz, change the ultimate current of hi.story. Santa F6 would in due time be the capital of a great republican State. THE ENGLISH, DUTCH, AND SWEDES CONTROLLED. God discriminates between men and occasions as well as nations. The English were to be the founders of empire here ; but they could not begin successfully with a system of heartless avarice. The daring attempts of Sir Humphrey Gilbert and his half-brother Sir Walter Raleigh may suHice as specimens of the discipline through which the nation would learn its wrongs, and be led gradually to success. The former might erect the standard of Britain over the mixed peoples at the fishing-station of Newfoundland, then sink to his grave in the ocean ; while the latter, after a most heroic connection with American enterprise, would become a victim of sovereign caprice, be dragged to the Tower of London, and then to the block of the executioner. COLONIZATION OVERRULED. 35 The Dutch, in IGIO, could establish a brave working colony on the river discovered by the adventurous Hudson, and ex- tend New Netherlands into the region of the Delaware and the Connecticut ; but the States-General would ultimately resign the territory and the people to their predetermined independence and the legitimate government of -the United States of America. The Swedish monarch and his great prime minister could form large plans of colonial power and grandeur in America ; but the rich territory settled at so much expense was not to be “ New Sweden,” but an important integral part of the Great Republic. CHAPTER IV. ENGLISH SUCCESS. We now come to a most important period in the prepara- tory history of the United States. Two grand representative colonies will soon appear on the continent Roth will have noble spirits as their leaders; both will have brave truth and damaging errors in their theories of man and of liberty. They will test the strength of aristocracy on the one hand, and of democracy on the other. One will bring out the powder of despotism and caste to grapple wdth the inherent rights of man; the other, the spirit of liberty to contend with usurpation and repression. The one including the most grievous wrongs will begin first Virginia shall have thirteen years the start of Ma.s.sachu.setts. Moreover, her land shall be rich, and her climate mild and attractive; while the land of the* Pilgrims shall be rugged, and its winters severe. Chivalry shall be sustiined by royal favor and am- ple wealth : Liberty shall be a fugitive from royal ojipression, and shall land on its rock-bound coast destitute an-1 unpro- tected. Then the eyes of two hemispheres for moio than two hundred and fifty years shall watch the race. THE EPOCH AND THE FIRST COLONISTS OF VIRGINIA. The times were both threatening and au.spicious. The Reformation had broken up the foundations of Popery in England ; but the Popish and Prote.stant tendencies began to appear in politias. The bigoted James saw no safety but from Prelacy, and no formidable danger but from Puritaui.sm. 36 ENGLISH SUCCESS. 37 The noble sons ot .’eligious liberty who had served Elizabeth with loyal devotion were superseded, and began to look abroad for their future. The art of pointing brought new light to the age. It was time for the permanent colonization of the New World by the Anglo-Saxon race to begin. We now catch a glimpse of the original material for an English colony in Virginia. They were “ noblemen, gentle- men, and merchants, in and about London,” “ London adven- turers.” “ Edward Maria Wingfield, a grovelling merchant of the west of England,” * was the first president of the coun- cil. “ Of one hundred and five on the list of emigrants, there were but twelve laborers, and very few mechanics.” But Providence ordered that the noble and gallant Capt. John Smith and the fiiithful Robert Hunt should be the representa- tive men of State and Church. “ Gorges, a man of wealth and rank,” and Sir George Popham, Lord Chief Justice of England, Avould represent the aristocratic pretensions of the future South; and ‘-vagabond gentlemen and goldsmiths” would seriously interfere with the vigorous administration of the heroic Smith. “When you send again,” he wrote, “ I entreat you rather send but thirty carpenters, husband- men, gardeners, fishermen, blacksmiths, masons, and diggers- up of trees’ roots, well provided, than a thousand of such as w'e have.” Other settlers came, some better, but, let us honestly hope, none worse. As especially noteworthy, ninety women, “agreeable persons, young and incorrupt,” came “ at the expense of the company, and were married to its tenants, or to men who were able to support them, and who willingly defrayed the costs of their passage.” This experi- ment was so successful, that, next year, “ sixty more were despatched, — maids of virtuous education, young, handsome, and well recom.mended. The price of a -wife rose from one hundred and twenty to one hundred and fifty pounds of tobacco, or even more.” IIow admirably simple, and yet how evidently providential, this method of fci/iding Bancroft, i. 120-124. 38 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. virtuous families, and building up the social fabric of America ! DESPOTISM AND RELIGION IN VIRG1NI.\. There was doubtless something of native independence in the daring adventures of navigators and explorers who found their way to the New World. But loyalty to fover- eigns restrained and directed it. The jealous eye of the asserted divine right of kings was everywhere. The earth belonged to them ; and the only question was, how it should be divided between them. The right of soil, whether in the form of islands or continents, was in the monarch ; and he might grant it to his loyal subjects in such quantities and upon such terms as he pleased. Charters and rights might be conceded and revoked at his royal pleasure ; and, how- ever meritorious the discovery, whatever sacrifices were made by the colonists, however exhausting the toil required to subdue and cultivate the soil, the people were all the ser- vants of the crown ; and, under such regulations as he should be pleased to make, the ultimate benefits must inure to him. Additional colonists were about to embark for Virginia, and the rights of the crown must be carefully guarded. “ Thus the first written charter of a permanent American colony which was to be the chosen abode of liberty gave to the mercantile corporation nothing but a desert territory, with the right of peopling and defending it ; and reserved to the monarch absolute legislative authority, the control of all appointments, and the hope of ultimate revenue. To the emigrants themselves it conceded not one elective franchise, not one of the rights of self-government “ The summer was spent by the patentees in preparations for planting a colony, for which the vainglory of the king found a grateful occupation in framing a code of laws ; an exercise of royal legislation which has been pronounced in itself illegal. The superior council in England was permitted to name the colonial council, which was constituted a pure ENGLISH SUCCESS. 39 aristocracy, entirely independent of the emigrants whom they were to govern ; having power to elect or remove its presi- dent, to remove any of its members, and to supply its own vacancies. Not an element of popular liberty was introduced into the form of government.” * In May, 1569, three years later, the company received a new charter from the king. But “ the lives, liberty, and fortune of the colonists were placed at the arbitrary will of a governor, who was to be appointed by a commercial cor- poration. As yet, not one valuable civil privilege was eon- ceded to the emigrants.” f How impossible that this should last forever ! How inevi- table the inquiry. Is this right? And, if it made a subject of despotism tremble to think it, he nevertheless would think, ‘‘ The king is a man, — only a man ; and I also am a man.” IIow natural and powerful the feeling of the struggling im- migrant, “ 1 am glad I am so far away from the centre of this despotism ! It cannot reach me quite so easily. This country is very large ; the air is very free and the land abun- dant here. I wonder if some portion of this grand inheritance isn’t mine ! At least, do I not own myself? ” You can see, in the very forms of the patents and charters secured by the early settlers, this yearning for the rights of a real second party ; the petitions, if not demands, of this other high contracting power. It must be very deferential, obsequious even ; but you can almost hear it say, “ If you will deal fairly with me, I will go ; if not, I will not.” Gov- ernors, proprietors, corporations, did not think, it is true, of any considerable concessions to those below them ; but they did show some disposition to take care of themselves, ivhich was something in the cautious advance of personal rights. Let it, however, be remembered that the aristocratic forms of civil government were fully sustained by ecclesiastical power. The monarch, in the creed of the Church, was “ king by the grace of God.” The organic life of the Church was Biincroft, i. 122, 12.3. t Ibid., i. 137. 40 TUE GREAT REPURLIO. interwoven in every fibre with the life of the State, and de- manded the exercise of ecclesiiustical authority from the sov- ereign, as the supreme head of the Church ; and no devotion, either of bigotry or patriotism, is so strong as religious devo- tion. The British government and British aristocracy un- derstood this well ; and, though it seemed an accident that the impetuous Henry Vlll. had become the sovereign ecclesi- astic of the realm, the force of this fact in the British Con- stitution was ever thereafter too highly valued and too powerful to be waived or modified, except under a pressure that was practically irresistible. And Virginia, the control- ling and representative colony of the South, had, as we have seen, received this spiritual despotism as a part of the abso- lute government under which .she was to found a great State, and had undertaken the impossible task of harmonizing it with the vindication and development of per.'jonal and civil liberty. Military authority had the right to compel con- formit}^ to the Episcopal Church. Indiflerence was punish- able with stripe.s, and infidelity with death, under the de- cisions of courts-martial. In 1G19, a legislature met in the Old Dominion for the first time. It was opened by prayer, as all decent legislative bodies should he. The Church of England was confirmed as the Church of Virginia. It was intended that the first four ministers should each receive two hundred pounds a year. All persons whatr Soever, upon the .sabbath days, were to frequent divine .service and sermons both forenoon and afternoon ; and all such as bore arms, to bring their pieces or swords.” * In 1621, a new constitution was granted ; and, “ simultane- ously with this civil constitution, an ecclesiastical organizar tion was introduced. The plantations were divided into par- ishes, for the endowment of which contributions were col- lected in England. A glebe of a hundred acre.s, cultivated by six indented tenants, was allowed by the company to each clergyman ; to which was added a salary, to be paid by a • Bancroft, i. 155. ENGLISH SUCCESS. 41 parish tax. The governor was instructed to uphold public worship according to the forms and discipline of the Church of England, and to avoid ^ all factions and needless novel- ties,’ — a caution, no doubt, against Puritan ideas, at this time much on the increase in England, and not without par- tisans even in Virginia.” When “ the first extant colony statutes were enacted,” “ the first acts, as in many subsequent codifications of the Virginia statutes, related to the Church. In every plantation, there was to be a room or house ‘ for the worship of God, sequestered and set apart for that purpose, and not to be for any temporal use whatsoever ; ’ also a place of burial, ‘ sequestered and paled in.’ Absence from public worship, ‘ without allowable excuse,’ exposed to the forfeiture of a pound of tobacco, or fifty pounds if the absence contin- ued for a month. The celebration of divine service was to be in conformity to the canons of the English Church. In addition to the usual church festivals, the 22d of March was to be annually observed in commemoration of the escape of the colony from Indian massacre. No minister was to be absent from his parish above two months annually, under pain of forfeiting half his salary ; or the whole of it, and his cure also, if absent four months. He who disparaged a minister without proof was to be fined five hundred pounds of tobacco, and to beg the minister’s pardon before the congre- gation. The ministers’ salaries were to be paid out of the first-gathered and best tobacco and corn ; and no man was to dispose of his tobacco before paying his church-dues, under pain of paying double. The proclamations formerly set forth against drunkenness and swearing were confirmed as law ; and the church-wardens were to present all such offenders.” * GRAVE ERRORS. With our present information, it is easy to see the strange mixture of grave error with elevated truth in this ecclesias- llildrcth, i. 126, 127. 42 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. tical system. It is sad to behold minds so great grappling with the serious questions of man’s relation to God and eter- nity, with the misleading idea that the human will can be coerced, and human beings made devout, and fit for heaven, by State authority. But an established religion, which makes the courts the judges of orthodoxy; which compels attend- ance at church ; which exacts from the people the support of the parish by arbitrary taxes; which gives to the govern- ment all authority to create priestly orders and preferments, — wholly disregards the great facts, that all piety must include the voluntary surrender of the heart to God ; that nothing is truly Christian which is not free ; that whatever in hu- man action is merely the will of another is entirely without a moral element; that a man forced to religious observ- ances is so far merely a machine, with no more right to the immunities of religion than the steam-engine. Upon the contrary, so far as the attempt results in a sense of per- sonal injury, of an unjust interference with the rights of the soul, angry resentments are sure to follow, and men are made worse by the system which proposes to secure their highest interests. True, there is room for law in the protection of religion, in guarding the rights of religious as.semblies, in preventing disturbances on the Lord’s Day, and suppressing social dis- order, so far as it interferes with good neighborhood, and tends to destroy the religious and social rights of commu- nities ; but here the -jurisdiction of the courts and the power of the executive must end. However perverse men may be in rejecting the true good, though, indeed, they may go headlong to ruin in the abuse of their freedom, still God permits it ; and man cannot, if he would, forcibly prevent it In the great work of personal humiliation, of reverence and worship, of submission and trust, of preparation for death and eternity, every man must act for himself. To his owm master he must stand or fall. It is the unquestionable duty of every man to attend ENGLISH SUCCESS. 43 divine service on the Lord’s Day, when it is not physically or otherwise impracticable ; but, if the act is to be religious, he must go freely, not by coercion. The support of religion is undoubtedly a high duty : but every man must give “ ac- cording as he purposeth in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loveth a cheerful giver.” All these positions are very clear from our present stand- point, and were doubtless seen dimly in the days of Ameri- can colonization by many sound and penetrating minds. But the grand error was in a religion established by law. It was not that the English people, who had been born and bred Episcopalians, should be Episcopalians in Virginia. It was most natural that the forms of service to which they were accustomed in England should be preferred in the New World. It was doubtless so far healthful and wise as the free action of choice preferred those modes of worship; just as other modes, adopted in other colonies, were best suited to their habits of thought and feeling. At least, it was not the province of civil law to forbid nor to enjoin these forms. To establish Presbyterianism by law in Virginia, thereby excluding the right of the people to become Episcopalians, and to build up there the institutions of their venerated and beloved church, would be a grievous wrong, but no greater than to ordain Episcopalianism as the only laAvful religion cf New England or any other portion of the land. god’s method. It may be deemed strange that God did not so far over- rule the prejudices of man as to secure freedom of religion in America from the first. This, however, is not the divine method. He allows the tares and the wheat to grow togeth- er. He shows his own sacred regard for human freedom in suffering the wrong to exert its power until hope of reform is gone, and the time has fully come for restraint or retribu tion. Then his judgments are conclusive. 44 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. It is, moreover, by grappling with error that trutli reveals and augments its power. There were the a.sserted preroga- tives of spiritual despotism, but the instinctive demand for the rights of conscience rising up firmly against them. Tliere was the coerced attendance at church, but the gospel of lib- erty rolling out from the pulpit There were the pomp and display of ceremonial worship, but the pure word of God saying to the people, “ Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.” There were legal exactions of tithes, but the revelation showing the moral value of free, liberal giving. There was worldly conformity; but there was also the new life, in all its purifying exalting power, quietly working from within, under the agency of the Holy Ghost, seeking to develop to the gaze of men the great transformation and complete emancipation of the race de- signed to realize the purposes of God in the creation. Let these two forces exist together in the trial period of a people. Let them exhibit their wrong and right, their vile- ness and purity, in contrast. Let them grapple till the supe- rior power of the true and the good shall appear. Give them time. Evil is exceedingly tenacious in this world. Its eradi- cation must be the work of ages. God is the example of patience and active energy, and “God is never in a hurry.” Through the vast cycles of time, he inaketh the wrath of men to praise him, and the remainder he doth restrain. Even we have lived long enough to see how wise and .safe is this great plan of Providence, and to know what di.spositions he would make of the attempt to establish a church Ijy law in the sphere of the future Republic of liberty. There was no need of violence in resisting this usurpation. The periods of preparation and independence would not end till it was utterly overthrown by the action of power silent as the laws of gravitation, but omnipotent as the arm of Jehovah. The great privilege of free worship would then be all the more valuable for the contrast ; while the success of the right, in its own vindication and independent development, would ENGLISH SUCCESS. 45 bo a sublime spectacle to angels and to men. In the mean time, grave responsibilities would attach to the leaders of oppression, against the will of God, now becoming so clear and emphatic in its revelations. SLAVERY IN THE SOUTH. We must mention here one more restriction of human rights, — the most intense form of despotism known p,mong men : we mean African slavery. The spirit of this ancient wrong to humanity was inherent in the British aristocracy. Essential caste elevated the privi- leged classes above the common obligations of society, and imposed corresponding burdens upon laborers. The relations of employers and employed, landlord and tenant, were, to a large extent, those of master and servant ; and this bondage, as the effect of inevitable dependence, descended to succeed- ing generations. The laws of “ indented tenants ” adopted in this miniature and pretentious aristocracy were slavery in essence. It was simply an invention to avoid labor, and obtain for gentle- men the avails of labor without just compensation. I wish therefore distinctly to deny that the slave system was forced upon the South by the cupidity of dealers in human flesh and souls, and affirm that it was most evidently of English origin. It is hence easy to see how naturally the imbecile natives were subjected to unwilling and unrequited toil, and reduced to cruel slavery. It is also easy to explain the fact, that when Las Casas, from blind philanthropy, sought to mitigate the horrors of Indian servitude by simply changing the victims, the slave- dealer had no difficulty in finding a market. Continental despotism in the West-India Islands and elsewhere was not left to enjoy a monopoly of this nefarious traffic. Hence, when twenty negroes were brought to Jamestown, in Au- gust, 1619, by a Dutch trading-vessel, to bo exposed to sale 46 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. like brute.s, it was “ by the free consent jiml co-operation of the colonists themselves,” who purchased and held them, “ not as indented servants, but as slaves for life.” * True, it had come to be the general conviction in England and upon the Continent, that Christians ought not to be re- duced to slavery ; but captives in war and accredited pagans were not included in this exemption. It may thus be ex- plained how English traders in captured victims could have immunity from punishment in Christian lands, and how even sovereign princes could assert claims to the enormous profits of the slave-trade. The development of this system of flagrant injustice was very gradual, and is not to be traced here, as it belongs to another part of this work ; but we desire sufficient attention to it now to show the startling fact of another powerful ac- cession to the strength of despotism in the great representa- tive colony of the South. * Hildreth, L 119. CHAPTER V. RELIGION AND CIVIL LIBERTY IN VIRGINIA. "Not democracy in America, but free Christianity in America, is the real key to the study of the people and their institutions.” — Goldwin Smith. It would seem that a hard problem had been raised, — hard for man, but not too hard for the solution of Infinite Wisdom. With what intense interest do we now inquire, How will God himself release these fettered minds? How shall the rights of man emerge from this sea of oppression ? Let us not be in haste. It is God’s question, and he takes time. Let us turn our attention to the gradual development of those principles, which, during this preparatory period, were quietly to assert their vitality and rights, and ultimately re- veal their power to constitute and maintain a free republic. In all the history of colonization thus far traced, we see the evident hand of God. He overruled the plans of men in rejecting such colonists as were not adjusted to the pur- poses of freedom. He chose the nation and the race of men suitable to found an empire. Romanists were not allowed the ascendency in the land appropriated to the future “United States.” Protestantism included freedom of con- science, and would ultimately assert the rights of man in church and in civil government. God, moreover, suffered the vileness of immoral adventurers to destroy them, and steadily brought forward the representatives of virtue and piety. England was a religious country. The Reformation, under Henry VHI. and Elizabeth and Edward, had asserted the rights of conscience so far as to throw off the incubus of 47 48 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. Popery. James I. hail given the people that marvel of in- spiration, the English version of the Holy Bible. Religion was the law of the land, and it was Protestant. The strug- gles of bloody Mary and her bigoted husband Philip II. could in no wise re-establish the spiritual despoti.sm of the sover- eign pontifl'. WicklilTe and Cranmer, with their compeers in godlines.'^, had given a clear voice and majestic elevation to the pulpit, and claimed high and holy rights for worship and the pre.ss. The laws of England, and 0!«pecially the Bible and the Book of Common Prayer, had given to the nation, as such, a God, a revelation of immortality and of redemption by Jesus Christ, and the grand idea of intercourse with heaven. How important this adjustment to the purposes of a new civilization in the Western hemisphere! NEITHER CLEAR NOR DARK. Grant that the standard of vital .godliness was low; that, with the multitudes, religion was matter of form ; and that the English aristocracy, generally, were grievous sinners: still there were many notable exceptions ; and a sense of God and eternity pervaded the nation, and went everywhere with British colonists. With respect to the inner life, the doctrines of liberty, and the personal rights and responsibilities of men, it must he confessed, truth and error were strangely commingled. The high assumptions of prelacy and of monarchy were anti- Christian ; and there were interpretations of the Thirty-nine Articles which seemed to interfere with the freedom of the will. But the will would assert its own freedom, and, in America, go on with the grand problem of human rights with a manly independence of thought and exprc.ssion here- tofore but little known in the Old World. While, therefore, we may not expect to find a perfect theology nor a true system of government fully matured and strongly developed in the infancy of the.se colonies, we shall find the germs of KELIGIOX AND CIVIL LIBERTY IN VIRGINIA. 49 true religion and civil liberty everywhere, fresh and vigorous with a new life. “ The advancement of the divine glory, by bringing the Indians and savages resident in those parts to human civil- ity and quiet government, was alleged as the principal mo- tive of James’s grant.” The conversion of the Indians was inserted in the charters and fundamental laws of all the groat pioneer colonies as a prime object of their grand un- dertakings. When, therefore, in 1585, the English sought to conciliate and improve the natives, they depended largely Hipon the book of inspiration. In every town which Hariot entered he displayed the Bible, and explained its truths. When, in 1619, measures were adopted ‘towards the erect- ing of a university and college,’ it was also enacted, that, ‘ of the children of the Indians, the most towardly boys in wit, and graces of nature, should be brought up in the first ele- ments of literature, and sent from the college to the work of conversion ’ of the natives to the Christian religion.” True, there was much that was strangely inconsistent with this lofty missionary purpose ; but the felt obligation was acknowledged, and this acknowledgment was in evidence of the pervading religious convictions of the parent country. The patent of Raleigh was made to conform strictly to the Christian faith, according to the Church of England. The virtuous Lord Delaware would not assume the duties of his high office in Virginia without a sermon from his chap- lain, and the most solemn public recognition of Providence ; and this was in harmony with public feeling in England. Virginia must be taught the wrong of profligacy and crime ; and God denied her the longer presence and high administrative abilities of the noble and gallant Smith. The colonists, four hundred and ninety at the time of his de- parture for England, 1609, were “in six months, by indo- lence, vice, and famine, reduced to sixty ; and they were so feeble and dejected, that, if relief had been delayed but ten days longer, they also must have utterly perished.” 50 THE GREAT REPUDLIC. PROVIDENCE AND PROGRESS. Jamestown seemed about to be deserted. Tliese miserable people embarked for England ; but, at the mouth of the river, they met Lord Delaware with additional colonists and abundant supplies. “ The fugitives,” says Bancroft, our great national historian, bore up the helm, and, favored by the wind, were that night once more at the fort in Jamestown.” And now mark. “It was on the tenth day of June, ICIO, that the restoration of the coldny was solemnly begun by supplications to God. A deep sense of the infinite mercies of his providence overawed the colonists who had been spared by famine; the emigrants who had been shipwrecked, and yet preserved ; and the new-comers, who found wretch- edness and want where they had e.xpected the contentment of abundance. The firmness of their resolution repelled de- spair. ‘It i.s,’ said they, ‘the arm of the Ijord of hosts, who would have his people pass the Bed Sea and the wilder- ness, and then possess the land of Canaan.’ Dangers avoided inspire trust in Providence. ‘ Doubt not,’ said the emigrants to the people of England, ‘ God w’ill raise our state, and build his church in this excellent clime.’” At the beginning of the day, they assembled in the little church, which was kept neatly trimmed with the wild (lowers of the country ; and, “ after solemn exercises of religion, they returned to their houses to receive their allowance of food.” Soon thereafter came the noble Gates with “ six ships,” and “ three hundred immigrants, a hundred kine, as well as suitable provisions,” and assumed the government. What could a people, trained under the discipline of Providence, say better than “ God bless England, our sweet native coun- try”? what more appropriate than to give this invocation of affectionate gratitude a prominent place in the service for morning and evening prayer ? About this time (August, 1611), “on the remote frontier, we catch a glimpse of Alexander Whitaker, the self-denying RELIGION AND CIVIL LIBERTY IN VIRGINIA. 51 ‘Apostle of Virginia/ assisting in ‘bearing the name of God to the Gentiles.’” How striking the indication of deep re- ligious convictions and a high providential mission ! Glancing back for a few years, we see the hand of God in the rush of tender sympathy which brought the young and beautiful Pocahontas to the rescue of Capt. John Smith, the true founder of Virginia. We behold the war-club of the stern Powhattan suspended over her fragile form as she pro- tects the great white brave from instant death. Soon again we see this youthful Indian princess threading her way through the dark forests to save Jamestown from its im- pending doom; and we say, Surely she was God’s chosen instrument for the purposes of his own gracious providence. Now we see “John Rolfe, an honest and discreet young Englishman, moved, as he thinks, by the Holy Ghost, to labor for the conversion of the unregenerated maiden.” — “And soon, in the little church of Jamestown, — which rested on rough pine columns fresh from the forest, and was in a style of rugged architecture as wild, if not as frail, as an Indian’s wigwam, — she stood before the font, that out of the trunk of a tree had been hewn hollow like a canoe, ‘ openly re- nounced her country’s idolatry, professed the faith of Jesus Christ, and was baptized.’” Soon she is the bride of the zealous Rolfe; a beautiful princess, “the first Christian ever of her nation.” Thus did God reveal the real humanity of the aboriginal American tribes, their capabilities of cultiva- tion and religion, and the mission of Christianity in winning their confidence. Thus did he rebuke the murderous injus- tice of converting them into enemies, slaughtering them on their own hunting-grounds, and selling them as bondsmen to unprincipled tyrants. Thus did he teach the world that a purpose higher than the gratification of wicked avarice and mad ambition had controlled liim in founding a new empire. Men were free and responsible. They could, for a time, resist the plans of Divine Benevolence ; but grave lessons of wisdom arose from the progress of providential plans. THE GREAT REPUBLIC. Wisdom is the legitimate result of discipline in the hands of God, however stern it may be. RELIGION THE LIFE-FORCE AND ORGANIZING POWER OF LIBERTY. Let US now pause to consider that religion is an active principle, a powerful divine life, in the souls of men One of its first experimental effects is to linpres.s the individual with a strong sense of responsibility, with a conviction of iluty which no other person can discharge. It rouses and releases the conscience ; and, upon the exerci.se of true faith in the Redeemer, it imparts liberty from the bondage of sin. The great preacher demonstrates the divinity and verity of his mission by thus proclaiming “ liberty to the captive.” The world is long in coming to the comprehension cf the nature and scope of experimental religious freedom. SlDwly, however, the great truth is reaching the general intelligence, that spiritual deliverance from the bondage of sin is the clear announcement of God’s will that there should be no oppression in any part of the world ; that attempts to fetter the souls and deny the just rights of men are offensive to him; and that each new man in Christ Jesus is invested with prerogatives of liberty which make him superior to oppres- sion and torture and death. It is impo.ssible that this should be a dormant power. It is in itself a high inward sense of justice, dt does not, in- deed, prompt to rebellion even against usurpation and un- righteous laws. It is the profoundest submission to the gf-eat rule of right, and results in due consideration for the laws of public order represented by “ the powers that be.” But injustice is seen to be against God ; and the true mind, regen- erate, learns at length that the rights of man and the rights of God are inseparably connected. The a.ssertion and \ in- dication of these rights must be contingent with respect to time and circurastance.s, and must especially depend upon RELIGION AND CIVIL LIBERTY IN VIRGINEV. 53 the progress of thought and the providential indications of the age. But they are felt in a new form, and commence a life of new vigor, from the moment of regeneration. They may be suppressed by cruel power, or restrained from motives of high discretion ; but they have a voice, and the ears of souls will not fail to hear it. The quiet acts and utterances of truth and right and holy laws, the meekness of suffering without yielding to wrong, and especially the sublime com- posure and triumph of martyrdom for the right to worship, teach the profoundest lessons of liberty. It is thus that the influence of true Christianity, silently it may be, but power- fully, extends the spirit and the area of freedom ; and thus that we are to explain the slow but certain progress of civil and religious liberty together in England, and upon a larger scale in America. We must also recognize the blending of true religious principles and power with all other civilizing forces, in pro- ducing that subtle and pervading sense of right which all men feel, and are sure in some form or other, sooner or later, to manifest. This is, in part, the religion of creation, and the direct work of the great Creator. Man emerges from bar- barism under its living power. This is the source and reason of the uprisings of individuals and masses in forms of even savage resentment for wrongs which have been felt but un- defined in the ages gone by, and have produced contortions as of a man in his sleep scorched with fire, who springs up at the moment of consciousness, and rushes he know's not how nor where. Long thinking and enduring ultimately give form to this pervading invisible life-force of the nations. Revealed re- ligion comes in to eliminate its vices, purify its feelings, exalt its motives, and direct its energy. Divine communications from heaven give it moderation, wisdom, and irresistible pow- er; and thus the unity of the great moral forces which are struggling for the emancipation of the race is found in God. The incarnate Son is revealed as the great Liberator of 54 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. inthralled humanity ; and the cross, wrc.sted from the bloody hand of spiritual despotism, is held aloft as the truest, no- blest emblem of freedom to the race. All this has its unequivocal expression in the gradual de- velopment of American liberty. If faithful history has made one thing clearer than another, it is that Christianity can never retain its purity or its vital power, when, as in the hands of Rome, it is forced into the service of oppression and per- secution. From a captivity and perversion so violent and vile it must be rescued before it is or can be the Christian religion again. And, as a part of the same clear liLstoric revelation, we have come to understand that no attempt at the establishment of a sound and durable free government can be successful in the assertion of atheism, in the rejection of the Holy Bible, or “ trampling under foot the Son of God.” Whoever, therefore, should attempt to account for the growth of liberty in England, and its final vindication and triumph in America, without recognizing tlie vital organizing power of Christianity, would inevitably fail. As well explain and demonstrate the circulating system of the human body without the blood, or the perfecting of grain or fruits with- out the vitalizing forces of atmospheric air. It is therefore to identify the life-power of this great sys- tem of freedom that we have brought forward the small and larger manifestations of true religion in the British nation, and the earlier history of her first great colony in the New World. It was necessary first to recognize the presence of this holy principle, and mournfully to acknowledge its un- natural alliance with the spirit of oppression ; and we must wait yet longer for a full manifestation of the liberating power of Christianity, a truer development of the great .spirit of the Reformation. In this place it has been our pur- pose to present faithfully those indications of the influence of this supernatural power which really existed, and could alone account for such progress as had already been made in that portion of our territory destined for ages to be the KELIGION AND CIVIL LIBERTY IN VIRGINIA. 55 battle-ground of the great antagonist forces of freedom and despotism. LIBERTY ASSERTS HER RIGHTS, AND ADVANCES. As early as the days of Edward, in 1547, ‘‘the ascendency of Protestantism marked the era when England began to foreshadow her maritime superiority.” Under the fearless Elizabeth, the same uprising of true Christianity “ quickened the spirit of nationality, and gave a new impulse to the peo- ple.” This impulse was never lost. It stirred the hearts of noble pioneers, and gave vigor to emigrants. It struggled with monarch and corporation until it extorted reluctant but most valuable concessions. Protestantism colonized and ultimately moulded Virginia. Let us step forward to the month of April, 1619. Sir George Yeardly arrived, and took charge of the colony, with “ commissions and instructions from tlie company for the better establishing of a commonwealth.” He announced “ that those cruell lawes by which the ancient planters had soe long been governed were now abrogated, and that they were to be governed by those free lawes which his majesties sub jects lived under in England ; ” and, in order “ that the planters might have a hande in the governing of themselves, yt was granted that a generall assemblie shoulde be helde yearly once, whereat were to be present the governor and counsell, with two burgesses from each plantation, freely to be elected by the inhabitants thereof; this assemblie to have power to make and ordaine whatsoever lawes and orders should by them be thought good and profitable for their subsistance.” Sir George, therefore, “sente his summons all over the country, as well to invite those of the counsell of estate that were absente, as also for the election of burge.sses;” and on Friday, the thirtieth day of July, 1619, a day memorable in American colonial history, this grand free legislative assem- bly met in James City, and God was solemnly recognized by prayer. 56 TUE GREAT REPUBLIC. Their “great charter” sent over by Sir George Yeardly, these keen-eyed, heroic freemen would not attempt “ to cor- rect or control ; ” but they would cautiously provide for re- dress “ in ca.se they should find aught not perfectly squaring with the state of the colony.” Brave, noble men! How bright these luminaries of freedom shine through the dim haze of two and a half centuric.s! “ When the question was taken on accepting ‘ the great charter,’ we are not surprised to find that ‘ it had the general assent and the applause of the whole assembly,’ and, let it be observed, ‘ with thanks for it to Almighty God, and to those from whom it had issued in the name of the burge.s.ses, and the whole colony whom they represented, the more so as they were promised the power to allow or disallow the orders of the court of the London company.” * This was a little alarming to royal despotism. The office of treasurer was vacant There might be necessity for a.s- certaining whether this disloyal freedom had not gone too far, even in the London Company ; and the king determined to settle the question by sending in four nominees for treas- urer. Astonishing! They are all rejected ; and “the Earl of Southampton, the early friend of Shak.spearc, was elect- ed ” ! “ Having thus vindicated their own rights, the com- pany proceeded to redre.ss former wrongs, and to provide colonial liberty with its written guaranties.” Praise God 1 Another test must come up from the colony. Argali had pronounced sentence of death. The case went home on appeal. The Earl of Warwick, and other powerful friends of Argali, took this occasion to instruct these presuming American Englishmen “ that trial by martial law is the no- blest kind of trial, because soldiers and men of the sword were the judges;” but “this opinion was reversed, and the rights of the colonists to trial by jury sustained.” How grand the triumph 1 Two years later, — namely, on the 24th of July, 1621, — • Bancroft, i. 154-156. RELIGION AND CIVIL LIBERTY IN VIRGINIA. 57 the colony received from the London Company, by the hands of Sir Francis Wyatt, “a written constitution. The pre- scribed form of government was analogous to the English Constitution ; and was, with some modifications, the model of the systems which Avere afterwards introduced into the various royal provinces. Its purpose was declared to be, ‘ the greatest comfort and benefit to the people, and the pre- vention of injustice, grievances, and oppression.’ ” * By this important historical document, “the system of representative government, and trial by jury, became in the new hemisphere an acknowledged right;” and, on this ordinance, Virginia erected the superstructure of her liberties. Thus Freedom asserts her rights, and advances. * Bancroft, i. 158. CHAPTER VI. TDE SOUTHERN GROUP COMPLETED. We have found in Virginia the true character of that great conflict between freedom and oppression which char- acterized the preparatory period of American history. In this leading colony we have, therefore, sought our principal materials for illustrating this struggle as it went on in the southern portion of the first “ United States.” We have seen the gradual development of the plans of Providence in that splendid country, and especially the evi- dent purpose to bring the true and the false, the good and the bad, in the forms of civil government, together, that they might try their strength, and exhibit their respective attrac- tions and repulsions in marked contrast. We have found how anxiously vicious principles and op- pressive institutions sought the alliance and support of reli- gion, and in what forms of misinterpretation and misdirection it is possible for Christianity to be combined with the most flagrant injustice; and, again, how promptly and vigorously all its pure principles and living energies move to the sup- port of true liberty ; nay, rather, bow inevitably Christianity appears as the only soul and vitalizing force of liberty. We are now to see these facts and developments upon a more extended scale. We must, therefore, look into the groupings around this pioneer colony, and see what addi- tional evidence they afford of God in America, — planting colonies, placing and training men, forming institutions, and controlling antagonisms, for the ultimate formation of the Great Republic of Liberty. THE SOUTHERN GROUP COMPLETED. 59 MARYLAND. William Clajborne, first a surveyor for the London Com- pany, then member of the Council, and then Secretary of State, was the pioneer of Maryland. Virginia held in proud esteem the fine harbors on the Chesapeake Bay, with the navigable waters flowing into it, and intended to make this portion of the coast the scene of an active and lucrative commerce; and Clayborne had commenced the settlement of the country, near the mouth of the Susquehanna, in the interests of Virginia. But Sir George Calvert, a true nobleman, who was intro- duced to public life by the distinguished Sir Robert Cecil, had become deeply interested in American colonization. He was a Catholic, and evidently entertained the idea of found- ing somewhere on the Western continent a State in which his church could enjoy at least the benefits of free tolera- tion. The first attempt was made in Newfoundland : but the French were annoying, the clime was inhospitable ; and, notwithstanding the immense sums of money lavished upon the undertaking, it was a notable failure. Why should they not go to Virginia ? There was ample territory, and a most genial climate. But Virginia was Prot- estant. Her great pioneers had some knowledge of the grasping, oppressive power of Rome ; and they intended to exclude her intolerance by an intolerance of their own scarcely less censurable. However, Lord Baltimore would go to Virginia, and see for himself But he must take the oath of allegiance ; and that was stringently anti-Catholic. He refuses, and understands that there is no reasonable prospect of forming a Roman-Catholic colony within the jurisdiction of Protestant Virginia. Fortunately for him, James had dissolved the London Company, and cancelled the Virginia patents, resuming the asserted rights of the crown over the soil. He had a warm side toward the Catholics, and it was not difficult to per- GO THE GREAT REPUBLIC. suatle the monarch to grant a State to Lord Baltimore and his heirs out of the territory claimed by Virginia; and he saw proper to select her most importtint and valuable sea- coast The charter was issued, the boundaries were fixed ; and in honor of Henrietta Maria, daughter of Henry IV., and wife of Charles I., the province was named Maryland. These facts are important to our historical discus.sion. Catholic Maryland is claimed as the first province of Ameri- ca allording free toleration to religion. By remarkable dis- criminations in its fiivor, extraordinary concessions of liberty were made to it by the crown. The second Lord Baltimore, to whom this patent was given, was evidently a man of enlarged and liberal view.s, beyond the restricting precedents ami principles of the bigoted sect to which he belonged. He seems to have con- ceived ideas of liberty in advance of his limc.s. There is little room to doubt, that, from an English stand-point, he had fully taken in the fact that Roman intolerance could be made the precedent and apology for discrimination against the Catho- lics ; and that, under certain circumstances, the question would be, not so much which is right, as which is strongest Relying, doubtless, upon the moral power of Rome finally to triumph over and utterly exterminate all heretical gov- ernments, he took the liberty of practically but quietly dis- senting from the settled traditional policy of the sovereign pontlfij and determined that religion should be free in Mary- land. We must assume, either that Lord Baltimore was pro- foundly versed in the art of dissimulation so fundamental to Romanism, or that he was better than hi.s church. The great providential fact, however, is, that the toleration of a most artful and damaging perversion of religion carries with it full freedom for true Christianity, and opens the way for that unrestrained competition of the right with the wrong which Rome of her own accord never dares to invite, and which is sure, finally, to result in the triumph of the right. The danger of free religious toleration in Maryland, THE SOUTHERN GROUP COMPLETED. 61 including Romanism as the dominant church, was, therefore, only apparent. On the contrary, it was a necessity of Amer- ican liberty, and the glory of the seventeenth century. It was enough that God would see that the unscrupulous power of the Roman hierarchy should never be able to re- verse the decisions of her virtuous son, and assert her claims to the right of proscription and persecution against the true religion of Christ, destined to prevail mightily in this origi- nal Catholic province. It looks like a mere accidental exception in the life of a capricious monarch, it may have been favoritism in return for the boldness with which Rome acknowledged the right of James to the crown of England, it certainly was a high Providence, that this colony received concessions of freedom, wholly exceptional in the history of American colonization. “ The charter, which in April, 1623, had passed the great seal for ‘Avalon,’ secured to the emigrants themselves an independent share in the legislation of the province, of which the statutes were to be established with the advice and approbation of the majority of the freemen or their deputies. Representative government was indissolubly con- nected with the fundamental charter; and it was especially provided that the authority of the absolute proprietary should not extend to the life, freehold, or estate of any emh grant. So far was the English monarch from reserving any right of superintendence in the colony, that he left himself without the power to take cognizance of what transpired ; and, by an express stipulation, covenanted that neither he, nor his heirs, nor his successors, should ever, at any time thereafter, set any imposition, custom, or tax whatsoever upon the inhabitants of the province.” * Thus, through the high statesmanship of Sir George Calvert, under Providence, the right of the crown to tax this province was renounced forever. It is God’s method, in the midst of imperfections and deformity, to provide himself with types of his exalted designs. Thus did he cause a man of narrow mind and • Bancroft, i. 242, 243. G2 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. despotic pretensions, and a man of extraordinary breadth of view, subject to the power of restricting bigotry, to unite in founding a model State, — a type of the glorious civil liberty which in the next century was to become national on this continent. On Friday, the 22d of November, 1G34, Leonard Calvert (brother of Lord Baltimore) and about two hundred people, most of them Roman-Catholic gentlemen and their servants, set sail for the northern bank of the Potomac ; and, on the twenty-seventh day of March following, they fixed the loca- tion of their pioneeer town on the banks of the St. Mary’s, “ four leagues from its junction witli the Potomac.” Thus “religious liberty,” says Bancroft, “ obtained a home, its only home in the wide world, at the humble village which bore the name of St. Mary’s.” Pmad the immortid words in which the birthright of Americans received its first expression: “ Whereas the enforcing of the conscience in matters of religion hath frequently fallen out to be of dangerous con- sequence in those commonwealths where it has been prac- tised, and for the more quiet and peaceable government of this province, and the better to pre.serve mutual 'love and amity among the inhabitants, no person within this prov- ince, professing to believe in Je.'ius Christ, shall be anyways troubled, molested, or discountenanced for his or her re- ligion, or in the free exerci.se thereof.” True, there was an apparent limitation in the phrase “ pro- fessing to believe in Jesus Christ,” and in the proviso that “ whatsoever pei*son shall blaspheme God, or shall deny or reproach the Holy Trinity, or any of the three persons thereof, shall be punished with death;” yet it cannot be denied that the great principle of religious liberty had be- come a vital and practical power in this State. After all the disorders of the protectorate, and notwith- standing revolutions and counter-revolutions, in which, for the time being, liberty was sometimes veiled, “ Maryland, like Virginia, at the epoch of the Restoration was in full THE SOUTHERN GROUP COMPLETED. (53 possession of liberty, based upon the practical assertion of the sovereignty of the people.” * How sadly must we record the fiict, in exact contrast with all this, that slavery at length forced itself into this province, and assumed to dictate and control it! This vile institution was not wanted in Maryland. If in her unpretending days it was freely tolerated, or even welcomed, when the negroes began to be numerous, and the price of their staples was, in consequence, alarmingly reduced, and debts for slaves were largely increased, Maryland, as well as Virginia and the Carolinas, greatly desired and preferred white laborers. But the English had become a nation of slave-dealers. Up to ”1700, in twenty years, they “ took from Africa about three hundred thousand negroes, or about fifteen thousand a year.” The dealers must have a market; and the nefarious slave- trade, which civilization has pronounced “ piracy upon the high seas,” and which has just expired from the repeated death-strokes of freedom, must fix its fetters on this noble and rising State. Thus Maryland becomes a part of the slaveholding group of the South, and bears her crushing burden, in consequence, for some, two hundred years. This was not her true position. She was much more nat- urally allied to the Middle and Eastern States. Her climate gave the white laborer the advantage, and hence she had more “ white servants ” than any other colony. She was the most southern of the colonies which joined with the East for the defence of New York, paid her quota, and helped to form “an imperfect confederacy” extending “from tlie Chesapeake to Maine.” DELAWARE. In the spring of 1631, the Dutch “ planted a colony of more than thirty souls,” “just within Cape Henlopen, on Lewes Creek ; ” and thus by occupancy secured to the future Bancroft, i. 265. 64 THE GUEAT REI'UIJLIC. State of Delaware the right to exist as an independent com- monwealth. They built a fort, attached the arms of Hol- land to a pillar, and named the country Swaanendael. Godyn, Van Rensselaer, and their associates, in company with Pieter Heyes (the commander of the emigrant-ship), llosset, and Do Vries, did what they could to make this a Dutch province ; but the colonists were murdered by Indians to avenge the death of their chief, slain by autbority of llosset, tbe com- mander. AVouter van Twiller, who superseded Minuet, could not achieve succe.s.s. The English swarmed everywhere, and claimed this land as n part of the whole. Dutchmen could live here, and on the Connecticut, and on the Hudson, where the right of discovery and settlement was undoubtedly with them ; but they could erect no .States for Holland. The Eng- lish, urged forward by religious zeal, re.solved to occupy the ground, and devote it to the rights of the peojde. And there was soon another competitor. Gustavus Adolphus, the great king of Sweden, claimed a right for his subjects in the soil and tradic of America. He would attempt colonization upon a vast scale. A grand com- mercial company was to be formed, and all Europe invited to take stock; but he would not trouble the company to govern the colony. “ Politics,” he said, “ lie beyond the pro- fession of merchants.” One thing in the views of this enlightened sovereign and his company is worthy of note. “Slaves,” they said, “cost a great deal, labor with reluctance, and soon perish from hard usage. The Swedish nation is laborious and intelli- gent ; and surely we shall gain more by a free people with wives and children.” “ To the Scandinavian imagination, hope painted the New World as a paradise;” the proposed colony as a benefit to the persecuted, a security “ to the hon- or of the wives and daughters ” of those whom bigotry had made fugitives; a blessing to the “common man,” to the “whole Protestant world.” It may prove the advantage, said Gustavus, of “ all oppressed Christendom.” THE SOUTHERN GROUP COMPLETED. 65 But the great question of the rights of conscience must be fought out on the plains of Germany ; and Gustavus Adol- phus led his brave troops to the conflict. Liberty of thought and religion triumphed at Lutzen : but the funds raised for, the colony were ingulfed in the Avar, and the great hero of liberty passed away, bequeathing to Germany and his own loyal but bereaved subjects the grand colonial enter- prise as the jeAvel of his kingdom.” Oxenstiern, “ the Avise statesman, one of the great men of all time, the serene chancellor,” Avho felt himself to be the executor of the Avill of Gustavus Adolphus, “ reneAved the patent, and extended its benefits to Germany ; ” saying, “ The consequences Avill be favorable to all Christendom, to Europe, to the Avhole Avorld.” It seemed a singular providence that the “ Key of Calmar and the Griffin,” bearing the emigrants Avho Avere to repre- sent the deceased Swedish monarch and the great Oxen- stiern, should be directed to the Bay of Delaware ; and that the emigrants should plant their little colony, Avhich Avas to aid in founding an American State, Avithin the disputed ter- ritory of the Dutch, the Quakers, and the Puritans. The Dutch Avould remonstrate, but did not then dare to defy the immense poAver of Sweden ; the Quakers Avould finally sell out, and the Yankees cluster elsewhere; the Swedes would stay for a feAV years, and finally be overAvhelmed by the Dutch ; the Dutch, in their turn, would be compelled to submit to the English; and finally the representatives of European nations would cease to be Swedes or Englishmen or Dutch or Germans, but Avould become Americans, and the dis- tinguished Lord Delaware Avould give his name to the State. It is important to our inquiry to identify the sources of light, Avhich, according to the plans of God, Avere to converge upon the land of the future Great Republic. I have, there- fore, given position and consideration to the Scandinavian movement, which, under the guidance of great minds, colo- nized “ Ne\v Sweden.” True, this laudable effort terminated disastrously, after a struggle of seventeen years; but the 66 TIIE GREAT REPUDLIC, Swedes brought with them from the Protestant Reformation of Germany the grand ideas of liberty and the dignity of labor. They rejected slavery, not, to be sure, from principles of justice and humauity, but upon economical grounds; and history vindicates their opinions. The Dutch, who finally triumphed over them, were not so clear in their doctrines of political economy, and were unscrupulous with regard to tin; rights of the African race. They, with the English, deeply involved in the crime of kidnapping and selling “ Guinea ne- groes,” sent the curse of slavery into New Netherlands, and at length fastened it upon the State of Delaware. Here, therefore, as well as in Virginia, the wrong of oppression cor- rupted the morality and retarded the civilization of the peo- ple ; and Delaware most unnaturally took her place in the Southern group. NORTH C.\ROLINA. Raleigh failed to establish a colony in North Carolina; but his attempts were valuable in the history of discovery, and form an important link in the chain which connects the American Republic with the best minds and best impulses of the Old World. His daring as an adventurer, his heroism as a military commander, his shrewdness as a manager of both civilized and savage men, entitle him to a high rank among the great men of his times. James owed him a debt of gratitude that he repaid by acts of tyranny which will add infamy to his name as long as it is remembered. Raleigh’s real crime was, failing to discover gold-mines in Guiana. He was out of favor; and, “ngainst law and against equity,” he must be shut up for long years like a felon : but his elegant mind would devote the.se years to ennobling literature. His ungrateful .sovereign could, in his old age, order him to execution ; but England and America would embalm his memory as a great statesman and a splendid philanthropist. Men perish ; but ideas and impulses live. Raleigh left for his countrymen large information concern- THE SOUTHERN GROUP COMPLETED. 67 ing the New World, and the enthusiasm of enterprise, Avhich would ultimately make that world available to the civiliza- tion of succeeding ages, and the glory of the nation to the narrow-minded bigotry of whose sovereign he fell a sacrifice. It is especially as a man of liberal opinions, imbued with a high sense of justice, that his relation to North Carolina and the United States is held most sacred. The spirit which moved him to resist the cruel orders against the nonconform- ists, and every form of persecution for opinion’s sake, was essentially new English, and thoroughly American ; and the influences which such men awake never cease to benefit the race. The North-Oarolinians perpetuate his memory by the name of their capital ; and the nation, in the noble insti- tutions which are true to his most thorough convictions. But the time for a permanent colony, and the people to found a State, would come. In 1663, Clarendon, Monk (Duke of Albemarle), Lord Cramm, Lord Ashley Cooper, the Earl of Shaftesbury, Sir John Colleton, Lord John Berkeley, Sir Wil- liam Berkeley, and Sir George Carteret, “ were constituted the proprietors and immediate sovereigns” of “the Province of Carolina.” They were old men, and very avaricious. They were high-born royalists,* and, so far as possible, would stamp the future States with the impress of aristoc- racy. They would drain the country of its resources, under pretence of “a pious zeal for the propagation of the gospel.” They were to contend with numerous rivals for the right of domain. Spain made Florida to extend over this whole coast. The everlasting Puritans were hunting about there for more room, more traffic, and more liberty ; and claimed for themselves all “ the region round about.” The noncon- formists of Virginia, shrinking from the exactions of a State church, had fled to the forests, and, in 1663, probably formed the first permanent settlement on Albemarle Sound, under patronage of Sir William Berkeley, at the same time Gov- ernor of Virginia and one of the proprietors of Carolina. * Bancroft, ii. 129, et seq. 68 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. He was, however, more loyal to himself and to freedom than to Virginia; and, scorning the settlement from the Ancient Dominion, eshiblished a separate government over men who had tied into the woods for the enjoyment of independence, and who had already, at least in part, obtained a grant of tbeir lands from the aboriginal lords of the soil.” William Drummond, a Scotch Presbyterian, beeame the Governor of North Carolina; and the people thought themselves happy in being allowed to manage their own affairs. Their con- .sciences were free, and “ the child of ecclesiastical oppre.ssion was swathed in independence." * Planters from Barbadoes, seeking *a place for the exercise of their own di.scrction, had found their way to the Cape- Fear River; and, in IGGG, their colony in “ Clarendon” num- bered eight hundred. But Sir John Yeamans, tbeir gov- ernor, was ‘‘ the son of a Cavalier, a needy baronet, who, to mend his fortune, had become a Barbadoes planter. He would impart no element of freedom to the prospective State, and “Clarendon” must be allowed to disappear. But the ideas of the aristocratic English Company en- larged. They asked and received a new charter, which gave them room for an empire. Their jurisdiction now ex- tended from the Atlantic to the Pacific, over the territory of North and South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, Mi.ssissippi, Louisiana, and large portions of Arkansas, Florid.-i, Missouri, Texas, and Mexico. Tlic^illegiance of the people to the English monarch was to be only nominal. The soil and the actual sovereignty belonged to the company ; but the freemen must consent to the laws. Religion was to be free; but an aristocratic nobility was to give character to the civil institutions of this vast territory. Liberty in Carolina was to suffer further trials. The Earl of Shaftesbury would become the guiding genius of the new government ; and he would call to his aid the great sen.sa- tional philosopher, John Locke, who believed in the power of Bancroft, ii. 135. THE SOUTHERN GROUP COMPLETED. 69 his own reason to create political institutions from the ideal forms of perfection floating in his own mind, Avithout regard to the actual condition and private necessities of a people so simple, and near to nature, as the North-Carolinians. Shaftes- bury and Locke were firmly opposed to arbitrary power, but full of self-contradictions. They desired liberty, but sought it in control by the nobility. They could not sympathize with the simple feelings of the masses; proposed to give them the avails of freedom by governing them ; and utterly dis- carded democracy. Here, in Carolina, representation was to exist in name ; but real political power was to be connected with hereditary Avealth. Two orders of nobility, earls and barons, Avere provided for: one fifth of the land Avould be- long forever to the proprietaries, another fifth to the nobili- ty, reserving three-fifths only “ for the people.” The culti- vators of the soil Avere to be perpetually degraded. All the children of the leet-men shall be leet-men, and so to all generations;” and ‘-negro slaves” Avere to be in the absolute poAver of their masters. Of “ the Grand Council,” fifty in number, only “ fourteen represented the Commons ; ” and their “term of office Avas for life.” And, finally, “popular enfranchisement Avas made an impossibility.” In entire oppo- sition to the first conceptions of freedom Avith Avhich these expeilmenters began, and against the Avishes of Locke in 1669, executive and judicial poAver Avere placed beyond the reach of the people. In a second draught of the constitu- tion, the Church of England Avas established by laAV over a population chiefly of nonconformists, Avho had fled to this Avilderness to obtain religious liberty. This strange mixture of genius and folly, destined to be alternately lauded to the skies and ridiculed as the product of fevered brains, could become sovereign on paper, and in royal decrees ; but it could never find its subjects. The rude inhabitants of North Carolina had no use for this consum- mate nonsense, and Avould not allow it to supersede their own unpretending government, Avhich sought simply the personal TO THE GREAT REPUBLIC. convenience and social rights of a self-developing population. Long after the vagaries of Locke and Shafte.sbury were con- signed to oblivion, for more than fifty years, these primitive regulations, “ confirmed by the population and re-enacted in 1715,” continued to be the law of North Carolina. Shaftesbury was an infidel ; and doubtless, yielding to the idea of a State religion as a political necessity, and, for the time being, an indispensable part of an aristocratic govern- ment, he relied upon the future development of the mate- rialism concealed in the sensational philosophy of Locke, and the pliilosophical scepticism of the age, to relieve his grand colony from what he deemed the superstitions of religion. But his infidelity, ivith his theories of government, must give place to the heart’s devotion to God, and the truths of di- vine revelation. Even the quaint and humble teachings of William Edmonson the Quaker would be joyfully welcomed to supply the long-felt spiritual wants of the people ; and the ■land of the dreamy splendors of aristocratic despotism and philosophic infidelity would become a quiet and grateful re- treat to the eccentric but truly devout George Fox, whose honest searchings of heart had reduced him and his followers to the sternest simplicity and the mo.st sublime self-denial. With characteristic humility, he could say he found the people “ generally tender and open,” and he had made “ a little entrance for truth.” More pretentious men would have said the people of North Carolina are turning Quakers ; while the candid historian must say the religion of the heart, represented in the very plainest style, showed itself superior, in adaptation to the wants of men, to either the formalism of a State religion or the cool cruelty of infidelity. While, therefore, we now see distinctly the hand of God in overruling the schemes of men in the forming period of this State, we see also the same divine plan which we have found elsewhere. The right and the wrong, the true and the false, must come together, reveal their contrasts, and pa.ss through their struggles upon the same arena. Liberty was THE SOUTHERN GROUP COMPLETED. 71 to be the grand law of Carolina ; but it must show its right to power and duration by meeting and putting down the tyranny from which it had in vain attempted to flee. Pure religion must have a home in the hearts of the people ; but it must contend with the wit and sarcasm of Shaftesbury and the blind materialism of Locke. The State would be slave, and group itself with Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware ; but the period of emancipation, though long delayed, would finally come. The institutions introduced by the power of wealth and ambition, and sustained by the most persistent energy, would finally give place to those of primitive sim- plicity and divinely-inspired truth, though the spirit of re- jected assumptions of authority and caste would descend through a thousand invisible channels to vex and distress the poor, and betray the proud folly of its deluded votaries. SOUTH CAROLINA. The boundaries of States within the territory of the fu- ture Republic could not be determined in Europe. Grasping proprietaries and dreaming speculators could fix them on paper, and sovereigns define them in charters and edicts, conceding kingdoms and empires to a few men or an individ- ual ; but God, the great proprietor of the continent, adjusted the settlements and the distinct jurisdictions to his own plans. There was room for another State in Carolina on the sea- board. Turbot said it was the beauty and envy of North America,” destined rather, as we painfully know, to become “ the plague-spot ” on the face of the nation. The proprietaries founded a settlement of turbulent men in the vicinity of Beaufort, in January, 1670. They were under the superintendence of Joseph West, and were to be governed in the name of the company by William Sayle, most likely a Presbyterian. This first location was soon abandoned. The grand model of a perfect government had just been 72 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. completed by Locke and Shaftesbury; and South Carolina was to be the scene of its complete demonstration. At least the idea of caste, of government by hereditary wealth, of a long line of illustrious families, a splendid nobility, and the deg- radation of labor, must introduce itself early, must set up its pretensions at the very foundation of South Carolina; for it was to make its most desperate struggle here against true republican equality. For near two hundred years, it would contend against the most sacred rights of man ; but it would be promptly met by stubborn democratic antagonisms with a vigor which promised and- finally obtained a triumph. The people were furnished at once with a copy of the splendid Utopian scheme which was to make them nobles and lords, and secure them indemnity from toil ; but the mar jority could see no use for iL They were not ready. The demands for shelter and bread were too urgent then for the enjoyment of paper rank and artificial dignities. Repre- sentative government would commence at the same time that the claims of aristocratic government were set up. They were to battle for centurie.s, and must face each other promptly. Then there was the “landgrave,” consisting of John Locke, Sir John Yeamans, and James Carteret; and there were the representatives of the people. The High Church with its parti.sans would, of course, be with the former; but, for the present, the latter would show the great- est strength, and govern in their own simple way. Rut “ the aristocracy ” would gain one great point. Slavery should be recognized and established from the very beginning. In the other States of the Southern group, this vile institution was thrust upon the people after they began to develop the re- sources of the soil, and their own energies, in the natural way ; but South Carolina was slave from its very foundation upward. This would at least provide that the planters should be saved from the servility of labor, and make them “ gen- tlemen.” It might lay the foundation for an hereditiiry aris- tocracy, and, at some future day, realize the splendid ideas THE SOUTHERN GROUP COMPLETED. 73 of the founders of the colony. The climate favored the plan of labor by Africans rather than Europeans ; but it sug’gested nothing with regard to the destruction of their original rights, and their reduction to the position of chattels. About 1672, a few people settled on Oyster Point, which gradually rose to the rank of a town, and was named for Charles, the reigning monarch. A century later, it became the growing commercial city of Charleston, a place of high- est distinction in the trade and history of the South. Now South Carolina becomes an attractive country to the adventurers of New England and of New York ; and they come to its magnificent groves, its land of flowers and sunny skies, to seek an easier home. But especially the “ impov- erished Cavalier” and the High-Churchman see in this rising colony strong inducements to emigrate, to attempt to im- prove their fortunes, and build up an aristocratic government and a State religion. But with them came, as Providence willed, the intelligent industrious dissenters, fleeing from discomfort and proscription at home to the wdlds of Ameri- ca, where they hoped to enjoy the sacred rights of con- science, and freedom of worship. This steady advance of parallel columns in the rising armies of Oppression and Lib- erty cannot be an accident. It has been too long continued, and implies the potent adjustment of too many contingencies, to admit of the thought for a moment. It is here precisely that we see the hand of God in the special preparations for the future triumphs of the right. Let us now turn to another grand movement in the devel- opments of Providence. We have seen how di. tured but for the arrival of re-enforcements under Lonl Percy. With the utmost caution, the British forces made their way to Bunker Hill, with a loss of three hundred men killed and wounded. The American loss was about eighty-five. The startling news flew over New England, and Boston was .soon in a state of siege. When the Briti.' and lasted for an hour, when both British transports struck, and “ The Defence ” led away her prizes, containing nearly AN HEROIC NATIONAL LIFE. 231 two handled British soldiers, with Lieut.-Col Campbell, eom- mander of the regiment. She had eight men wounded ; while the transports, besides many wounded, lost eighteen killed, including Major Menzies, who gave the defiant an- swer to the ehallenge of Capt. Harding. The next morning, “ The Defence,” notwithstanding she had suffered a good deal aloft, made sail, and, discovering a stranger, overhauled and captured her. She proved to be another transport with more than a hundred British soldiers ; and these, with those taken by “ The Doria,” raised the number of prisoners from one of the best corps of the British army to about five hundred men. We now see the brave Capt. Wiekes with his extempo- rized squadron sailing entirely around Ireland, and sweep- ing the seas of every eraft not too heavy for him to engage ; and then mournfully watch the gallant little “ Lexington,” as, at the close of a second hotly-contested engagement, she strikes her flag to the English “ Alert ; ” and then see “ The Reprisal,” foundering upon the banks of Newfoundland, and the gallant Wiekes, with every man on board but the cook, perishing in the water. Presently Capt. Gustavus Conyngharn appears amid the strife. He is in “The Surprise; ” and on the 7th of March, 1777, he dashes up to the Harwich packet “Prince of Orange,” and captures her so suddenly, that he walks quietly down into her cabin, and salutes her commander and his passengers at breakfast. The captain, by this little transaction, became involved in a French intrigue, and was imprisoned, his cut- ter seized, and his prizes were released. English confidence in France was thus, for the time being, restored ; and, with perfect assurance, vessels were sent to Dunkirk to convey Capt. Conynghain and his men to England to be “tried as pirates.” American enterprise had, however, forestalled this action. Another cutter was promptly purchased at Dunkirk. Capt. Conyngharn and his people were ingeniously released ; am', 232 THE GKEAT EEPUBLIC. on the IStli of Jul}', they were out on the water in “ The Revenge,” n name terribly prophetic. She took prizes every da}’, many of which were soon placed to our credit on our account with Spain. Having suflered from a gale, artfully disguised, she slipped into an English port, and relitled, took in supplies in Ireland, made a cruise of unprecedented suc- cess among the English shipping, refitted in Ferrol, and sailed for home. These daring movements in British waters made a sensa- tion. Mr. Deane, writing to Robert Morris, says that the cruise of Capt. Wickes “ efl'ectually alarmed England, pre- vented the great fair at Chester, occasioned insurance to rise, and even deterred the English merchants from shii)- ping goods in English bottoms at any rate ; so that, in a few weeks, forty .sail of French ships were loaded in the Thames with freight, — an instance never before known.” In the same letter, with regard to the exploits of Coiiyng- ham, he say;*, “In a word, Conyngham, by his first and second bold expeditions, is become the terror of all the eastern coast of England and Scotland, and is more dreaded than Thurot was in the late war.” Glancing back a little, we find Cajit. Mugford in “ The Franklin ” capturing “The Hope,” with “ fifteen hundred bar- rels of powder and a large quantity of intrenching tools, gun- carriages, and other stores,” and taking his valuable prize into Boston “ in sight of the British squadron.” Then Capt. Robinson, in “The Sachem,” fell in “ with an English letter of marque, a Jamaica-man, and captured her after a .sharp ac- tion ;” and, as a reward for his braver}', he was made com- mander of the fine historic ve.s.sel “ The Andrea Doria.” She was a mischievous craft, and was so well known to the Brit- ish navy, that “ The Racehorse,” twelve guns, Lieut. Jone.s, was sent out expressly to capture her. Off Porto Rico, Capt Robinson .saw the stranger bearing down upon him, and h.ad hardly time to prepare for action before he received her broadside. A very sharp contest of nearly two hours fol- AN HEROIC NATIONAL LIFE. 233 lowed, when the Englishman found herself fearfully crippled, her commander and a large number of her men being slain ; and she struck her colors to “ The Andrea Doria.” Capt. Robinson came safely and proudly into Philadelphia, leading as a prize “ The Racehorse,” sent defiantly out to capture him. The British could never have the satisfaction of mak- ing “ good and lawful prize ” of “ The Andrea Doria.” She had done her work, and was burnt by American orders, “when the evacuation of Fort Mifflin gave the British the command of the Delaware,” into which they went, to be driven out after a terrible contest with galleys claiming those waters as their home. We have now folloAved the young and rising American navy far enough to see, that, in the hands of Providence, our experimental people found themselves as much at home in war on the sea as on the land ; that the American marines were a powerful arm of the Revolutionary service ; and that the proud reliance of England on her naval strength was utterly vain against a power that could simultaneously create a navy, and command victories on an element for which the feeble colonists were supposed to be wholly unprepared. Here, on the sea as on the land, we see that “ the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong ; ” but “ God is the Judge. He'putteth down one, and setteth up another.” Let us now turn again to the land. coivnwallis and yorktown. Early in April, 1780, Lord Cornwallis appeared in com- mand of the British army in the South. He was a fearless commander, and evidently indulged a feeling of contempt for American rebels. He sought for our little suffering army with the eagerness of a conqueror. He met them under command of Gates, near Camden, S.C., attacked them with impetuosity, and swept them from the field. Gates and Caswell were borne away by the flying volunteers ; and 234 THE GREAT REPUIJLIC. De Kalb, who stood firmly with his small band of continen- tals, fell, mortally wounded. His men, taken in Hank, broke, and lied for their lives. The army of Freedom left nine hundred dead on the field, and as many prisoners in the hands of the British. The track of their retreat, strewn with arms, knapsacks, and broken wagons, indicated a crush- ing defeat. Some three or four days after, Gate.s, tlie hero of Saratoga, found himself eighty miles from the scene of his disaster, at Charlotte, N.C., with only two hundred men. Would not this end the war in the South ? In the mean time, the daring Sumter had dashed into a convoy on its way to Cornwallis from the South, and ca[> tured it with two hundred prisoners ; but Tarleton, a foe by whom he was well matched, moving with great celerity, rushed into his camp while his tired men in fancied security sought rest and refreshment, recaptured the British stores, released their prisoners, killed a hundred and fifty men, and took three hundred prisoners. The news of this disaster met Gates at Charlotte. What now \vas to prevent the abandonment of the struggle in complete despair? There was no American army worth the name in either of the Carolinas. Gates, stripped of his laurels, and Hoeing from the foe he dared not meet, was, by order of Congress and appointment of Washington, superseded by Greene. Cornwallis renewed his supplies, and, as a warning to otlier.^, hung a few Americans who had before, in tlieir ex- tremity, accepted British protection ; then moved on with the spirit of a conqueror. Marion, the bold partisan leader, came out from the swamps of the Pedee, and, dashing about among.st the Tories of the Korth-west district, made them very uncomfortable. Sumter, though vanquished, was not yet dead. Gathering his scattered forces around him, and uniting them with a few from over the mountains, he .soon showed that an heroic life survived the calamities of defeat. Cornwallis moved on North to find a foe if he could, and AN HEKOIC NATIONAL LIFE. 235 complete his campaign by a triumphant march through the conquered territory. He did not know the American peo- ple, nor the power Avhich guided their strange career. Irregular multitudes of “insurgents” appeared before Augusta ; but, upon the approach of the British forces, they suddenly disappeared. Ferguson was sent out to intercept them. Moving close along the base of the mountains, he was to destroy, capture, or disperse whatever “rebels” he might find. But, to his astonishment, he was suddenly con- fronted by two thousand mounted rough backwoodsmen, commanded by Shelby and Sevier, future governors of Ken- tucky and Tenne.ssee. He saw his danger, and made haste to retreat. Very despicable foes they were ; but a thousand of them were after him with their fleetest horses and best rifles. It was a mad break-neck race of thirty-six hours; and the British commander was at length brought to bay at King’s Mountain. Ferguson was amazed. Enemies seemed to spring from the ground to stare at him with fiery eyes, and gnash their teeth in defiance of his proud superi- ority. He threw up hasty defences, and fought bravely. Volley after volley rolled out from his veterans, and charge after charge of the British bayonets drove the cold steel into the bosoms of these struggling freemen ; but their trusty rifles flashed with unerring aim, and they returned every charge with desperate valor, rushing into the arms of death to save their bleeding country. Such terrific onsets no foe could resist. Ferguson fell, and the victory was gained. Eight hundred men surrendered to the survivors of the thou- sand from the mountains. These backwoodsmen were not very refined in the art of war. Caring little for forms, they hung ten of the most odious of their prisoners ; and, dashing again into the forests, they disappeared as suddenly as they came. Cornwallis now thought it time to be more prudent, and commeneed a retrograde movement. The wild, furious men who had annihilated Ferguson’s command began to appear 23G ■ THE GREAT REPUBLIC. formidable. Retiring to Winnsborough, S.C., he waited for the arrival of re-enforcements. Three thousand under Le.s- lie were on their way from New York ; but, hearing of Ferguson’s disaster and the retreat of Coruwalli.s, they re- embarked for Cbarleston. Marion again came out of his swamp, and threatened the commuuieation of the British with Charleston. The vigi- lant Tarleton drove him back. Sumter appeared suddenly in the field, and, this time, was more than a match for his old adversary Tarleton. The British attacked furiously, and were bravely repulsed ; but Sumter fell, dangerously wounded, and his men dispersed. Greene now commenced in good earnest the re-organization of the army in the South. “ lie found the troops without pay, and their clothing in tatters. There was hardly a dol- lar ill the military chest. Subsistence was obtained entirely by military impressment.”* A few drafted men came from North Carolina. Morgan with his Maryland regiment, and “Washington’s dragoons of Lee’s corps,” appeared across Broad River on the left and rear of the enemy ; “ while the main body encamped on the Pedee to cover the fertile dis- trict to the northward, and to threaten the British communi- cation with Cliarleston.”! A new enemy now appeared in the field. The perfidious Arnold, anxious to show his gratitude to the British for his fifty thou.sand dollars, the reward of his treachery, and for his promotion to the rank of brigadier, sent out an “ Address to the Inhabitants of America,” and a “ Proclamation to the Oilicers and Soldiers of the Continental Army,” hoping to ex- cuse his treason, and seduce honest patriots from their loyalty to freedom. In this he signally failed. The American sol- diers scorned him and his proclamation. He was in the field with sixteen hundred men, chiefly Tories, on his way from New York to join Cornwallis. Washington bad been obliged to contend with the spirit * Hiiajcili, iii. 328. t p. 29. AN HEROIC NATIONAL LIFE. 237 of revolt in the New-Jersey and Pennsylvania lines; but firm patriotism, and the spirit of conciliation, triumphed over these formidable trials also ; and the army of Liberty, which had so recently seemed to be utterly annihilated, now gath- ered about the proud British commander in formidable numbers. The gallant Baron Steuben brought together a small force in Virginia, and watched Arnold, who, with the ferocity of a savage, was burning and destroying the country he had deserted. Fearing to be taken prisoner, as well he might, he ha.stily retreated to Portsmouth beyond the reach of the French fleet, which threatened his communications. In the mean time, a brief naval engagement sent the worsted French fleet back to Newport. Lafayette, on his way to join the army of the South, hearing of this, the fourth failure of the navj^ from France, halted his command at Annapolis “ in a great state of desti- tution, without shoes, hats, or tents.” Now the plot thickens. Tarleton is sent out to attack Morgan, whose hope of safety was in crossing the Broad River before Tarleton reached him, or running the risk of a battle. He preferred the latter, and at the Cowpens ” waited the coming-up of the enemy. The attack was furi- ous and terrible. Morgan seemed to retreat, and the Brit- ish rushed on in pursuit, when the continentals turned sud- denly upon their pursuers, and poured into their ranks a fire so deadly, that they recoiled and broke. The flying mi- litia wheeled, charged upon the British cavalry, and routed them; and the brave Tarleton’s command scattered and fled, leaving more than six hundred dead and wounded on the field, with all their baggage and artillerj^ in the hands of the foe they had so recently despised. Cornwallis had moved up rapidly to rescue his favorite commander; but he was too late. He could only receive him and his few remaining horsemen as fugitives from the field of destruction. Leslie came up with his two thousand 238 THE GREAT REPUDLIC. men from New York, ami Cornwallis resolved upon the bold- est measures to retrieve his losses in the two great defeats under Ferguson and Tarleton. lie burned all his stores and superfluous baggage, and, “converting his whole army into a light-infantry corps,” dashed on to destroy Morgan’s force before he could cross the Catawba. But this enterprising commander was thoroughly alive to his danger, and pushed forward with such rapidity as to gain the opposite bank, with all his men and stores, two hours before the British van reached the river; and God sent the waters, which produced a sudden rise in the Catawba, and rendered it impo.ssible for Cornwallis to follow. Hearing of the American victory at “the Cowpens,” Greene had strained every nerve to form a junction with Mor- gan, w'hich he accomplished on the 21st of June. Assuming the command of Morgan’s men, and calling out the militia to guard the fords, ho hoped to hold Cornwallis until the main body of his army came up. But one detachment of the British dashed aside the militia under Gen. David.son, and secured the ford. The energetic Tarleton overwhelmed another small body of militia, and the forces of Cornwallis crossed the river. JJreene now pushed on for the Yadkin; but the race was so close, that Cornwallis captured several of his wagons. At Guilford Court-house, Greene met his main army, now numbering two thousand three hundred men; and, by the celerity of his movement.s, he gained another advantage over his wily antagonist, crossing with his men over into Virginia, where Cornwallis did not attempt to pursue him. Newbern, whither the North-Carolina authorities had fled at the ap- proach of the British, w’as attacked, and destroyed with all its store.«, by a British force from "Wilmington; and the people of the State were again called upon to make their submis- sion, and the well-disposed to join the British army. There were numerous Tories in those parts; but they were begin- ning to doubt the safety of open disloyalty to their country. AN HEROIC NATIONAL LIFE. 239 Fearlc.'is partisan troops dashed in wildly among tliciU; and taught them caution ; and severe exemplary punishment very frequently fell upon those who were caught in the act of rebellion. Greene showed himself an adept in tactics, lie was not strong enough to risk a battle; but he worried his antagonist by his sudden movements, and held the Tories in check hy seeming almost ubiquitous. His suffering sol- diers were full of patriotic energy ; and, though they could frequently be tracked to the place of their uncertain repose b}' the blood from their bare feet, they were ready for an- other rapid march, or skirmish with the British, or to dash into a neighborhood of Tories at any moment of the day or night. Fresh troops came up from Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina; and now, numbering about four thousand five hun- dred men, Greene determined to risk a general engagement. Cornwallis, reduced to less than half this number, thought it safe to rely upon superior valor and discipline, and accepted the challenge. On the 15th of March, 1781, the battle near Guilford Court-house Avas fought. The struggle Avas severe. The victory Avavered betAA^een the contending armies. The British finally gained the field, but Avith the loss of five hun- dred men, and Avere so crippled, that they did not dare to attempt pursuit; Avhile the Americans lost four hundred, and effected an orderly retreat : but a large part of the militia disbanded, and rendered the campaign again critical. Cornwallis found himself driven to act on the defensive. His army, bleeding and nearly starved, commenced a re- treat on Wilmington, N.C. ; and Greene boldly marched into South Carolina, and ordered Lee to unite Avith Marion, and attack IhiAvdon’s communications Avith Charleston. Corn- Avallis had failed to penetrate the designs of his antagonist until it was too late to prevent them ; and he imitated them by pushing boldly into Virginia to join the forces under Arnold and Phillips. Bawdon, by a circuit through the edge of a swamp, gained 240 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. the rear of Greene’s army ; but the American commander formed his men, and faced him so quickly as to defeat the intended surprise. The Briti.sh line was now furiou.sly as- saulted in front and on both flanks, while Washington’s house fell upon their rear. Lord Rawdon ordered up his reserves ; and the veteran Maryland regiment, under Granby, gave way before the British bayonet. Confusion, and a retreat of Greene’s troops over the hill, followed ; but the American cavalry rushed into the British lines, held them in check, and brought away the cannon the infantry had left. Greene went into camp twelve miles from the battle-ground for temporary rest. In the mean time, Lee and Marion had attacked and taken Fort Wat'^on, between Camden and Charleston ; and the re- leased patriots between the Pedee and the Santee flew to arms. Rawdon, alarmed for his communications, abandoned Camden, and “ retreated to Monk’s Corner.” The Ameri- cans took Fort Motte, Orangeburg, Fort Granby, and Au- gusta. Uniting his forces with Lee, an attack was made upon the main stronghold of the British at “ Ninety-six ; ” but Rawdon approaching, re-enforced by three regiments from Ireland, Greene retired ; and swamps fifteen miles broad, and a circuit of seventy mile.s, the only practicable route, separated the hostile armies. Greene had now relieved a large part of South Carolina, and shut up the British to a small territory between the Santee and the Lower Savannah. A season of compariitive quiet followed, neither party being prepared to commence aggressive movements. In April, 1781, Lafayette appears in command of a small New-England force to observe Phillips and Cornwallis in Virginia, just in time to save Richmond from the clutches of Phillips, who hastened to unite his forces with those of Corn- wallis to aid in the vain attempt to prevent the junction of Lafayette and Wagner. Count de Grasse approaching the Chesapeake with a AN HEROIC NATIONAL LIFE. 241 powerful French fleet, and the British commander fearing, with reason, an attack of the allied armies and the French just arrived from Newport, orders were sent to Cornwallis to take up, for the present, some strong position in Virginia. But Washington and Rochambeau determined to leave New York undisturbed, and make a vigorous effort against Corn- wallis. Lafayette was therefore ordered to cut off his retreat into North Carolina. Gn;ene was now again in the field. Uniting his continen- tals to Pickens’s militia and Marion’s dashing corps, he moved towards the enemy, now commanded by Col. Stuart. The bloody battle of Eutaw Springs followed. Both armies fought with the bravery and skill of veterans. The Americans, after a fierce conflict, broke the English left, and seemed upon the verge of a great triumph, when a body of British threw themselves into a stone house j and, while Greene’s men were attempting in vain to dislodge them, Stuart’s veterans repulsed a cavalry attack, and gained the rear of the Ameri- cans, and compelled them to retreat. The army of Congress numbered a few more than two thousand, and the British a few less. Of this small force, the British lost some seven hundred men, and the Americans nearly as many. The victory of this fiercely-contested field was claimed by both parties ; but all the fruits of victory were with the Americans. The British retreated to Monk’s Corner ; and, being shut up between the Cooper and Ashley, they had no power to extricate themselves. The sufferings of Greene’s soldiers ivere dreadful. They were barefoot, and almost destitute of clothing. They must go back to the Santee Hills to rest. At length, the long-expected French fleet appeared in American waters. Count de Grasse, after a cautious defen- sive engagement with a portion of the English fleet, safely conducting a large number of merchantmen into a place of safety, and convoying another large fleet so far towards France as to be out of danger, by skilful manoeuvring 31 242 THE GREAT RIJPUBLIC. entered the Chesapeake about the last of August The Brit- ish Admiral Graves, now commanding the combined British fleet, arriving off the mouth of the bay on the 5th of Sep- tember, was greatly astonished to find De Grasse securely inside with twenty-four ships of the line. After four most distressing failures, the French fleet now became able to ren- der most effective service. The count, put into immediate communication with Lafayette, sent ships to block up James and York Rivers, and thus prevented the retreat of Corn- wallis, who intrenched himself strongly at Yorktown. Send- ing throe thousand French troops to re-enforce Lafayette, De Grasse at once ordered his fleet to sea. Avoiding a gen- eral engagement, he succeeded in covering the French fleet from Newport under Du Barras, who availed himself of a favorable moment to slip into the bay with his invaluable cargo of military stores and heavy guns for the siege of Yorktown. Arrangements for the contemplated attack on Cornwallis were promptly consummated by Washington, De Grasse, and Rochambeau. The French and American forces were brought down the Chesapeake in transports, and were soon united under Lafayette at Williamsburg. Gov. Nel- son came up with three thousand five hundred Virginia militia, and the whole besieging army rose to si.xteen thousand men. The British forces, about eight thousand strong, with the advantage of their strong defences, firmly but anxiously waited the attack. Two advance redoubts were stormed, one by the French, the other by the Americans under Alexander Hamilton, whose thirst for military glory had thrown him into the lines. These rival forces rushed to their objects with the greatest daring. Both were irresisti- ble, and these “ redoubts were included in the second par- allel.” The w’orks about Yorktown began to crumble under the guns of the assailing forces. A brave sally was attempted, and failed. “As a last resort, Cornwallis thought- of passing his army across to Gloucester, forcing a passage through the troops on that side, and making a push for New York ; but AN HEROIC NATIONAL LIFE. 243 a violent storm drove liis boats down the river, and even that desperate scheme had to be abandoned.” * The long- dreaded end had come at length. For more than fourteen months, this brave commander had struggled against destiny with incredible energy. He entered the field with the air of a conqueror. He fought pitched battles; he marched and suffered, advanced and retreated ; blew up his stores ; dashed into the ranks of his enemies, and scattered them to the winds ; received coolly the most astounding defeats of his auxiliary expeditions ; and, when at length brought to bay, he planned his defences skilfully, and made the best of his failing munitions of war. But he saw at length that it was all in vain ; and, like a true soldier, he resolved to spare the further effusion of blood, and surrendered his forces, now sev- en thousand in number, to Washington, as prisoners of war. This grand event in the South had at length answered to the capture of Burgoyne in the North, and the War of American Independence was virtually ended. THE HEROISM OF THE NATIONAL LIFE. The bravery of war is not of itself true heroism. It appears on both sides ; is no certain evidence of the right, or guaranty of victory ; and may be evinced, in a high degree, by heaven-daring offenders against the claims of God and the rights of man. Nor would the reckless courage of individuals, or of com- panies of American volunteers, in separate and unorganized warfare, give hope of success against the sturdy, well-planned measures of a powerful nation for a period of eight long bloody years. But the following great facts appear appro- priately to conclude this chapter. The resistance of force by arms came after a war of prin- ciples had been going on for a hundred and fifty years. The rights of freemen had been searched out and defined Hildreth, iii. 369. 244 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. with the vigor of the keenest logic and the clearness of light. The usurpations of despotism had exhausted argu- ment, prerogative, and administrative ability ; and at length had drawn the sword with the avowed purpose of subjugating or destroying the colonists, who could not be overawed. When this crisis came on, individual patriots found whole communities with them : the menaced colonies found all other colonies promptly arranged by their side. When the necessity for State action arose, inchoate but real States appeared with the habits of independent legislation already formed, and under the direction of a statesmanship of which any people might be proud. When the peril of irregular, unorganized warfiirc was seen, a living nation appeared clothed with representative powers to consolidate the belligerent forces, and exalt the struggle to national dig- nity. This was the mysterious common life of a growing people. Few could comprehend its character, or explain its origin. It was not anticipated ; it was hardly invoked ; it was certainly not well understood. And yet it was here, throbbing in the bosoms of three millions of people, and organizing the scattered elements of a nation into the power of a formidable unity, without uttering a word in regard to its predestined independence. If any man had asked the wisest American, “What is the character of this life?” he would probably have answered, “ Feeble, uncertain, very humble, and limited in its aim.” If the same question had been put to an English ab.solutist, he would have said, “There is nothing of it: a few brief ebullitions of pas.sion, and it is gone.” But a profounder insight into the philosophy of history and the plans of God would have revealed the life of a new and powerful nation throbbing -svith energy, and instinct with a heroism which would measure its power, not by the numbers of its men, but by the divine justice of its cause. This is true heroism. Hence, when the British Government coolly calculated the force and expense of overwhelming this rebellion, the Ameri- AN HEROIC NATIONAL LIFE. 245 can Congress and people made no dependence upon the probability of matching them by similar strength. They only knew that their country was to be invaded by formi- dable armies, sustained by enormous power at home, and that they were to resist by such means as they had, and to be identified with liberty, whether in honor or disgrace; simply believing, that, with a just God on their side, they ought to triumph : they surely would triumph. Thus all human calculation of chances must be thrown to the winds. For instance, raw recruits 'cannot fight veterans ; citizen commanders cannot match scientific experienced generals; soldiers well dressed, well armed, well fed, and promptly paid, must conquer the hungry, barefoot, and uncompensated ; superior numbers, with inexhaustible re- cruits, must subdue small numbers ; successive defeats must finally annihilate a few poor and ill-provisioned men. These and a multitude of other military aphorisms, true beyond a doubt in a comparison of merely human forces, were all utterly at fault in a war of tyranny with God and liberty ; and the rapidly-accumulating consciousness of this super- human power supplied and revealed the heroism of the national life. CHAPTER IV. PATRIOTISM DEMONSTRATES A SUSTAINED NATIONAL LIFE. " In short, it was ultimately owing to this inducnro of the God of heaven that the thoughts, tho views, the purposes, the si)ccches, the writings, and the whole londuct, of thoso who were cngagc priations of lands. 34 266 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. “ lie ha3 obstructed the administration of justice by refus- ing his assent to laws for establishing judiciary powens. “ He has made judges dependent on his will alone for the tenure of their offices and the amount and payment of theii salaries. “ He has erected a multitude of new office.s, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people and eat out their substance. “ He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies, without the consent of our legislature.s. “ He has aflectcd to render the military independent of and superior to the civil power. “ He has combined with others [that is, with the Lords and Commons of Britain] to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his assent to their acts of pretended legislation, — for quarter- ing large bodies of armed troops among us; for protecting them, by a mock trial, from punishment for any murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these States ; for cutting off our trade with all parts of the world ; for im- posing taxes on us without our consent ; for depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury ; for trans- porting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offences ; for abolishing the free system of English law in a neighbor- ing province, establishing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging its boundarie.s, .so as to render it at once an ex.'i tuple and fit instrument for introducing the same abso- lute rule into these colonies ; for taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable law.s, and altering, fundamen- tally, the forms of our government; for suspending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legi.slate for us in all cases whatsoever. “ He has abdicated government here by declaring us out of his protection, and waging war against us. “He has plundered our seas, rav’^aged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people. AN INDEPENDENT NATIONAL LIFE. 267 " He i.s, at this time, transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation, and tyranny already begun, with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the head of a civilized nation. “ He has constrained our fellow-citizens taken captive on the high seas to bear arms against their country, to become the executioners of their friends and brethren, or to fall them.selves by their hands. “He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes, and conditions. “ In every stage of these oppressions, we have petitioned for redress in the most humble terms : our petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant is unfit to be the ruler of a free people. “ Nor have we been wanting in attention to our British brethren. We have warned them, from time to time, of attempts made by their legislature to extend an unwarranta- ble jurisdiction over us; we have reminded them of the cir- cumstances of our emigration and settlement here; we have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity; and we have conjured them, by the ties of our common kindred, to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably inter- rupt our connections and correspondence. They, too, have been deaf to the voice of justice and consanguinity. We mu.st therefore acquiesce in the necessity which denounces our separation,, and hold them, as we hold the rest of man- kind, enemies in war ; in peace, friend, s. “We therefore, the representatives of the United States of America in General Congress assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our inten- tions, do, in the name and by the authority of the good 2G8 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. people of tliese colonies, solemnly publish and declare, that these United Colonies are, and of right ought to bo, free .and INDEPENDENT States ; that tlicy are absolved from all alle- giance to the British crown; and that all political connection between thetn and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved ; and that, as free and independent States, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliance.s, establish coaiinerco, and to do all other acts and things which independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, wc mutually pledge to cacli other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.” SUPERIOR WISDOM. Pausing to consider the history and character of this great State-paper, Ave are iuipresse 1 with the evidences of superhuman wisdom, under the guidance of which the.se results were reached. If clear-sighted statesmanship had prevailed in the Brit- ish Parliament, and especially if a wise sovereign had been on the throne of England, there woidd have been no hope of American independence. As we have seen, the Ameri- cans might have been easily conciliated. They had no idea of separating from England. It was necessary to bring them to this result by the severest trials. They must be made to feel the weight of oppression, almost unparalleled in the history of freemen, before they could be brought to the conviction that this was the will of Providence. We are inclined to accept the construction of llev. George Duf- field, pastor of the Third Presbyterian Churcl;, Philadelphia, in his famous sermon, with John Adams for a hearer, when the cause of independence was trembling in the balance in Pennsylvania. He “ drew :i parallel between George the Third and Pharaoh, and inferred that the same provi- dence of God which had rescued the Israelites intended to AN INDEPENDENT NATIONAL LIFE. 269 free the Americans ” * Beyond a doubt, the providence of God alone will explain this infatuation, this judicial blind- ness. IIow clearly we mark the hand of God in the patience which delayed this act of formal separation until every fact and principle it involved had been examined over and over in the most searching discussions, and the whole nation had been penetrated by a conviction of its high justice and inevitable necessity ! Had a few rgsh leaders brought on this contest prematurely, or a few headstrong men enacted and proclaimed the overt act of independence, the self- respect and caution of the American people would have rejected it, and assisted in bringing its authors to condign punishment. What sovereign control there must have been over all resentments, restraining all angry passions, and pre- venting all rashness, until the time for action had fully come, — until the catalogue of grievances, such as no people under heaven had ever suffered, was completely full, and the vindication of the declaration was beyond ‘the reach of a doubt ! What majestic minds rose up, under God, to take the lead ; to show, by the calmest, clearest statesmanship, that not a single step was taken but as the result of a necessity forced upon the people by the arbitrary acts of the British government; to be of the people, and yet the leaders of the people in the midst of the storm ; to define the rights of the American people, not as demanded by accident or pas- sion, but as based upon immutable principles; aud coolly advance, step by step, in the way to independence, amid the provocations of tyranny and the carnage of war, only as Providence clearly opened the way ! God makes great men for great occasions. He gave to suffering, bleeding America her Adams and Jefferson, her Lee and Rutledge, her Jay and Franklin, her Marion and Washington, with their compeers in patriotism and wisdom ; raising them far Bancroft, viii. 385. 270 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. above the ordinary level of even great men in all the high qualities which prepared them to grapple with the problems of their times. And the principles of the great Declaration had been slowly evolved from the chaos of anarchy and despotism, during a period of more than three hundred years, under the same great Providence. So distinctly had they been written upon lh(i current history of civil governments and religion, that plain people saw them,#and rendereil them into their own dialect. When, in May, 1770, Virginia was in her transition state from dependence to independence, and her people were electing and instructing the delegates to her assembly of freemen, these strange words came from the people of Buck- ingham County, and fell upon the ears of its delegates, Charles Patterson and John Cahill: “Wo instruct you to cause a total separation from Great Britain to take place as soon as possible ; and a constitution to be established, with a fvdl representation, and free and frequent eloction.s. As Ameri- ca is the last coVmtry of the world which has contended for her liberty, so she may be the most free and hapjiy, taking the advantnge of her situation and strength, and having the experience of all before to profit by. The Supremo Being hath left it in our power to choose what government we please for our civil and religious happiness : good govern- ment, and the prosperity of mankind, can alone be in the di^•ino intention. We pray, therefore, that, under the superin- tending providence of the Ruler of the universe a govern- ment may be establbhed in America, the most free, happ}', and permanent that human wisdom can contrive and the perfection of man maintain.” Let the reader look at this profound Christian revelation of the philosophy of freedom and government: .“The Supreme Being hath left it in our power to choose what government wo please for our civil and religious happiness; good government, and the prosperity of mankind, can alone be in the divine intention : ” and praj'er to “ the Supreme Ruler of the universe ” for the superintend- AN INDEPENDENT NATIONAL LIFE. 271 ing care is indispensable to the formation and maintenance of good government. Oh, this is splendid ! How devoutly we adore the Spirit above and around and through all, who gave to the minds of this new providential nation so clear and divine an idea of the advanced position now to be assumed in the development of human destiny. It is delightful to read from the pen of the great civil commander of the forces of independence, John Adams, as his heart glowed over the great irrevocable resolution of the 2d of July, “It is the will of Heaven that the two eoun- tries should be sundered forever. It may be the will of Heaven that America shall suffer calamities still more wast- ing, and distresses yet more dreadful. If this is to be the case, the furnace of {iflliction produces refinement in States, as well as individuals ; but I submit all my hopes and fears to an overruling Providence, in which, unfashionable as the fliith may be, I firmly believe.” Thus the great wisdom, which alone could so order the new Ptepublic as to render its cause successful, is seen by the American people to be from above ; and the extraordinary eharacter of our great eharter of liberty is clearly explained. When, for our separate and equal station among the nntions of the earth, our patriotic fathers refer to “ Nature and to Nature’s God,” and they say, “We hold these truths to be self evident, — that all men are created equal ; tliat they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights ; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happi- ness ; that, to secure these riglits, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from tlie consent of the governed,” — Ave are led, 1jy liglit from the celestial world, into the very depths of civil and political wisdom, and are put in possession of the profoundest principles of right and fieedoin ever known to man, — a power which would ultimately destroy all the forms of oppression and injus- tice which the infirmities of men, or the capital Avrongs of our future constitution, might leave amongst us. Well THE GREAT REPUBLIC. might these sages of the great Revolution, when they were about to pledge their lives, their fortunes, and sacred honor “for the support of this Declaration,” solemnly appeal to “the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of their in- tentions,” and assume their high and sacred responsibilities “ with a firm reliance on the protection of Divlne Providence.” Thus have we ascertained that the Declaration reveals a national life, independent of Great Britain, but humbly reliant upon the arm of God. I low utterly unlike the tendencies of despoti.sm, away from God, and hence, of necessity, away from political wis- dom ! How clearly does the rule of a divine Sovereign exalt the thoughts of a free people to firm faith in his direc- tion, and the ultimate triumph of the right ! The breadth and reach of the great “ Declaration ” can be distinctly seen from this stand-point alone. It was by inspiration from Heaven that “ Jefferson poured the soul of the continent into the monumental act of independence.” CHAPTER VI. DISCIPLINE INSURES A VIGOROUS NATIONAL LIFE. “ These adventurous worthies, animated by suhlimer prospeets, dearly purehased this land ; they and their posterity have defended it with unknown cost, in continual jeopardy of their lives, and with their blood.” — Samuel Cooke. We value that most which costs us most. Whatever comes to us without a struggle, without trials, we are likely to part with without regrets. But blessings gained by years of toil and suffering we hold as inexpressibly valuable to us, and would make great sacrifices to retain. Hence it was that American liberties were so dear to the brave men of the Revo- lution: They knew their cost, and clung to them with the utmost tenacity. Hence the immensely higher estimate we place upon our noble institutions since our recent death- struggle to defend them. American history ought to explain to all men, with sufficient distinctness, the reasons for the depth and glow of American patriotism. Discipline is strength. The unused muscle is without power; but the arm of the blacksmith is vigorous and able. The neglected mind is feeble, and an object of pity ; but the mental vigor of the scholar commands our respect and admiration. The heart unaccustomed to virtue or piety is easily captivated by vice ; but the practised Christian is a moral hero in the conflicts of temptation and sin. So the life of a nation springing up by sudden and suc- cessfid revolution is effeminate and temporary ; but the life which passes through severe trials from generation to genera- tion, which wears for agonizing years its galling chains, and battles its way out of inthralment amid the sufferings of blood. 274 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. and feels in its progress to power all the pressure which mal- ice can inspire, is likely to endure. It moves on to higher rank and mightier conflicts with a vigor. which no easy life could insure. • TRI.VLS FROM POVERTY. War is enormously expensive; and one of the first prob- lems of belligerent powers is how to subsist an army. Six hours cannot pass before demands will be made upon the commissariat which would startle an inexperienced man. When the American people took up arms in defence of their libertie.s, they had no treasury, no funds. Before there could be any thing for the military chest, some plan of finance must be devised that would actually create funds. The colonies first in the struggle immediately began the ruinous but apparently inevitable policy of issuing bills of credit. They could be u.sed at first with some success; but they were not money. They were promises to pay; and, in proportion as their redemption in specie became difficidt or impossible, they depreciated, and finally became valuele,ss. Congress reluctantly adopted this dangerous policy, which, while it would po.stpone for a while the demand for hard money, could not prevent its return with greatly increased urgency. The only dependence of the forming nation was upon the colonies ; and their embarrassments on their own account seriously interfered with the financial credit based upon their local resources. In June, 1775, Congrcs.s, at the suggestion of New York, issued two millions of oontinental bills of credit for the immediate relief of the army : but this was very soon exhausted ; and as it was exchanged for necessary supplies, like the colonial bills, it soon began to be regarded as something less than money. The Canadians could not be induced to take continental money ; and our army in the North was sub.sisted with the greatest difficulty. For the rest, the only expedient was to Issue more paper-bills; and in a year and a half they had risen to twenty millions. A VIGOROUS NATIONAL LIFE. 275 The credit of this money had been quite well kept up by the patriotism of the people and the reputation of our distinguished men ; but it had at length become so abun- dant, that no existing power could prevent its depreciation. An attempt to loan five millions at four per cent; the experi- ment of a lottery; the authority of Congress given to Wash- ington to punish all who refused to receive the nation’s money, and thus disparage continental credit; and the attempt of a New-England convention to establish by law the prices of necessary commodities, — all showed the public distress, while they afforded very inadequate relief. It was quite in vain for Congress to resolve that their bills “ ought to pass current in all payments, trade, and dealings, and be deemed equal in value to the same nominal sums in Spanish dollars;” that those who refused them were “enemies of the United States ; ” and to menace offenders with “ forfeitures and other penalties.” The traders could invent methods of evading all such regulations. If a piece of paper was not a dollar, and no man would give a dollar for it, no law could make it buy a dollar’s worth of provisions. In the mean time, the army was often driven to the great- est extremes of suffering. The demands of nature justified unlawful seizures of food; the people were indulgent ; and various providential resources preserved our poor soldiers from actual starvation. In March, 1778, after having issued ten millions, then two millions, then a million, and then another million, of continental bills of credit, the depreciation became so alarm- ing, that renewed efforts to obtain a loan became indispen- sable. The public money sank to three or four to one. In these times of distress, men were found who were “ endeav- oring by every means of oppression, sharping, and extor- tions, to procure enormous gains;” and commissaries were authorized to seize and receipt for necessary provisions “purchased up or engrossed by any person with a view of Belling the same.” We blush for our race at these re vela- 276 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. tions of intense meanness ; and, ns we meet these creatures in human form in the history of other times and our own, we feel that the halter of Cromwell ought to be the protec- tion of right. Washington burned with indignation at these outrages in Pennsylvania. To Reed he wrote, “ It gives me very sincere pleasure to find that the Assembly is so well di.spo.sed to second your endeavors in bringing those murderers of our cause — the monopolizers, forestallers, and cngro.ssers — to condign punishment. It is much to be lamented that each State, long ere thi.s, has not hunted them down as pests to society, and the greatest enemies we have to the happiness of America. I would to God that some one of the more atrocious in each State were hung in gibbets upon a gallows five times as high as that prepared for Hainan ! No punishment, in my opinion, is too severe for the man who can build his great- ness upon his country’s ruin.” “ Laws unworthy the character of infant republics,” said Congress, “ are become nece.ssary to supply the defects of public virtue, and to correct the vices of some of her son.s.” For, after government had purchased clothing of some of these sharpers in Boston “ at the most extravagant rate of from ten to eighteen hundred per cent,” they demanded pay before they would deliver the goods ; “ thereby adding to e.\- ♦ tortion the crime of wounding the public credit,” “ mani- festing a disposition callous to tbe feelings of humanity, and untouched by the severe sufferings of their countrymen, exposed to a winter’s campaign in defence of the common liberties of their country.” The accusations in this particu- lar instance were denied, and probably the goods were really of more value than any amount of continental money; but the bitter complaints of Congress show the extreme of suffering in the army and the nation for t4e want of means to clothe and feed the men who were exposing life and en- during incredible hardships to preserve the life of liberty. Sixty-seven millions of dollars in continental paper-money A VIGOROUS NATIONAL LIFE. 277 were expended during the year 1778, raising the aggregate amount outstanding to ^113,456,269 ; and the depreciation was six and eight dollars to one. In May, 1780, a committee from Congress visited the camp : and from their report w'e learn “ that the army was five months unpaid ; that it seldom had more than six days provisions in advance, and was, on several occasions, for sun- dry successive days, without meat ; that the army was des- titute of forage ; that the medical department had neither sugar, tea, chocolate, wine, nor spirits ; and that every department was without money, or even the shadow of credit.” We need not pursue this subject further. We all under- stand that the currency of the nation, raised at length to $369,547,027, was finally valueless ; and we may see the severity of the trials through which, in consequence, the nation was compelled to pass; what shiverings from cold, and gnawings of hunger, tested the fortitude of our brave soldiers ; what sufferings of their wives and little ones, as the means of their scanty subsistence became worthless on their hands ; what demands upon economy checked all dis- position to luxury among the great civilians and warriors, who stood together, a colossal tower of strength and wisdom, during those days of peril; what grand lessons of financial skill, and finally what trust in Providence, were taught this nation by the extreme poverty of her people, her States, and her General Government. TRIALS FROM DISLOYALTY AND TREASON. Some men there were whose mental processes could not keep up with the progress of events. They were English- men by birth and in spirit, and Royalists from principle and habit. They were “Tories” of course, honest let us trust, and yet none the less enemies to the American nation in its struggles for independence. Others were stupid, and had no 278 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. power to understand the nature of the contest ; craven cow- ards, with no intellectual ability to discover the superio’r safety of the right, and that the right was with the Ameri- can Republic. They were “Tories” because they thought the king Avas sure to triumph in the conflict with a few feeble colonists, without an army, without a navy, without veteran officers, or money to procure the materials of war. They' were excessively impudent, and brutally cruel. Here was a source of the greatest trial and danger. In New York, in New Jersey, throughout the South, and all along the Northern frontier, they were spies, mingling with our forces ; detecting and revealing to our enemies the plans of every campaign; harboring and feeding the British, and withholding, whenever it was possible, the means of subsistr ence from their brethren in the American army ; conducting the secret or public expeditions of the enemy through routes otherwise unknown, and impracticable to them; and not unfrequently, with their own hands, applying the torch to the houses of their suflering neighbors. They became the instinctive allies of the mercile.ss savage.s, and joined in their shouts of triumph, reeking in the blood of their own brethren. These internal foes must be met and conquered, must be tracked to their hiding-places, and overwhelmed with disaster and disgrace, at the same time that the vete- rans of Clinton and Howe, Burgoyne and Cornwallis, must be met and conquered in tbe field. How sensibly, then, did Hawley write to Gerry, “ Can we subsist, did any State ever subsist, without exterminating traitors? It is amazingly wonderful, that, having no capital punishment for our intes- tine enemies, we have not been utterly ruined before now.” When the loyal people of New York were rejoicing over the Declaration of Independence, “a large number of the wealthier citizens looked on Avith distrust ; and the Epi.s- copal clergy shoAved their dissatisfaction by shutting up the churches.” * • Hildreth, iii. 141. A VIGOEOUS NATIONAL LIFE. 279 When Howe, the British commander, entered Philadelphia in triumph, “he found many to welcome him; among others, Duchd, the late chaplain of Congress, who presently sent a letter to Washington, advising him to give over the ungodly cause in which he was engaged,” * This great commander, while he bore upon his heart the burden of the war, w'ith all the sufferings of his soldiers, with whom he endured every deprivation as a father, was obliged to know that he was the object of cruel jealousy, and that, even in Congress, men were forming combinations for his overthrow. Richard Henry Lee and Samuel Adams gave influence to the disaffection towards Washington. The Pennsylvanians, smarting under the mortification of losing Philadelphia, sought to strengthen the increasing prejudice. Mifflin lent his splendid abilities to ripen the plot. Gates, who a, spired to be commander-in-chief, corresponded with Mifflin and Conway, with the view of hastening the down- fall of Washington. And what was his offence ? Simply that he did not render his feeble band of famished continen- tals and militia everywhere superior to the w^ell-fed and w'ell-clothed hosts of the British veteran army. For w^ant of shoes, the marche!^ of his army “ had been tracked in blood ; ” “ for want of blankets, many of the men were obliged to sit up all night before the camp-fires ; ” “ more than a quarter part of the troops Avere reported unfit for duty, because they were barefoot and otherwise naked ; ” and he had the greatness to Avithdraw them from action Avlicn they Avere in danger of annihilation, and to endure calmly all the obloquy of impetuous discontent, Avhile he carefully pre- served the only possibility of future success. To add to the cares of Washington, and bring upon the national cause the greatest peril, Benedict Arnold, a chiv- alrous, daring Avarrior, turned traitor, and had just e.scaped, Avith his life and infamy, to join the enemies of his country, after having made all his arrangements to surrender West Point, Avith its men and munitions of Avar, to the British. Ililili-I’tll 221. 280 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. Thus were the hearts of American patriots tried. Thus did the follies of some, who, if honest, were exceedingly sim- ple, and the treason of reckless, unprincipled men, unite to try the brave spirits upon -whose integrity the cause of American liberty depended. TRIALS FROM DEFEAT. The invasion of Canada, commenced under Schuyler, Aug. 30, 1775, resulted in the capture of the bold Ethan Allen, who was sent to England in irons, and the death of the gallant Montgomery in a desperate attack upon Quebec. Arnold was borne from the field, severely wounded ; and the remains of the spirited army of invasion went into winter-quarters behind ramparts of frozen snow. Oglethorpe, the senior general in the British army, having declined the command in America, Gen. Ilowe received the appointment; and the forces designed to subdue the freemen of the colonies were raised to more than forty thousand men. Dunmore, in Vti’ginia, by proclamation roused the negro slaves and indented apprentices to accept arms, and take the field against their master.s, promising them liberty as their reward. Soon he deemed himself strong enough for aggressive action ; and Norfolk was bombarded, and then committed to the flames. He a.scended the rivet’s, and burned and plundered, with the ferocity of a savage, the province of which he claimed to be governor. In the spring of 1776, our poor army in Canada suflered from hunger and the small-pox, of which Thomas, then in command, died. Four hundred men surrendered to a party of Canadians and Indians. Thirteen thousand men now confronted our reduced and suffering patriots. Sullivan ordered an attack upon one division of the enemy, which was repulsed with the loss of two hundred and thirty men killed, wounded, and prisoners, ^yayne was wounded, and A VIGOEOUS NATIONAL LIFE. 281 Thompson (who commanded the detachment) and Col. Ir- ving Avere among the prisoners. All offensive measures in that quarter must now be abandoned, and our brave Northern army must seek safety in retreat from Canada, “disgraced, defeated, discontented, dispirited, diseased, un- disciplined, eaten up Avith vermin ; no clothes, beds, blankets, nor medicines; and no Auctuals but salt pork and flour, and a scarce supply of that.” Thqse Avords from John Adams indicate the severity of suffering through Avhich our patriotic soldiers Avere compelled to pass, and the bitter trials of the nation. We had gathered a flotilla of sixteen ves.sels on Lake Champlain.. These, after a severe engagement, Avere SAvept from the Avaters; and CroAAUi Point fell into the enemy’s hands. In August of this year, the AA'hole army of the Eepublic scarcely numbered tAventy thousand men. One-fifth of these Avere sick, and another fifth Avere aAvay on detached duties, Avhen Washington Avas confronted by Gen. HoAve with tAventy-four thousand disciplined troops. All attempts to prevent their landing on Long Island Avere unavailing. A sharp, spirited battle took place between fifteen thousand British and five thousand Americans. Sullivan and Sterling Avere made prisoners; and New York, the commercial me tropolis of the United States, fell into the hands of the enemy, to be held till the Avar Avas ended. The soldiers noAV became unsteady under fire, and broke in so disgraceful a manner as to extort from Washington the indignant demand, “Are these the men Avith Avhoin 1 am to defend America?” He Avas driven from York Island altogether. Fort Washington, and the Avorks on Harlem Heights, under command of MagraAV, Avere suddenly attacked by four columns. Four hundred men of the enemy fell in the onset : but our men, demoralized, refused to man the Avorks ; and the fort, Avith tAvo thousand prisoners and a great quantity of artillery, fell into the hands of the British. 30 282 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. The time of enlistment for many of the continentals expired, and multitudes left before their time. Thus Wash- ington saw his little army rapidly melting away. Reduced to some four thousand men, he conducted a ma.sterly retreat southward, and finally recrossed the Delaware. New Jersey wa.s lost to the Republic for the present. This was a dark day for America. Disafiection spread in Pennsylvania. Lee, too se^'-conceited to be subordinate, virtually repudiated Washington’s orders, and aspired to a separate command. A British fleet, bearing six thousand troops, now appeared off Newport ; and that harbor was lost. During the winter of 1777, Washington was at Morris- town, N. J. He had retired from Princeton too weak to strike another blow. “ Ills troops were exhausted : many had no blankets ; others were barefoot ; all were very thinly clad.” * He joined a few skeletons of regiments which had been detached from the army of the North, and a few volunteers; and thus our brave men, hardly fit to be called an army, shivering with cold and suflering from hun- ger, waited the orders of their great commander. Again the country was scoured for men. Those who had been left for the comfort of needy fainilie.s, and many who had, for reasons of cowardice or from sinister motive.s, evaded their country’s call, were now brought into camp ; and the army was re-organized. The tone of England, in the mean time, may be judged by a single fact. American commi.s.sioners proposed that captured British seamen brought into French ports should be exchanged for so many American prisoners of war. Lord Stormont replied, “The king’s amba.ssador receives no appli- cation from rebels, unless they come to implore his Majesty’s pardon.” The note which contained these haughty words was promptly returned for his lordship’s “ better consider- ation.” Hildreth, iii. 170. A VIGOROUS NATIONAL LIFE. 283 The summer campaign gave no decisive advantage to the Americans anywhere. We lost our important defences in the Highlands on the Hudson, and in September fought the disastrous battle of the Brandywine ; and Philadelphia fell into the hands of the enemy. Our forces in the South were quite inadequate to defend so large a territory against a foe so formidable ; and the Caro- linas were treated by the British as conquered territory. The Indians were officered, and trained to deeds of cruelty for which the vilest enemies in civilized warfare could not fail to blush in shame. Let the reader trace these savages, with, their Tory allies under Butler and Brant, through the massacre of Wyoming, in the vivid pages of “Wyoming, its History, Stirring Incidents, and Romantic Ad- ventures,” by George Peck, D.D., and he will have some idea of the horrors through which America passed to the triumphs of the Revolution. We may now pause to wonder how the struggling forces of Freedom were sustained through these years of agony. Why did they not abandon the effort ? They were a mar- vel to their enemies, to themselves, and to the civilized world. Again and again the English thought they were conquered ; that they had exhausted their last resources of men and money ; and that, from very anguish of soul, they must sub- mit to their enemies. But no. A Being above all h .iman events would not permit them to yield. A courage that knew no danger, a fortitude that defied all suffering, was given them from above, rendering them actually invincible. If they had passed on in uninterrupted triumph to easy succe.ss, if they had never felt the horrors of poverty, the bitterness of treachery and defeat, they would have known nothing of the value of freedom, and have entered upon the struggles of re-organization, with no adequate patience, or wisdom *or patriotism, to sustain a form of government so new and so exceedingly critical. But God had sifted and tried them that they might be equal to their task. 284 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. . TRIALS FROM A SPIRIT OF COMPROMISE. To a superficial eye, it might have seemed a hopeful fact that the American colonists had strong advocates in the British Parliament; that noble friends of liberty opposed with matchless argument and faithful warnings every meas- ure of oppression which the king Rod his ministers imposed upon the colonies: but it is precisely here that we discover the origin of our greatest peril. If Pownal and Fox and Burke could have succeeded in tearing the mask from the eyes of George the Third, and unveiling the depth of disgrace into which he was plunging the nation; could they have made ministers believe, what they so confidently aliirmed, that they could not conquer America, and that the war would rob England of the brightest jewel in her crown, — the odious Stamp Act would have been promptly repealed, taxa- tion without representation would have been abandoned, and then, so far as we can see, all idea of independence would have perished in Amei ica. It was from her friends that the greate.st danger to Liberty arose. Their sen.se of justice was truly e.xalted ; their plea for humanity wortl!^^ of their noble rank. They were honored in the right ; but the men they addressed were judicially blinded. Their hearts were hardened, like the heart of Pharaoh ; for God evidently in- tended to lead out his people “ with a high hand and an outstretched arm.” Kindred dangers arose on every hand. Petition after pe- tition went from the American colonists to the crown. Had any one of these been heeded, and the heavy yoke upon their necks been lightened, the rising nationality of freedom would have been crushed in its beginning.s. It reminds us of the oppressive decisions of Rehoboam. Strange infatua-^ tions, now as then, had seized the monarch ; for “ the cause was from the Lord.” When, in 1774, Galloway proposed to Congress his meas- ures of compromise, they were rejected by a majority of A VIGOROUS NATIONAL LIFE. 285 only a single vote. Who controlled that single vote? We tremble to think of so narrow an escape. When temporizers, led on by Dickinson, a man of splen- did abilities, and the most captivating style of manners and rhetoric, had it in their power, again and again, to postpone the declaration of independence, and to secure a last humil- iating petition to the throne, how marked the Providence that denied even the royalist Penn an audience with the king, or access to official power, to present it, and which made it the occasion of a most despotic and cruel proclama- tion, denouncing the colonists and their congress as rebels, and, in effect, menacing their immediate subjugation or utter extermination ! What strength of self-interest in the various proprietary governments ! what plausibility in the peace doctrines of the Quakers, and in pleas for loyalty from legislators and capitalists, from merchants and lawyers, who saw nothing but ruin in resistance to the power of England ! Especially what power did the leaders of compromise acquire, when it arose from the boldest and firmest remonstrants against ty- ranny, and promised to accept nothing but justice, which the British Government, it was with reason affirmed, would ulti- mately yield ! The apathy of Congress amid the general distress of 1779 added to the public peril. Many of its strongest men left it for various reasons, wholly incompatible with the high trust committed to them by the people. The number in attendance was frequently reduced below thirty, and even below twenty-five. Finally, when the triumphant leaders of the British army came with the sword in one hand and the olive-branch in the other, offering “ peace and liberty and wealth ” in the place of bloody war and insupportable suffering, sus- tained by the whole influence of the Church of England at home and in America, how improbable it was that the offers of pardon would be rejected ! But God gave to the Amcri- 28G THE GKEAT REPUBLIC. can nation a high-souled honor, a sacred regard for prin- ciple, an unconquerable bravery, which exalted them above the blandishments of hypocrisy as well as the terrors of war. lie nerved the souls of Jefferson and Henry, of Adams and Jay, and, above all, of the immortal Washington, with a patriotism so incorruptible, that they led the nation through the perils of smiles and of tears, of bribery and of blood, with a firmness and devotion which made them a sublime spectacle to enemies and friends.. By such discipline did God separate the precious from the vile, drive away or destroy the cowardly timidity and craven selfi-shness unfit for use in eonstructing the Temple of Lib- erty, and nerve with highest energy the master-spirits chosen to lead the hosts of Freedom in the ages to come. Thus have w^e found and brought forward the facts which clearly justify the proposition which stands at the head of this chapter, — discipline insures a vigorous national life. CHAPTER HISTORY RECORDS AN ACKNOWLEDGED NATIONAI. LIFE. “0 Peace, thou welcome guest, all hail! Thou heavenly visitant, calm the tumults of nations, and wave thy balmy wing over this region of liberty ! . . . May this great event e.xcite and elevate our first, our highest acknowledgments to the Sovereign Mon- arch of universal nature, to the Supreme Disposer and Controller of all events ! Let this our pious, sincere, and devout gratitude ascend in one general effusion of heartfelt praise and hallelujah, in one united cloud of incense, even the incense of universal joy and thanksgiving to God, from the collective body of the United States.” — Pkesident Stiles. The neighborhood of nations requires mutual concessions. It is not merely the question of each, whether it has a right to exist, or whether its institutions are sound and benign in their influence upon the people. As individuals are under obligations to be good and acceptable neighbors, so each nation is bound to be a peaceable and useful member of the family of nations. Every other member of the great fam- ily has a right to exact it. The happiness and prosperity of the whole depend upon it. When, therefore, colonies, however remote from the home government, assert their independence, they are greatly concerned in the question of acknowledgment. Are they right? Do. the principles of their uprising commend themselves to sound reason, to the approval of leading minds, to the men in power in other nations ? Have they vindicated their nationality? Are they a nation with the indispensable resources, rights, and powers of separate in- dependent government ? Until these questions are answered, there is still cause for anxiety with regard to the new experiment. There was cause for anxiety in America. 287 288 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. THE ENGLISH ACKNOWLEDGE AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE. Before the commencement of nctual hostilities, the popu- lar feeling was strongly with the government. The Ameri- cans were rebels, and his Majesty must subdue them at all hazards. Writers and speakers vied with each other in opposing all ideas ot luture separation. There was, how- ever, one exception. Dean Tucker, in a published pam- phlet, urged upon Parliament a peaceful release of the colonies from all obligations of loyalty to the British crown. It is true, he placed it upon grounds of forfeiture ; but the principle of American independence was conceded even by his proposition, that the way should be open for the return of any colony repenting its attempt to live with- out the mother-country. Burke would not tolerate the noble proposition of Tucker, though he was a warm friend of the colonies. Ills desire for reconciliation, however, carried with it a confession of American rights, which had been denied, and formed the nucleus of an opposition, which finally gathered around it a strong public sentiment in favor of American independence. In a recent election, the ministry had obtained an over- whelming majority in fiivor of coercion. Lord North could go on with his measures for the suppression of rebellion, but not heartily ; for even he was, in principle and feeling, really opposed to the ^Yar. Officially, he favored the king ; but, personally, the colonies. This fact was of great moral importance to America. The minority had strength among the merchants, who were not long in discovering that free colonies fostered by the British Government, or even an independent nation with the best resources of a continent at command, would furnish a more lucrative trade than a subdued, oppressed, and discouraged people. The principles of civil liberty, now apparently endangered in the whole kingdom, were roused to a new and vigorous life by the American strug- AN ACKNOWLEDGED NATIONAL LIFE. 289 gle ; and the English dissenters were firm and really formi- dable in their opposition to the tyrannical measures of the king and his ministers. Some portions of the old Whig party, led by the Marquis of Rockingham, the Earl of Chatham, Pownal and Johnstone, and urged forward by the eloquence of Burke, Barre, Dunning, and Fox, revealed the nucleus of a power which gave voice and effect to the English sense of justice, and would finally bring up the convictions and moral force of the British nation to the ac- knowledgment of American independence. Jamaica petitioned Parliament most earnestly agaimst the “plan, almost carried into execution, for reducing the colonies into the most abject state of slavery.” At that time, however, remonstrance was in vain. Resolutions against the oppressive measures of the ministry, offered by Burke and Hartley, and sustained by the most powerful elo- quence, were promptly voted down ; but they were a voice for justice which the civilized world must hear. Wilkes, Lord Mayor of London, led the power of that great city in official and public expression of “ abhorrence ” of all meas- ures for “ the oppression of their fellow-subjects in the colonies.” Good men were on opposite sides in this struggle. The great John Wesley, whose loyalty was a part of his religion, wrote and published his earnest advice to the colonies to submit to the crown; while Oglethorpe had earlier the broad views which Wesley subsequently reached, and, as we have seen, refused to act as commander-in-chief of the British army of forty thousand men ordered to subjugate tlie colonies, for which he felt an interest truly paternal. At the opening of Parliament, Oct. 6, 1775, Gen. Conway and the Duke of Grafton abandoned their official positions rather than be longer identified with* this unrighteous tyran- ny, and joined the opposition. The Declaration of Independence discouraged many of the English advocates of conciliation, end gave strength to 290 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. the idea that rebellion must first he cru-shed before over- tures of peace could be made. But the victorious march of the Howes through Long Island, New York, and Now Jersey, encouraged even Lord North to bring forward new measures of conciliation. lie declared his real sentiments, which had been from the first opposed to forced taxation ; and his humane feelings, really revolting from the murder- ous acts which ho had felt obliged to promote, gave power- ful inlluonce to the public sentiment, which brought the people of Great Britain to the acknowledgment of American independence. France, roused by the s3Mnpathies of her people, came forward to help the .struggling colonies at the cxpen.se of a perilous war with England; and this gave great additional strength to the opposition, and led to a new commi.ssion for conciliation. By the spring of 1778, the demand for peace had become importunate in England ; and as the hon- orable commi.ssioners under Lord North’s Conciliatory Act — the Earl of Carlisle, 'William Edwin, afterward Lord Auk- land, and Gov. Johnstone — could gain no audience with Congre.^s (still officially regarded and treated ns a rebel assembly), it was coming to be thoroughly understood that there could be no peace but by the acknowledgment of the independence of the United State.s. This, so far from operating against the public desire for peace, deepened and extended it. When a noble carl said in his place, “ My lords, ^mu cannot conquer America,” he gave expres- sion to the profoundest convictions of the British people ; and this was the predetermined acknowledgment of our independence. Spain now came forward as a party to the war, aiming chielly at the recovery of her territorial rights in America, but incidentally contributing to the general dissatisfiiction in England with the war ai^ainst America. o o The capture of Burgoyne and his army, the consummate skill of Washington in the recovery of New Jersey, and the AX ACKNOWLEDGED NATIONAL LIFE. 291 indomitable persistence of the armies with their allies result- ing in the surrender of Cornwallis, brought this feeling to a crisis ; and no ministry could stand before it. The king’s speech in November, 1781, breathed nothing but slaughter ; but on the first division, the House of Commons showed that the war party was losing its power. The motion, that “ any further attempt to reduce the Americans by force would be ineffectual and injurious,” was lost by a majority of only forty-one. A little more than a month later, a motion for ‘•an address to the king to put a stop to the war” was lost by only a single vote. Five days later, “ a similar motion was carried,” and the British people had acknowledged the inde- pendence of America. EUROPEAN GOVERNMENTS ACKNOWLEDGE THE NEAV NATION. The sword had been wielded with sufficient effect to u.sher in the period of diplomacy. In 1780, brave John Adams appears in Paris with power from the American Congress to form treaties of peace and commerce. He was, however, too impetuous for the cautious Vergennes, and was soon trans- ferred to Holland. Finding the way gradually opened, and obstructions thrown in his way overcome, he matured and ef- fected a treaty with the States-General at the Hague ; and the heroic government of Holland was the first in the world to acknowledge the independence of the United States of America; a distinction of which she may well be proud, and for which the Great Eepublic will never cease to be pro- foundly grateful. In the mean time, our struggling country encountered a new peril from the offer of the Empress of Russia to mediate between the contending parties. The desire of England for peace may be seen in the proposition, that the German em- peror should be associated with the empress in this media- tion. Such had been the discouragements of Soutliern members from the success of the British army at the battle 292 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. of Camden, and the conquest of South* Carolina and Geor- gia, that Congress was induced to waive the demand for a formal ' acknowledgment of independence, insisting only upon virtual independence ; but, by the blessings of Provi- dence, complications arose, which destroyed all the combina- tions formed under the auspices of the Empress of Ku.ssia, and once more our rising nation escaped a ruinous tempta- tion. The honest, firm, and fearless spirit of Franklin, who was our repre.sentative at Pari.s, was doubtle.ss the most for- midable obstacle in the way of a treaty urged by the South against the determined resistance of New England, which would have sacrificed the national life for which the American people had .shed their blood like water. When the Marquis of Rockingham, who openly advocated the independence of these colonies, had succeeded Lord North, Adams and F rank- lin were approached with some official overtures of peace, with every advantage excepting formal independence. Sir Guy Carlton and Admiral Digby were empowered to approach Washington and the Congress with the same propositions; and Oswald, a BritLsh merchant, was sent to Paris to ascer- tain of Franklin the American ultimatum, and returned with the information that “ independence, a satisfactory boundary, and a participation in the fisheries, would be indispensable requisites in a treaty.” * Rockingham, the friend of America, died, and Shelburn, from the school of Chatham, succeeded him. Ilis private opinions, however, were of no avail. The British people demanded peace, and neither ministry nor king could silence their demand. Just at this time, the news reached Europe that the British Admiral Rodney had almost literally destroyed the French fleet under Count de Gra.sse in the West Indie.s. This had, of course, a strong tendency to strength the diplomacy of England, while it increased the desire of France to reach the end of the war. But America was firm. At length, an act UildrctL, iii. 416. AN ACKNO-WLEDGED NATIONAL LIFE. 293 of Parliament authorized negotiations on the basis of Frank- lin’s previous announcement. Oswald met Franklin and Jay in Paris with full powers to conclude a peace with certain “ colonies ” in America. Jay, however, firmly refused to treat in behalf of British “colonies;” and Oswald soon pro- cured amended prerogatives to make peace with “ the United States of America.” Not exactly in accordance with instructions, but prompted by what seemed to be sufficient reasons, Franklin and Jay negotiated a separate peace with Oswald in behalf of Eng- land ; not, however, to take effect until approved by France. Vergcnnes was too noble to take offence at so critical a mo- ment, and resumed negotiations, to which Spain also was a party. At length, on the 19th of April, 1783, — just eight years from the opening of this fearful war, — the proclamation of peace issued by Congress reached the army at New- burg. The Revolutionary War was ended, and the inde- pendence of America was acknowledged by Holland, Eng- land, France, and Spain. What exultant joy rang through the camp of those scarred veterans ! What ecstasies of de- light thrilled the American people. The great ta.sk of constructing and consolidating a free government was not yet completed. Formidable difficulties threatened the new nation on every side ; but the same calm endurance, lofty patriotism, and trust in God, which had borne us through the struggles of war, would sustain us through the conflicts of opinion which must inevitably fol- low. Men rose to sight, and disappeared ; armies combined, and melted away ; local selfishness warred with the general good : but the nation lived. WOULD THE AMERICAN PEOPLE ACKNOWLEDGE THE INDEPENDENCE OF THE NATIONAL LIFE? This would seem a strange question ; and yet history re- veals the astonishing fact, that the acknowledgment to come 294 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. from the American people themselves would be the hardest to obtain, and the longest withheld, of any upon which true national freedom and dignity were made to depend. The doctrine of “ State rights ” arose in the earlie.st at- tempts at national organization. It was indeed a very grave problem, how the separate States could retain suflicient power for efficient internal government, and at the same time concede the prerogatives required to constitute a nation. The question was too profound and far-reaching to be easily' or suddenly solved. The greatest minds stag- gered under the pressure of its difficulties, and mo^t extreme and opposite views were advanced by men of high merit as state.smeu. The time had come when some of these difficult questions must be settled. To the General Government belonged the right of eminent domain. The public lands were rightfully the property of the whole people, not of the States sever- ally ; and the people, individually, were represented, not by the legislatures of the several Statc.s, but by the Congress of the nation. It was indispensable, therefore, that ques- tions of State boundaries should be settled with the least possible delay ; that Congress should begin to see its sources of revenue in the unsettled land.s, and the field for enlargement in the forming of new States, released from State claims. If the conce.ssions required were rcfirsed, then perilous conflict between the General and State Gov- ernments would soon follow. New York set the example of ceding lands to the General Government which she claimed in the West. Virginia had ceded vast territories, but claimed the Avhole of Kentucky ; and all that was done in this direction indicated the crude, unsettled state of affairs at the close of the war, and the reluctance with which the States parted with any asserted rights in favor of the nation. To discharge the debts of the United States, especially to meet the demands of the army, five per cent impost duty was proposed to the States. All, excepting Georgia and AN ACKNOWLEDGED NATIONAL LIFE. 295 Rhode Island, had formally or virtually consented. Just as Morris, struggling with the grave financial difficulties of the nation, began to hope for relief from this source, Rhode Island utterlj'’ refused her consent; Virginia imme- diately repealed her act acquiescing in the measure ; and Georgia, having only just returned to the Union, could do nothing in the jiremises. Where, then, was the treasury of the nation to find money to meet the eight millions due for the service of the pending year, and pay the army and other current expenses of the government? Loans slowly gathered from Holland; and $1,111,111 magnanimously furnished by France, notwithstanding the slight in the matter of the treaty, rendered a little aid, but could hardly be felt in so desperate a financial struggle. In the mean time, the discontent of the army became alarming. Notices appeared about the camp at Newburg of a meeting of officers to consider the condition of affairs ; and an inflammable address, written by Capt. Arm- strong, an aide-de-camp of Gates, Avas circulated among the men, showing a dangerous conspiracy to coerce Con- gress, or take the redress of grievances into their own hands. Fortunately, Washington was too wise and great to fall into such a snare. He boldly superseded this un- lawful assemblage by one appointed by himself, in which he so energetically denounced the incipient treason, that no one dared to assume the responsibility of the measure. But Avould the army acknowledge the nation in its poverty, and utter inability to pay their honest dues, and secure them from suffering ? The highest faith in their patriotic devotion hardly dared to affirm it. There Avas again uneasiness at NeAvburg. Some three hundred soldiers from Pennsylvania Avrote insolently to Congress, demanding pay. Part of a corps started from Lancaster to Philadelphia, and they Avere joined by troops from the barracks under seven sergeants; and for three hours these insurgent soldiers beleaguered Congress and the 29G THE GREAT REPUBLIC. Council of Pennsylvania, demanding their pay and a re- dress of grievances. There was too much sympathy with them among the creditors of Congress and the militia to relieve Congress from this disgrace. Only Washington was great enough for this trying crisis. As soon as the intel- ligence reached him, he ordered fifteen hundred men to Philadelphia, who dispersed the insurgents. Congre.ss adjourned to Princeton. Massachusetts was not free from the spirit of insubordina- tion. Maine began to move for an independent State or- ganization ; and, still more, taxes were enormously high. The courts attempting to enforce their payment were some- times assailed by mob.s. Discontent spread among the people, until acts of violence threatened the overthrow of the government. Shay’s Rebellion had to be put down by loyal troops under command of Gen. Lincoln, and the loss of several lives was the result; and yet the American army did finally acknowledge American independence, and were disbanded amid the strongest demonstrations of grati- tude and mutual affection. But the acknowledgment of one man transcends all others. Washington had reached the greatest height of popular influence and power. He had, with unaffected modesty and self distrust, accepted the position of grave.st responsibility and greate.«t personal danger in this war of revolution. No one knew better than him.self what must follow to him if the colonies failed in their struggle, first for right, and then for independence. No one knew better than he the desperate nature of this undertaking. Humanly speaking, the probabilities were all against succe.ss. But the people had seen him move calmly into the field of danger. They had seen him attracting to the standard of Liberty the old and the young, and seen the confu.sed masses reduced to order and efficiency by the firmness of his com- mand and the strength of his military wisdom. They had seen him stand up in the face of the enemy with colossal AN ACKNOWLEDGED NATIONAL LITE. 297 majesty when liis feeble army was reduced by expiration of time, by desertions, and by slaughter on the field of battle. They had seen him great enough to retreat in the teeth of reproaches from his own countrymen when an engagement would imperil the army and the sacred cause for which they were ready to battle and to die. They had seen him share with his soldiers the sufferings of hunger, of long and weary marches, of cold, and of sleeping upon the ground. They had seen his struggles for the army when the poverty of his country denied them necessary clothing and tents to protect them from the cold, and the scanty pittance they had so severely earned for their suffering fami- lies at home. They had seen him rise above all sectional- ism and personal jealousy and treasonable conspiracies when he had failed to accomplish impossibilities. They had seen him in the might of his firm will punishing cow- ardice and disloyalty, until they did not dare to whisper their complaints or treason, lest he should somehow hear them ; and yet winning the hearts alike of the roughest and hardiest and the noblest and most polished of men. They had seen that his courage was no passion ; that his fortitude was no temporary resolution to suffer when he could not avoid it ; that he was just as calm and firm after a defeat as after a vic- tory ; just as thorough and great in his appeals when Con- gress was paralyzed, or the nation apparently sinking from exhaustion, as he was grateful for the noble endeavors to achieve apparent impossibilities. They had seen him mov- ing in strength to and fro amid the perils of the camp for eight years, and all this time firmly refusing all pay, receiv- ing not one penny for his valuable services, and handing over literally every thlny that his indefatigable industry and great talents and the noble sacrifice and zeal of his country could gather to the comfort and relief of the men under his comtnand. Finally, they had seen him on his knees in prayer to God. lie had triumphed sublimely over the armed foes of his 38 298 THE GREAT REPUDLIC. country, — over poverty, jealousy, and ignorance, over perils the most imminent and fearful, — and gathered around him the most sacred aflections and gratitude of a nation. What would he expect in return ? A kingdom. Surely nothing less, the world, in the light of history, would answer. Indeed he was a king, — a sovereign of hearts, and, we may almost say, of American destiny. But the test came. Republican ideas had been very popular in oratory, and very inspiring in prouiise ; but the soldiers were starving in despite of them. They seemed to he wanting in power. They could not create bread nor money, for bills of credit were neither; and the distress of the hour would combine with the lingering love of mon- archy which the people had inherited, and the trca.son of seHish ambition, to ofier Washington a crown. Col Lewis Nicola, then of Pennsylvania, but a foreigner by birth, w'ould be made the bearer of this tempting offer. Now look at the man. See the storm of wrath gathering in his great soul and lowering upon his brow. Hear the words of indignant, scathing rebuke which fall from his lips. See the fawning sycophants trembling, and fleeing from his presence as from the face of terrific inexorable justice. Washington a king? — a traitor to the country he had so long struggled to free? — to the liberties for which the people had bled for eight years? No! What did all this long agony of the American colonists mean ? Simply a change of masters? — a military de.spotism ? No I it meant “ liberty or death ; ” and the whole moral significance of the American spirit, and the battles of mind and blood for a hundred and fifty years, were represented and impersonated in Washington. lie could only think the thoughts and feel the yearnings of America, lie was free, and America was free. We may now see the British army retire from New York, from Long Island, from “the United States of America,” Washington takes leave of his companions in afm.s, bathed AN ACKNOWLEDGED NATIONAL LIFE, 299 in tears. He is haifed in Philadelphia, and everywhere, as the deliverer of his country. Loud hurrahs ring at his approach. The eyes of gratitude gaze at his stately form, dimmed with tears. Flowers are strewed in his path by fair hands. Smiling affection wreaths his brow with the garland of laurel and roses. But he hastens on. He is at Annapolis, before Congress, delivering his farewell address ; and these are its closing words: “Having now finished the work assigned me, I retire from the great theatre of action ; and bidding an affectionate farewell to this august body, under whose orders I have so long acted, I here offer my commis- sion, and take my leave of all the employments of public life.” The grandest act recorded in history. Moral sub- limity could rise no higher. Mifflin was in the chair. Providence had arranged that one who had been with good reason suspected of plotting for the removal of Washington, when gloom enveloped the camp and the nation, should attempt to give voice to the feelings of that great hour. Mifflin thus responded : “ The United States, in Congress assembled, receive, with emotions too affecting for utterance, the solemn resignation of the authority under which you have led their troops with suc- cess through a perilous and doubtful war. Called upon by your country to defend its invaded rights, you accepted the sacred charge before it had found alliances, and while it wms without friends or a government to support you. You have conducted the great military contest with wisdom and forti- tude, invariably regarding the rights of the civil power, through all disasters and changes. You have, by the love and confidence of your fellow-citizens, enabled them to dis- play their martial genius, and transmit their fame to pos- terity. You have persevered, till these United States, aided by a magnanimous king and nation, have been enabled, under a just Providence, to close the war in freedom, safety, and independence; on which happy event we sincerely join you in congratulations. Having defended the standard of 300 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. liberty in this New World, hiiving taught a lesson useful to those who indict and to those who feel oppression, you retire from the great theatre of action with the blessings of your fellow-citizens : hut the glory of your virtues will not terminate with your military command ; it will continue to animate remotest ages.” Washington had acknowledged the independence of the national life ; the American people had acknowledged it, hut with one grand and damaging reservation. Virginia, and the Southern States generally, insisted upon setting the State above the Nation ; that the first devotion of loyalty was to the State ; that nothing belonged to the General Government hut what hud been formally conceded to it; and that the Union was a simple confederacy, from which either of its members, sovereign in itself, might withdraw at pleas- ure. Strange, therefore, as the fact may appear, while sove- reigns and courts abroad acknowledged the new nation as a free and independent nation, many of the States, as such, denied it ; and history must wait ninety years before it could record this latest acknowledgment of the independent national life in the United States of America. CHAPTER VIII. THE CONSTITUTION REVEALS AN ORGANIC NATIONAL LIFE. “ Every nation, when able and agreed, has a right to set up over themselves any form of government whieh to them may appear most conducive to their common welfare.” — Langdon. Constitutions grow. They are not the sudden product of genius or talent. They cannot be resolved into perfect maturity by any body of men. Their materials, like inor- ganic matter in chaos, seem to be floating about amid the confusion of ages, seeking affinities and organization. A careful study of history, however, Avill reveal the vital element of Christian liberty, surviving all changes, and superior to all antagonist forces, slowly attracting to itself the materials of its growth, and in all its local manifesta- tions holding secret but indissoluble connections with all the true principles of liberty on the globe. Magna Charta, so fundamental to the British Constitution, was not the creation of the powerful nobles in conflict with King John. It was the grand original right of man, which had been felt and asserted somewhere in all the ages, but which had been long denied, insulted, and stamped out of sight. It must, then, assert itself, claim a human voice to utter its demands and enforce its authority, that the race might not believe it dead, or forever powerless against oppression. And, when it was once expressed, it was not for England alone, but for the world. It slowly, but with steady progress, leavened the masses, so that British freedom fi om henceforth embodied a thought, a grand fact, which could never be safely ignored. The conflicts of Puritanism with 301 302 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. despotic power showed the pressure and strength of tliis life-force on its way to the New World. Now freedom begins to show dimly its constitutional form in the colonies, — first in its indignant utterances against the tyrannical acts of the motlier-country ; then in the strong State-papers, which showed inchoate State authority ante- dating the formal organization of independent government; then in the bonds of union, which indicated a comnum interest and common life in the separate colonics ; tlicn in the organized State governments which rose up amid the birth-throes of the great Revolution, A project of union was brought before Congress, by Franklin, in 1775; but it could only show the conviction of its necessities, and the difficulty of ascertaining of what the unity of the colonies consisted, THE OLD ARTICLES OF CO.VFEDERATION. When the declaration of independence destroyed the unity which the colonies had formerly recognized in the British crown, and left them to ascertain and define the pro- founder and less evident ties, which, as parts of a new nation, bound them together, they sought to define in words the sense in which they were separate States, and at the same time a General Government. A most difficult thing to do. The history of the effort affords a striking illustration of the fact, already stated, that reliable constitutions are not made, but grow. In June, 177G, a committee of one from each State was appointed to draught a project of national government, then simply understood as a confederacy of colo- nies. Samuel Adams, Sherman, Dickin.son, and John Rut- ledge, were of the number of this important committee; a sufficient guaranty that the effort would be able, and faith- ful to the people, so far as the progress of events had de- fined the possibilities of national organization. Dickinson drew the document in twenty articles. But the report AN ORGANIC NATIONAL LIFE. 303 proved at once the difficulties of the task, and the inevi- table demand for mutual concessions. Repeated attempts were made to consider and adopt it; but the difficulty of agreement, and the disturbed condition of Congress, driven from Philadelphia, deferred the final vote for six months. The Articles of Confederation were at length sanctioned by Congress, and went to the States for their “immediate and dispassionate, action.” In the document accompanying the Article.s, it was well said, “that to Torm a permanent Union, accommodated to the opinions and wishes of the delegates of so many States, differing in habits, produce, commerce, and internal police, was found to be a work which nothing but time and reflection, conspiring with a disposition to concili- ate, could mature and accomplish.” During the following winter, only New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina, and Virginia accepted the Articles “without objections.” After proposing “various amend- ments,” however, all the States, excepting New Jersey, Del- aware, and Maryland, adopted them. These States had no difficulty in pointing out valid objections to the plan ; for it was really very imperfect : but New Jersey and Delaware yielded to the urgent entreaties of Congress. Maryland stood alone for two years in resisting the ratification, which prevented the official promulgation of the Articles. To reach even a confederation, the following grave and perplexing questions must be settled : — How should the votes in Congress be given ? Virginia was large, populous, and central ; and she said, “ According to population : ” but she was overruled, and the vote was to be by States; and not less than nine States were required to determine any question of grave importance. IIow should taxes be levied? The East said, “According to population;” but the South said, “No: slave labor is not so profitable as white.” The casting vote which settled this controversy fell upon New Jersey ; and she gave it to the South, against the North, exempting forever slave property from taxation.” 804 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. In the result, real estate alone became the basis of taxa- tion ; but, as the General Government bad no power to /ix the valuation, this measure was bital to the confederacy. To whom should the Western lands belong? This was, as we have already seen, a very dilbcult question. A prompt and unrestricted concession of the right of eminent domain to the nation would have been just and wise, and this was urged by the States bolding no claims in the Great West; but the claiming SUxtes mbde an obstinate resistance. The .severe contest was ended, for the time being, by such partial conce.s.«iions to Congress as led to acquie.scence, if not approval ; and the government began to exercise a territorial .sovereignty, which would ultimately he a source of vast revenue, but which, for a long period, was more troublesome than profitable. This controversy being .settled, on the first day of March, 1781, Maryland yielded, .signed the Articles of Confederation, and they became the law of the land. Navigation was made dependent exclusivelyjupon the will of each State, and the control of imports as well ; thus bar- ring the right of the United States to prohibit the slave- trade. The States, in the mean time, refused to commit the settle- ment of future land-claims and boundaries, north-west of the Ohio, to the United States; thus providing for an almo.st interminable contest of jurisdiction in the future. The most obstinate prejudices against a standing army bad frequently paralyzed the efiforts of Washington and Con- gress to rai.se continental forces to give greater reliableness and efficiency to American arms ; and now the States would peremptorily deny to the General Government military control over their separate jurisdiction.s. There should not be one grand national army, but thirteen armies. How utterly destructive of government this must have been, had there not been vital power in the underlying unity, which, when emergency demanded, would ri.se up, and reveal its strength, despite the vicious assumptions of “State rights” ! AN ORGANIC NATIONAL LIFE. 305 The United States might declare war, and make peace, and make treaties; but “the power reserved to the States over imports and exports, over shipping and revenue,” really destroyed the force of these concessions. The States must share in “ the right of coining money, the right of keeping up ships of war, land-forces, forts, gar- risons,” and must make their own laws of treason. Finally, it must require the unanimous vote of the thir- teen States to adopt or amend the Articles of Confederation. Well might it be said, “ A government which had not power to levy a tax, or raise a soldier, or deal directly with an individual, or keep its engagements with foreign powers, or amend its constitution wuthout the unanimous consent of its members, had not enough of vital force to live.” * If now it is asked. Was there no indication in the old con- federation of an organic national life, I answer, with great satisfaction, that the assumption by Congress, that the most extended territory, however diverse in local interests and prejudices, might be included in one Great Republic, was a fundamental position, distinguishing this modern from the ancient republics of Greece and Rome, and conforming bravely to the future plans and developments of Providence. The right of citizenship and the franchise had been settled variously in the States according to caprice or prejudice. “ One State disfranchised Jews, another Catholics, another deniers of the Trinity, and another men of a complexion different from white;” but “ the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union made no distinction of class, and knew no caste but the caste of humanity.” f That which gave reality to the Union was the article which secured to “ the free inhabitants” of each of the States “all privileges and immunities of free citizens in the several States.” South Carolina and Georgia, moved by their prejudice against color, resisted this broad national assumption, but without success. The General Government had absurdly admitted Bancroft, ix. 446. t Ibid., 447. 30G THE GREAT REPUBLIC. the word “ free,” thereby discriminating against slaves ; but they could by no means he induced to make color alone the basis of proscription. “ Congress, while it left the regula- tion of the elective franchise to the judgment of each State, in the Articles of Confederation, in its votes, and its treaties with other powers, reckoned all the fi‘ee inhabitants, with- out distinction of ancestry, creed, or color, as subjects or citizens,” thus conforming to the civilization of the age. It must be considered strange that this grand principle should again be in contest, and require the coullicts of near a cen- tury, extending down to this very day, for its complete vin- dication. Finall}', as in all these respects the American Republic presented thus early a complete contrast with the republics of Greece and Rome, so also did it ri.se immeasurably above them in its consideration for the individual man. In the ancient republics, the people existed for the government, and they fiiled : in this great modern experiment, the government would exist for the people, and it would suc- ceed ; for the people would ultimately eradicate its vices, and identify and conserve the true elements of its vitality, and conditions of its growth. The Articles of Confederation would be superseded, but not until they had been the means of bringing di.stinctly to the view of the American people the inherent viciousness of the doctrine of State rights, demon- strating clearly the inadequacy and utter impracticability of a mere confederation of independent States, and usher- ing in the era of organic nationality under the new and permanent Constitution of the United States of America. THE FEDERAL CONVENTION. For four years and a half the confederated States had struggled on with all the burdens of enormous debts, and no power to raise money to pay ; of conflicting jurisdiction between the Nation and the States; with peril of incipient AN ORGANIC NATIONAL LIFE. 307 * rebellion, and the confusion of various governmental func- tions without proper classification and division of labor; and a general feeling of discouragement was the result. The French and English people had expected great im- provements from the confederation, but with no good reason. The want of power was evident upon the face of the document ; and the conviction that there must be some change in the direction of a vital union and stronger gov- ernment was becoming general. New York proposed a most radical change in the Articles immediately after their adoption. Massachusetts followed in the same track. Vir- ginia, at length, invited a convention of all the States to consider the question of duties and commerce generally ; and in September, 1786, delegates from Virginia, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York, assembled in Annapolis. The discussions, of course, brought under search- ing review the radical defects of the General Government, and resulted in the calling of a General Convention, to be held in the following May, to consider amendments to the Articles of Confederation, and propose such changes as would be “adequate to the exigencies of the Union.” The old Continental Congress had expired. It had been a power in the earth. It had carried on a frightful war for eight years, and reached the most magnificent and improba- ble results. Its functions had subsided Avith the extraordi- nary condition of society Avhich originated them ; and it passed away in silence, leaving to the future historian the grateful task of recording its heroic achievements, under such deprivations and limitations as would have utterly destroyed any assembly not vigorously sustained by Divine Providence. The life of the nation survived the slow decay and final extinction of this its first visible body, and promptly appeared in the Congress of the confederation. Soon eliminating other incongruous elements, it would take the form of the Congress of the United States of America, under the new constitution. 308 TILE GREAT REPUBLIC. The convention to which the task of preparing this im- portant document was assigned assembled in Pliiladelphia on the fourteenth day of May, 1787. It was not, however, until the twenty-fifth, eleven daj’s later, that a quorum of States appeared in Independence Hall. Washington was very properly called to preside over this august body. It included many of “ the most illustrious citizens of the States ; men highly distinguished for talents, character, practical knowl- edge, and public services. The aged Franklin had sat in the Albany Convention of 1751, in which the first attempt had been made at colonial Union. Dickinson, who sat in the present convention as one of the members from Delaware, William S. Johnson of Connecticut, and John Rutledge of South Carolina, had participated in the Stamp-Act Congress of 1765. Besides Wtushington, Dickiirson, and Rutledge, who had belonged to the Continental Congress of 1774, there were also present, from among the members of that bod}% Roger Sherman of Connecticut, William Livingston, Govern- or of New Jersey, George Read of Delaware, and George Wythe of Virginia ; and of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, besides Franklin, Read, Wythe, and Sher- man, Elbridge Gerry of Ma.ssachusctts, and Robert Morris, George Clymer, and James Wilson, of Pennsylvania. Eigh- teen members were at the same time delegates to the Con- tinental Congress; and, of the whole number, there w'ere only twelve who had not .sat at some time in that body. The officers of the Revolutionary army were represented by Washington, Miffiin, Hamilton, and Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, who had been colonel of one of the South-Caro- lina regiments, and at one time an aide-de-camp to Washing- ton. Of those members who had come prominently forward since the Declaration of Independence, the most conspicu- ous were Hamilton, Madison, and Edward Randolph, who had lately succeeded Patrick Henry as Governor of Virginia. The members who took the leading part in the debates were Madison, Mason, and Randolph, of V^irginia ; Gerry, Gorham, AN ORGANIC NATIONAL LIFE. 809 and King, of Massachusetts ; Wilson, Gouverneiir Morris, and Franklin, of Pennsylvania ; Johnson, Sherman, and Ellsworth, of Connecticut : Hamilton and Lansing, of New York ; Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, of South Carolina, the latter chosen governor of that State the next year ; Patterson, of New Jersey; Martin, of Maryland; Dickinson, of Delaware; and Williamson, of North Carolina.”* It is evident, that, in this historic convention, God had brought together in a very remarkable degree the strength, experience, and wisdom of the nation ; and the task under- taken required all, and more than all, they could command. THE CONSTITUTION FORMED. Let us now glance at the difficulties of the work taken in hand by these distinguished men. A government of free- dom by the people themselves had been now experimented only far enough to show the evils which threatened its de- struction, The great men of the nation had become con- servative by the very necessities arising from the novelty and extreme difficulties of their experiment. Jefferson, almost the only representative man who had full fiiith in the competency of the people to form and sustain a democratic government, was abroad. There was little danger of rash- ness in such an assembly. But it was certain that the great- est distinctness of individual opinions and most obstinate local prejudices would appear. We may now wonder at the wisdom which controlled their final decisions ; at? the nice and accurate balances of the Constitution they produced ; the delicate adjustment of re- served and conceded rights between the people and the gov- ernment, between the several States and the Union, and between the legislative, the executive, and judicial depart- ments. In each of these particulars, there were almost in- finite chances for fatal mistake, and but a single one for Hildreth, iii. 483, 484. 310 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. perfect succes.s. What surer evidence of divine guidance do we need than the superhuman skill shown in the clear definitions of rights which came from the chao.s following the death-struggle for liberty ? Not merely were the complicated difficulties which arose from a crude and forming state of society to be overcome, the destructive errors of empirical systems to be avoided, the strong tendencies to dissolution and anarchy to be counteracted, but the vast future was to be provided for, — emergencies which at that time did not exist even in conception, states of society which no human sagacity could foresee, powers to grapple with and cru.sh an- tagonisms which did not then appear even in the sphere of possibility, all requiring a compa.ss and reach of wisdom which is under no condition the natural attribute of man. We cannot wonder that there was at first confusion of ideas in the convention ; that Washington and his compeers in this great crisis trembled for the fate of their country. We are compelled to admit that this distinguished body seemed to have forgotten their true dependence. There does not appear to have been that devout temper of mind, that humble, fervent spirit of prayer, which had pervaded the’ Revolution. In accounting for the success of their efforts, and for the great wrongs which found place in the Constitu- tion, one event must be mentioned as of the utmo.st historical importance. For long days they labored, apparently in vain : anarchy and ruin alone stared them in the face. At length. Dr. Franklin arose, and said, “ I will suggest, Mr. Pre.sident, the propriety of nominating and appointing, before we separ rate, a chaplain to this convention, who.se duty it shall be uniformly to assemble with us, and introduce the business of each day by an addre.ss to the Creator of the universe and the .Governor of all nations, beseeching him to preside in our councils, enlighten our minds with a portion of heavenly wisdom, infiuence our hearts with a love of truth and jus- tice, and crown our labors with complete and abundant suc- cess.” “The doctor sat down,” says Mr. Dayton of New AN ORGANIC NATIONAL LIFE. 311 Jersey ; “ and never did I behold a countenance at once so dignhied and delighted as was that of Washington at the close of this address. Nor were the members of the con- vention generally less affected. The words of the venerable Franklin fell upon our ears with a weight and authority even greater than we may suppose an oracle to have had on a Roman senate.” How delightful this revelation of a returning sense of propriety to these representatives of a religious people ! . What honor it reflects upon the American sage and the Father of his Country, as well as upon “ the members of the convention generally ” ! and what hope it inspires that threatening dangers will be averted, and G id appear in the words which would define our constitutional liberties ! With what mortification, then, must the Christian histo- rian record the fact, that “the motion was evaded by an adjournment. It was feared, according to Madison, lest prayers for the first time, at that late day, might alarm the public by giving the impression that matters were already desperate.” * Alas ! what blindness can come over the mind of a man ! what wrong can be done by the adroitness of an astute politician ! While, however, we mournfully record the success of the intrigue which prevented the official enactment of this meas- ure, so high in dignity and profound in wisdom, we can- not doubt that the open acknowledgment of God in the address and resolution offered by Franklin, and the gene- ral and hearty mutual response which followed, were an- swered by the divine recognition and blessing. Both the right of this sublime proposal, and the wrong of the dispo- sition made of it, appear in the result. It is not necessary for us to follow in detail the struggles in the convention between the smaller and larger States. The former feared that their interests would be compromised by a strong consolidated government ; but they were paci- Hildreth, iii. 495. 312 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. lied by the concession of an equal vote >vith the largest States in the Senate of the United States, The advocates of “ States rights,” as against a strong Cen- tral Government, were those from Connecticut, New Jersey, and Delaware, with a majority from Maryland and New York. The delegates from New Hampshire had retired from the convention ; and Khode I.dand had become so fear- ful of a destruction of her inlluence by a consolidated Gen- eral Government, that she had declined to send delegates to the convention. The “ National Party,” as it was then termed, represented Virginia, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. How strange these facts appear to us at the present day ! Precisely at this point, the peril of the nation and the control of Provi- dence appear. If New Hampshire and Rhode Island had been present, they would doubtless have voted with the “ States-rights ” party, and no General Government would have been possible. It must be determined by whom the House of Represen- tatives should be cho.sen. Sherman, sustained by Gerry, the States of South Carolina and New Jersey, and a portion of Connecticut and Delaware, vehemently opposed election by the people. Had God suffered them to succeed, there would, so far as we can see, have been a complete end to the attempt to found a true republic. How wi.sely, then, was it ordered that Wilson, Madison, and Ma.'^on should stand up to defend successfully the rights of the people! Thus, against numbers and influence and the highest proba- bility, God preserved inviolate another fundamental prin- ciple of our Great Republic. Hamilton was not easily reconciled to democracy in any form. He was sustained by Wilson in demanding an abso- lute executive veto on the acts of Congress. This w’ould have been the establishment of an insufferable despotism, which God would not permit. Two most important concessions were made to the Gen- AN ORGANIC NATIONAL LIFE. 313 oral Government, — in giving it power to veto all State laws in conflict with the Constitution or “ inconsistent with the harmony of the Union,” and fully investing it with the treaty-making power. Without these, no nation could have been constituted. The most formidable difficulty arose from the institution of slavery. The conflict was long and perilous ; but it ended in a compromise which gave the slave States a three- fifths representation for their human chattels. Cautiously avoiding the name of slavery, it tolerated the institution in substance, and provided for the rendition of persons held to service.” This was the grand vice of the great Consti- tution. But the demand was imperative. Davis, of North Carolina, expressed the true spirit of this persistent wrong when he arose and said “it was time to speak out. He saw that it was meant by, some gentlemen to deprive the Southern States of any share of representation for their blacks. He was sure that North Carolina would never con- federate on any terms that did not rate them at least as three-fifths. If the Eastern States meant, therefore, to ex- clude them altogether, the business was at an end.” The opponents of the vile institution yielded exactly where the}'’ should have stood firm ; and the irrepressible conflict was handed down to the great future. If it be said that without this compromise there could have been no national union, we answer. This is to affirm that men would defeat the great national plans of God by simply doing right ; that, to secure the future of the United States, it was neces- sary to incorporate into its fundamental law an indorse- ment of the largest and most complicated crime known among men, — a statement which cannot be written or read without a feeling of horror. No : the true national spirit loathed the corruption which so far marred the work of the convention, and shamelessly confronted the funda- mental doctrine of human freedom, for the support of which the American Republic wms instituted, and threw the faith 40 314 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. of the nation firmly back on to the Declaration of Inde* pemlence, as the clear and unalterable definition of its principles. But the nation was to be further humiliated by the per- sistent determination of the South to provide for the im- portation of slaves. The grand committee of detail, to whom the project of a constitution had been committed to perfect it, reported against taxing imports, which was so far the triumph of the Southern purpose to steal the bodies and souls of men in Africa, force them across the high seas, and coin money from their sale and unpaid labor. This attempt to render constitutional a traffic .so inhuman, and revolting to all the feelings of justice and honor, brought on a storm of indignation. King “ denounced the admis- sion of slaves as a most grievous circumstance to his mind ; and he believed it would be so tQ a great part of the people of America.” “ He had hoped that some accommodation would have taken place on this subject; that at least a time would have been limited for the importation of slaves. He never could agree to let them be imported without limitation, and then be represented in the national legis- lature.” Governeur Morris declared slavery “ was a nefari- ous institution. It was the curse of Heaven on the States where it prevailed.” He drew in vivid contra.st the deso- lations of the South by ‘ slavery, and the prosperity of the North with the labor of freemen ; and then demanded, “ Upon what principle is it that the slaves shall be com- puted in the representation ? Are they men ? Then make them citizen.s, and let them vote. Are they property? Why, then, is no other property included ?” “Tlie admis- sion of slaves into the representation, when fairly ex- plained, comes to this, — that the inhabitant of Georgia and South Carolina, wlio goes to the coast of Africa in defiance of the most sacred laws of humanity, tears away his fellow- creatures from their dearest connection.s, and damns them to the most cruel bondage, shall have more votes in a AN ORGANIC NATIONAL LIFE. 315 government instituted for the protection of the rights of mankind than the citizen of Pennsylvania and New Jersey, who views with a laudable horror so nefarious a practice.” Now listen to a voice from the South : “ South Carolina,” said C. Pinckney, “ can never receive the plan if it prohib- its the slave-trade. In every proposed extension of the powers of Congress, that State has expressly and watchfully excepted the power of meddling with the importation of negroes.” The battle was a severe one; but Southern tenacity again triumphed, so far as to give free license to the infamous traffic in slaves for twenty years. For giving the majority to this wicked act, the North received “ the unrestricted power of Congress to enact navigation laws,” — a miserable consideration for the utter sacrifice of right in favor of the most consummate villany the human race ever knew. Still another degradation must be fastened upon the nation, to appease the foul spirit of slavery. Without debate, the infamous clause went into the Constitution, “bearing” says Hildreth, “ the plain marks of a New-Eng- land hand,” — “No person held to service or labor in one State, under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be dis- charged from such service or labor, but shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such service or labor may be due.” We may now place together, as the grand facts of this period of our history which stand out distinctly against the true spirit and aim of the new government, the failure to adopt the motion of Franklin, providing for a solemn recog- nition of the sovereignty of God by daily prayer in the Constitutional Convention ; the entire omission of the name and authority of Jehovah from the Constitution ; the recog- nition of the right of property in man ; and the infiimous toleration of the slave-trade, and the rendition of slaves. These all show that no moral or political millennium had 315 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. come; that sin was yet mighty in the earth; and that years of heroic battle for the right must precede the triumph of those principles of American freedom defined by the immortal Declaration. But marked progress had been made in the development of- national unity. Compared with the old Articles of Con- federation, the Constitution was a bold advance in a.s.serting the rights and functions of the nation, as such, in triumph- ing over local prejudices and sectional demands, advocated under the name of “ State rights.” The question sent to the several State conventions, in submitting the plan for approval, was not whether it was perfect or satisfactory in its details, but whether, on the whole, it should be accepted as the best that could be obtained. Four months of desperate eflbrts to find the true organic unity of the nation had reached this result, and could do no more. Should the Con.stitution be ratified and tried, or anarchy and civil war be preferred? Two parties had been developed by the struggles of this trying period. The Federalists wanted a strong, centralized government. Di.^satisfied with what they termed the weak- ness of the plan agreed upon by the Convention, they sub- mitted to it with the hope of amending it in the direction of greater power. The Democrats opposed it, as tending to a central despotism. They would have defeated it ; but hoping finally to secure amendments granting more power to the States, and fearing the most calamitous results if it should be rejected, one State after another formally ratified it. The most desperate efforts Avere made to secure a conditional approval ; but, as this would have been fatal, the efforts of a large and powerful staternanship finally secured an unconditional ratification from Delaware, Penn- sylvania, New Jersey, Georgia, Connecticut, Ma.ssachusetts, New Ilamp-shire, Maryland, South Carolina, Virginia, and New York. Several of these States, following the lead of* Massachusetts, sent forward with their official notice of AN ORGANIC NATIONAL LIFE. 317 ratification various fundamental amendments, which served chiefly to show what concessions the sections had made for the sake of unity. North Carolina imposed conditions ; and Rhode Island was too democratic to hold a convention. These two States could not, therefore, be counted ; but, as the vote of the nine States was conclusive, the new Consti- tution became the organic law of the nation. For three hundred years, God had been steadily and visi- bly moving the elements of civil liberty and moral power for the accomplishment of this grand result. The most improbable combinations had been formed ; the resources of remote islands and continents had been gathered ; peoples of distant origin, and tongues unknown to each other, had been drawn together by forces which they little understood ; the most formidable arrangements of power had been dashed to atoms; and minds utterly diverse in opinions, prejudices, and culture, had been quietly moulded by invisible agency to render this sublime result possible. But the American people were no longer floating bodies of aimless adven- turers ; nor mere separate colonies, dependent upon the will of a distant pow.er; nor independent confederate States. They were a new, vigorous, and completely organized nation. CHAPTER IX. TRUE CHRISTIANITY AN INDESTRUCTIBLE NATIONAL LIFE. “The great comprehensive truths written in letters of living light on every page of our history arts these: Human happiness has no perfect security but freedom, freedom none but virtue, virtue none Imt knowledge ; and neither freedom nor virtue has uny vigor or immortal hope except in the principles of the Christian faith and in the sanctions of the Christian religion.’’ — I’uesident Qciscv. A FORM of government i.s to be distlngui.slied from the life of a nation. Peoples find themselves thrown into neigh- borhood relations, and a social order ri.scs up from the very necessities of contiguity, reciprocal wants, and acts of kind- ness. They may increase so much in numbers, and reach over a territory so far, as to have the magnitude and the outward forms of a nation. They may organize with all the laws of civil society, make treaties, and perform all other acts of national sovereignty; and yet they may he without any essential pervading vitality. Angry disputes and sectional jealousies will separate and destroy them. Their local organizations and civil liberties will become a prey to the ambition of the most powerful chief and his bands of marauders. No national life will appear to re.scue the common government from the hand of violence, or pre- serve the organization from dissolution. Then a de.spotic ruler may a.sscrt sovereignty over provinces near or remote. Conquered territory may he annexed, by the action of force, to a kingdom of vast resources and military power ; but if nothing homogeneous appears, if there are no common bonds of interest and mutual dependence, if no vital force circulates through the 318 AN INDESTRUCTIBLE NATIONAL LIFE. 319 whole, when the restraints of power are removed, disintegra- tion, revolution, and separate independencies, become inevi- table. There are various forming influences and organizing forces whicli enter into the combinations of separate governments. The}'’ collect and associate and develop until they reach their limits ; and then, unless they are supplemented by others of greater vigor, and compass of effect, the national organism goes into decay. Its life is shown to be tem- porary, and goes out before our eyes. Whenever the com- binations are arbitrary and in defiance of geographical or other physical facts, or when they are accidental, prompted by mere temporary convenience, and against historical affini- ties and moral necessities, they soon break up, and end in anarchy, or perhaps in destructive war. The length of time that heterogeneous peoples may be kept together in civil compacts is of no importance in this discussion. This is generally a question of power; and also, doubtless, of the ulterior designs of Providence in regard to the timely development of organizing forces which shall show work designed to last through the ages to come. Such has been the ceaseless round of rise and decline, of the growth and decay, of nations, that many have doubted strongly whether there is any such thing as an indestructi- ble national life. It seems to have been largely concluded that nations must follow the analogy of human bodies ; pass their infancy, youth, manhood, and decay, by inevitable laws : and it must be confessed that there is much in the ceaseless revolutions of civil society to render this view plausible. We are, however, convinced that it is a grand fallacy. Its assumptions and arguments are all regardless of the great fact and power of right in human organiza- tions. The right, the good, the true, must certainly be immortal. Let the law of justice have its place, let God control the organization and administration of government, let human obstructions to the plans of the Infinite dis- 320 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. appear, and the will of God be enacted in organic and statute law and maintained in the administration, and there is no reason why a nation should not be as orderly in develop- ment, as vital and indestructible, as any form of life on this earth. The grand question is, whether this can be, whether it is, or will be, anywhere realized. We now direct our attention to the solution of this question, feeling that every step in the logical progress is upon solid rock. THE RELIGIOUS ELEMENT LN THE FORM.\TION OF THE REPUBLIC. The nations are like their gods. The ideas which a people entertain of the Supreme Power will mould their opinions and control their actions. In other words, the religion of a government will determine its character, and .settle the question of its duration. Ilero-wonship is one form of religious devotion. The highe.st wi.sdom of a people under its control will be simply human. The real or assumed virtues of the hero will be the highest type of public virtue ; while his vices will be as much matters of imitation and admiration as though they were virtues. Hence the governments which deified war- riors were bloodthirsty and cruel. Those who exalted to the honors of worship the patrons of inebriety and lust became deeply depraved in private and public morals. The gods and goddesses of Greece and Rome w’ere the creation.s of corrupt imaginations, and apologies for the deepest degradation. Hence the life of these nations could only endure till these natural and acquired elements of corruption had wrought out their legitimate results. There was, moreover, an assault upon the rights and requirements of the one true God in this guilty idolatry, which must bring down his displeasure upon them, and result in their signal destruction. Take a modern instance of the power of religious opinion AN INDESTRUCTIBLE NATIONAL LIFE. 321 anti the rejection of the true worship to destroy freedom. Franco, in its terrific revolution, saw the violent culmination of theoretical and practical infidelity. When the blas- phemous atheists of those degenerate times installed a ])rostitute as the Goddess of Reason, abolished the Christian sabbath, and decreed that death is an eternal sleep, they prepared the way for the power of faction ; for the murder of thousands of the best citizens and the worst ; for the sub- version of all right, and the enthronement of pas.sion as the sovereign of the hour. The liberties of England were never consolidated until the worship of God became national ; and never endangered, excepting as the rights of the individual conscience were denied as to the modes of that worship. The struggles of Puritanism intensified the religious con- scioiLsness of the nation, and brought forward the grand principle of the Reformation, — the rights of the individual conscience, — demanding prompt acknowledgment from the throne. The power of the Reformation, but gradually developed, was, under the surface, more active and influ- ential than could be evident in the forms of a State religion and a forced external conformity. It moulded the thinking and the deepest convictions of the masses, imperceptibly constructed the great controlling laws and administration of the kingdom, and bore the people onward toward truer liberty by the action of a broad and deep and irresistible current. It was evidentlj^ the divine purpose that it should con- duct in England its grand preparations for constructing and inspiring a government of liberty in the New World. In the Old, it could insist upon the right ; it could appeal from the decisions of man to the Searcher of hearts ; it could be overborne and crucified, but not destroyed. It rose with a new power from its baptisms of blood, and gathered its friends and representative heroes for an advent to a scene of development and influence hitherto unknown* 41 322 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. It may here with propriety be re-affirmed that Christianity was the guiding power of American colonization, and the forming force of American institutions. When the people came to Virginia, they came to estab- lish religion by law as the divine right of Prelacy in the New World. When they moved out among the Indians, their first object was to make them Christians. The Quakers came to New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and elsewhere, that they might follow, without obstruction, the light within ; the Huguenots came to this virgin land that they might worship the true God, with no bloody persecutions, no reeking St. Bartholomews, for the exercise of a sincere conscience; the Roman Catholics sought a home in Balti- more that they might plant their degenerate faith in the New World ; and the Puritans of New England were in America for no other reason than that they might secure freedom to worship God. The Congregationalists felt that there was something pleasing to God in the very act of independence in the individual Church. The Presbyterians meant nothing but acceptable service to the God of order in the strict conventional responsibilities of the pre.sbytery, the synod, and the assembly. The Baptists believed that Rhode Island was a model State, under the genius of Roger William.‘», in the free exercise of immersion, and the great power assigned to spiritual thought, true con.«cience, and devout wor.‘diip. The Methodists came into all the land like a flaming fire, to consume iniquity, and show that creeds and dogmas were all nothing without true conversion, and reformation of life. Upon the whole, the really great com- mon universal idea and prevalent power of the American colonies was religion. Whatever might be held subject to expediency, this could not. Whatever might be subjugated, compromised, surrendered, this could not If any thing was truly American, it was the feeling of worship. We have seen how its defective education and slow de- velopment brought its various theories into spirited collis- AN INDESTRUCTIBLE NATIONAL LIFE. 323 Ions ; how indispensable it was that its errors should be •eliminated, and its pure principles should shine out without obstruction. And Ave have seen, also, that American Chris- tianity was groAving to poAver under at least tAvo neAv con- ditions: first, that itAvas master here, and not subordinate, — umpire, and not convict; that, instead of asking leave of the civil poAver to exist, it avotiM decide rather what else but itself should exist here. Slowly, but obviously, Chris- tian right, Christian justice, rose to the head of affairs, and, instead of humbly pleading for toleration, claimed the right to denounce and put doAvn every form of iniquity knoAvn among men. Next it gradually aAvoke to the fact that the Aveapons of its Avarfare Avere not carnal, but spiritual, and mighty, through God, to the pulling-doAvn of strongholds. The force of traditional prerogatives and prescriptive usage became weaker every year; and the holy Bible rose in clearness and poAver as the great standard of appeal. The redundant appendages of pure, simple Christianity, Avhich had come doAvn from Papal authority, Avere seen rapidly falling off and disappearing. Simple and more simple every day became the great truth, that a free, personal application of the blood of Christ alone cleansed from sin, and that only the pure in heart Avere blessed ; and the great Reformation (re-forraation) of souls and society which folloAved the plain, honest, searching publication of divine truth, proved that the tabernacle of God Avas with men, and that the spirit of humble Christianity Avas from heaven. Hence appeared more and more distinctly the great fiict, that soul-liberty revived in the regeneration Avas the essence and type of civil liberty, and that there could be no gov- ernment entitled to permanence and universal sway that did not acknowledge the sovereignty of God, the rights of man, and the principles of eternal justice. Then vanished the obstructions Avhich had been thrown around the indi- vidual conscience ; and State after State, and finally the General Government, declared the worship of God to be 324 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. free, and man to be personally accountable to God alone for the honest fulfilment of religiou.s obligation. Just in proportion as the freedom of discus.sion in this fair field should work out the Popish element of coercion in religion, and give ascendency to the pure forms of experi- mental and practical Christianity, it would become a power in the new nation. It would, moreover, exert a vast influ- ence upon the thinking and convictions of statesmen and educator.^ in the exaltation of justice. and every form of public virtue. It would slowly but poiverfully mould the laws and administrative government of the country. Private and public men would be imperceptibly controlled liy its holy teachings, sin would be di.scountenanced as a reproach to any people, and righteousness invoked, which alone ex- alteth a nation. Far from being always ostensible and out- wardly exacting, this humble, quiet spirit ivould silently permeate all public bodies, and powerfully control all public functionaries. All this became historical in America. For though pure religion was far from being universal in the period of inde- pendence, and though for ages to come great public wrongs would assert their right to place amid the institutions of American freedom, they kept their position again.st the energetic protest of divine Christianity ; and one after an- other yielded to the vigor of a force which they could in no wise withstand. Men and manner.s, institutions ami administrations, practically acknowledged the pre.sence of a silent influence ivhich had, from the beginning, a.s.serted its right to be the dominant power of the nation. This at length may be claimed to be the mo.st sacred faith of the people : The Bible, freely read, and interpreted according to the best judgment of the individual, is the great standard of right and justice, — the guide to purity on earth, and happiness in heaven ; God is the great Sovereign of nations ; no law, no usage, however venerable in prece- dent or high in authority, to be considered legitimate or AN INDESTRUCTIBLE NATIONAL LIFE. 325 permanent, if at war with the will of God ; the most fearless condemnation of sin, the most complete recognition of the brotherhood of the race, the most humble trust in the Re- deemer, and the most thorough forms of gospel evangelism, are the most acceptable to the people. This is the religion of the Great Republic. THE RELIGION OF THE NATION IN OFFICIAL ACTS AND PUBLIC MEN. Let US now see the action of this great public force through the representatives of the people. On the 16th of March, 1776, Mr. William Livingston, pursuant to leave granted, brought in a resolution for appointing a fast ; which, being taken into consideration, was agreed to as follows : “ In times of impending calamity and distress, when the liberties of America are eminently en- dangered by the secret machinations of a vindictive admin- istration, it becomes the duty of these hitherto free and happy colonies, with true penitence of heart and the most reverent devotion, publicly to acknowledge the overruling providence of God ; to confess and deplore our offences against him ; and to supplicate his interposition for averting the threatened danger, and prospering our strenuous efforts in the cause of freedom, virtue, and prosperity. The Con- gress, therefore, considering the warlike preparations of the British ministry to subvert our invaluable rights and privi- leges, and reduce us by fire and sword, by the savages of tlie wilderness, and our own domestics, to the most abject and ignominious bondage ; desirous, at the same time, to have people of all ranks and degrees duly impressed with a sol- emn sense of God’s superintending providence, and of their duty devoutly to rely, in all their lawful enterprises, on his aid and direction, — do earnestly recommend that Friday, the seventeenth day of May next, be observed by the said colo- nics as a day of humiliation, fasting, and prayer, that we may, with united hearts, confess and bcwiiil our manifold 32G THE GREAT REPUBLIC. sins and transgressions, and by a sincere repentance, and amendment of life, appease his rigliteous displeasure, and, through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ, obtain his pardon and forgiveness; humbly imploring his as.sist- ance to fru-strate the cruel purposes of our unnatural ene- mies, and, by inclining their hearts to justice and benevo- lence, prevent the further clTusion of kindred blood. But if, continuing deaf to the voice of reason and humanity, and inflexibly bent on desolation and war, they constrain us to repel their hostile invasions by open resistance, that it may please the Lord of hosts and the God of armies to ani- mate our officers and soldiers with invincible fortitude, to guard and protect them in the day of battle, and to crown the continental arm.s, by sea and land, with victory and suc- cess; earnestly beseeching him to ble.ss our civil rulers, and the representatives of the people, in their several assem- blies and conventions; to preserve and strengthen their Union; to inspire them with an ardent, disinterested love of their country ; to give wi.sdom and stability to tbeir counsels, and direct them to the more efficacious measures for establishing the rights of America on the most honorable and permanent basis; that he would be graciously pleased to bless all his people in the.«e colonies with health and plenty, and grant that a spirit of incorruptible patriotisjn, and of pure undefiled religion, may universally prevail, and this continent be speedily restored to the blessings of peace and liberty, and enabled to transmit them inviolate to the latest posterity. And it is recommended to Christians of all denominations to assemble for public worship, and abstain from all servile labor, on said day.” This was the statesmanship of the Revolution, — a clear, calm recognition of God, and the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ,” as our only hope of “pardon,” and the “assist- ance ” which our struggle for liberty required. And let it not be supposed that this was a sudden ebullition of fear. It was so often repeated, and these holy principles were AN INDESTRUCTIBLE NATIONAL LIFE. 327 asserted in such a variety of forms, in language and acts of such deep solemnity, as to show clearly a firm, unalterable faith in the attributes and promises of God, in the efficacy of Christ’s mediation, and in the power of prayer. On the eleventh day of December of the same year, we find these noble representatives of struggling freedom adopting a report from a committee, consisting of Mr. With- erspoon, Mr. R. H. Lee, and Mr. Adams, couched in the fol- lowing language: “ Whereas, The war in which the United States are engaged with Great Britain has not only been prolonged, but is likely to be carried to the greatest extremity; and whereas it becomes all public bodies, as well as private persons, to reverence the providence of God, and look up to him as the supreme Disposer of all events and the arbiter of the fate of nations : therefore “ Resolved, That it is recommended to all the United States, as soon as possible, to appoint a day of solemn fasting and humiliation, to implore of Almighty God the forgiveness of the many sins prevailing among all ranks, and to beg the continuance and assistance of his providence in the prose- cution of the present just and necessary war. The Congress do also, in the most earnest manner, recommend to all the members of the United States, and particularly the officers, civil and military, under them, the exercise of repentance and reformation ; and further require of them the strict observation of the articles of Avar, and particularly that part of the said articles Avhich forbids profane SAvearing and all immorality, of Avhich all such officers are desired to take notice.” These grave and formal recognitions of fundamental, evangelical truth are truly national, promulgated in language of deepest solemnity by the highest authority of the people, corresponding precisely Avith the tone and expressions of that immortal document, the Declaration of Independence, Avhich in this place Ave present again: “We therefore, the repre- sentatives of the United States of America in- General Con- 328 THE GREAT BErUBLIC. gress assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the ^vorld for the rectitude of our iuteutious ; . . . and for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the pro- tection of Divine Puoviuence, wo mutually jiledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.” Before such appeals, tyrants must have stood aw’e-struck and trembling, as in the presence of inevitable doom. When the storm of w'ar was still raging, and it would seem that nothing could divert for a moment the attention of the.se wonderful men from the immediate preparation which the contest recpiired, on the 11th of September, 1777, we find them gravely considering and adopting the report of a committee on a memorial of Dr. Alli.son and other.s, asking for means for a supply of the Holy Scripture.s. And what do they say? Sceptically, “ We attend to the e.\i- gencies of the war: we have neither time nor disposition to consider questions of religion ; we leave them to clergymen and enthusia.sts ”? Xo. They say, “ That the u.se of the Bible is so univeiYal, and its importance so great, that your com- mittee refer the above to the consideration of Congress; and, if Congre.ss shall not think it expedient to order the impor- tation of types and paper, the committee recommend that Congress will order the Comm|ttee of Commerce to import TWENTY THOUSAND BiDLEs fiom Holland, Scotland, or else- where, into the different ports of the States of the Union.” “Wherefore it was moved and carried. That the Committee of Commerce be directed to import twenty thousand copies of the Bible.” The embargo prevented the carrying-out of this worthy enterprise ; and in 1782 we find another “Na- tional Act in behalf of the Bible.” Mr. Kobert Aitkin of Philadelphia proposed to Congress to print an edition of the Scripture.s. The matter was given to a committee, who, with the chaplains, thoroughly examined the copy he sub- mitted, and reported in favor of the measure : whereupon it was Jiesolved, That the United States, in Congress assembled. AN INDESTnUCTIBLE NATIONAL LIFE. 329 highly iipprove of the pious and laudable undertaking of Mr. Aitkin, as subservient to the interests of religion, as well as an instance of the progress of the arts in this country ; and being satisfied, from the above report, of his care and accuracy in the execution of the work, they recommend this edition of the Bible to the inhabitants of the United States, and hereby authorize him to publish this recom- mendation in the manner he shall think proper.” Thus did the Holy Bible become the great and only national book of the United States of America, and the only definition of the religion of the nation. We have seen how devoutly the fathers of the Revolution turned to God for help in the day of battle. Did they forget in the hour of victory the principles which had controlled them in their deepe.st distress ? Surely no ! When the glo- rious news arrived from the battle of Saratoga, Congress set apart the eighteenth day of December, 1777, as a day of solemn thanksgiving and praise throughout the United States; and, upon the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown, “ Congress resolved to go in a body to the Dutch Lutheran Church to return thanks to Almighty God for crowning the allied arms with success; and issued a proclamation, appoint- ing the thirteenth day of December, 1781, as a day of gen- eral thanksgiving and prayer on account of this signal interposition of Divine Providence.” “God,” — in the judg- ment of these great representative men, — “Almighty God, had crowned the American arms with success ; ” and they were soon, as a body, reverently bowed before him, to render thanks to him for the triumph of the people in their bloody conflict with oppression. The War of the Revolution was over; and on the twenty- sixth day of August, 1783, the immortal Washington was summoned to Congress to receive the official congratulations of his countrymen. The expressions of gratitude and eulogy were dignified, but exceedingly strong; and it is in- tensely interesting to know with what feelings he came out 42 • 330 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. of tliis fearful struggle. The following words conclude his terse and appropriate reply : “ Perhaps, sir, no occasion may offer, more suitable than the pre.sent, to express my humble thanks to God, and my grateful acknowledgments to my country, for the great and uniform support I have received in every vicissitude of fortune, and for the many distin- guished honors which Congre.ss has been jdcascd to confer upon me in the course of the war.” Washington renders ‘‘ humble thanks to God,” the Being who, as we have seen, had been so devoutly addressed in the prayers urgently invited by Congress for the success of the American arm.s. In the great act of the resignation, we find him alluding reverently to “the patronage of Heaven,” and his “ gratitude for the interposition of Providence.” Who can read, with- out profound emotion, the following language ? — “1 consider it an indispensable duty to close this last act of my official life by committing the interests of our dearest country to the protection of Almighty God ; and tho.se who have the superintendence of them, to his holy keeping.” Immortal sage, honored of God and man! — may the inspirations of thy exalted statesmanship fall upon the future represen- tatives of American liberty 1 We have thus before us the devout manner in which the Father of his Country pa.ssed through the eight years of his military life. Let us now observe the spirit with which he began his civil career. On the thirtieth day of April, 1789, he who had surrendered his sword to the people he had .saved, at the very time when, according to the history of human ambition, he should have used it to fasten upon them the chains of a military despotism, wms inaugurated the first Chief Magistrate of the new nation. With unafiected dig- nity and humility, he had mentioned the anxieties and self- distrust which mingled with his gratitude and joy ; and he then added, “Such being the imprc.ssions under which I have, in obedience to the public summons, repaired to the present station, it would be peculiarly improper to omit in AN INDESTRUCTIBLE NATIONAL LIFE. 331 this first official act my fervent supplications to that Almighty Being who rules over the universe, who presides in the councils of nations, and whose providential aids can supply every human defect, that his benediction may con- secrate to the liberties and happiness of the people of the United States a government instituted by themselves for these essential purposes ; and may enable every instru- ment, employed in its administration, to execute with suc- cess the functions allotted to his charge. In tendering this homage to the great Author of every public and private good, I assure myself that it expresses your sentiments not less than my own, nor those of my fellow-citizens at large less than either. No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the invisible Hand which conducts the affairs of men more than the people of the United States, Every step by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency; and in the important Revolution just accomplished, in the system of their united government, the tranquil deliberations and voluntary con- sent of so many distinct communities from which the event has resulted cannot be compared with the means by which most governments have been established, without some re- turn of pious gratitude, along with a humble anticipation of the future blessings which the past seems to presage. The reflections arising out of the present crisis have forced them- selves too strongly upon my mind to be suppressed. You will join Avith me, I trust, in thinking that there are none under the influence of which the proceedings of a neAv and free government can more auspiciously commence.” Thus spake the great Washington, — the broadest, truest represen- tative man of his country and of his age. lie felt the heavy pressure of this hitherto unequalled responsibility, and bore his burden immediately to the throne of grace. He could not perform his first official act without presenting his “fervent supplications to that Almighty Being who presides over the 332 Tni: GREAT REPUBLIC. councils of nations, and whose providential aid can supply every human defect;” and, in tendering this homage to the great Author of every public and private good,” he believes that he expresses the sentiments of the members of Congress, and of his “ fL'llow-citizens at large,” not less than his owu ; states most forcibly the paramount obliga- tion of the American people to “ acknowledge and adore the invisible Hand which conducts the alTairs of men ;” and solemnly allirms “that every step by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation secm.s to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency.” With what profound satisfaction do we find Iiere thus vigorously and reverently stated, as if from the very heart and intellect of the Great Republic, the broad, funda- mental idea under the control of which this book is written ! THE RELIGION OF AMERICA CONSTRUCTS A GRAND AND DURABLE GOVERNMENT. We have seen that the outward forms of the nation were marred with great defects, and that vices utterly inconsistent with the fundamental principles of liberty sought to incor- porate themselves into the organic law, and, by obstinate pei>istenco and astute scheming, obtained an apologetic, deprecatory expression in that great instrument; but we have also seen that the grand, fundamental fact of repub- lican freedom took its position of rank and power to fight the battles of justice through the age.s, and to triumph glo- riously when the fulness of time had come. But we may now glory in the potential rea.son why right triumphed over might in the War of Independence; why the true theory of government emerged with such clear- ness and vigor from the contlicts with Engli.sh de.spotism ; why the freedom of speech and the press, the ballot and the pulpit, triumphed over the restrictions which Papal big- otiy had for ages imposed upon the energies of mind and AN INDESTRUCTIBLE NATIONAL LIFE. 333 the straggles of modern civilization ; why there was power enough in conceded rights to eradicate the most inveterate evils which had come down from the past. God was the recognized Sovereign of the nation. In the spirit of true humility, all the great achievements of the past were ascribed to him ; and, in fervent prayer, all the difficult problems and severe trials of the future were confided to his infinite wisdom" and sovereign control. Besides, and above all that could be found in the convic- tions and acts of meti, there was the historical development of a divine plan for establishing a nation in advance of any that had gone before in the great principles of civil and religious liberty, and providing for a new development of Christian civilization. Hence, and hence only, the amazing foresight and prospective adjustments of that forming age, — provisions as comjilete for future unknown emergencies as for those which were present. For this reason, despite all its imperfections and wrongs condemned for future destruc- tion, the government has risen in majesty and glory, while rival theories have paled before its steady and increasing light. Pliilosophical attempts to show its impracticability, and malignant prophecies of its failure, have alike disap- peared amid the splendors of its march, until jealous tyrants have alternately eulogized and cursed it ; and the longing eyes of the oppressed of all nations have turned to it as the star of hope amid the darkness of despotism. How evidently, therefore, is the whole system pervaded by the elements of an immortal life ! The religious influence which presided over its councils, and gave more than human energy to its contending armies, has entered into every organ and tissue of the body politic, and rendered clear as light the fact of a divine purpose in its organization and development. American liberty — what language can express the glow of rapture with which we contemplate it? We feel the thrill of its life and the throb of its joy as it courses through our veins. Liberty to think and utter our thoughts ; 334 THE GREAT RERUBLIC. liberty to write and print and read, and no fear of servile police or loathsome cells or murderous injustice; liberty to study and proclaim God’s holy word, kneel at his sacred altar, and claim for ourselves the blood of atonement, with no intervening priest, and no artificial terrors from the thun- ders of the Vatican, — with what gratitude ought we to rec- ognize privileges so exalted, as the gift of Providence alone ! But if God be the author of the American system, then here is our grand reliance for permanence and prosperity. We need not be alarmed at the threateliing rivalry of selfish politicians, nor the murmurings of sectional strife. Our gallant ship of State wall mount the foaming crest, or plunge into ocean deeps, with no peril or harm. Amid the wailings of the storm, you shall hear from her towering mast the joyous cry of “ Land ahead ! ” to hush every fear, and fill every throbbing heart with joy. The ambitious partisan may sound the alarm of impending ruin, — ruin upon a given contingency, and ruin upon the exact opposite : but, by the hand of power which guides our destiny, mere poli- ticians will hereafter, as before, be used or swept aside like cobwebs ; while our glorious Republic will move on, in the Sphere of a wise and comprehensive Providence, to accom- plish her great mission. The life-power of the nation is indestructible. i. PERIOD III. DEVELOPMENT. CHAPTER I. DEVELOPMENT OF POPULATION. “ Whilst our old European centre is like a volcano, consuming itself in its own crater, the two nations. Oriental and Occidental, proceed unhesitatingly toward perfection, — the one at the will of one man, the other by liberty. Providence has confided to the United States of America the care of peopling, and of gaining over to civilization, all that immense territoiy which extends from the Atlantie to the South Sea, and from the North Pole to the Equator.” — Louis Napoleok. The stirring events which have passed before us indicate a grand providential preparation for the organized develop- ment of Christian civilization. This purpose would, of course, require a numerous population. The severe trials of the Revolution had seriously retarded immigration. In 1775, the estimates of population made by ngress were as follows : — Massachusetts . . , , 400,000 Pennsylvania . . . 350,000 New Hampshire . , . 150,000 l^Iaryland . . . . 320,000 Rhode Island . . . 50,078 Virginia . . . . 650,000 Connecticut . . . 192,000 North Carolina . . 300,000 New York . . . 250,000 South Carolina . 225,000 New Jersey . . , . 130,000 Total . . . 3,017,078 In a brief period, the plans of God for the ingathering of the people upon a larger scale would be evident and effectual. 335 • 336 THE GREAT RERUBLIC. INCREASE OF POPULATION. The country soon became more attractive to those who desired to improve their circumstances. The immense forests of valuable timber, the fisheries, the broad acres of productive grain-lands, and the extraordinary facilities for maniifiicturing and commerce, invited enterprise from every country of the Old World. There was, moreover, in the idea of libeVty, a charm which the aristocratic governments of Europe could in no way counteract. In the absence of steam and telegraphs, and on account of the limited circulation of newspapers, information forced its way slowly, but at length widely, through the masses ; and, soon after the close of the Revo- lutionary War, considerable numbers found means to trans- port themselves to this land of liberty and plenty. In 1800, the United States numbered 5,305,925 ; in 1810, 7,239,815; in 1820, 9,638,121; in 1830, 12,866,020; in 1840, 17,069,453; in 1850, 23,191,876 ; in 1860, 31,443,322; including Indian tribes, &c., 31,747,514 ; and, at the close of 1866, the number had risen to 34,605,882. Sir Morton Peto remarks that “ there is nothing in the Old World to equal this rate of progress. The population of Great Britain and Ireland in 1800 was 16,000,000, and in 1861 was under 30,000,000. Since 1830, the population of the United States has increased 19,000,000, whilst that of our kingdom has increased less than 6,000,000.” In 1860, the fifteen then slaveholding States contained 12,240,000 inhabitants ; a gain, in ten years, of 2,627,000, or 27.33 per cent. The nineteen free States, seven Territories, and District of Columbia, contained 19,201,546 persons ; showing an increase, in ten years, of 5,598,603, or 41.24 per cent. The whole gain in the decade from which most of our figures are taken was 8,225,603 souls; and from 1860 to 1866 the increase was 3,162,560. DEVELOrMENT OF FOPULATION. 337 SOURCES OF POPULATION. It is a remarkable fact, that not more than one-third of this rapidly-increasing population is native in birth and descent; or, in other words, two-thirds are immigrants and their descendants. Without this element, it is estimated that, in 1863, our population would have reached less than 10,500,000 ; Avhile the population from abroad, and their descendants, exceeded 21,000,000. The ratio of increase from immigration is as follows : In ilie ten years ending 1829, the number was 128,502 ; in ten years ending 1839, we received 538,381 ; in ten years ending 1849, 1,427,337 ; in eleven years ending 1860, 2,968,194; making, in some forty-one years, 5,062,414. The following figures will show us in detail the sources of our incoming population for forty years, ending with 1860 : — Great Britain & Ireland. 2,750,874 Spain Germany 1,486,044 Italy France 208,063 Belgium .... . . 9,862 Prussia 60,432 South America . . . 6,201 China 41,443 Denmark .... . . 5,540 West Indies .... 40,487 Azores .... . . 3,242 Switzerland .... 37,733 Portugal .... . . 2,614 Norway and Sweden 36,129 Sardinia .... . . 2,030 Holland 21,579 Poland .... . . 1,659 Mexico 17,766 Russia .... It thus appears that Providence designs to bring accessions to our Anglo-Saxon population from all the peoples and civilizations of Europe, with considerable numbers from Asia and the islands of the ocean. . The native stock, amounting, as we have seen, to over ten millions, may be found pervading all our communities, and mingling with all classes of immigrants in active business relations, organizing American institutions, and developing the resources of the Great Republic. The people of African descent, in 1860 numbering 43 338 THE GREAT UEPUnLIC. 4,435,709, have by unparallck'd toil, despite all the disabili- ties of a cruel servitude, coutributed largely to the material wealth of the country. They have been used, in the order of Providence, to impose upon us some of the hardest })rob- lems which civil liberty has ever had to solve. In regard to them, the plans of God are becoming more evident, cul- minating in the severest rebuke of caste, and punishment of despotic usurpation, and in the forced acknowledgment of universal manhood and equal rights. Only a small number of the aborigines of our territory, estimated in 1800 at 294,431, have become citizens. Gen- erally they roam through our vast forests, retainilig their barbarous habits, adopting oidy the vicious customs of the whites; sometimes receiving with artless gratitude the acts of justice or paternal care bestowed by the •government; sometimes submitting in passive sullenne.ss to the wrongs inflicted upon them, and then rousing in terrific revenge for real or fancied injurie.s. The benevolent labors of Christian missionaries have, however, greatly ameliorated the condi- tion of many of their tribes, securing to considerable num- bers the blessings of Christian education and experience, and the arts of civilized life ; thus bringing out the fact of their manhood, and revealing capabilities of honorable rank among the families of earth. It is painful to think of the savage cruelties and bloody wars which might have been avoided by a prompter Christian civilization. Cn.VRACTER OF POPULATION. High rank, professional ability, and capital .seeking investr ment, have found their way to this country from abroad ; bilt immigrants have generally been of the industrial classes. These, together with our native-born people, have given to our frontier settlements an unusual degree of enterprise and vigor, and brought out rapidly the resources of our virgin soil. DEVELOPMENT OF POPULATION. 339 The employments of. onr foreign-born population strik- ingly indicate their habits of thought and feeling, and the character of their influence upon American industry and society. The public registers give their occupations only to a limited extent, and yet sufficiently for our present purpose. Of, say two millions, 872,317 are laborers; 764,837, formers; 407,524, mechanics; 231,852, merchants; 49,494, servants ; 39,967, miners; 29,484, mariners ; 11,557, weavers and spinners ; 5,246, seamstresses and milliners ; 7,109, physicians; 4,326, clergymen; 3,882, clerks; 3,634, tailors; 3,474, shoemakers; 3,120, manufacturers; 2,676, law- yers; 2,490, artists; 2,310, masons ; 2,016, engineers ; 1,528, teachers; 1,272, bakers; 945, butchers; 729, musicians; 705, printers; 647, painters ; 631, millers; 588, actors. These figures show that the people were used to work in the Old World, and that they came here to work. The employments of a large number of the whole nation at any one time will furnish a broader view of the character of the American population. In 1860, there were about 8,217,000 heads of families. The occupations of some 6,000,000, of various conditions, were as follows : — Apprentices . . 55,326 Drivers . 19,521 Bakers .... 19,001 Druggists .... . 11,031 Barbers 11,140 Farmers & Farm-laborers 3,219,574 Bar-keepers . . 13,263 Gardeners .... . 21,323 Blacksmiths . . 112,357 Grocers .... . 40,070 Boarding-house Kci epers . 12,148 Harness-makers . . 12,728 Bricklayers 14,311 Hatters . 11,647 Biickinakers . . 13,736 Innkeepers . . . . 22,818 Butchers . . . 30,103 Jewellers .... . 10,175 Carpenters . . 242,958 Laborers .... . 969,301 Cabinet-makers . 29,223 Laundresses . . 38,033 Carters .... 21,640 Lumbermen . 15,929 Civil Engineers . 27,437 Lawyers and Judges . 33,980 Clerks .... 184,485 Mantua-makers . . . 35,105 Clergymen . . 37,529 IMasons . 48,925 Coach-makers . . 19,180 Merchants .... . 123,378 Coopers . . . 43,624 iMillers . 37,281 340 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. Milliners .... . 25.7t‘2 Seamstresses . . 90,198 Minors . 147,750 1 Servants . . . 559,908 Overseers .... . 37,883 Shoemakers . . 104,008 Peddlers .... . 10,594 Students . . . 49,993 Painters and V arnisbers . 51,095 Stonecutters . . 19,825 Plasterers .... . 13,110 Tailors and Tailoresses . 101,808 Printers .... . 23,100 Tanners . . . 10,491 Public Officers . . . 24,093 Teachers . . . 110,409 Physicians & Surgeons . 55,055 Teamsters . . . 84,824 Rjiilroad Men . . 30,507 j Tinsmiths . . . 17,412 Saddlers .... . 12,750 Tobacconists . 21,413 Sawyers .... . 15,000 J Wheelwrights . . 82,093 It thus appears that more than one-half of the whole are employed in agricultural pursuits, while nearly all are engaged in some useful business. Only 12,236 bar-keepers and 21,413 tobacconists, included in the above tables, are engaged in labor that is harmful to society. This small num- ber, compared with the grand army of productive industry and professional honor, affords the highest encouragement to the future of our country. If it follows that the time given to the cultivation of mind and the fine arts must be less, and the standard of intelligence, on the whole, propor- tionally lower, it maybe justly claimed that practical knowl- edge is more general, and society more healthy. The attempts at aristocratic distinctions in the Southern portion of the United States, and the release of large num- bers from the pursuits of industry, have not proved favorable to the cultivation of .sound learning ; while the popular sen- timent rendering the labor of the hands dishonorable has produced results sufficiently disastrous to serve as a warning against all endeavors to establish here a form of society so entirely anti-American. A much graver question relates to the moral character of our population. Of course, the various nationalities brought together here must include every variety of opinions, habits, and condition. The grades of civilization from many por- tions of Europe extend downward even below the .semi- barbarous state. Crimes of the grosser kind must become DEVELOPMENT OP POPULATION. 341 correspondingly frequent. Lust and revenge are rank, and possibly ferocious in many instances. Offences against per- son and property will render both insecure in proportion as these barbarous elements prevail. Crowded cities, afford- ing most victims and most convenient concealment, will include large and dangerous numbers of thieves and mur- derers; and the false ideas of liberty which pervade the lower forms of society in Europe will encourage the emi- gration of multitudes of their vilest men and women. Now, if it be a vice, it is one not easily remedied, apparently, — that these human beings, who are yet hardly human, may suddenly become American citizens ; and, though without a single qualification for the high and sacred responsibilities of freemen, they are as potential at the ballot-box as an equal number of our most intelligent and Christian citizens. The religious creeds and institutions of large numbers w'ho come to us claim the first and highest obedience for a foreign ecclesiastical prince, and make loyalty a mere matter of temporary convenience, liable to be disturbed and over- thrown by causes wholly concealed from the ordinary observation of the American people. Candor also compels the acknowledgment, that no small number of vicious people in this country are born here, and that the antagonisms to virtue are, to a shameful extent, of native origin and growth ; while the highest virtues, both of Church and State, are alike of foreign and of domestic origin ; the whole resulting in the stern fact, that, in our mixed population, the extremes of virtue and vice confront each other, and all the grades of human character that can be found in any civilized country are here strongly marked and vigorously developed. To complete this brief analysis of American population, it is imperative to bring prominently forward the fact, that a high sense of religious responsibility brought the founders of our free institutions here. As the rights of conscience were extensively denied in the Old World, and fully con- 342 THE GREAT RErUBLIC. ceded in the New, yearnings for the privilege of free worship brought multitudes to the wilds of America who would have been otherwise more comfortable in the land of their birth. Providence thus secured numerous accessions to the Chris- tian population of the Republic ; and, from the first, moral and religious influences largely predominated in the several colonies. The full development of this organic force will be noticed in another chapter. Here the claim, manifestly true, is, that the broad liberty which the earlier ‘citizens of the Republic brought with tliem, and passed through the death- struggles of the Revolution to establish, was vitally Christian ; and that only the growing power of this controlling element can explain the high moral status of American citizens, on the whole. TOE AMERICAN RACE. By the large comprehensions and mysterious selections of living materials for the formation of this new nation. Provi- dence has clearly indicated a purpo.se to produce a popula- tion differing from any before known. In other countries, peoples utterly strange to each other, and diverse in origin, language, and religion, are brought into juxtaposition: but, from the nature of aristocratic governments, they are only subjects ; they never do, never can, become an organic unit In the United State-s, it is quite otherwi.se. Here men must cease to be Anglo-Saxon, Teutonic, Sclavonic, or Celt, and, by the very force of our free institutions, become Americans, — simply and only Americans, — at once sover- eign and subject Hence in a period longer or shorter, according to circumstances which are neither fundamental nor permanent, republican ideas take possession of incoming peoples, gradually, but at length entirely, mastering and dis- placing all predilections in favor of despotic or even mild monarchical institutions; and the most profound religiou.s prejudices slowly, and almost imperceptibly, yield to the grand idea of free toleration, and the paramount rights of DEVELOrMENT OF POPULATION. ^43 conscience ; so that Romish bigotry is modified to an extent alarming to the hierarchy, sworn to implicit obedience to the sovereign pontiff In opinions, religious and political, the people will differ ; but, in the sense and rights of per- sonal responsibility, they tend rapidly to unity. Immense as is the influx of population, we affirm the deliberate con- viction, that the process of homogeneous Americanization follows it so closely as to avert the most imminent perils to our free institutions, and furnish strong ground for the belief that God himself controls the mixing-up of nations here, for the grand purpose of making one, immensely stronger and nobler than either of them could possibly be. Conventional arrangements of foreign origin which relate to exclusive education, religion, and government, are very tenacious, and not unfrequently rise to menacing propor- tions, as antagonists to the system of free schools, free churches, and a free Republic; but while the history of the cpntest furnishes ample reasons for eternal vigilance, and firm, manly independence, it does in no way indicate the ultimate triumph of European despotism on this continent, or the fundamental perversion of our great providential scheme of self-government. Free schools, tending to universal education, bear with them their own vindication, make their own proselytes, and produce the intelligence which must render them superior to the assaults of ignorance and bigotry ; and even coerced sectarian education with an anti-republican animus, by the mere force of contiguous free thinking and free acting, and the permeating vital forces of a free government, imper- ceptibly assimilates the common faith of Christian liberty. It, moreover, appertains to unrestricted truth to show its superiority to prescriptive error. An open field and a fair fight is all it demands, all it will allow. The wrong has no chance of ultimate triumph in such a contest. God will not permit it. The inherent weakness of bigotry and injustice becomes evident in such a country as this. When they ri.se 344 THE GREAT REPUDLIC. up and bluster and threaten, before alarmists have ceased to utter their warnings of impending destruction to freedom and the right, they have gone down under the heavy blows which men, women, and children are so free to wield against them here. The press, untrammelled, arrays itself on one side and the other in this Titanic war ; but how evidently and rapidly, if it be vile, docs its vileness destroy its power to rule against the educated. Christianized freedom of the land ! and how soon must it tell the tale of its disgrace by extinction, or falling back upon the patronage of the openly vicious! On the other hand, when was it ever known that a free, truth- ful, fearless. Christianized press finally lost caste in America by standing up boldly for private and public virtue, and advocating the true republican rights of man ? . It may have passed through fiery trials, and fallen, for a time, under the ban of infidel vice and party corruption ; but short indeed must be the life that has not been long enough to see schools of infidelity, and parties becoming corrupt from pros- perity or vile leadership, disappear before the triumphant power of an enlightened public opinion, led on by a free press and an unfettered church. Thus forming, moulding, assimilating all to itself, the Great Republic of America goes on with the process of constructing a race of its own, strangely and even miraculously adjusted to its providen- tial purposes, and the accomplishment of its grand mission among the governments of the earth. If, now, it be asked how has all this become possible, and what is tlie vitalizing force which is thus transforming jico- ples of various and antagonistic governments into one, we affirm, without hesitancy, it is the Sovereign of nations, God Omnipotent, who “maketh the WTath of man to praise him,” unfolding the plans of the Christian dispensation, purging the people by the fires of law and of ju.stice; it is the gospel, the potent, at length the nearly omni-potent, spread of truth from heaven ; a free, open Bible ; the bap- DEVELOPMENT OE POPULATION. 345 .tisms of light and love, which are fast converting our nine- teenth century into one grand Pentecost. It is the voice of resurrection, saying, “Arise, shine ; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee.” The unity of the American race includes also the mingling of blood, which, subject to the control of true instincts and sound conventional propriety, obeys the physiological laws of animal regeneration and strength, and must gradually bring out proportions and poivers fitted for great achieve- ments, — a physique which shall rise to possibilities, only indicated by the endurance and stalwart might of our armies in all the wars through which we have yet passed. Our varied climates, invigorating air, and inevitable ac- tivity, have contributed to this result. In subduing the for- ests, cultivating our vast prairies, and developing the mechan- ical industry and commerce of the country, our people have added much to the size of bone and strength of muscle, the power of nerve and energy of will, which tend to give the true American unparalleled powers of endurance and triumph in any field of conflict which God may require him to enter. No doubt, disobedience to the laws of health, and deep- seated immoralities, have often antagonized and defeated this great providential plan of forming a mighty race of men for achievements above the reach of dwarfed and enfeebled humanity. It is the mission of true Christian education to counteract these depraved tendencies; the grand purpose of a true inward and outward regeneration, and a progres- sive scientific system of moral and physical health, to rescue our new and vigorous race from these destructive agencies, and test the rights of purified, elevated humanity to long life and great deeds in a sphere as much above that which we have yet reached, as our present is above that of the wasting savages of these continental forests. Then the magnificent scenery of our mountains and rivers and lakes, the vastness of our country, and the evcr-increas- I 346 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. ing demands upon our utmost powers, will come in to help. God and conscience make us great Freedom relieved from the taint of slavery, and the sove- reign rights of freemen exercised by Americans, without the restrictions of caste, will give dignity and power to the true American ; while the far-famed ingenuity, industry, ver- satility, and energy of the Republic will render her exhaust less resources available. With these advantages, under the prestige of a mighty past, and with these healthy, vitalizing forces working against our vices, thirty-four millions six hundred and five thousand eight hundred and eighty-two American people are now, under the control of Providence, moving onward in the front ranks of modern Christian civilization. . - / CHAPTER II. DEVELOPMENT OF LIBEKTY. “ Freedom of a low and limited order is mere caprice. Freedom does not exist ns original and natural. Rather must it be first sought out and won, and that by an in- calculable medial discipline of the intellectual and moral powers. Freedom is spirit in its completeness. Society and the State are the very conditions in which freedom is realized. Reason is the comprehension of the divine work. The strength of a nation lies in the reason incorporated in it. The conception of God constitutes the general basis of a people’s character.” — Hegel. The earliest struggles of liberty are indications of torture under the wrongs of oppression. Men in pain seek relief ; and the right to relief from the miseries inflicted by des- potism is an instinct which moves the sufferer to act in self-defence, without waiting for a logical vindication : hence the violence which struggles with power, without regard to the question whether there is any hope or possibility of relief, but which must sometimes*be followed by a conviction of impotence, and a feeling of sullen despair, and finally of unavoidable submission. But God does not permit this submission to pass into sat- isfaction. He rouses up the soul to a consciousness of its individuality, of its own dignity, of its felt claims to freedom. He stirs up the reason; and a higher sense of justice takes position, and begins to question the rights of despotic rulers, and to demand release from exactions which are unjust and oppressive. When these demands are resisted and denied, then comes the question of power. If the reason is low, and its arguments are unreliable, the attempts at self-vindi- cation are likely to be premature and reckless. In the higher exercise of reason, two questions are considered, — 317 34S THE GllEAT REPUnLIC. can the wrong be conquered by force? and are not moral means, without force, due under the circumstances, and hopeful of success? Tlie founders of the Great Republic had passed through all these stages, — first in England, then in America. They had shown the higher manifestations of reason in the pei'- sistent struggles of logic before resistance in battle. They had passed through the conllicts of the Revolution, and found themselves free, in the sense of release from foreign domi- nation. They had, moreover, settled the form of govern- ment, determined that it should not be monarchical, but republican ; that it should not be irresponsible, but consti- tutional ; that it should be democratic, but representative; that the paramount allegiance of the citizen should be to the General Government, and all State authority should adjust itself to the good of the nation. This was the evi- dent purpose ; and it was undeniably in the scope and in- tention of the Constitution which superseded the old Arti- cles of Confederation. Rut it was not universally acknowl- edged. It was contested by the States-right party, through a period of nearly a hundred years, with great ability and zeal; and the opposition to a true nationality finally led to treason and blood. The qiwestion was left to the arbitrament of the sword ; and the vindication of national over State sovereignty followed one of the mo-st gigantic and cruel wars of modern times. This, however, was the groVth of liberty. The freedom of the individual seemed, at first, all that could be e.xpected, and almost too much to ask. Deliverance from persecution on account of religious belief and practice, from unjust and tyrannical e.xactions, seemed the greatest blessing that could be conferred. When, however, the struggle rose to a com- plete emancipation from foreign power, and American inde- pendence had been proclaimed, vindicated, and acknowl- edged, large ideas of personal rights were the natural result; and the growth of national feeling and intelligence was at DEVELOPMENT OF LIBERTY. 349 first slow, revealing only gradually its organic existence and power. When, however, it rose distinctly to sight, it was found to be the true American idea ; and the feeling that the national character and rights of the people must outgrow, or conquer by force, all local and State assumptions inconsistent with it, at length became strong and irresistible. PERSONAL LIBERTY. It was not easy to ascertain precisely what the colonists had gained. Liberty was the word instinctively used to express it ; but the people, generally, were far from a clear apprehension of the meaning of the term. The great statesmen of the Revolution excluded from the idea many of the radical and irresponsible notions of the masses, but differed widely as to what it did actually include. Indeed, broad and comprehensive views of liberty cannot be claimed for the times in which our republican institutions had their birth. From the very necessities of historical civilization, these must be an outgrowth from the radical principles, obtaining position amid the life-and-death struggles of a great revolution. Reflection is subsequent to passion or sentiment ; and, when it commences its examinations, it condemns and excludes much which feeling a.sserts and demands. Con- sciousness finds free volitions within. The mind, from the mere love of power, exercises itself in willing; takes excur- sions in various directions to show to itself that it can deter- mine one way and another, — that it can resolve exact opposites. It receives and repels influences from without ; weighs motives, and first accepts, then rejects them ; even choosing to be governed, apparently, for the mere independ- ence of the thing, by those which are felt and acknowledged to be by far the less in strength and claims. This is primary liberty, the starting-point of all free action and free institutions; and, in the perverseness of human 350 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. nature, it is very likely to assert boldl}’, nml even defiantly, the right to do Avrong. To realize the full force of the im- portant distinction between the ability to do wrong and the liberty to do wrong requires thought, moral culture, and, finally, regeneration. It is the province of discipline, under divine inspiration and guidance, to bring out the con.science of liberty. Then, when the soul propo.ses to itself free action, finds itself acting freely, it begins to ask, “ Is this right?” Then it begins to realize that there are limitations to freedom ; in other words, that there are great laws of free action grounded in our relations to other men and to Clod. JUSTICE AND LOYALTY IN LIBERTY. Justice is an element .so broad and far-reaching, that it is not easily nor soon understood. It defines itself in laws for self-protection; and this involves the protection and rights of others, and finally rises to the dignity of constitutional law, assuming to have found the fundamental and perma- nent right as between man and man. But both the idea and the expression of justice must, of necessity, he imperfect and inadequate in the earlier attempts to define constitutional rights. Constitutions, therefore, as we have before said, are not made, hut grow ; and pure justice, as it is the rarest and most precious ele- ment of fundamental government, so it is the least likely and the latest to have full sway in the systems of fallen and depraved humanity. This must he the true explanation of the unquestionable hut humiliating fact, that the struggles of a hundred years in this republic of liberty have been over the question. How much, or rather how little, justice can we dispense to man as man, and establish a govern- ment of freedom for ourselves? Slowly, therefore, has true liberty developed itself even here ; sometimes seeming to diminish rather than enlarge, to retrograde rather than advance. But we can now see, that, upon the Avhole, the DEVELOPMENT OF LIBERTY. 351 progress has been powerful and really grand. Now it is known and almost universally felt among the governing minds of America, that justice, fair, full, impartial justice, is indispensable to liberty, is the very soul of liberty. Almost as slowly has the great fact come to the surface, that true loyalty is a fundamental element of liberty ; that we must be governed to be free. Wild, ultra democracy denies this ; licentious passion denies it : but calm reason affirms it, history asserts it, revelation demands it. A republican government must be outwardly and formally a government by majorities; and, when the free elections of the people have placed a man in office, he is and must be the officer until he is superseded .according to due forms of law. If it is alleged that he is unjust, and that he has transcended or made a vicious and oppressive use of his power, the appeal is not to private judgment, not to public passion, but to the umpire provided by the Constitution. Obedience, one of the hardest things for a republican to learn, is one of the first and most imperative obligations of freemen in a free government. Rejected, superseded by individual obstinacy or confederate passion, lawless anarchy and headlong rebellion must be the result. We say that a republic must be ostensibly governed' by majorities; but in reality it is far otherwise. Sad experience shows us that by low intrigue a small number of political demagogues may dictate candidates and control elections ; and that, Avere there no counteracting forces, the govern- ment would be irredeemably lost amid contending factions, or the people in their millions subjected to the merciless tyranny of a contemptible minority or a military despotism. EDUCATION AND RELIGION IN LIBERTY. Intelligence, sound and widely diffused, is not a mere con- tingency or accidental fact of free institutions such as ours : it is a part of them. Liberty, in its highest, truest sense, 352 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. cannot be known apart from it There \s not only the primary fact that the people are the government, that ‘they must therefore be sufficiently educated to understand the simple but mutual principles of the government, and the true sphere and responsibilities of the elective franchise, but they must be qualified to grapple with and triumph over the astute scheming of corrupt leaders ; at least they must teveal ability to hurl these men occasionally from power, so as to compel them, by their fears, to a degree of caution which will secure the liberties of the people. But mere secular learning leaves selfishness undisturbed, or rather stimitlates its growth, and multiplies its expedients for mischief The tendency of mental increase in corriqv tion is to make men rivals in intrigue, not antagoni.sts to political vice : hence the multiplication of demagogues by schools of “philosophy, falsely so called,” has come to be a well-known arnTgenerally-recognized fact. There must, therefore, be a special element in the intel- ligence of freemen; a distinct controlling animus which will make it broad and true and safe ; a spirit of patriotism which subordinates and finalfy destroys the natural selfish- ness; Avhich raises patriotism to the dignity of philanthropy, and enthrones justice over the passions and the will, in the heart, in the family, and in the nation. This is loyalty to God, a pt inciple and a feeling given in the new birth, which, “sufficiently produced,” exalts the human to the sphere of the divine, and resolves the government of liberty into the will of God. In our present mixed state as to individual and public regeneration, only a slight approximation to this sublime standard is possible. Happy for us that enough of this “good and perfect gift from the Father of lights,” this “wis- dom that is from above, which is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy,” has been given to man to show its existence, reveal its power, and secure DEVELOPMENT OF LIBERTY. 353 our liberties; while the “ earthly, sensual, and devilish ’’are sufficiently evident to inspire our hatred and dread, and move tlie people to more general and earnest heart-yearn- ings after the spirit of Christ for the soul of the nation.. How we long for the day when we can claim for the Ameri- can hepublic, without mortifying reservations, a well-defined place within the circle of the divine beatitudes! — “Happy is that people that is in such a case ; yea, happy is that people whose God is the Lord.” Here we reach a p>osition from which we can announce the fact, that government by a republic may be perfectly safe in the hands of the majority, or under the control of the whole people, swayed by the power of a small minority. It is useless for the American people longer to shut their eyes to the inevitable fact, that governing mind is a crea- tion of God ; that the power and the will to govern are inborn where there is a providential 'designation to the functions and responsibilities of office. Setting aside, as we have done, the vain pretenders whose dishonest usur- pations of power are an offence to God and man, we have risen to a contemplation of humanity re-formed for the high prerogative of representing God in the government of men ; and even now we see that the general intelligence is too broad and clear-sighted to be long misled or misgoverned, and too largely imbued with common sense to refuse to be represented or led by men of superior wisdom and goodness. EXTENT AND SPHERE OF LIBERTY. In consequence of the natural blindness of souls, it has come to be a very urgent question, How far shall liberty extend? — who shall be free? It is mortifying that this could ever be a question in the Great Kepublic. It must be acknowledged that we did for a long time ask, “ May a man of heterodox faith be free?” But we outgrew our Prelatical bigotry in Virginia and our Puritanic bigotry in 354 THE GREAT REPUDLIC, New England, and found, to our abundant relief, that it was perfectly safe to hand over Anabaptists and State Church- men, Papists, Jews, and Quakers, to the mercy of God and free inquiry. We did ask, “May the tawny Indian and the swarthy African be free? Must no't liberty be restricted to the white race, and denied to darker color?” Heaven pity us 1 How long we struggled to find out what tinge of color should mark the impassable boundary between liberty and bondage ! and how grandly, at length, have we risen to know that a man is to be free because he is a man ! Let us boast as lit- tle as possible over the fact that a part of us have reached this great plain truth only in the last period of the nine- teenth century of the Christian era. But the reasons are now snlficicntly evident why liberty, even in our favored country, has been so slow of growth. Including, as it does, our own reflective consciousness of personal freedom, a rectified conscience, a clear sense of justice, a devoted loyalty, a broad intelligence, a sincere piety for the people generally, and the public and govern- mental recognition of the universal manhood of man, we may not expect the spontaneous growth of liberty, nor its rapid development. The more reason have we, therefore, to be profoundly grateful for the certain historical evidence of its sure and steady advance to strength and dominant power on this continent CHAPTER III. DEVELOPMENT OF GOVERNMENT. “ Hitherto the world has assumed some inherent antagonism between freedom and eentralization. A true democracy has as last established itself, that not only develops an intenser centralization than despotism ever boasted, but that develops and also vin- dicates it by a completer freedom than ever before could be permitted.” — Partridge. It cannot be said that society in America was ever resolved into its original elements. The first successful emigrants came here with no feeling of reckless anarchy, no idea of release from the restraints of law. If there were some vicious and irresponsible men among them, who fled from needed control or merited punishment at home, they -were never strong enough to overwhelm the stern representatives of order placed by Providence at the head of affairs. Gov- ernment in some form was clearly recognized in the organi- zations of companies, in grants and charters at home ; and the power of control, however falsely conceived or unwisely located, was, from the first, evident and vigorous. This was so fiir civilization, in distinction from barbarism. A POPULAn GOVERNMENT, Government by the people came to this land in “ The May- flower,” and began at once a career of development which has never been successfully resisted. The idea of govern- ment by an oligarchy came to the South earlier. It asserted hereditary rights, and gathered to itself the power of king and council, nobles and proprietaries, the church and the sword. It antagonized and suppressed the will of the peo- 355 356 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. pie; and the people, in their turn, stood up against it calmly, but firmly, and wrenched from it one concession after anoth- er, until, by the struggles of a hundred and fifty years, they overthrew and utterly destroyed it In the mean time, the people were the government in fact, and of right. It is interesting to observe that the preten- sions of oligarchy in America have always been subject to the will of the people, sometimes shrinking from sight to avoid a storm and the wreck of property interests, and some- times, with an ill grace, yielding to the claims of constitutional law. When, however, it exerted ostensible power, it was obliged first to seduce the people from their allegiance to God and the right, prostitute them to its own level of demoralization and injustice, and thus make them the fit instruments of usurpation and oppression. But the inchoate United States were never without gov- ernment by the people. While their legal relations to the crown of Great Britain were loyally acknowledged, they arranged promptly and everywhere to supply the defects of the home government by the quiet organization of their own power. It may be naturally supposed that tho.se earlier forms of democratic government were very crude and imperfect; but whoever studies them carefully will perceive that they contained nearly all the great principles of justice and the most profound elements of constitutional law. The parent government of the Great Republic was a pure democracy, — a government by all the people. They were few in number, and their acts of legislation were the voice of the whole. Their great concern was liberty. Oppre.ssion had taught them .so thoroughly, and the steady light of Christianity revealed to them so clearly, the way to obtain it, that they were resolved from the first that they would keep in their own hands whatever authority they could wrest from the grasp of the king. It may be regarded as strange that they did not bring with them a love of monar- chy so strong that it would be their first and only thought, DEVELOPMENT OF GOVERNMENT. 357 as the power of tlie king of England so far declined as to suggest the possibility, and at length the necessity, of Amer- ican independence.' But it was exactly and sternly other- wise. The entire period of preparation was, as we have seen, pervaded by the idea of a democracy. The public acts of the people all indicated the conviction that they were their own rulers; that no man was ever born to be king over them. So clear and general and lasting was this im- pression, that we must refer it to the providence of God. It availed nothing with the statesmen of these early times to suggest that all attempts at republican government had been utter failures ; that the people were too ignorant and selfish to establish a firm and enlightened government. Something within them said, “We are free, and no man or number of men shall wrest our liberties from us : others could not, but we can govern ourselves. Paganism could form no bond of union strong enough to hold the republics of Gj’eece and Rome together ; but Christianity can do for us what no other system of religion ever did, ever could do, for any people. God will help us, and we can be free.” They had heard a solemn voice pronounce the potent word, “Ephphatha !” and their eyes were open. They could see that a new dispensation of government was dawning upon the race ; that they were the vanguard of liberty in a new world : and with the vision came a feeling of power that was too mighty for the despotism of the old and dying past. This was God, slowly bringing to the inhabitants of earth the knowledge of the fact that he is the Sovereign of na- tions; that the regeneration originates a new and all-per- vading sense of justice; and this alone realized the idea and the fact of equality among men, and complete subordi- nation to the will of God. Here it was to be demonstrated that “ He whose right it is to reign would reign until he had put all enemies under his feet.” The doctrine of liberty and of equal rights is wrapped up in this announcement; is utterly and forever inseparable from it. 358 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. But this, with every ’other great truth, was militant in America. It must fight for its place among the philosophies and politics of its times ; and so it did through the genera- tions, achieving its progressive and final triumphs amid the sweat and grime, the tears and blood, of battling ages. But its triumph is at length complete. The people, the wliole people, are the acknowledged rulers of the Great Republic. A REPRESEXT.ATIVE GOVERNMENT. It soon became, of course, impossible for the people to a.ssemble en masse for purposes of legislation and adminis- trative law ; and they were sufficiently sensible to adopt a system of representation. The great legal maxim, “ What a man does by another he does himself,” was well under- stood : and hence the great “ town-nieeting.s,” which were available for local purpose.s, became convenient for the earliest use of the elective franchise ; and the orderly use of the ballot chose men to whom matters of general interest to neighborhoods could be submitted. These contiguous colonies had interests in common ; and they could not meet as a whole for the settlement of colonial policy, but they could meet by their representatives. Hence conventions and commi.s.sions of various kinds began to struggle with this immen.se problem of unity, and com- menced the search, through mi.sts and darkness profound, for those subtle principles and spheres of prerogatives which belonged to the whole, and to separate them from duties and powers which were local in their rights and necessities. This was not only convenient on account of numbers, but it was indispensable for the security of wisdom. These grave deliberations upon matters vital to the commonwealth could thus be intrusted to men of calmer, broader, riper thought than can be expected from the great whole of any com- munity. And such men were here. Men of long and pro- DEVELOPMENT OE GOVERNMENT. 359 found experience in problems of State came with the earliest settlers; and it is of intense interest now to mark the shrink- ing diffidence with which these great men accepted positions of trust actually thrust upon them by the will and necessities of the people. AYe must, however, concede that the true idea of repre- sentation has been slow in reaching its exact definitions and place in this Republic. It was a grand propriety that assumed from the first that a Christian man w'as, all other things being equal, far the most eligible for official rank ; that true religion would qualify a man for the better, safer exercise of the elective franchise.: but it was a narrow judg- ment that disfranchised all others, and a still narrower opinion that excluded from the right of the ballot all Chris- tians, however pure, unless they were members of a particular church. Property qualifications were more naturally sug- gested, but they were not consistent with republican equali- ty of rights; nor could it ever be made to appear that either wisdom or patriotism dwelt alone in the purse. Still more absurd was the notion, that the right of the vote depended upon the color of the skin ; as though honesty and fidelity, social wants and available intelligence, were of the com- plexion rather than of the soul. And the extreme of all absurdity and injustice was the idea that disfranchised slaves should become the basis of free representation, and that the same arbhrary minds which should rob the black man of his inborn rights should confer these rights upon themselves. From all these ideas, foreign to the doctrine of liberty, it has been necessary to free the people. It may seem strange to us that they could ever obtain rank and intluence, in any part of our country, with those who seemed predestined by Providence as the pioneers of representative liberty. But we must again come to the remembrance of the great fact, so frequently recurring in these discussions, that every great principle must have its conflicts; that this is the trial state for all political virtue : and then the slow development of 360 THE CHEAT REPUBLIC. the great law of univer.'^al right, in a government of repre- sentation from the governed, will become intelligible, how- ever impatient may have been our waiting. With our rapidly-increasing millions of population and wealth, representation has not only become clearer in truth and broader in spirit, but more extended in reach and irre- sistible in elfect In our municipal and civil bodies, our legis- lative, judicial, and executive departments of the states and the nation, repre.sentation receives its contents, signihcance, and responsibilities from the per.>sonal rights and conse- quence of thirty-four millions of freemen, and all their va.st interests of education, religion, and commerce. Our consuls in every port, and our ministers plenipotentiary abroa«l, rej)- resent the moral power of living, growing millions, rapidly accumulating wealth, j)ure, free Christianity, inviolable unity, unparalleled energy, and an invincible army and navy. In this vital potency, the government of the Oreat Itepublic is everywhere. It reaches to the ends of the earth, to protect its citizen.s, and seize iLs criminals. Well may its repre.sen- tatives feel that their country confers on them high honor, and that, in their humblest mission, they are rendered truly great. Well may the American citizen mention his nation anywhere with feelings of honorable satisfaction and sus- tained confidence. A NATIOX.tL OOVER.VMENT. A careful study of the growth of American history will re- veal the curious but important fact, that Providence rendered necessary all the essential measures for organizing liberty. Left to themselves, the people would have been quite satis- fied with government by towns or neighborhood.s, or, at most, of single colonie.s. But God permitted danger to be- come one of the first of all the combining forces. They soon found it un.safe to exist in fragmentary communitie.s. The savages were too hostile and powerful. They must combine ; DEVELOrMENT OF GOVERNMENT. 361 and, to do this, they must find those subtle, common interests and rights which constitute the larger unities. There were, moreover, questions of boundary and juris- diction, not between themselves merely, but between the ho- mogeneous English colonists and the French from the North and North-west, the Dutch from the Hudson, and the Span- iards from the South and South-west. Encroachments from all directions demanded defence, — first by diplomacy, and then, as they thought, by the sword. Defence required con- federacy ; and, however obstinate and threatening internal rivalry and collision, the pressure of invasion from with- out was allowed to increase until union was an absolute ne- cessity, and sectional jealousies were held in abeyance by extreme peril from menacing or actual hostile invasions. The English colonies, therefore, went into the great French and Indian wars a unit, which was tho foreshadowing and the actual beginning of the great union which made them a nation. The common danger from the tyranny of the home gov- ernment, as we have before seen, tended strongly to the same result. If, when one class of dangers subsided, the colonies showed again the internal repulsions that threat>- ened to break the tender ties which began to bind them together, and destroy the divine plans of organic, vital union, then God allowed the prompt development of new dangers to absorb colonial interest; and immediately these tender, fretted ties began to grow again. And thus it has been as generations have come and gone. Our unity has been fostered by our perils from the rivalry and hostility of other nations. But the larger, broader unity, which indicated national power, appeared and disappeared alternately during the pe- riod of preparation. In the mean time, narrower local boundaries, on the basis of colonial neighborhood, began to reveal themselves more and more distinctly ; and, at the declaration of independence, thirteen distinct Common- 46 3G2 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. wealths, or States, appeared with the forms of local, inde- pendent governments well defined, all for reasons of de- I'ence against enemies who interfered in various wa^^s with the providential purposes of a free government. Hence arose our grand civil and political system, — State con- stitutions, State legislatures, judicial and legislative func- tions, with their high incumbents, all occupying their seats of power by the free election, and during the will, of the people. To these original thirteen \vere added from time to time the free civil organizations of new’ States, North and West, South and South-west, until thirty-seven States are now organic and vital, w’ith well-defined republican forms of government. This great result, we have seen, has arisen from the ideas of defence which first brought contiguous colonies into close confederation; which made the protection of their own firesides and property, their harbors and liberties, first in importance and in order of time. The convictions which gave paramount consideration to common dangers and des- tiny arose subsequently, leaving the organizations which were first for local protection free in the period of develop- ment, to devote them-selves to the advancement of produc- tive industries, education, and commerce. With respect to the Great Republic, they simply form component parts of an organic whole, and provide wisely for all the advantages of a division of labor. One of the evidences of divine control in the organization of this government is in the fact that actual unity existed before it was known to the people. God, who had called these separate colonies to this virgin land, arranged the elements of a grand Union, far in advance of the concep- tions of man. Common blood, common sufferings, common dangers, and a common destiny, gradually brought to the nation of colonists the great good sense of harmony, and ultimately the unsuspected fact that they w’ere one nation. God had predetermined this result; and he would super- intend all the jealous rivalries, the bitter sectional animosi- DEVELOPMENT OF GOVERNMENT. 363 ties, which were in the way of its realization. He would clear up the vision of the people, and slowly unfold to their view the plan of a great organic national life. On the morning of the 5th of September, 1774, the first Continental Congress a.ssembled in Carpenter’s flail, Philadelphia. There were forty-four and soon fifty-two delegates from all “ the old thirteen ” except Georgia. Here were many of the great founders of our free institutions, and they argued with the skill of experienced state.smen. Richard Henry Lee said, Our rights are built on a fourfold foundation, — on Nature, on the British Constitution, on char- ters, and on immemorial usages. The Navigation Act is a cap- ital violation of them all.” “ There is no allegiance without protection,” said John Jay ; ‘‘ and emigrants have a right to erect what government they please. I have always with- held my assent from the position, that every man discover- ing land does it for the State to which he belongs.” Roger Sherman declared, “ The colonies are not bound to the king or crown by the act of settlement, but by their consent to it. There is no other legislature over them but their respective assemblies. They adopt the common law, not as the common law, but as the highest reason.” “ But Rut- ledge thought that the British Constitution gave them a sufficient foundation; and Duane, that the law of Nature would be a feeble support.” * After a severe struggle, it was resolved to vote by colo- nies; and thus the equal rights of the future small States were conceded. A plan of compromise was introduced by Galloway, proposing a union between GVeat Britain and the colonies, “ so ingeniously defended, that even the clear- headed Jay was led to adopt it.” This gave it influence, and it only failed by one vote. This was another of our providential escapes, not the last time that God interfered to save the American people from the danger of compro- mises when a great principle was involved. * Greene, pp. 84, 85. 3G-t THE GREAT REPUBLIC. From tliis Congress went out a “bill of rights,” an address to the king, another to the people of Great Britain, one to the British Provinces, and one to the Province of Quebec. “ When 3 0111’ lord.ships,” said Lord Chatham, “ look at tlie papers transmitted to us from America, when you consider their decency, firmness, and wi.sdom, you cannot hut respect the cause, and wish to make it your own.” The memoiy of Lord Chatham is dear to the heart of every American. “ Non-importation, non-exportation, non-con- sumption” of British goods were the high-.souled resolves wliich went out from this Congres.s. “Negotiation, suspen- sion of commerce, and war,” said Jav, “ are the only three things. War is, by general consent, to he waived at pre.sent 1 am for negotiation, and suspension of commerce.” 'I'he most important effect of the.se grave deliberations had been to reveal and strengthen the union of the colo- nies, which more distinctly indicated the existence of a new nation on this continent. Josiah Quincy wrote, “ Permit me to congratulate ny countiymen upon the integrity and wisdom with which the Congress have conducted. Their policy, spirit, and union have confounded their foes and inspired their friends.” Before adjournment, provision was made for calling another Congress. The War of the Revolution commenced, and the repre.sentatives of the people were again called together. They met on the 10th of May, 1775, in the State House in Philadelphia, that grand old Hall of Independencvj, still well preserved, and sacred in the feelings of the Ameri- can nation. • This was the Congress from which came, as we have seen in another part of this work, the Declaration of Indejiend- ence and the old Articles of Confederation, and which fought the groat battles of diplomacy resulting in the acknowledg- ment of our national independence. It had been irregularly constituted. There were no general laws of representation, nor election ; there was no constitution. It was necessary. DEVELOPMENT OF GOVEENMENT. 365 that, by whatever bodies elected, they should honestly repre- sent their constituents ; that they should have the confidence of the people, so far as that, willing or reluctant, confiding or doubting, they would respect them as the rulers of the land. It must be a voluntary or conceded obedience. Force could not be the method of law, nor the means of loyalty. There would be criticism, just and unjust; there would be wild and fiery spirits to manage. Men from dif- ferent regions, with various prejudices, must yield to the government of men, most of whom they had never known. They must surrender many of their most cherished opinions, and go to slaughter and death at the command of this body, cautiously assuming legislative, executive, and judicial responsibilities forced upon them by invisible power. How was all this to be done ? This was God’s question, and clearly did he answer it. He held the brain of the nation steady during all these perilous days and years, and brought order out of chaos, revealing his governing hand in the grad- ual formation and progressive development of an organic nation. It will, however, be seen that the exigencies of war had been the means of this political organization and unity. For mere defence and internal growth, civil governments had been instituted in the different colonies, founding thir- teen States. But what was at first only resistance to force for self-preservation had now risen to the dignity of a war for national existence and rights. God had so far made the wrath of man to praise him as to compel the declaration of independence, as the result of long-continued acts of British oppression; and at length, by murderous injustice and cruel war, he would allow the continuance of oppression under the same sovereign control, until the people had risen, through discipline and blood, to the power of self-govern- ment; and the remainder of wrath he would restrain. The return of peace removed the outside pressure which had forced the people together. Individual independent 366 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. interests and sectional jealousies, as we have seen, rose up in anger to assert their rights; and God still had in charge the problem of consolidating and developing a political government suited to a great and free nation, — a problem which rose immediately and distinctly above the reach of human wisdom and power. * A RESPONSIBLE GOVERN.MENT. The growth of ideas in the Republic, from the first inau- guration of Washington, is most remarkable; and, in this country, ideas are power. The exigencies of the nation found the government expansive and adjustable to a re- markable degree. Free discussion in the preliminary a.s.sem- blies, the choice of men under Providence, notwithstanding the intrigues of demagogues and the perils of great political crises and vigorous forensic conflict.s, with a certain indispen- sable amount of broad statesmanship, gradually perfected our system. The powers and duties of the Executive were care- fully defined by law, so that even the administration of a bad President cannot destroy our liberties. The cabinet grew up with the immense increase of public busines.s, and surrounded the President with Ministers of State, of War, and of Finance, with officers in charge of the Post Office and the business of the Interior. These, with the official expounder of the public law, became the advisers of the Executive, the supporters of his legitimate power, and the administrators of immense departments of public business. Their associate council might be marred by the perverseness of an incumbent ; but under the vigilant eye of the Senate and House of Representatives, and the more jealous watch- fulness of the people, long progress in any disastrous policy would be highly improbable, and ultimate ruin morally impo.ssible. On the whole, the guaranties of the people are largely increased by these combinations, hardly anticipated or discoverable by the rea.son of our wisest men, and there- fore the more evidently the work of God. DEVELOPMENT OF GOVERNMENT. 367 It cannot be claimed that executive power is yet per- fectly defined, nor its necessary limits all clearly known ; but a President of .the United States has only to violate the spirit of the Constitution, or intimate a disposition to tran- scend his legitimate prerogatives, to bring out with almost miraculous promptness and irresistible energy the remedies lying within the Constitution and the intelligent patriotism of the nation. The judiciary of the Kepublic arose partly out of the experience of the past and the records of history, but more out of the emergencies and legal necessities of a growing people. Very recent modifications show that its forms are deemed susceptible of improvement; but its vital functions are unimpaired. The extreme democratic tendencies of States, making judges elective directly by the people, and only for a term of years, is yet an experiment, and may be reversed. This measure has not been adopted by the General Government; and there is a feeling quite general among the people, that the judges of law ought to be lifted above the reach of party power and political campaigns. All this, with every other contingency, can be easily brought to obey the commands of experience and the will of the nation. Collisions between the different departments of the gov- ernment are known to be possible. Thus far, however, they have been very rare, and limited to opinions and asserted rights, without the perpetration of treason. Calmly and steadily the Government goes on, however great the strain upon the Constitution, and however imminent the perils from perverse judgment or sectional strife. The law-making power of the people represented in Con- gress may overstep the limits of Avell-defined powers, only, however, to be promptly checked by the Supreme Court. The Executive and Congress may reveal grave differences in principle and policy ; but both are responsible to the judiciary, and all, finally, to the people. So far, in the midst 3G8 THE GREAT REPCDLIC. of the severest tests ever entlured by any government, the Republic has shown itself capable of resisting its enemies from without, counteracting its dangerous tendencies from within, and coming out of every struggle with its principles better defined, and its effective power largely enhanced. There is, therefore, nothing in our history to indicate the probability of our overthrow, or the loss of our liberties, by the abuse of power. In the mean time, the period of development, so far as it has advanced, has witnes.sed the elimination of many of our political vices, especially those which tended to sectionalize our people and intensify personal hostility; and the founda- tions now appear of a broader, firmer unity than has ever before .seemed po.ssible. Our civil and political institutions are more perfectly assimilated ; our mutual responsibilities are better defined ; and from our great extremes. North and South, East and West, we are drawn more compactly together than at any former period of our history. Our increasing millions are becoming more homogeneous in spirit ; and the feeling of mutual dependence is stronger as events subject our intelligence and patriotism to severer tests. A STRONG GOVERNMENT. History not unfrequently reverses our judgments. The most natural suggestion of a free democracy was the largest possible liberty for the individual and for the local State: in other words, the concessions to the General Govern ment, it was determined, should be as few, and the reserva- tions as man}^, as po.ssible. It is not, therefore, matter of surprise, that at first the conceded prerogatives of the nation should be utterly inadequate, and that the questions of power which would inevitably arise would originate strong and even angry discussions. The old controversy between Federals and Democrats, and the protracted strug- gle between State and National right.s, were most natural. DEVELOPMENT OF GOVERNMENT. 369 and really inevitable. Boundaries so obscure as those be- tween civil and political jurisdictions must, of necessity, be contested : and, so far as a due degree of moderation was possible in the contest, it was not to be regretted ; for it must be conceded that distinctions are so difficult, and sacri- fices of private and local rights for the national good are so exacting upon human selfishness, and, moreover, that the danger of anarchy on the one hand, and despotism on the other, is so great, that long-continued, searching discussions, the severest analysis, such as can result from the collisions of stern intellects only, can bring out the exact truth which will stand the test of history, and render local and general government by the whole people practicable and harmo- nious. All this, we must freely acknowledge, was too criti- cal and perilous for the conduct of human wisdom; and yet the higher gratitude is inspired for the superhuman con- trol which has prevented our ruin, and gradually revealed and established the principles of our unity in harmony with our complete independence. “ And as, in every State, each town, while performing some of the functions of govern- ment- for itself, and possessing all the machinery which the performance of them required., looked to the State govern- ment for the performance of other functions, and cheerfully submitted to the curtailment of municipal authority, and the partial subordination which such relations towards the State required ; so was it only by the sacrifice of certain rights that the States could build up a central power strong enough to perform for them those indispensable acts of general gov- ernment which they could not perform for themselves.” * Just as certainly, therefore, as the plans of God required the establishment, on this continent, of a great, free, and in- dependent nation, so certainly must personal and State claims, inconsistent with this purpose, yield to the impera- tive demands of the General Government. But it was inevitable that the asserted prerogatives of the * Greene, p. 135. 47 370 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. subdivisions of our great territory sliould be bold and demon- strative. Falsely assuming that States were primary, and that the authority of the General Government was derived from the States, to justify the denial of any new claim of the nation, it was deemed sufficient to show that the States sev- erally had never made that concession. In the mean time, the General Government was cautious and paternal, moving forward slowly, and even timidly, wlien it might have assert- ed its rights peremptorily as the paramount law of the land. It was not from the States, hut from the people, that the Re- public derived its powers. Not a third of the future States had existence when the people, by the choice of presi- dential electors, and members of the House of Represen- tatives, formally assumed the government under the Consti- tution. While the House of Re p re.se ntative.s, without which government would, of course, he impossible, came directly from the people, the States, as such, were represented by the Senate. But the functions of senators were derived from the people, and they would be compelled to act as component parts of a popular government ; for the people, not as isolat- ed members of a State, but as American citizen.s, as freemen having rights in common with the whole American nation, which these senators would be bound to rc.«pect, would reach and control them. Congress would therefore make States, not be dependent upon and governed by them ; and when, in the last resort, it became necessary to test and forever settle the question of relative prerogative.**, the peo- ple, as Americans, would ri.se up, and put down all sectional assumptions as against the nation. It was neces.sary not only that this security of the Gov- ernment .should be in the original inherent and as.serted rights of its citizens, regardless of state, county, city, and town boundaries, but gradually the forms of constitutional and statute law must be adjusted to this high necessity, so that disorders might be suppressed, or rebellion put down, in accordance with the highest dignity and demands of pub- DEVELOPMENT OP GOVEKNMENT. 371 lie order. lienee the Constitution expressly cleelares Con- gress shall have power “ to deelare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make rules eoneerning eaptures on land and water ; to raise and support armies ; to provide and maintain a navy; to make rules for the government and reg- nlation of the land and naval forces ; to provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the Union, suppress insurrections, and repel invasions ; to provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining the militia ; ” finally, “ to make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any department or office thereof” These are fundamental provisions for a strong govern- ment ; but the actual strength of the government will de- pend upon the legislation under this constitution, and the administration of the laws it enacts. Now, the history of Congress shows the caution to which we have already re- ferred ; and when the fears of the people were roused, and a central despotism began to be dreaded, amendments were adopted which would secure the people their just rights against all usurpation : and Congress joined with the sev- eral States, to say, in effect, that no form of religion should be established by law; the freedom of speech and the press, and the right of petition, should not be abridged ; the peo- ple should have a right to bear arms ; the houses of citizens should not be invaded by quartering soldiers upon them in times of peace, nor, in war, contrary to law. Amendments were adopted to guarantee the people against unreasonable search; to secure the rights cf justice through a grand jury, and of trial by a jury of their countrymen ; to forbid that they should bo deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law ; and to save them from excessive bail, fines, and cruel and unreasonable punishment. The rights enumerated should “not be construed to deny or dispar- age others retained by the people;” and it was said ex- THE GREAT REPUBLIC. pressly, that “the powers not delegated to the United State.s by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to tlie States respective!}-, or to the people.” Lot it thus be observed, that with the highest sense of justice, and with the utmost paternal care, the Government of the United States guards the rights of the people. Hut let it also be observed, that it does this in such a manner as to reserve and strengthen the central power required to vin- dicate those rights, and .secure the integrity of the nation in- violate. For instance, the right of the people to bear arms still left the Articles intact conceding to Congress the control of tlie militia, and making “ the President cominander-in- chief of the army and navy of the United States, and of the militia of the several States when called into actual service of the United States.” The re.scrved rights not to be in- fringed were those “ retained by the people ; ” and, what all fair construction must allow to be completely destructive of the absurd doctrine of State sovereignty as ag.iinst the Gen- eral Government, the Tenth Article of Amendments speaks of “ powers not delegated to the United States by the Consti- tution, nor prohibited by it (the Constitution) to the States ; ” or, in other words, the powers not necessary for the full and vigorous exercise of the General Government “ are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” But the sover- eignty was in the Constitution, and the General Government the judge. Fully to sustain the argument of this chapter, to show that this permanent sovereignty of the nation was derived from the people, and not from the States, we have only to refer to the preamble of the Constitution, — “ We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.” “ The people ” ordain the Constitution : the Constitution, with its necessary and ample provisions for DEVELOPMENT OF GOVERNMENT. 373 amendments, is the definition of the powers delegated to the United States by the people, and of the acts which the States are not permitted to do. All other powers “ are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” In the light of these amendments, the prohibition of all State acts, and the exerci.se of all powers which conld in any wise interfere with the permanent sovereignty of the nation, becomes very evident. Article I., section 10, reads, “ No State shall enter into any treaty, alliance, or confederation; grant letters of marque and reprisal ; coin money ; emit bills of credit ; make any thing but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts ; pass any bill of attainder, ex post facto law, or law impairing the obligations of contracts ; or grant any title of nobility. “ No State shall, without the consent of the Congress, lay any imposts or duties on imports or exports, except what may be absolutely necessary for executing its inspection- laws; and the net produce of -all duties and imposts laid by any State on imports or exports shall be for the use of the treasury of the United States ; and all such laws shall be subject to the revision and control of the Congress. “ No State shall, without consent of Congress, lay any duty of tonnage, keep troops or ships of war in time of peace, enter into any agreement or compact wuth another State or with a foreign power, or engage in war, unless actually invaded, or in such imminent danger as will not admit of delay.” How utterly incompatible all this is with every act of secession, and all such assumptions of “ State rights” as have been relied upon to justify treason, all who can read or understand must know. One thing more. “ The writ of habeas corpus ” is a very sacred privilege; but the founders of our government fore- saw that contingencies might arise in which this privilege would seriously interfere with the administration of justice or the prompt suppression of rebellion. The Constitution 374 THE GUEAT REPUnLIC. therefore provided that “the privilege of the writ of habeas corjms shall not be suspended, unless when, in cases of rebel- lion or invasion, the public safety may require it.” Then, of course, it may and ought to be suspended. Let the provisions for an effective government now be care- fully summed up as follows : The people as a nation are an organic unit. They are so, not by the loss of their individu- ality or personal rights, but by the maintenance of them. They have made their own government, and are plea.sed with it. They have thrown around it such guards, and so imbued it with their own life, that no man, nor number of men, can by any possibility destroy it, unless by actual force. It is invested, therefore, with the strength of all our growing mil- lions, acting under control of common principles and one common life. In its fullest expre.ssion, this is the will of God as manifested in the mental constitution and fortified by rev- elation, — the free responsible action of the human soul. ‘‘With Christianity came individual rights as the necessary consequence of individual responsibilities; the right of decid- ing and acting for self in civil society, as a nece.ssary con.se- quence of the obligation to answer for self at the bar of God.”* How these freemen have considered it proper to use this right, we have seen ; and a grand consolidated Re- public rises up before us as the result. It is now more distinctly understood than heretofore that our government must be strong as well as free. Our ex- tended domain, and still more extended commercial and dip- lomatic relation.s, suggest it, and the ambition of sectional leaders demonstrates it. The government of the United IStates is strong in the freedom, the affections, the union, the moral power, of its people : hence it Is, that, when the exi- gencies of the nation demand it, immense armies, sustained by inexhaustible re.sources of wealth, intelligence, and vir- tue, can be commanded with unprecedented promptne.ss, and concentrated in unparalleled energy. If the people • find * Greene, p. 109. DEVELOPMENT OE GOVEKNMENT. 375 obstructions in their way, they remove them. If usurpers attempt to destroy their national unity, they crush them ac- cording to due forms of law. When enemies become peni tent and harmless, the sovereign people are magnanimous. This is what we mean by a strong government. When all citizens, in time of danger, are soldiers and patriots by in- stinct, and the government is invested with ftill power to command them at discretion, and the reign of God over the career and destiny of the Republic is the most sacred faith of the people, we may well adopt the words at the beginning of this chapter: “A true democracy has at last established itself, that not only develops an intenser centralization than despotism ever boasted, but that develops and also vindicates it by a completer freedom than could ever before be permit- ted.” On the fourth day of July, 1776, the grandest fact in history was the Declaration of American Independence. Less than a hundred years have passed; and the exclamation, “ I am an American citizen,” has become the proudest claim and surest guaranty possible to a human being. CHAPTER IV. DEVELOPMENT OF INTERNAL RESOURCES. " The more a man is versed in business, tlie more he finds tlie hand of Providence everywhere.” — Chatham. The field to be surveyed in this chapter is very large. The facts condensed from a great variety of sources are of the greatest importance to the American people, and fundamental to our argument. The materials are*ample for a volume ; but tho.se which properly belong to this historical discussion may be brought within the compass of a few pages. It is not material from which census of American products we gather our figures. The decade now passing, and ending with 1870, will furnish many startling facts, showing the growth of the country during the great w'ar of emancipa- tion, which will increase the scope of the argument, bringing out the plans and acts of God in the great American system. We have, howeyer, now before us more than we are likely to comprehend or appreciate. PRODCCTS OF THE SOIL. The soil is the first grand source of American wealth. Farming is the most natural and most important occupation of large numbers of our people. The census of I860 show’s, that, out of 8,217,000, more than 3,000,000 w’ere engaged in this department of industry. The proportion exceeds one-third of all heads of families and others laboring for themselves. In the year above named, there were improved DEVELOPMENT OF INTERNAL RESOURCES. 377 lands, 116,110,720 acres; lands enclosed, but not improved, 244,101,818 acres; outside lands, a large proportion tillable, 1,466,969,862 acres. The farms of the Republic in 1850 were estimated at $3,271,575,000; in 1860, $6,645,045,000, — an increase of a hundred and three per cent in ten years. It cannot be claimed that agriculture has reached any thing like perfection in the United States. The farms are so large, so many productions are so nearly spontaneous, and the lands, with even negligent cultivation, produce so abundantly, and withal the price of labor is so high, that the people generally lack the stimulus felt in England to make the most of every foot of ground. Enough progress, it is true, has been made in agricultural chemistry, and the use of fertilizers, to show that American lands respond to the various modes of scientific farming as generously as the most highly-cultivated lands of Europe, and to show that the capabilities of the soil are practically without limits. But our productions, notwithstanding our negligence in cultivation, and waste in harvesting, are actually enormous. The following tables show the produce of 1860: — Wheat, bushels, 173,104,924 Indian Corn, ,, 838,792,740 Oats, ,, 172,643,185 Bailey, ,, 15,825,898 Buckwheat, „ 15,571,818 Pease and Beans, ,, 15,061,995 Rye, 21,101,380 Potatoes, ,, 111,148,867 Sweet Potatoes, „ 42,095,026 Clover-seed, ,, 956,188 Grass-seed, ,, 900,040 Flax-seed, ,, 566,867 Wine, gallons. 1,627,242 Cane Molasses, ,, 15,000,000 Maple „ 1,597,000 Sorghum ,, ,, 6,749,123 Wool, pounds. 60,264,913 48 378 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. Buttor, poaadfl, . . 400,000,000 Choose, ,, . 103,003,927 Hops, ,, • . 10,991,990 Flax, ,, 4,720,145 Tobacco, ,, . 434.209,401 Rico, ,, . 187,107,032 Ginned Cotton, ,, .2,104,090,500 Silk Cocoon, ,, 11,944 Maple-sugar, ,, . 40,120,205 Cano • ,, . . 230,982,000 Honey, ,, . 23,300,357 Beeswax, ,, 1,322,787 II.ny, tons, . 19.0S8.896 Hemp, ,, 74,493 Orchard Produce, value, dollars. . 20,000,000 Market ,, ,, . 10,159,498 Animals slaughtered, ,, . 213,018,092 Home-made Manufactures, ,, . 24,540,870 It ought to be stated that the most rapid increase of products from the soil is in our great North-west. Take a few liicts in illustration of this unparalleled growth. Grain and dour were shipped from Milwaukie, Wis., as follows : — Tear. 1841 Duthels. 4,000 1845 . 143,200 1850 . 820,033 1852 . . 1,772,753 1855 . . 3,758,900 1800 .• . 9,995,000 1802 . . 18.712.380 Shipments eastward from Michigan ports, chiedy from Chicago : — Yeor. 1858 . BuhIk-Ii. . 27.879.293 1859 . . 25,829,753 1800 . . 43,211.448 1801 . . 09,489,113 1802 . . 78,214.075 1803 . . 74,710,004 DEVELOrMENT OF IKTEENAL RESOURCES. 379 “ The production of grain in the North-western States of America is estimated to have increased from 218,463,583 bushels in 1840 to 642,120,366 bushels in 1860. The eight food-producing States west of the Lakes embrace an area of 262,549,000 acres, of which only 52,000,000 acres were under cultivation in 1860. Having regard to the rapid progress of cultivation, and the immense extent of territory remaining to be tilled, I think it is not to be questioned that there is ample room and scope for increased production; in fact, I look upon the exportation of grain from these States as only to be limited by want of facilities for transporta- tion.” * California, so recently considered valuable only for its extensive gold-fields, now raises large quantities of grain in excess of the wants of her population. “ In 1861, the export of wheat from San Francisco amounted to 2,379,617 bushels, valued at |2,550,820 ; and the export of flour to 186,455 barrels, valued at $1,001,894. In 1863, California is esti- mated to have produced 11,664,000 bushels of wheat, and 5,293,000 bushels of barley.” In 1866, large numbers on the Atlantic slope received their bread for months from the vast and splendid ranches of California, where an average of forty bushels of wheat to the acre is not at all unusual. In cereals, vegetables, and fruit, the productions of this State are unrivalled, and almost incredible. California is one of the greatest grazing countries in the world. Its foot-hills and mountains are covered with wild oats, which furnish a very rich food for cattle, horses, and sheep. On the coast, and far back into the interior, the various grains and grasses cure on the stalk ; and the cattle grow fat on them during the long drought of the summer. The cattle-ranches take in thousands of acres each, on the mountains, of such land as would be of no value in the East ; while the vast old Spanish ranches, leagues in extent, * RcBOurces and Prospects of America, by Sir Morton Peto, ]>p. 50-58. 380 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. cover the valleys, aud are occupied by thou.sands of sheep and cattle, under the care of “herders,” who stay with them constantly. In 18C3, there were 3,000,000 sheep in Cali- fornia, since which the flocks have increased immensely. The number of horses in this State advanced in ten years from ‘27,719 to 100,610. Cattle have increased in propor- tion ; and in every cla.ss of domestic animals are included some of the best-blooded stock iu the world. In the United States, in 1800, we numbered 87,000,483 aseful live animals, estimated at $1,089,329,915. Our immense grazing-fields are therefore easily converted into wealth, in the form of wool, hides, butter, cheese, &c. This resource of the United States is capable of indefinite increase. Our va.st surplus of Indian corn is easily converted into ready money by fattening our herds of swine. E.xact esti- mates here are difficult; but it is approximately true to say, that, in {he year of the hv 3,224 $92,910 Massacimsetts . 25,000 13,700 403,000 Connecticut . 20,700 11,000 379,500 New Vork . 170,375 03,145 1,385,208 Pennsylvania . . 1,700,476 553,500 11,427,379 New Jersey 57,800 29,048 574,820 Maryland . 79,200 30,500 739,000 Ohio . 228,794 94,047 2,327.201 Indiana . 375 9.375 Michigan 17,900 10,400 291,400 Wisconsin 4,500 2,000 40,000 Missouri -. 42,000 22,000 575,000 Kentucky . 73,000 23,302 531,104 Virginia . 23,217 9,090 251,173 Tennessee . 53,220 18,417 457,000 Total . . 2,514,282 884,474 $19,487,790 Product in 1850 13.491.898 Difference (41.4 ix>r cent) . . $5,995,892 Look at these figures. Here are 884,474 tons of pig-iron prepared in a single year, worth $19,487,790. Contrasted with the year 1850, it is an advance of nearly $0,000,000. “ Bar and other rolled iron amounted to 400,298 tons, of the value of $22,248,790; an increase of 39.5 percent over the united products of the rolling mills and forges, which, in 1850, were of the value of $15,938,780. This large production of over one and a quarter million of tons of iron, equivalent to ninety-two pounds for each inhabitant, speaks volumes for the progress of the nation in all its industrial and material interests. The manufacture of iron holds relations of the most beneficial character to a wide circle of important inter- ests, intimately affecting the entire population. The proprie- tors and miners of ore, coal, and limestone lands ; the owners and improvers of woodlands, of railroads, canals, steamboats. DEVELOPMENT OF INTERNAL RESOURCES. 401 ships, oncl of every other form of transportation; the pro- ducers of food, clothing, and other supplies; in addition to thousands of -workmen, merchants, and capitalists, and their fiimilics, — have directly participated in the benefits resulting from this great industry. It has supplied the material for an immense number of founderies, and for thousands of blacksmiths, machinists, millwrights, and manufacturers of nails, hardware, cutlery, edged tools, and other workers in metals, whose products are of immense aggregate value, and of the first necessity. The production of so large a quantity of iron, and particularly of bar-iron, and the demand for additional quantities from abroad, tell of the progress of the country in civil and naval architecture and all the engineering arts; of the construction of railroads and telegraphs, which have spread like a net over the whole country; of steam engines and locomotives; of spinning, weaving, wood and metal working, milling, mining, and other machinery ; and of all the multiform instruments of science, agriculture, and the arts, both of peace and of war; of the manufacture of every conceivable article of convenience or luxury of the household, the field, or the factory.” The aggre- gate statistics of iron exhibit the extent to which the general condition of the people has been improved by this great agent of civilization during the ten years embraced in this retrospect. “The materials for the manufacture of iron-ore, coal, and other fuel, water-power, &c., are so diffused, abundant, and cheap, that entire independence of foreign supplies appears to be alike desirable and attainable at no distant period;” practicable, we may add, at any time determined by the convenience or political economy of the American people. Technical chemistry is just beginning to reveal its power to enhance the wealth and comfort of our people. Its prod- ucts in 1850, exclusive of white lead, ochres, paints, var- nish, glue, perfumes, cements, pot and pearl ashes, &c., amounted to nearly $5,000,000 ; since Avhich time, this practical science has made rapid advances. ol 402 TUE GREAT REPUBLIC, Gas manufactured for illumination and other purposes amounted, in a single year, to 5,000,000,000 cubic feet, worth about $13,000,000. Salt was manufactured in 1800 as follows : — Stato. UualicU. Value. ^lassacliusctts 30,900 7,874 Now York 7,521,335 1,289,511 PeimsylvaniJ 004,300 154,204 Ohio . 1,744,240 270,879 Virginia 2,050,513 478,084 Kentucky 09,005 21,190 Tc.\as . . 120,000 29,800 Culiforuia 44,000 7,100 Total . . 12,190,953 $2,205,302 In 1850, we employed 340 establishments in the manufac- ture of Siilt, producing $2,177,945 in value of this article, indispeiLsable for culinary and other purposes. These created supplies are all marvellous, and equally so are the exact adjustments of our developing resources to the wants of our growing population. Well does Mr. Ken- nedy speak of that beneficent law of compensation which pervades the economy of Nature, and, when one provision fails for her children, opens to them another in the exhaust- less storehou.<5e of her material resources, or leads out their mental energies upon new paths of discovery for the supply of their own wants. Thus, when mankind was about to emerge from the simplicity of the primitive and pastoral ages, the more soft and friable metals no longer sudiced for the artiticer; and veins of iron-ore revealed their wealth and use in the supply of his more artificial wants, and became potent agents of his future progre.ss. IVhen the elaboration of the metals and other igneous arts were fast sweeping the forests from the earth, the exhaustless treasures of fossil-fuel, stored for his future use, were disclosed to man ; and, when the artificial sources of oil seemed about to fail, a substitute DEVELOPMENT OP INTERNAL RESOURCES. 403 was discovered, flowing in almost perennial fountains from the depths of these same carboniferous strata.” Now, let the reader pause, and inquire, “Whence are all these wonderful adaptations, these various elements of national prosperity? Who formed this continent Avith.a variety so vast, and materials so rich for the development of a great population ? ” God, let us reverently answer, formed the land, with its immense agricultural resources. He made the silver and the gold. Ilis are the cattle upon a thousand hills. It would seem that no man could be so much an atheist as to deny to Omnipotent Power the glory of this splendid creation. Just as unworthy of us would be the denial of his omniscient wisdom in the exact adjustment of so tine a portion of a large continent to the purposes of a great free people ; in the wide and improbable combina- tions which brought our ancestors here, and gave them the energy to grapple with the formidable difficulties of a new country, conquer their liberties, and then turn themselves so promptly and vigorously to the avocations of peaceful industry; in the inspirations of genius, seen in their inven- tions, the growth of inquiry, with population leading to a * system of railroads, telegraphs, and internal commerce, so vast as to outrun the calculations of enthusiasts, and bewil- ♦ der the political economists of other nations. Who but God could have foreseen the gathering of these thirty-four mil- lions here in an era so momentous in the history of the race, and provided for it ? made them the representatives of principles so vital to the civilization of the world, and imbued them with the spirit and energy, the high moral qualities, necessary to defend and develop them ? drawn attention, at the right time, to the concealed treas- ures of a continent, and produced the business energy to develop them? We know absolutely that such wisdom and power, such combinations and achievements, are not the prerogatives of mere man. With what gratitude, there- fore, should we ascribe them to Him whose are “ the king- 404 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. dom and the power and the glory for ever” ! How thankfully should we acknowledge the Providence which ha.s infused into the minds of so large a number of this great nation the spirit of true Christian enterprise and Protestant liberty, and given to the purest forms of Christianity in the world the disposal of all these immense resources ! Surely the infidelity which would refuse here to acknowledge and reverence the Infinite Being would be most impious, and deserving of signal retribution. CHAPTER V. DEVELOPMENT OF COMMERCE. “The consequences will be favorable to all Cbristcndom, to Europe, to the whole W'OrlJ.” — OXENSTIERN. The commerce of this country has great providential advantages. Our extended coast-line includes innumerable bays, river-entrances, and harbors, so that the shipping of the world can reach our Atlantic and Pacific States with the greatest convenience. External commerce seems thus to have been indicated by the Creator of this continent upon a scale of greatness corresponding with the purpose of estab- lishing here a large and prosperous nation. God' makes only what he wmnts. The exercise of his creative power might therefore be studied, with the reasonable hope of ascertaining, to a great extent, the plans of his providence True, his .acts are largely prospective. For ages, the pur- poses of his special creations may remain unavailable and unappreciated : they are, however, thus the stronger evi- dences of his omniscient control. As the exigencies of a nation arise, the urgent demands of progressive civilization appear. How instructive and inspiring to find that they have been all anticipated by the foresight of the great Creator; that lie whose wisdom is infinite, even in the original formation of a continent, provided amply, and in the most minute detail, for every emergency of the coming ages ! This must be God. No finite power or wisdom could possibly produce such results; and surely nothing could be more grateful to the intelligent mind than the recognition of this most important fact. 105 406 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. VALUE OF EXPORTS. It is not much more than two centuries since our exports wore a small quantity of furs, sassafras, clapboard.s, and wainscoting, and a little corn and tobacco ; hardly enough to deserve a name in the commerce of the world, and yet enough, as we have seen, to rouse the jealousy of England, and secure arbitrary requisitions on the trade of the colonists for the support of the crown. The following figures will indicate, imperfectly however, the development of the country in the materials of trade. P'rom 1847 to 1800, our exports were as follows: — From Tlic sea. . The forest .\griculturo Tobacco . Cotton Manufactures Raw produce Specie and bullion Products of IM7. ISM. $:3, 408,033 S‘2,8'24,818 5.99(i,073 7,442,503 68,450,383 20,547,158 7,242,080 9,951,023 53,415,848 112,315,317 10,470,345 20,136,907 1,520,076 1,437,080 02,020 18,009,580 1855. ISflO. S3.510.894 $4,150,480 12,003,837 13,738.559 42.507,470 48.451.894 14,712,408 15,900,547 88,143,844 191,800,555 28,833,299 39,803,080 2,373,317 2,279,308 53,957.418 50,940,851 I The increase in national resources and wealth is thus shown to be constant and very rapid. The di.‘tcovery and development of the gold-mines in California serve largely to explain a remarkable advance in our exports for the year 1851. They rose from $151,000,000 to $218,000,000. In 1862, we supplied foreign countries with American products as follows : — Great Britain . France . British North America Hamburg and Bremen Spanish West Indies British West Indies China and Japan Brazil . $105,898,554 . 20,014,181 . 18,052,012 . 12,072,040 . 10,620,042 . 0,928,527 . 4,328,500 . 2,748,249 DEVELOPMENT OF COMMERCE. 407 Britisli East Indies and Australia . $3,520,663 Holland and her Possessions . . 8,237,022 Belgium .... Ilayti and St. Domingo . . 3,088,108 New Granada and Venezuela . . 2,968,871 British Possessions in the Mediterranean . 1,859,460 IMexico ..... Italy ..... . 1,560,361 Chili ..... . 1,010,051 Denmark and Danish West Indies . 1,007,667 Liberia and Ports in Africa 994,112 Spain and Canary Islands 990,449 Buenos Ayres and Argentine Republic . . 974,279 French West-India Colonies 924,515 Portugal and her Colonies 708,029 Peru . . . . . 571,652 Sandwich Islands . 496,983 Turkey ..... 444,397 Uruguay .... 290,259 Russia ..... 153,471 Central America 115,640 Pacific Islands 100,414 Sweden and Norway 78,773 Austria .... 35,615 Total $213,069,519 When we consider the facts brought forward in this chap- ter showing the resources of the American Republic, we are impressed with the conviction, that we have but just fairly entered upon our great career of commercial pros- perity. The increase of our population, and the consequent demands for home consumption, can in no way keep pace with the rapid development of our agricultural, mineral, and mechanical resources. It is fair to conclude, that, as the rate of increase in exports has been thus far largely in advance of population, our exports are to advance with our increase of industrial citizens and the consequent increased develop- ment of our resources. To e.stimate the future, the relations of submarine telegraphy and steam navigation to commerce must be carefully considered. 408 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. IMPORTS AND EXPORTS. The laws of cxcliango mii.st, of course, extend to distant continents and islands, and tend strongly to make neighbor- hood of nations. In our growing civilization, we must want articles produced or manufactured by other people, and they must want the productions of our land and industry. Equi- table exchange of commodities would hence become desirable. This is the great function of external commerce. But even a superficial view of such a country as ours would suggest the superabundance of the necessary means of life and hap- piness, and abundance of many of the luxuries of life, from our own soil and mines and handicraft; and that, though the doctrines of “ fi’ce trade ” were to become the law of the land, the balance of trade” ought to be largely in our favor. And so it unquestionably would be, were it not for the grow- ing follies and prodigality of our people. Preference for foreign over American fabrics and wares of equal and even superior value, and the extravagance of flishions dictated in a foreign capital, discourage home inanuflictures, and run up a heavy account against us in European markets. A protec- tive tariff, however high, has thus far shown but little power .to combat these American vices, and make up the losses they produce. Our policy in this respect has not been suf- ficiently settled and steady to determine historically the results of protection as compared with free trade. The following table will be valuable to our reader.s, as it will show the amount of our foreign trade for some seven- teen years, and the proportion of imports and exports for the same time : — Years. Imports. Exports. 1844 $108,435,035 $111,200,040 1845 117,254,504 114,040,000 184G 121,091,797 113,488,510 1847 140,545,038 158,048,022 1848 154,998,928 154,032,131 DEVELOPMENT OF COMMEECE. 409 Years. Imports. Exports. 1849 $147,851,439 $145,755,820 1850 178,138,318 151,898,720 1851 216,224,932 218,381,011 1852 212,945,442 209,658,306 1853 167,978,647 230,970,157 1854 304,562,381 278,241,064 1855 261,468,520 275,150,840 1856 314,039,942 320,904,908 1857 300,890,141 362,960,682 1€58 282,013,150 324,044,421 1859 3.38,705,130 350,789,462 1860 362,163,941 400,122,296 It thus appears that our trade with foreign nations ad- vanced steadily on the whole, and very nearly quadrupled, during this growing period of our history ; reaching in a single year the enormous sum of ^762,286,237, and showing a balance in our favor of $37,958,355. Our exports from the products of agriculture are rapidly increasing. They reached, in 1861, $101,655,000 ; and in 1862, $124,561,000. This indicates the future commercial greatness of our favored country. The youngest of the great nations, we have already outstripped all but one. Great Britain alone exceeds us. . During the late war, the fluctuation in the value of gold rendered it difficult to estimate the commerce of the coun- try. It is, however, very creditable to our people, that in 1865 they imported only $234,000,000, saving $128,000,- 000 as compared with 1860. At the close of the war, trade rose again very rapidly: so that, during the fiscal year ending June 30,1866, our exports (specie value) amounted to the unprecedented sum of $415,065,459, and our imports (specie value) to $423,975,036 ; declared value, $437,640,354. The same year we received customs-duties, $179,046,651; being forty-one per. cent of the total imports. It thus ap- pears that a protective tariff is convenient as a method of adjusting our balance-sheet in trade with nations abroad. 62 410 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. INTERNAL COMMERCE. Only a limited view of our commercial activity can be obtained from the estimates of our foreign trade. Vast as this is, it is very greatly exceeded by the tralfic among ourselves. The immense extent and variety of our country, with an in- dustrious, enterprising population, amounting in the aggre- gate to 34,005,882 souls, must produce an internal trade of very great magnitude. ■ Mr. W. E. Baxter, member of the British Parliament, in his book on America say.s, “It is astoni.shing to observe the vast quantities of produce in course of transit throughout the country. Huge steamboats on the Mississippi and the Ala- bama are loaded to the water’s edge with bales of cotton. Tliosc on the Ohio are burdened with barrels of pork, and thousands of hams. Propellers on the lakes are fdled with the finest wheat from Wi.sconsin and Michigan. Canal-boats in New York and Pennsylvania are deeply laden with Hour. Railroad-wagons are filled with merchandise, and locomo- tives struggle in the Western wilds to drag trains richly freigh.ted with the productions of every country under the sun. The United States reminded- me, sometimes, of a great ant-hill, where every member of the community is cither busy carrying a burden along a beaten pathway, or hasten- ing away in search of new stores to increase the national prosperity.” In 1860, our internal sail tonnage and our enrolled and licensed tonnage reached nearly 3,000,000 ton.s. “Such an amount of tonnage shows an immense internal traffic. If we multiply it by ten, we shall not get at more than the average result of the deliveries of goods by American ves- sels employed in navigation of limited duration and ex- tent.” * This estimate makes our internal trade between our States and Territories, east and west, north and south, about equal to that of Great Britain with all her province.s. Sir Morton Peto’s Resources of America, p. 224, et $eq. DEVELOPMENT OP COMMERCE. 411 It must be ob.served that our means of carrying commodi- ties for trade among ourselves are very inadequate. The business enlarges so rapidly as to make it apparently impos- sible to reach the demand by the utmost capacity of our vessels, cars, and wagons. Wind and steam and horse- power are all in requisition to carry westward “ groceries, including sugar and salt, dry-goods, hardwares, empty bar- rels, machinery and castings, soda, pearl and pot ash, earthern- ware, boots, shoes and hats, copper, tin and lead, drugs, medi- cines, and dies, furniture and oil-cloth, crockery, green and dried fruits, rolled iron, hemp and cordage, brown sheeting and bagging, marble, cement, lime and plaster, paper, rags, and stationery, oysters, nails and spikes, salted meats and fish, tobacco and cigars, and carriages and wagons ; ” and eastward, “ agricultural products, cotton, corn, flour, seeds, live stock, butter, cheese, and eggs, poultry, pork, beef, and other meats (both fresh and salted), lard and tallow, ma- nure, lumber, malt, petroleum, hides, lead, raw tobacco, and wool and woollen yarn.” There is, moreover, an immense trade in staves, of which there were brought into Buffalo alone, in 1862, 30,500,000, and lumber amounting to 125,- 000,000 feet. Ores shipped on Lake Superior the same year were worth $4,000,000. “The imports of lake fish at Buffalo, in 1860, amounted to 26,655 barrels.” Enterprise is straining every nerve to provide for this internal carrying- trade. From 1850 to 1860, Ohio, Indiana. Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin extended their railroads from 1,275 miles to nearly 10,000 miles ; adding more than 8,000 miles in ten years. Corresponding increase is seen in all directions ; and yet our thoroughfares are literally choked with freight, the product of American lands, ingenuity, and industry. A glance at the California trade, via Panama, Avill help the reader to an idea of what is going on in this country ; and yet it may be considered impossible fully to grasp and comprehend it. We have been at work in earnest on the Pacific coast, only since 1849 ; and more than a thousand 412 THE GREAT KErUBLIC. vessels annually enter and elear at the port of San Francisco. The trade with China, Japan, Europe, and the islands of the Pacific, is growing to large proportions; hut the princi[»al business is with the old States. The travel and traii'^por- tation over the Isthmus of Panama, in the year ending 30th of September, 18G2, may be seen in the following figures : — Passengers towards the Pacific, CJoId Silver Jewelry .Vmcriean mails EngliJi mails Extra baggage Freight by weight Freight by measure 21.45G S4, 444,208 S578.0C2 232,880 lbs. 35,505 ,, 345,547 54,758,378 ,. 737,084 ft Towards Atlantic, 0,700 „ $34,005,407 „ 14,280,035 31.C04 lbs. 10,127 „ 217,001 „ 20,001,001 „ 32,270 ft. A eareful study of this table will show that the pa.s.sengers chiefly go from the Atlantic to the Pacific; while the gold and silver, in much the largest quantities, move from the Pacific to the Atlantic coast. Returns from Panama show that tran.sactions between the Pacific coast and other parts of the United States, in 18G2, amounted to .$40,000,000. Of course, the war has interfered with the current of trade ; but it has opened up new sources of wealth, and stimulated the busine.ss energy of the people. As the country south returns to its industrial pursuits, and the equilibrium of gov- ernment is restored, the free action of trade will show a large advance beyond the figures we have submitted. There will, however, be no change in the argument. I repeat, it is not material from what particular period our facts are taken; for the data above are so large as to baflle our com- prehension. The inevitable increase of the future can hardly add to the strength of our convictions. Already, and every- where, the provisions for a va.st population, and the devel- opment of a great Christian civilization, rise immeasurably above all finite power, and reveal the plans and acts of God in the constitution and moral purposes of this new creation. DEVELOPMENT OF COMMERCE. ^13 SHIPPING. It is an obvious suggestion, that a commerce so vast must require a large amount of shipping. The following facts will show this interest as it was in American hands before the civil war : The estimate given in the last census shows that our tonnage, at the end of the fiscal year 1851, was 3,772,439 tons. If to this we add the tonnage since built, and officially reported as 3,589,200 tons, it will show a total of 7,361,039 tons. But our loss in ten years, by decay, wreck, and other causes, was 1,821,827 ; leaving, as actually reported June 30, 1861, 5,539,812 tons. Of this amount, “ the State of New York owned 1,740,940 tons, or nearly thirty per cent of the whole. During the same fiscal year, the tonnage built was 233,194 tons ; of which New York built 40,359 tons, or nearly twenty per cent.” Maine took the lead as a ship-building State ; New York was the second; Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and other States, followed. The immense value of this large property in tonnage owned by our people in 1861, both as a source of temporary profit to the owners and as an active means of extending abroad and at home the commerce and manufactures of the country, can scarcely be over-estimated. Assuming the aver- age value per ton at forty dollars, the worth of this ton- nage may be stated at $221,592,480. “ The superior capacity and very fine character of the American merchant-ships will be appreciated by all who remember the beautiful class of sailing-vessels which were formerly on the New-York and Liverpool stations as what w’ore called liners. Those vessels were the very best ves- sels of their class, and they no doubt acquired wide celebrity for American shipping.” “The fame of these celebrated vessels has enabled the Americans not only to possess them- selves of the largest proportion of the emigration-trade, but also to lay on lines of packets between Havre, Marseilles, Hamburg, Rio de Janeiro, Bahia, Panama, the West Indies, 414 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. and various parts both of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.” This coinpliuient from an intelligent Englishman (Sir Morton Peto), fine as it is, only partly indicates the facts as they were, and may yet he again under a wise and paternal ' policy upon the part of the government. It i.s, however, matter of profound regret that the cour."e of certain Englishmen and the British Government made our valuable merehant-marine the prey of pirates under the rebel flag, and nearly swept American vessels from the seas. The cfl'ect has been a severe depression of the business of ship-building, and the transfer of a vast proportion of the American carrying- trade to English bottoms. The high prices of materials and labor, and the taxation resulting from the war, render it impossible for the American ship- builders and merchants to reclaim these lucrative occupa- tions, and restore our commerce to its legitimate channels. The solution of this problem is yet to come from the fruitful resources of the American mind. The business of the United States upon the ocean, large as it has been, is destined to extend itself to such propor- tions as to place the Great Republic, at no distant day, at the head of commercial nations. Her merchant-marine, under the direction of .sound political economy and the protection of her powerful navy, is destined to be still more in the future than in the past the admiration of the world. I CHAPTER VI. DEVELOPMENT OF THE WAR-POWER. “ I was born among tho hardy sons of the ocean, and I cannot so doubt their courage or their skill. If Great Britain ever obtains possession of our present little navy, it will be at the expense of the best blood of the country, and after a struggle which will call for more of her strength than she has ever found necessary for a European enemy.” — Sto.uy. War. is a great evil, a crime, indeed, when it assumes the form of aggression upon the rights or safety of a nation ; but force in defence of the right against force in the wrong is an absolute necessity and a high moral right. In watch- ing the progress of a country, it is therefore indispensable to mark the development of its power to defend itself and enforce its just demands. The war of 1812 sufficiently tested this question. It was to be expected that the wars of Napoleon with England and nearly the whole of Europe would, in some way, involve the United States. Our commercial relations were extensive; and the “ orders in council ” of Great Britain, and the famous Berlin, Milan, and Bayonne decrees by Napoleon, mutually retaliatory, and designed to cripple each other, had the effect of despotic assaults upon the international rights of neutrals, and were exceedingly dis- astrous to the commerce of the United States. The em- bargo, the non-intercourse and non-importation acts of Con- gress, were intended for self-defence; but the tendency of the whole was to compel the Republic to choose between tho two great belligerents, or to come into collision with both. The Republicans, under the lead of Jefferson, were exceed- ingly hostile to England, but inclined to hivor France. The .415 41G THE GREAT REPUBLIC. Federalists were opposed to war, especially with England. The election of Madison to the high office of President was a triumph of the Republican, or new Democratic party, and a precursor of war. The judgment of Mr. Madi.son wjis against it ; but intlucnced, it was alleged, by the hope of a second term, he was carried foward by the current, and be- came gravely rc.sponsible for the final decision. SELF-RESPECT OF THE NATION. No sovereign power can with safety allow the violation of its fiag. The redress may not be in open hostilities; prudence may require delays : but remonstrance and ener- getic protests at least should show that the governineut understands its rights, and will protect its citizen.'i. Our merchantmen, denied the freedom of the ocean, for- bidden on the one hand to carry English goods to any European port, and, on the other, to carry goods of any description which had not been examined in England, were sure to be victimized by the French or the English. The British insisted on the right of forcible search for articles contraband of war; which was, of course, a high indignity to free Americans upon the seas. Under pretence of some violation of “ orders in council,” — which orders America held to be in violation of international law, and therefore not binding, — our merchantmen were seized, and the rights of property sacrificed. The true remedy wa.**, no doubt, a very difficult question. The United States could not venture, unprepared, to declare war ; and the contest between parties rendered any decision doubtful in policy at home and in effect abroad. The expe- dient of an embargo on foreign ves.sels seemed to be natural, but it was destructive to our own trade ; and, as it aided Napoleon in his attempts to de.stroy the commerce of Great Britain, it was tolerated by France, and regarded as virtually hostile to England. The purpo.ses of the embargo were, to a DEVELOPMENT OF THE WAR-POWER., 417 large extent, impracticable, as our navy was not capable of enforcing it, and the administration shrank from the responsi- bilities of war. But the self-respect of the nation rose with the increase of dangers; and more stringent enforcement acts were passed, which made our own merchants cry out in dis- tres.s, but which indicated the purpose of the government to compel England at least to respect our flag. It seemed a severe deprivation to the American people ; but Congress passed the non-intercourse and non-importation acts, which, so far as it was possible to enforce them, would deny to those who refused our rights on the seas and in foreign ports the benefits of American markets, and, distressing as it was, began a new era in the development of home resources and the protection of home industry. There was another grievous wrong in the pretensions of England. She denied to her citizens the right of expatria- tion. She claimed the right of impressing into the British service all English-born subjects, wherever found. To en- force this claim, also, she assumed the right of search ; and for this purpose, our ships, dominated by British guns, were arrested on the high seas ; and, with no careful discrimination as to the real citizenship of the men, they were taken vio- lently from under our flag, and consigned to an odious war- service or to loathsome prisons. That so gross an outrage would be long endured by a people of courage and spirit could not be reasonably expected, and great efforts at some accommodation were made by England. She was by no means anxious for an additional war. A large number of impressed sailors in the British navy claimed to be American citizens, and the right of England to coerce them was assumed ; while they must prove that they Avere American citizens, or suffer the penalties due to deserters from his Majesty’s service. When the war com- menced, twenty-five hundred of these men affirmed their American rights, and, refusing to fight against their country, “ were committed to Dartmoor and other prisons.” The 53 418 THE GREAT REPUDLIC. llritisli Government alleged as an excuse for this enormous wrong, that, if they did not compel the services of these men, half their naval force might set up the claim to he American citizens. This, while it is a fallacy that would excuse any acts of aggression and injustice whatsoever against other nations, was, to say the least, a poor compli- ment to British patriotism. The Americans expressed no fears of this kind with regard to their citizen soldiers or sailors. There was, obviously, but one alternative, — England must repeal her “orders in council,” and desist from her insults to the flag of the United States by her forcible search for goods contraband of war and the impressment of seamen, or she must accept war. The former she declined to do ; the latter .she dreaded : she would therefore negotiate. Lord Erskine was well disposed toward America. Tie agreed with our representative here upon a treaty which would have averted the war ; but, when it was sent home for confirmation. Canning rejected it. This was matter of severe mortification to the president, and the greatest annoy- ance to the people : for the administration had relaxed the stringency of retaliatory measures; and the people, for a brief time, rejoiced in the opening prospects of commerce, and relief from the perils of war. There seemed, however, now no way to avoid the dreaded conflict ; and war was declared by Congre.ss on the 18th of June, 1812. With an army numbering on paper 30,700, but an actual force of only 10,000 men, half of whom were raw recruits, we were now at war with a powerful nation. On the water, “we had three first-class frigates, ‘ The President,’ ‘The Consti- tution,’ and ‘The United States;’ ‘The Congre.ss’ and ‘Essex,’ frigates of the second class; ‘The John Adams,’ which was soon laid up as unfit to cruise ; ‘The Wasp’ and ‘The Hornet,’ sloops-of-war; ‘The Argus,’ ‘ Siren,’ ‘Nautilus,’ ‘Enterprise,’ and ‘Vixen,’ brigs. Three second-class frigates, ‘The Chesa- peake,’ ‘Constellation,’ and ‘John Adams,’ were undergoing DEVELOrMENT OF THE WAR-POWEK. 419 repairs. These, with a hundred and seventy gunboats, and three old fiigates too rotten to be repaired, constituted the entire American navy.” * Our population, however, had largely increased. The third census (1810) showed that the United States numbered 5,802,093 free whites; 1,191,304 slaves; all Others, 180,440 ; making a population of 7,239,903 souls. We had, in effect, therefore, more than twice the strength of the nation in our Revolutionary struggle with Great Britain ; and our antago- nist, worried by her death-struggles with Napoleon, was still fighting for supremacy on the Continent, and the suppression of what she deemed a colossal and destructive revolutionary power. SANDWICH AND QUEENSTOWN. Henry Dearborn w\as appointed first major-general, Avith command of the Northern Department. Hull, Governor of Michigan Territory, was made a brigadier-general, and with some eighteen hundred men, the militia of his own Territory included, undertook the conquest of Canada, a territory then including, in the Upper and Lower Provinces, some four hun- dred thousand people. It Avas very discouraging that his ves- sel of supplies Avas overhauled and captured at Fort Amherst- burg. He, hoAvever, moved on as far as Sandwich. In the absence of McArthur’s detachment, he noAV numbered some eight hundred men. He Avas about to be attacked by Brock Avith seven hundred and thirty regulars and militia, and six hundred Indians under the renowned Tecumseh. “Though he at first refused,” he at length responded to a challenge to surrender, thus saving “ the effusion of blood ; ” and as a mat- ter of prudence, if not necessity, included McArthur’s com- mand among the prisoners of Avar handed over to the British. This, it must be confessed, Avas not a very encouraging com- mencement of the Avar. About the 9th of October, Commodore Elliot, taking com- Ilildrcth, 2(1 Scries, iii. 3G4, 305. 420 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. mand on Lake Eric, succeeded in cutting out “The Adams "and “ The Caledonia ” from under the guns of Fort Erie. This brought up the spirits of the troops along the frontier, and they were anxious to make another attack upon Canada. Gen. Van Rensselaer determined to gratify them, and selected Queen.<»- town as the point of attack. Every movement, however, showed a want of preparation for the hrave attempt. As the supply of boats was entirely inadequate, he could only pass over two or three 'hundred men, who were exposed to a galling fire from a battery sweeping the river and the American shore. Col. Van Rensselaer, a relative of the general, soon fell, severely wounded ; but he gave orders to storm the battery, which was promptly and gallantly done by Capt. Ogilvie and Capt, Wool, and the Briti.sh were driven into a stone house. Gen. Brock, who came up hastily, was slain. While the enemy held the stone house, and annoyed our little army with a musketry-fire, some five or six hundred more Americans, with a single piece of artillery, got across the river. For the want of tools, no intrench- ments were attempted. In the mean time, a body of Indians rushed out from the wood.s, and as.sailed a straggling body of militia, who fled before them, producing a serious panic in the American forces ; but our citizen-.soldiers were brave, and, as they always have done, began on the battle-field to learn how to fight. Lieut.-Col. t^cott, who had cro.ssed .as a volunteer, put himself at the head of a few regulars, and promptly re- * pulsed the Indian.s. The British general, Sheafe, now advanced from Fort George; and the sound of his mirskctry .alarmed the militia on the American side, and they denied the right of their commanders to le.ad them into Canad.a. Our force.s, engaged in attempting to fall back to the river, were thrown into confusion, and compelled to surrender. We h.ad lost in this ill-managed affair, in killed, wound- ed, .and prisoners, a thousand men; the British, about a hundred. DEVELOrMENT OF THE -WAE-POWER. 421 Neither party seemed anxious to go on with the war. Negotiations for peace were attempted, it must be admitted, in good faith. The British “ orders in council ” had been quietly repealed ; but their obstinate adherence to the right of search, and the impressment of seamen taken violently from under our flag, rendered all negotiations fruitless. Nothing could be more aggravating to a free and honorable nation. “ Up- wai’ds of six thousand cases of alleged impressments were recorded in the Department of State ; and it was estimated that at least as many more might have occurred of which no information had been received. Castlereagh himself admitted, on the floor of the House of Commons, that an inquiry insti- tuted early in the preceding year had discovered in the British fleet thirty-five hundred men claiming to be impressed Americans.”* Federalists, as well as Democrats, felt the galling effects of this bitter wrong ; and the war-spirit rose in the Republic, though, as a nation, we were never united in the war. NAVAL ENGAGEMENTS. Commodore Rogers had collected in the harbor of New York as many vessels of our little navy as possible, and, upon the declaration of war, moved out promptly to sea. “ The Constitution,” Capt. Hull, attempting to join Rogers, fell in with the British squadron, and, after a desperate race of four days, escaped into Boston. Without waiting for orders, he at once put to sea, making a fearless cruise in search of the Jamaica fleet. Not meeting with any adventure equal to his ambition, he returned ; and, cruising in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, he spied “ The Guerriere,” an English war- frigate, Capt. Dacres. The prospect of an engagement was immediately clouded by the appearance of three other hos- tile ships and a brig. A chase soon began, — one of the most exciting and remarkable in history. Capt. Hull found him- self in the midst of the squadron of Commodore Broke, * Ilildrctb, 2(1 Series, iii. 349. 422 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. with three sail on his starboard quarter, and three more astern. It was not a question whether “Tlie Constitution” alone could fight the whole British squadron, but whether her commander and men had skill and energy enough to bailie all the eflbrts of the British squadron to bring on an engagement. This desperate nautical contest commenced on Friday, July 17; and at length, after exhausting all the skill and power at their command, “ the English ships all hauled to the northward and eastward, fidly satisfied, by a trial that had lasted nearly three days and as many night.s, under all the circumstances that can attend naval manoeu- vres, from reefed top.sail to kedging, that they had no hope of overtaking their enemy.” * “ The Constitution,” after a daring cruise, which showed that she was neither worried nor intimidated, went into port to prepare for further adventures. In the mean time, “ The E>scx,” Capt. Porter, soon after the departure of Rogers, got to sea, and took valuable prizes almost at her leisure. Among them w'as the frigate “Minerva,” thirty-six guns, conveying a largo number of British troops, about a hundred and fifty of whom were made prisoners. “ A few days after this success, ‘ The Essex ’ made a strange sail to windward.” As she was disguised as a raer- chantman, the stranger bore down upon her fearlessly, and opened fire; when suddenly “The Es.sex knocked out her ports, and opened upon the enemy.” Surprised and panic-stricken, the Englishmen “ left their quarters, and ran below.” Capt! Porter took easy possession of his prize, which proved to be “ his Majesty’s ship ‘ Alert,’ Capt. Langham, mounting tw’cnty eighteen-pound cannon, and with a full crew.” Let us now return to “ The Constitution.” She had gained a world-wide reputation for the naval skill of her commander and men in avoiding an unequal combat with a whole Brit- Cooper’s Naval History of the United States, p. 25G. DEVELOPMENT OF THE WAK-POWER. 423 isli squadron. She was restless for a figlit with some worth/ antagonist, with a fair chance to test her prowess in battle. For this she did not have to wait long. She fell in with a daring craft, evidently searching for her. Both parties pre- pared for action. Firing a few guns as they approached, and moving dexterously to prevent being raked, they seemed willing to fight at close quarters. “ At six o’clock, the enemy bore up, and ran off under his three topsails and jib, with the wind on his quarter. As this was an indication of a readiness to receive his antago- nist in a fair yard-arm and yard-arm fight, ‘ The Constitu- tion ’ immediately set her inaintop-gallant-sail and foresail to get alongside. At a little after six o’clock, the bows of the American frigate began to double on the quarter of the English ship ; when she opened with her forward guns, draw- ing slowly ahead with her greater way, both vessels keeping up a close and heavy fire as their guns bore. In about ten minutes, or just as the ships were fairly side by side, the mizzen-mast of the Englishman was shot away ; when the American passed slowly ahead, keeping up a tremendous fire and luffed short round the bows of the enemy to pre- vent being raked. In executing this manoeuvre, the ship shot into the wind, got sternway, and fell foul of her antago- nist. While in this situation, the cabin of ‘ The Constitution’ took fire from the close explosion of the forward guns of the enemy, who obtained a small but momentary advantage from his position. The good conduct of Mr. Iloffinan, who commanded in the cabin, soon repaired this accident; a*nd a gun of the enemy’s, that threatened further injury, was dis- abled. As the vessels touched, both parties prepared to board. The English turned all hands up from below, and mustered forward with that object; while Mr. Morris, the first lieutenant, with his own hands endeavored to lash the ships together. Mr. Alwyn, the master, and Mr. Bush, tlie lieutenant of the marines, were upon the taffrail of ‘ The Constitution ’ to be ready to spring. Both sides now 424 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. Buflered by the closeness of the musketry ; the EngH.sh much the most, however. Mr. Morris was shot throii^li the body, the bullet fortunately missing the vitals; iMr. Alwyn was wounded in the shoulder; and Mr. Bush fell by a bullet through the head. It being found impossible for either party to hoard in the face of such a fire, and with the heavy sea that was on, the sails were filleil ; and, just as ‘ The Con- stitution’ shot ahead, the foremast of the enemy fell, carry- ing down with it his mainmast, and leaving him wallowing in the trough of the sea a helple.ss wreck.” * Rc-adj listing his ship, and taking a raking position, Capt. Hull saw the English Jack hauled down from the stump of the mizzen-mast, and the great battle was over. Ilis prize was “ The Guerriere,” Capt. Dacres, one of his most persistent antagonists in the remarkable contest of naval skill, so re- cently terminating in one of our greatest naval triumphs. “The Constitution” was soon refitted, and ready for sea; while “ ‘ The Guerrihre ’ was completely dismasted, had seventy-nine killed and wounded, and, according to the statement of her commander in his defence before the court which tried him for the lo.ss of his ship, she had received no less than thirty shot as low as five sheets of copper beneath the bends.” All this had occurred within two hours, the whole period of the engagement; and the most destructive execution must have been within thirty minutes. It is vain, at this distance of time, to attempt to describe the joy of the American people as the news of this great nava'l triumph flew over the land. It was hailed as decisive evidence that the boasted superiority of the British on the seas was at an end. This impression was deepened by the grand victory of Commodore Decatur, in “ The United State.s,” over “ The Macedonian,” thirty-eight gun.s, Capt. Carden, after a most desperate engagement, in which “ The Macedonian,” a beauti- ful ship with forty-nine guns, Avas almost literally cut to Cooper’s Naval History of the United States, pp. 238, 259. DEVELOPMENT OF THE WAE-POWER. 425 pieces. The terrific conflict in which “ The Wasp,” Capt. Jones, triumphed over and captured “The Frolic,” Capt. Wliinyates, heightened the enthusiasm of the American people, and produced most important moral effects bearing vpon the historical power of the two nations. Our first naval defeat Avas on the first day of Jnne, 1813, when “ The Chesapeake ” was captured by “ The Shannon,” after a most heroic struggle on both sides. Subsequent engagements wmre numerous, great gallantry being displayed on both sides, the results varying, but, upon the whole, very clearly vindicating the prophetic judgment of Story, placed at the head of this chapter. CAMPAIGNS FROM TUE AVEST AND EAST. Harrison, rallying troops for the defence of Indiana Avith- out regard to form, Avas made a brevet major-general of Kentucky. On his Avay to the scene of action, information reached him from Washington that Winchester had been placed in command; Avhile he, Avith the rank of a brigadier- general, Avas to defend Indiana and Illinois. The West, hoAA'ever, already beginning to be a poAver in the nation, demanded and secured the appointment of Harrison to the chief command of the Western army, noAV raised to the nominal force of ten thousand men. Harrison Avas brave and active. He determined to destroy some hostile Indian settlements, and then by a bold dash, if possible, recover Detroit. Dut the crude masses of volun- teers under his command, not having yet learned to obey, Avere not an army ; and his plans Avere frustrated. Capt. Taylor now appears, foiling Avith skill and bravery the attack of the Indians upon Fort Harrison, on the Wabash. It is interesting to see these two future presidents in their young manhood thus gallantly coming into the field together. They Avere both to display great generalship, endure severe trials, rise high in popular favor, be exalted to the first place 61 426 TOE GREAT REPUBLIC. of distinction in the Republic, if not in the world, and both to fall by death soon after their respective inaugurations. Gen. Dearborn attempted a demonstration in the direction of Montreal, which evidently, for want of capacity in the commander, became a disastrous failure. Smyth, after his valorous And “ grandiloquent proclamations,” made another disgraceful failure on the Niagara frontier. In the winter of 1813, Harrison made his second attempt to reach Detroit. As a preliminary measure, Winchester was ordered to occupy the Rapids. lie reached this objec- tive point without casualty, and was immediately drawn into an attempt to relieve Frenchtown, where our little army was attached by Proctor from Malden. Winchester was taken prisoner, and induced to surrender his command. The bar- barous treatment of the prisoners from the British and their Indian allies di.sgraced their victory. The advancing troops of Harrison met the fugitives from Frenchtown ; and, pru- dently abandoning his plan of attacking Malden, he was compelled to content himself for the present by fortifying the Rapids, named, for the governor of Ohio, Fort Meigs. As an evidence, however, of the confidence of the govern- mo!.t, he was soon raised to the ratik of major-general. Jackson now appears in the South, taking the responsibility of disobeying orders, that he might perform a gieat act of humanity in marching his men four hundred and sixty miles back to Xa.shville and disbanding them near their homes. Wilkinson had contrived, without bloodshed, to get pos.session of the fort at Mobile ; the only victory ” on land we have been permitted to record since the succe,ss of Capt. Taylor at Fort Harrison. In the summer of 1813, the gallant Perry moved the small nucleus of his fleet out into Lake Erie. With nine ves- sels and fifty-five guns, he confronted the British squadron, commanded by Capt. Barclay, with six ves.sels and sixty- three guns. Having a hundred and fifty of Harrison’s men on board, he aimed to reach and assault the fort at Mai- DEVELOPMENT OF THE WAR-POWEE. 427 den. The two fleets met; and, after a desperate engagement of three hours, every ship of the British squadron struck to the victorious Perry. He now promptly converted such of his prizes as were manageable into transports, and conveyed Harrison’s troops across the lake. Proctor, consulting his prudence, burned the fort at Malden, and commenced his retreat. Harrison was once more on his way to Detroit. In two days he overtook Proctor’s rear, and captured all his stores and ammunition. The main body of the British, some eight hundred in number, were drawn up in order of battle “ near the Moravian town,” with Tecumseh and his Indians on the right in a swamp. Johnson with his mounted men rushed upon them with such fury, that they were completely overpow'ered, threw down their arms, and surrendered. “ Proctor and his suite, with some two hundred men, escaped by timely flight.” The Indians fought desperately; but the renowned Tecumseh was slain, probably by Johnson’s own hand, and his braves were killed or dispersed. It was now the spring of 1814 ; and the war party in Eng- land rose in spirits as the British had triumphed over the great Napoleon, and they demanded the exemplary chastise- ment of the democrats of America. The veterans of the English army were to be brought over for this purpose. Brown, now a major-general, was a man of courage ; and Scott, now a brigadier, stood by his side, burning with desire to prove that the Americans were competent to resist and conquer the British regulars. They obtained permission to attempt another invasion of Canada. This expedition re- sulted in the severe battle of Bridgewater, or Lundy’s Lane. Crossing the lake from Buffalo on the 2d of July, our army of about three thousand five hundred men had the good for- tune to receive the surrender of Fort Erie. Scott advanced with intrepidity to attack the British under Riall ; and a smart but brief engagement drove the enemy from his in- trenchments, from Chippewa, and from Queenstown, witli the * Ilildrcih, 2J Scries, iii. 437, 438. 428 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. loss of some five huiulred men, while the loss of the Ameri- Ciuis was about t’aree huudrecl. Fort George, however, still manned by the British, was promptly re-enforced; and both parties prepared for a severe conllict. On the 23th of July, Scott, with a thousand men, fear- lessly advanced, and suddenly encountered the whole of Biall’s army. In a brief time, near a third of Scott’s force had fallen before the terrific fire of the encm}\ Scott, how- ever, again and again rallicil his men to the on.set. By his orders, Major Jessup reached the enemy’s rear, and pressed him severely, making many prisoners; among them Gen. Biall, retiring, severely wounded, from the front. “ Brown now came up with Bii)ley’s brigade, which was ordered between Scott and the enemy.” The British park of artil- lery, raised to nine pieces, was the key of his position ; and Col. James Miller was ordered to storm it, which he did in gallant style, driving the artillery-men from their guns at the point of the bayonet. Bipley brought up the Twenty- third, and secured the gun.'<. Porter’s volunteers promptly supported him on the right ; and Jessup soon reached the front, routing a British brigade on his way'. The enemy, now re-enforced by’ Drummond, made a des- perate efifort in the darkue.ss of the night to recover their guns. The American.s, however, were on their guard ; and, after three terrific assaults, the British recoiled from their fire and bayonets, and retired from the field of slaughter. Brown and iScott, severely wounded, were compelled to retire, leaving all the regimental officers wounded, and seven hundred and forty-three men dead or wounded. The loss of the British was eight hundred and seventy-eight. The American.s had at length risen to the greatness of the emer- gency. They' had fought a dc.sperate battle, and gained a decisive victory ; but, for the want of horses, they could not take away their trophic.^, and retired, under command of Ripley, to care for their wounded. The British, unoppo.sed, returned to the battle-ground, and reclaimed their guns. DEVELOPMENT OE THE WAR-POWEP,. 429 WASHINGTON AND BALTIMORE. About the middle of August, “ a new and large British fleet,” commanded by Cockburn, appeared in the Chesapeake, bearing four thousand of Wellington’s veterans under Ross. President Madison at length began to realize the danger, and to show an utter incapacity to make provisions against it. Gov. Winder of Maryland made the best dispositions in his power for the defence of his State, and especially of Balti- more. But, by the 20th, the Potomac was blockaded, and the main fleet had ascended the Patuxent as far as Benedict, and landed Ross, with forty-five hundred men, within fifty miles of Washington. Without horses, these indefatigable soldiers and sailors marched through the heat, wdiich was to them almost insufferable, dragging three pieces of light- artillery, and carrying munitions of war. On this dreadful march, exhausted and encumbered as they were, they might, it would seem, have been cut to pieces -without difficulty ; but, quite unopposed, they reached Bladensburg on the 24th, in no condition to commence an engagement. At that instant, the Americans should have made the attack Avith vigor, and by sudden victory saved their capital and the honor of the nation. We cannot avoid thinking, that if Brown and Scott with the men of Lundy’s Lane, or Jackson from New Orleans, had been in command, this Avould have been done ; but the president and other civilians and amateur Avarriors Avere there to distract the counsels of Winder and his officers, and communicate their fears to the men. In the mean time, the British, ready to sink from fatigue, Avere led on to the attack : the battle of Bladensburg Avas lost, and the veterans of Wellington marched into Washington. The Capitol, the President’s House, and all the public build- ings but the Patent and General Post Offices, Avere committed to the flames. Valuable papers and the public library Avere consumed, — a piece of Vandalism Avhich nothing in civilized warfare could ex9use. 430 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. It would seem that Providence had now placed the Repub- lic at the di.sposal of England. But strange events indicated an opposite result. A tremendous tornado came on, add- ing to the horrors of war, and seeming to threaten the Capitol with completed destruction. The British column about to fire the only remaining government building, alarmed at the gathering forces of Nature, now marshalled by God himself as if to do a work which the confused army had failed to do, lied to the nearest edifices for protection, many of which were dashed to the ground by the fury of the storm, burying numbers of men amid their ruins. Then an e.xplo- .sion at Greenleaf’s Point, more likely providential than acci- dental, killed or wounded nearly a hundred more of these grim, fearle.ss warriors: and the exaggerated fears of the British commander assumed that a formidable “army of indignant citizen-soldiers were mu.stering on the Heights of Georgetown,” and large forces w'ere gathering from the South, to overwhelm him before he could escape their just vengeance; and he hastened his men toward their ships at Benedict, where he embarked with the satisfaction of a retreating enemy rescued from imminent perils, when, in point of fact, there had been no army on his track ; and it was twenty-four hours before the frightened Americans could gather courage enough to venture on to Capitol Hill, and disarm some sixty British invalids left in care of the wounded. God, no doubt for purposes of dLscipline, suflTered this ex- treme mortification to a proud, presumptuous people, and then directly interfered to prevent a subjugation which would have endangered his own purposes. In less than two weeks, the British fleet came up the Chesapeake, landed their army at North Point, and made a bold combined attack upon Baltimore ; expecting, doubtles.s, no more formidable obstacles in the way of its intended destruction than they had found in approaching the doomed capital. But from the indications at Washington in the DEVELOPMENT OP THE WAR-POWEE. 431 midst of the conflagration, and the prompt action of good sense and courage, arraying ten thousand men for the de- fence of Baltimore, it was evident God had at length said to these hitherto invincible men, Thus far, and no farther.” A severe engagement and a brave defence, in which the British Gen. Ross was slain, soon resulted in the retreat of the British army. Taking advantage of rain and darkness, they re-embarked, and left the Baltimoreans to their triumphs. “ The Star-spangled Banner,” written by Key on board a British ship, where he was forcibly detained during the action, commemorates in fitting strains the rising heroism of America represented on the bloody field of Baltimore. PLATTSBURG. We may now again turn our eyes to the North. Other veterans from the wars with Napoleon came to join in the conquest of America. Prevost, on the 1st of Septem- ber, advanced upon Plattsburg with ten thousand men. McDonough’s squadron had providentially just anchored in Plattsburg Bay. Macomb with three thousand men, includ- ing many invalids, had been left in command of the town. Volunteers from New York and Vermont, to the number of three thousand, now came at his call to join his little army; but what could be the hope of resistance to the formidable force which Prevost led up to the attack? Nothing, unless God should intei’fcre. Prevost menaced Macomb in front, but sent a strong force to ford the river above. Now, while they are searching for the ford, let us turn our eyes to the lake. ‘•The British fleet, commanded by Commodore Downic, consisted of a new ship of thirty-seven guns, a new brig of sixteen, the two sloops captured from the Americans the year before, and mounting eleven guns each, besides tsvelve gunboats, — ninety-five heavy guns to the whole squadron, which was manned by a thousand seamen from Quebec.” * * IlilJrutli, 2d Scries, iii. 518, 519, et seq. 432 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. McDonough’s squadron consisted of “The Saratoga,” twenty- six guns, the brig “Eagle,” twenty guns, the schooner “ Tieonderoga,” sevcyitcen guns, the schooner “ Preble,” seven guns, and ten gunboats. With his largest ve.sscls, he lay directly across the harbor, his gunboats forming a second line against the intervals between the ships. Downie was thus obliged to attack “ bows on, which he did gallantly, reserving his fire till he came to clo.se action.” Ills largest vc.s.scl was soon crippled, and ha.stily anchored beyond the reach of harm. A “ British sloop standing on to gain a raking position was so disabled, that she drifted down on the American line, and was taken.” Anothei-, driven from her berth, drifted ashore. The American schooner “ Preble ” was then driven from her anchorage, and “The Tieonderoga” was vigorously attacked and completely disabled on one side ; but McDonough, by “ winding,” brought the other side to bear. Downie, attempting to imitate him, failed ; and after a brave action, lasting two hours and a half, the Briti.sh flag was lowered. The victory was complete. Prevost, hearing of this result, abandoned hi.s search for the ford, and retreated with his army of veterans in a panic, leaving his wounded and much of his baggage and stores behind. In the mean time. Brown, shut up in Fort Eric, had sent pressing messages to Izard for re-enforcements. Taking a strong force, and leaving the glory of defending Plattsburg to Macomb, he marched off toward the Niagara frontier. Before he reached Fort Erie, however, the lion-hearted Brown had determined upon a sortie. Issuing at mid-day with his chosen men, he “ surprised the British batteries some two miles in advance of their camp, exploded their magazines, and spiked their guns ; took some four hundred prisoners ; and skilfully retired, having inflicted upon the enemy a loss of nearly a thousand’ men. Drummond, as soon as he could move, raised the siege, and retired behind the Chippewa.” * Hildreth, 2d Scries, iii. 520, 521. DEVELOPJVIEXT OF THE WAR-POWER. 433 NEW ORLEANS. The indomitable Jackson had taken the responsibility to resist an attack of the British on Fort Bowyer, in which they were aided by the Spanish and Indians. This was a ma- terial point, as its capture would not only open a harbor to the French privateersmen from Barataria Bay, but it would give the British a fair opportunity to approach New Orleans. Jackson rallied the militia, and, without regard to men or money, poured a destructive fire into the British squadron, burned up their best ship, “ The Hermes,” and sent the whole lleet aw%ay in haste, with the loss of two hundred and thirty- two men. Lafitte, the leader of the buccaneers, rejected with disdain the offer of an honorable rank for himself and his outlaws in the British army ; and, shrewdly conducting his intrigues, gave himself, with all his valuable information, to the Americans. This enabled them to set forward an expedition from New Orleans, under Commodore Patterson, for an attack upon the pirates. The expedition was com- }detely successful, the Americans capturing ten vessels, with twenty guns. The blaze of light from Plattsburg, Fort Erie, and Mobile Bay, and the triumphs on the sea of “ The Peacock ” and “The Wasp,” were, however, soon clouded. The latter, after a hard battle with “The Avon” (which she conquered and sunk) and taking several prizes, must have gone down alone, as she was never heard from after ; and Chauncey w'as shut up by Yeo in Sackett’s Harbor. We had not, at this time, a national vessel at sea. Izard’s boa.stful expedition, with six thousand men, against Drummond, behind the Chippewa, completely failed. Think- ing that the confinement of Chauncey’s fleet at Sackett’s Har- bor, and of Brown in command there, would leave the British at full liberty to re-enforce Drummond, he refused to attack, blew up Fort Erie, and retired. Discontent, which now became general, especially in New 434 THE GUEAT REPUDLIC. England, gave additional strength to the Federalist opposi tion, and culminated in the lainous Hartford Conventii n. We greatly needed a. decisive victory. New Orleans now seemed a doomed city. A formidable British lleet approached, bearing four thousand sailors ami marines and twelve thousand veterans, “commanded by Packinghain, Kean, Lambert, and Gibbs, able and experi- enced generals of Wellington’s late Peninsular army ; whence, also, the troops had mostly been drawn.”* Jackson, upon returning to New Orleans, found every thing in confusion. The defences he had commenced were in dilapidation. The squadron on the water was entirely inadequate, and really no army was at his command But his daring genius and indomiUible will supplied every thing. He soon made drilled soldiers of raw recruits, now gathering at his call, of the citizens of New Orleans, who knew him too well to refuse to drill when he ordered, and of “ the noble-hearted, generous free men of color,” who sprang to arms with the greatest alacrity when he announced their hearty welcome : he made soldiers even of Lafitte and his fugitive buccaneers, and of the convicts whom he released, all of whom became orderly and daring warriors under the inspiration of one powerful mind. When the British landed two thousand light troops, under Kean, from the Bayou Benevenu, about fifteen miles from New Orleans, Jackson found himself at the head of five thousand men of all kinds, only about a thousand of whom were regulars. He did not wait for the enemy to approach, but left Carroll and the Louisiana militia in charge of the city, and moved at once to the attack. Cofiec, who, by forced marches, came up in time with his brigade, was sent to the right. Jack.son moved directly upon the enemy in front, and the schooner “ Caroline ” opened upon his left. Night had come on; but the impetu- ous Jackson would not wait for the day. The battle raged DEVELOPMENT OF THE 'WAR-PO'WER. 435 furiously until the British found security from further assault between the old and the new levee. Jackson, having astonished Wellington’s veterans by the vigor and skill of his attack, and taught them caution, which gave him time, retired within his main lines of defence. The enemy wait- ing for re-enforcements from the fleet, Jackson used every moment in strengthening his works. His rampart was con- structed of cotton-bales : the ditch in front was broad and deep, and both were extended into the swamp. The British sent hot shot into our ship “ Caroline,” and burned it to the water’s edge; but “The Louisiana” was towed away, and saved for future action. The next day, the enemy opened furiously upon Jackson’s line “with artillery, bombs, and Congreve rockets:” but they were answered so frightfully by the five heavy guns of the Americans, and the raking fire of “ The Louisiana,” that fur- ther advance was impossible; and, after seven hours’ des- perate fighting, the British retired. Just at this crisis, Jackson had to direct his attention to the city; and as there seemed danger of a pusillanimous sur- render under orders of the legislature, then in session, he despatched Clayborne to watch them, who, though governor, acting under martial law, promptly obeyed Jackson’s orders. He, believing he was conforming to the iron will of his com- mander, “ placed a military guard at the door of the hall, and broke up the legislative assembly.” The intrepid general then scoured the city for shrinking cowards, ordered a registration of all the male inhabitants, and went on with his fortifications. lie directed Gen. Mor- gan to erect defences on the right bank of the river similar to those on the left, and his orders were obeyed. The Ken- tucky militia, two thousand two hundred and fifty strong, arrived ; and, though only part of them had arms, the rest were ordered to the works. On the eighth day of January, 1815, the grand final attack of the British was made, under command of Sir E. Packing- 436 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. ham in person. Thornton was directed to make a n'ght attack upon Morgan on the right bank of the river, which he did with bravery; and, Morgan’s militia becoming un- stead}'^, this attempt was successful. In the mean time, the main British force, under Packingham, covered by the terrific fire of six eighteen-pounders, advanced w'ith the degrading cry of “booty and beauty” as their watchword. The col- umn moving by the river carried an advanced American redoubt, the guns of which had raked the whole British lines as they came up. The main column, commanded by Gibbs and Kean, was hurled against Carroll’s division, near- est the swamp. The storming-party encountered the ditch, and fell in large numbers before the unerring aim of the American sharpshooters and the belching fires of nine pieces of heavy artillery. They could not endure this storm of death. They staggered and recoiled. Sir Edward, in attempting to rally them, was slain ; Gibbs fell, mortally wounded ; Kean was dangerously wounded ; and Lambert, succeeding to the command, withdrew his mangled forces, calling back Thornton from his advantageous po.'sition on the opposite side of the river. The battle of New Orleans was gained, apparently, by the heroism and intrepidity of one great man, and the brave troops under his command ; but God, who “ maketh wars to cease from the ends of the earth,” had determined to end this frightful contest, and usher in the era of peace. The joy with which the people hailed the announcement of the treaty, agreed to by commissioners and ratified by the Briti.«h Government, indicated their decided aversion to the war; while the administration, by waiving utterly the great question of the right of search, to resist v;hich the war was commenced, made sufficient acknowledgment of the highest indiscretion, either in declaring war, or in consenting to a peace which did not secure the only grave point in di.spute. The glorious victory of Jackson alone s.aved the pre.sident and the war Democrats from overwhelming disgrace. DEVELOPMENT OF THE WAR-POWEE. 437 In the mean time, it had fully appeared, on the land and on the sea, that the war-power of the Republic was in the people; that it was not in the administration nor in a stand ing army, but in the freedom of American citizenship. These men from the farm, the shop, the store, and the study, would not come first into action with the skill of veterans ; but they would include all the elements of a grand military force, and the war-power of the nation would be developed in the field. This, therefore, may be considered as Ameri- can history in advance of the world, — the people in the midst of peaceful industry are their own standing army. CHAPTER VII. DEVELOPMENT OF LEARNING AND THE ARTS. “ ConscDt to bad government is consent to ruin. Good government can come only of general intellectual and moral development.” — I’abtridoe. Education in the United States has received considerable attention; and, while we do not boast of great learning, history will accord to us a degree of comparative progress quite equal to our ago. The first wants of p, new people are physical. Attention must be given to clearing away the forests, cultivating the soil, mechanical industry, and trade. The people must construct roads, bridges, houses, barns, churches, ships, and whatever else will provide them food, clothing, shelter, and the means of commerce. These are neces.sities ; and hence the useful precede the fine arts. Our rapid development and real greatness withdraw atten- tion from the fact of our recent origin as a people. It could hardly be credited, that, dating from the Declaration of Independence, we have not yet completed the first cen- tury of national existence. We are still very largely occu- pied wdth the rough labor of pioneers, slowly subjecting the soil of our vast territory to imperfect cultivation. These are facts eminently lit to be considered in estimating our real and relative progress in learning and the arts. PUBLIC SCHOOLS. In the year ending June, 1860, about five millions of our population w’ere at school. About one-sixth of our people are doubtless receiving tuition. A large proportion of them 438 DEVELOPMENT OF LEARNING AND THE ARTS. 439 are cliildren' from five to fifteen years of age, who are in our common schools. These institutions are fundamental in the United States. They began early in our history, and formed a part of the constitutional provisions of Massachusetts and Pennsylvania. The idea of imparting the rudiments of an education without charge to the children of the Ivepublic was a New- England idea, and it grew up from small beginnings to be a thoroughly American idea. It was opposed, on the one hand, to the neglect and degrading ignorance which per- vaded the lower classes in England ; and, on the other, to the aristocratic feeling that education was for the children of gentlemen, and they were to be kept apart from the children of the common people. To the thinking philan- thropist, there was a deep and destructive vice in this gen- eral ignorance and in these invidious distinctions. Schools, therefore, began to be provided for all. But this idea, like all others of great value, must contend for its position. Two public enemies of the common schools have been very determined in their opposition. The affectations of caste, esteeming the common mind vulgar, and the higher bred entitled to the distinction of exclusiveness in the manner if not in the fact of education, have long withheld the sup- port which these great institutions of philanthropy have needed and deserved, and in whole States prevented their effective organization. Itornish bigotry contends for the right of exclusive educa- tion from public funds, that children, not merely their own, but as many others as they can control, may be educated Catholics at the public expense. The Government of the States generally treats them as Americans. It makes no objections to denominational schools; but they cannot be the public schools which the people, as Americans, support. Taxes must be equal and privileges equal under the law. Differences may exist, and be provided for by individuals and churches; but, as States and a General Government, we 440 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. can know but one class, and they are citizens. We can Inive but one basis of taxation, and that is the public interest ; and bnt one obligation, and that is to afford equal privileges to all. Of course, just so far as the anti-American idea of exclusive Roman-Catholic education at the expense of the State extends, it interferes with our noble scheme of equal educational privileges. It is a disguised or open public en- emy of a fundamental part of our free institutions. Tlie contest on this issue is not yet concluded. Catholics, proj)- erly Americans, sometimes give expression to the correct idea of citizenship; contending that their people are not Iri.sh, not German, not Italian, but American. Foreign in- fluence and the hereditary bigotry of the sect, however, for- bid this growing feeling to adjust itself to our system of free schools. The patronage received from this source is, therefore, quietly extended or reluctantly tolerated by the priests, because it cannot be prevented. Notwithstanding these adverse influences, public schools are moving forward with free thought, and under the pro- tection of the enlightened public opinion which they so powerfully aid in forming. Their progress may be seen not only in the increasing millions who attend them, but in the extension of the system into parts of the country where they have been before unknown, and in the improved build- ings and grounds appropriated to them. So strong are they becoming in the affections of the people, that any amount of money may be had for their convenience and enlargement The country schoolhouse is now generally found to be a neat and commodious building, with finely- cultivated and shaded grounds about it; and, not unfre- quently, the conveniences of the gymnasium are beginning to appear, showing an appreciation of physical with intel- lectual education. This is particularly true of the cities. Some of our common-school houses are magnificent struc- tures, costing as high as a hundred thousand dollars, and even more. DEVELOPMENT OF LEARNING AND THE ARTS. 441 The branches taught in the common schools are increas- ing, and raising the general standard of education in our midst. Not merely reading and orthography, geography and writing, arithmetic and grammar, but the higher Eng- lish, the natural sciences, mathematics, and the languages, are taught most thoroughly. Our graded schools have all the advantages of classification and division of labor, affording opportunity for graduation from the lowest section of the primary to the high school, which is frequently a first-class academy, fitting our children well for college or for business life ; and all without charge to the pupil. It is falsely alleged by Romanists that these are infidel schools. It is true, they do not teach sectarian Christianity; * but they are thoroughly imbued with the great fundamental principles of the true religion. The Bible is very frequent- ly read as a part of the opening services of the school, and most appropriately used as a text-book ; and the children absorb from this great common revelation, as well as from other text-books, and from the devout minds of many of their teachers, true ideas of God, revelation, and the duties of morality and piety. In many of these schools, prayer is devoutly offered, and the spirit of true worship slowly imparted. The Lord’s Prayer is devoutly repeated in con- cert; and the singing — a frequent daily exercise — brings out the glowing sentiment of gratitude and love for the Saviour of men. True Christianity is so extensively diffused among the masses, that it comes in like the sunlight through the pores of society, and diffuses its genial influences through the schools. The great leaders of public education are very generally devout Christians ; and our common education is thus becoming largely, and in the best sen.se, Christian. The feeling of invidious caste is gradually wearing away, and the children of the weallhiest and best citizens are not unfrequently found in our public schools. As one of the strong historical facts of the Republic, it 442 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. should be stated that large numbers of our best business and public men have received their education only from the common schools ; while multitudes of scholars and literary men are indebted to this fundamental American institution for their thoroughness in higher academic and -collegiate education. The larger benefits of the common-.school sys- tem appear, however, in the fact of their pervading, quiet influence upon the citizenship of our country ; the general intelligence and elevation they impart to the freemen upon whom the elective franchise and the government of the nation devolve rendering it morally impossible to deceive, and finally wrest from our patriot prince.s, the people, the liberties which, by reading, song, instruction, and prayer, become the high trust of each individual and of the whole combined. It would seem almost unnecessaiy to suggest to the American people the sacred duty of guarding and de- veloping their public schools as the source of patriotic devotion, and the indispensable means of high Christian civilization. If it were possible to conceive of the wreck of this system upon the rock of sectarian bigotry, wo might well say the days of the licpublic are numbered. SUNDAY SCHOOLS. The Sunday school has, beyond question, become in America a truly national institution. No man writes a true history of the United States who fails to give it prominent position. As a legitimate product of the great revival of spiritual religion, — first in England, and then in America, — it seemed very humane to assemble poor children together on the Lord’s Day, and teach them to read. It was mo.st fortunate, that, to the devout Christian minds engaged in this benevolent enterprise, the Holy Scriptures should be at once regarded as the appropriate text-book for the more advanced among the children. Soon, quite naturally, por- tions of these sacred revelations were committed to memory. DEVELOPMENT OP LEAENING AND THE APvTS. 443 lessons were explained, and the most happy results were seen in the true conversion and great moral improvement of many of the children. As the efforts of good men and women extended, the in- stitution began to assume definite form, and the plans of God in regard to it became more evident. It was seen at length to arise directly out of the Church, to be a legiti- mate outgrowth of Christianity, an institution of God, and thoroughly organic as a grand department of missionary labor and effective discipleship. The Sunday school thus comes in appropriately to supple- ment the public schools. It is free to all, it uses in a proper manner holy time, its labors are a noble charity, and it be- comes more eminently and distinctly religious than the com- mon school can be. It is universally known that children who attend these schools will be taught sacred history and geography, the fall and sinfulness of man, the redemption of the world 'by Jesus Christ, the divine agency of the Holy Spirit in the production of goodness, the regeneration of man, and the hope of everlasting life ; the extreme wicked- ness of idolatry, theft, murder, adultery, and Sabbath-break- ing; the propriety and duty of penitence, and faith in the Saviour of the world ; membership in the Church of Christ, and a life of strict honesty, holiness, and love. They will be gradually raised to noble views of God and duty, to the highest conceptions of private and public virtue; and from purest motives they will be led, so far as practicable, to be- come genuine patriots and broad-minded philanthropists. And all this, not from mere human instruction, but from the legitimate appropriation of forces coming directly from God in answer to many fervent prayers, resulting in true conviction for sin, and genuine conversion by tlie power of the Holy Spirit, through the merits of our Lord Jesus Christ. So far as this extends, the reformation, both of character and manners, among these children, becomes radical, and truly astonishing. The legitimate result is not to make 444 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. them Sunday scholars of another grade, not to produce any new independent organization, but to lead them directly into the visible Church of God. From the Sunday schools come the best instructed, most intelligent, reliable Christians of the age ; and we behold here the grand nursery of the Church of the future. But a still wider influence goes out from this great provi- dential institution. On the sabbath, the education of the week is extended into its legitimate sphere, imbued more deeply with the spirit of right and of justice; and its defects are measurably supplied. Like a diffusible stimulant, the inspirations of the Sunday school enter every organ and tis- sue of the body politic ; and who would question its health- giving power ? Through the more thoughtful and devout, negligent and wicked children come to feel the wrong of sin, and the duty of a holy life. Through the children, the parents come to be largely impressed with the value of the Bible, the worth of the soul, and the need of a Saviour. Thus, through the Sunday school, quiet missionary influences reach the courts and lanes, the garrets and cellars, of our crowded cities ; the sick and the poor are relieved, and the ignorant are instructed ; not unfrequently other schools, and even churche.s, arc founded ; thus showing the pioneer agency of this institution in the hands of the Church. Young people learn to love the sabbath and the privileges of the sanctuary, the Bible-class, and the company of the good, and are here comparatively guarded against the attractive and ruinous infiucnces of popular sinful pleasures. Thus teach- ers and officei*s are provided for Sunday schools, and the institution re-acts powerfully and usefully upon itself. Thus scholars, writers, professional men, and statesmen become imbued with the spirit of truth and justice, and the great public functions of popular sovereignty become healthful, free, and powerful in their action ; a broad-minded philan- thropy becomes prevalent, and at length national. We affirm that these are not only the legitimate, but the DEVF.LOPJIENT OF LEAFwNING AND THE AETS. 445 actual historical results of thorough Sunday-school instruc- tion, under the guidance of the Church, as a part of the great whole of religious influence, and a method of moral power now clearly providentially indicated. It requires, therefore, no great sagacity to see that the institution has already become a part and a mode of the national life ; that it has ceased to be experimental, and has become historical ; and that both those who make and those who write history must recognize this vitalizing force of the modern ages. Those who ignore or neglect this great power in this last half of the nineteenth century are unhistorical. And especially must the present and future development of the Republic of Liberty depend upon this and all other forms of culture which purify the heart, correct the judgment, and recognize God as the great Sovereign of mind, and Source of moral power. Let it not be deemed strange, therefore, that this institu- tion is slowly correcting its own mistakes, gradually per- fecting its course of study, and making its literature ; and that great public men in the United States, governors and judges, senators and assembly-men, learned gentlemen and splendid women, as well as the most humble, are sitting down humbly every Lord’s Day before their classes of little ones, rich and poor, to give and receive lessons from the word of God. The Sunday school is one grand reliance for the Christian culture of freemen, and the constitution of a pure, exalted statesmanship. It is, we repeat, truly national in the United States of America. In 1786, Bishop Asbury, of the Methodist- Episcopal Church, established the first Sunday school proper on the Western Continent. In 1861, the number of Sunday-school children in the Republic was estimated to be considerably above three millions. Since that time, the numbers in attend- ance have increased rapidly ; the Sunday-school force of the Methodists alone having reached over a million and a half 44G THE CHEAT REPUDLIC. It is even more important to state, that the institution is revealing more distinctly its organic life. It rises up as the great training department of the Church, full of energy and missionary power. Its graded classes and normal discipline give it order in “ theory and practice," and secure perma- nence as well as rapid development. Let American states- men and philanthropists cherish the Sunday school. ACADEMIES. The word “academy,” as commonly used in this country, has a peculiar meaning. It applies to intermediate institutions between common schools and colleges. We have seen, that, in our public schools, the highest grade reaches the acade- mies, and becomes, to some extent, a scientific and classical school, actually free to all. The growing intelligence of our children and young people of both sexe.s, however, requires institutions of higher grade ; and they are found in nearly every county, and especially at the centres of distinct com- munities, in buildings of great beauty and convenience, with regular gradations of studies and cla.sses. They are under the direction of teachers and executive ollicers generally well educated, sometitnes masters of their re.spective sciences and of the art of teaching ; thus furuishing to our more aspiring and promising young people a sound symmetrical education, which answers a good purpose for business and professional life, or a preparation for college. In all the.se institutions, the language.s, the natural .sciences, and mathematics are taught, and in some of them with great thoroughness. Their students number from perhaps thirty to five hundred each, many of whom remain from one to three year.s, and others for even a longer period, .going through a practical or preparatory course of great value, and securing a mental drill and development which give them great power in the future. The number of students now annually issuing from our academies, seminaries, and DEVELOPMENT OF LEARNING AND THE ARTS. 447 collegiate institutes, is becoming so large as to perceptibly elevate the average range of general intelligence and the standard of national character. Germany might as well do without her gjnnnasium as America without her academy. These institutions are sometimes founded and supported by the counties and municipalities, and partially endowed by the State ; but much more generally they are erected by the churches. The great Christian denominations, while they omit from their courses of instruction and discipline every thing which is peculiarly sectarian, feel the obligation imper- ative to provide liberally for the education of their own chil- dren and the general public under the thorough transforming influence of Christianity. They insist that true education must recognize God and his holy word ; must present Christ in the atonement, and the Holy Ghost in regeneration, as the restorer of heart and intellect and volition to their ori- ginally-intended righteousness. While, therefore, they seek thus to guard against infidel demoralization in the higher training of their young men and women, they look for the divine blessing upon their schemes of science and true wis- dom. The churches expend large sums of m.oney, freely given by the rich and the poor, to build, and, at least in part, endow, these institutions. It is a form of Christian enter- prise in which their very best minds, lay and clerical, expend their most sacrificing and consecrated efforts, not unfre- quently for a lifetime, actually to rear the national fabric in soundness, strength, and beauty. These schools, to a greater or less extent under the patronage of the evangelical churches, have ceased to be regarded as ecclesiastical estab- lishments for local or sectarian purposes, and come to be considered, as they really are to a large degree, great public vitalizing forces in every commonwealth for the proper cul- ture of the rising generation, the growth of the State, and the exaltation of the Republic. Thus, in the most enlightened as well as the darkest age 448 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. of the worltl, the Church appears as the grand conservator of learning, the regenerator of society, and the strcngtli of the nation. We also use the word “ academy ” in its higher sense. The Military Academy at West Point; the American Academy of Art.s and Sciences, Poston, founded in 1780 ; the Connec- ticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, founded in 1709; tlie Academy of Natural Science, Philadelphia, founded in 1818; the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, establi.shed in 1807 ; the National Academy of De.sign, and the Medical Academy, at New York, — are all institutions of high grade for improvement in the arts and science.s. The historical, cla.ssical use of the term “academy” is not .so frequent here as on the continent of Europe. It is, however, sometimes applied generally to all the higher institutions of learning. COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES. In a former part of this work, we have seen that the broad common sen.se and true statesmanship which regard high mental culture, under the control of religion, as vital to tlie Commonwealth, came with our fathers to this country. This spirit incorporated the Bible, the pulpit, the public .school, and the college into the very framework of society ; and there, despite the rage of infidels, Romanists, and char- latans, they have ever since remained, not as dead in opera- tive elements, but living, expanding force.s, without which the growth of our nation would have been utterly impos.sible. Let any man who doubts the soundne.ss of this conclusion undertake to account for our national development and power, leaving out the Bible, the pulpit, the common school, and the college, and he will .soon convict himself of inex- cusable superficiality and ridiculous narrowness of thought and opinion. It cannot be claimed that the greatest wisdom has con- trolled our higher educational movements in this country. DEVELOPMENT OF LEARNING AND THE ARTS. 449 Wo have shown, and felt, in this respect as well as others, the weakening influence of ultra democracy. More regard for the general, and not less for the particular, more for the whole, though not less for the local interests of the people, or, in other words, stronger centralization, would have given us fewer but much better colleges and universities, and a much riper, broader scholarship. We have not unfrequently wasted our means by localizing tendencies and divisions, thus producing a large number of colleges and universities quite unworthy of the name. If we have in this manner subjected ourselves to just criti- cism, and even damaging ridicule, we have, nevertheless, increased our academic popular power, and done in this what we do in every thing, — allowed the free range of facts and elective affinities to correct our opinions and revise our actions. We have learned, to some extent, where are our true centres, and what are our true methods. We are slowly accumulating the logic of age: for though our history includes but a small number of years, and denies us the moral force of a venerable antiquity, the rush of events in our new country crowds our brief years with so large a number of facts, and so much vitalizing force, that time, actually brief, becomes virtually long ; and it is no vain boast that we are much older than our years. It will be found to be historical at length, as it certainly is philosophical, that republican liberty rapidly multiplies the ages by its powerful attractions of wisdom and facts, the vigor of its thinking, the reckless- ness of its ventures, and the velocity of its movements. These strange elements of a new measurement of duration are gradually coming to the surface ; but they are only beginning to be recognized by thinkers in America and Europe. They will force their own acknowledgment when a few years have gone by, and it comes to appear, that in vitalizing power, if not in the numbers of their alumni, Yale and Michigan are older than Cambridge and Oxford. The State and the Church are separate in America, and 57 450 THE GREAT REPUDLIC. SO they will ever remain; while religion and political wisdom in Europe will slowly approach, and finally reach, the Ameri- can standard of moral freedom in all the great conditions of Christian progress. In the mean time, the two great thoughts and facts, the Church and the State, arc slowly revealing their common identity of life, development, and mission. In the spirit of this truth, wherever in this country the State institutes a college or university, Christian life fill's and develops it, or it die.s. 'Wherever the Church organizes a college or university, the State incorporates it, and some- times (more rarely heretofore than it will hereafter) assists in endowing or supporting it with the Christian wealth of a Christian State ; and whether its patronage includes money or land, or only influence, it absorlJs the rising goodness and talent, the public virtue and power, which the Church, through her institution.s, generates. Hence it is that we can- not know education nor the State, in the Great Republic, apart from the influence of the Church. Here therefore, as elsewhere, we are not surprised to find the Church, in her evangelical departments, the great organ- izer and inspirer of educational enterprise. The Bible, prayer, and regeneration come in to give life and direction to study and training; and consciously or unconsciously, oflicially or unofficially, the highest institutions of learning in America take their mould and receive their distinction from cccicsia.stical life and action. Let the following table of facts illustrate these remark.s. It is imperfect; but, com- piled by the Andover, Lane, and Chicago Societies of Inquiry, it is reliable for the purposes of this discussion. Colleges. Students. of Keligion. during Veur. In \'iciT Amherst oo 151 50 38 Alleghany 93 27 20 Appleton . 319 75 10 15 Bates . 48 31 13 Beloit . . 194 92 21 44 Bowdoia . 121 38 13 DEVELOPMENT OF LEARNING AND THE ARTS. 451 Colleges. Brown University . B irlinjton Chicago University . Cornell Columbia Dartmouth Dickinson Eleutlieria Genesoo . . Ilamline Hanover Harvard Hamilton Illinois Wesleyan University Indiana State University . Indiana, Asbury Kenyon Louisburg Madison Marietta McKendreo • Miami .... Michigan Middlebury . New Jersey . North-western University . Oberlin Ohio, Wesleyan Otterbein Rutgers Sliurtleff Pennsylvania . Trinity .... Union .... Vermont University Wabash Washington and Jefferson Western Reserve Wesleyan University i Wilberforce University Williams Yale .... Trofessors Conversions Ministry of Ueligiou. during Year. in View. 130 4 50 22 6 75 30 150 102 9 15 11 lj)0 20 20 80 5 40 20 55 19 155 15 25 10 80 24 78 11 42 95 30 15 50 21 4 48 31 59 33 102 27 10 74 17 18 19 11 121 19 20 1 12 69 50 85 60 024 200 118 100 73 90 20 10 46 3 25 1.50 5 61 05 18 48 41 18 44 8 18 18 5 2 48 40 . 17 82 3 47 59 25 10 114 40 24 6 118 30 18 229 40 Students. 190 99 280 516 05 234 120 32 81 339 39 419 164 298 253 368 143 95 130 46 130 07 280 53 232 135 1,145 162 225 105 185 104 59 150 38 150 142 126 133 42 190 500 452 THE GREAT REPURLIC. To a very large extent, the intelligent liherality inspired by our holy religion has produced these institutions; and they are hence thoroughly pervaded hy the religious spirit. With what propriety, therefore, is one day in every year devoted hy the evangelical churches to fervent prayer to God for his blessing on the colleges of our land ! Our universities are generally colleges, and not, as on the continent of Europe, a higher grade for advancing the education of graduates from the gymnasium or college; nor, as in England, grand corporations, including colleges, fellowships, sinecures, professorships, and their ancient and peculiar traditions. We have, however, several universities, including schools of law, medicine, and divinity. Learning in America, it may be conceded, is rather gen- eral than great or profound ; but we can claim an increasing number of scholai*s who are recognized and felt throughout the scientific and literary world. THE PRESS. In 1822, Lord John Russell mentioned before the House of Lords “the nudtiplication and improvement in news- papers, as gratifying evidences of the augmented wealth and expanding culture of the middle classes in Great Britain.” Thirty -eight years later, Mr. Kennedy said of America, “ A free press has become the representative, and, for the masses, the organ, of that free speech which is found indis- pensable to the development of truth, either in the religious, the political, the literaiy, or the scientific world.” Both these remarks are now receiving their fulfilment in the United States. Our periodical literature has become one of our grand “popular educators;” and the “augmented wealth and expanding culture ” of our free citizens have given, at the same time, evidence of the power of a free press, and scope for the development of its power. The United States has been called “a newspaper-reading na- DEVELOrMENT OF LEARNING AND THE ARTS. 453 tion.” In 1860, we published 4,051 papers and periodicals, amounting to 027,951,548 copies, valued at |39, 678,043; which would be 34.36 copies to each white man, woman, and child of the country. Our book-printing amounted to $11,843,459 ; job-work, to $7,181,213. In twenty States, — New England, Western, and Middle, and the District of Columbia, — tbe work of the press, in its various depart- ments, reached, in the single year 1860, $39,678,043. The increase of this power is beyond all parallel. A single religious publishing-house has turned out more than twelve bound books a minute for every working minute of a year ; an indication of the reading-matter actually demanded and paid for by the American people. It is of little avail to attempt to estimate the power of the press in this Republic. It has its vicious elements ; is seized by infidels, Romanists, spiritists, and demagogues to mislead the people for selfish ends, or to promote a perverted class interest. But this exceptional use of the great power of the nineteenth century does by no means render its free- dom questionable, or its influence, as a whole, pernicious. Its teachings, good and bad, illustrate the freedom of true re- publicanism ; while its collisions of mind and principle reveal the safety of free discussion, and bring out with enhanced power all the great doctrines of liberty. Licentiousness in the press as well as in every thing else must, of course, be suppressed ; but the Americans are sensitive with regard to any other limitations. The purest and noblest in our nation say, “ Let the battle go on ; let error and fiction war with truth ; let the selfish passions of leaders and parties dash against the fortress of liberty ; let infidelity and superstition assault the pure principles of the gospel and the true church t f God : there is no danger.” “ Truth, crushed to earth, will rise again ; The eternal years of God are hers : VVhile Error, wounded, writhes in pain, And dies amid her worshippers.” 4.34 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. In the art of printing, the Americans have mode great improvements. Conceding priority in experimental inven- tions for stereotyping to Vander Mey in Leyden, God of Edinburgh, M. Firmin Didot, France, and the Earl of Stan- hope, England, it may be afhrmed that American genius has carried the art to its highest present point of utility. The .sime may be claimed in regard to electrotyping, an impor- tant branch of electro-metallurgy; a department of industrial art, the power of which, for convenience, beauty, economy, and despatch, cannot be regarded as yet fully developed. Type-setting and distributing-machine.s, invented by Wil- liam II. Mitchell of New York, and C. W. Felt of Salem, Mass., indicate the labor-saving power of genius, and mark the progress of practical art in America. Perhaps nothing more distinctly indicates this progress than the contrast between the printing-press used by Frank- lin, and preserved in Washington as a sacred relic, and the rapid power-press of to-day. England, through the inven- tive genius of William Nicholson in 1790, may claim the honor of commencing experiments which led to the inven- tion of power-presses. Friederich Kbnig of Saxony, begin- ning in 1SP4 under the patronage of T. Bentley and R Taylor of London, made vigorous efforts in this direction, but did not reach practical success. lie abandoned the atr tempt to work a hand-pre.ss by power. lie, however, by the help of A. F. Bauer, a German of Stuttgard, made fur- ther experiments; and Nov. 28, 1814, “The London Times” was printed on a steam-pre.ss con.structed secretly by these Germans. Cowper and Applegath, both Englishmen, gave new form and considerable advancement to this important department of mechanism ; producing a cylinder-press which struck off six thousand two hundred copies per hour, and worked daily for moie than ten yeans. In th ? mean time, “ Isaac Adams of Boston, Ma.ss., took up the problem abandoned by Kbnig, of working a hand- DEVELOPMENT OF LEAPNING AND THE APTS. 455 press by power, and succeeded in making the machine de- scribed in his patents of 1830 and 1836.” The success realized by Mr. Adams in these experiments was largely in advance of his predecessors. But to Richard M. Iloe, of New York, the world is in- debted for complete success. In 1847, he made “ a perfect machine, on the cylinder of which the types are held by friction between bevelled column-rules.” Thus at length was produced a complete revolution in the art of printing. “ The ten-cylinder presses, such as are used in New York and London by the leading journals, strike off fifteen thousand impressions per hour. They are only employed for news- papers of large circulation.” Setting types by machines, stereotyping, electrotyping, the use of power-presse.s, and the statistics of the periodical and book trade, sufficiently prove that the Americans are a reading people. STEAM-N.WIGATION. When Watt brought his great invention of the steam- engine to practical perfection, men were by no means aware of the revolution it would produce in the navigation and Rcomotion of the world. Before its power could be appreciated or applied, numerous unsuccessful efforts Avould, of course, be made. Experiment- ers in England and France up to 1730, Jonathan Hull in 1736, the Count d’Auxiron, the Periers, the Marquis de Jouffry, and M. des Blancs, from 1774 to 1796, made praise- worthy efforts, but with no practical results. John Fitch of Pennsylvania, in 1786, succeeded in propelling a small skiff by steam, and in subsequent attempts, in 1790, on the Dela- ware, obtained so much success as to justly entitle him to the credit of establishing the practicability of steam-navigation; but his efforts fell short of the complete triumph which seemed to be just before him. Rumsey of Virginia, on the Potomac in 1787, and in England in 1793, made progress in 45G THE GREAT REPUBLIC. this direction. Enough had been done prior to the experi- ments of i\Iiller and Symington in Scotland, in 1788, to secure to America the claim of priority in this great discovery, so clearly as never to have been successfully controverted. Chan- cellor R. R Livingstone of New York, Oliver Evans of Rhil- adelj)hia, and John Stevens of Hoboken, N.J., made experi- ments which rendered still clearer the practicability of future success, hut did not quite reach it. Well, therefore, was it remarked by the committee of the fii*st Universjil Exhibition in 1851, that “many persons in various countries claim the honor of having first invented small boats propelled by steam ; but it is to the undaunted pei'scverance and exertions of the American Fulton that is due the evcrhisting honor of having produced this revolu- tion both in naval architecture ami navigation.” In “The Clermont” of “a hundred and sixty tons burden, a hun- dred and thirty feet long, eighteen feet wide, and seven feet deep, on the morning of Aug. 7, 1807, Fulton, with a few friends and mechanics and si.x passengers, started from New York for Albany, leaving on the shore an incredulous and jeering crowd.” This was the first steamboat excursion in the world. It was successful, and commenced a new era in navigation and commerce, rendering the name of Robert Fulton immortal, and co:iferring imperishable honor upon the country which gave him birth. Stevens came very near anticipating his great countrymen in tlic credit of their succc.ss, Ilis competing steamer, forced to avoid the New-York waters by the monopoly granted by the legi-slature to Living.stone and Fulton, pushed out boldly into the Atlantic, and reached Philadelphia in safety ; thus becoming the pioneer in ocean steam-navigation. “In 1818, ‘ The Savannah,’ a New-Yoi k-built ship, with side-wheels, and propelled by steam and sails, crossed the Atlantic to St. Petersburg, via Liverpool ; reaching the latter place, direct from New York, in twenty-six days, and returning in safety.” Thus to American genius and daring belongs the first honor DEVELOPMENT OF LEARNING AND THE ARTS. 457 of tlie groat revolution in ocean-navigation, as well as that on internal waters. In fifty years from the first trip of “The Clermont” on the Hudson, the number and influence of steamboats and steamships had exceeded computation. The world is alive with the quickened activity which has resulted to mind and commerce. Time, beyond computation, is saved in the transaction of business. The style of convenience in moving over the waters, and the nearer approach of nations, con- tribute to general improvement in civilization and the real- ized brolherhood of man. In all this we cannot fail to see the distinct manifestation of God. His were the waters and caloric ; his the timber, the metals, and the fuel ; his the mind and the muscle. He made them all, and controlled the time and the place of their mysterious combinations; thus revealing clearly his purpose, in the colonization and government of this country, to advance the race boldly beyond all former standards and methods of civilization. RAILPvOADS. To England fairly belongs the first honor of this great invention and the use of steam-locomotives. The begin- nings, of course, were very small and rude ; but they demon- strated the fact that steam-power could be rendered available for impelling carriages and removing freight on land. The development of this power has been very rapid both in Europe and America. It began in this country in 1829 ; and the decade immediately under review marks a splendid advance in this great method of civilization and progress. Previous to 1850, our railroads “sustained only an unim- portant relation to the internal commerce of the country. Nearly all the lines then in operation were local or isolated works, and neither in extent nor design had begun to bo formed into that vast and connected system, which, like a web, now covers every portion of our wide domain, enabling 458 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. each work to contribute to the traffic and value of all, and supplying means of locomotion and a market, almost at his own door, for nearly every citizen of the United States.” Only one line of road, the various links of the New-York C/’entral, connected the tide-waters of the East with the great internal basins of the country; and this was encumbered ith such tolls in the interest of the Erie Canal, as to amount to an embargo on freight. The next line, extending from Boston to Ogdensburg, was completed within the year 1850. The New-York and Erie was next; and this was opened April 22, 1851. The next was the Pennsylvania, which completed its “mountain divis- ion in 1854.” The Baltimore and Ohio, fifth in time, was opened in 1853. “ The Tennessee River, a tributary of the Mississippi, was reached in 1850 by the Western and Atlan- tic Railroad of Georgia; and the Mi.ssissippi itself, by the Memphis and Charleston Railroad, in 1859. In the extreme North, the Atlantic and St. Lawrence, now known as the 'Grank Trunk, was completed early in 1853. In 1858, the Virginia system was extended to a connection with the Mem- phis and Charleston and with the Nashville and Chattanooga Railroads.” “ The eight great works named, connecting the interior with the seaboard, are the trunks or base lines upon which is erected the viist system that now overspreads the whole country. They seem as outlets to the interior for its prod- ucts, which would have little or no commercial value with- out improved highways, the cost of transportation over which does not equal one-tenth of that of our ordinary roads.” The following will exhibit the number of miles of rail- roads constructed in ten years, from 1850 to 1800: — Incrcane In States. Ten Yiars. SlILES. Maine 2*26.58 New IIainp.-sblre . . . .101.27 Vermont 277.18 IncrenIa.ssachusett8 237.22 Rliodc Island 30.02 Connecticut 100.74 Ncw-England States 1.162.01 DEVELOPMENT OF LEAENING AND THE AETS. 459 States. Now York Increase In Ten Years. Miles. 1,298.74 States. Ohio Increase Ir Ton Ycara Miles. ■2,325.48 Now Jersey Pennsylvania .... Delaware 353.97 1,020.15 97.50 Indiana Michigan Illinois 457.30 2,757.40 Maryland 120.90 Wisconsin 902.01 Middle Atlantic States . 3,497.20 Minnesota Iowa 079.07 Tirginia 1,250.01 Kansas North Carolina. . . . South Carolina .... 040.92 098.97 Interior States North . 9,020.30 Georgia Florida 700.50 380.50 California Oregon 70.05 3.80 Southern Atlantic States, 3,730.90 Pacific States . . . 73.85 Alabama 010.00 Mississippi Louisiana 797.30 255.25 New-England States . . Middle Atlantic States 1,102.91 3,497.20 Texas 300.00 Southern Atlantic States . 3,730.90 Gulf States .... 1,909.21 Gulf States Interior States South . 1,909.21 1,720.14 Arkansas 38.50 Interior States North . . 9,020.30 Tennessee 1,197.92 Pacific States .... 73.85 Kentucky 489.72 Total in United States . 21,180.03 Interior States South . 1,720.14 1 Let the reader observe that we began this ten years with 8,588.79 miles of railroad in operation in the whole United States, costing ^290,260,128 ; during the progress of the de- cade, we increased 21,186.03 miles, at a cost of $838,192,781 ; making 29,775.42 miles of road, costing $1,134,452,909. This progress is so great, that we cannot extend our concep- tions or reason so as fully to grasp and comprehend it. In the decades to come, additions will be still more incompre- hensible. These roads, it was estimated by Mr. Kennedy, “ trans- ported in the aggregate at least eight hundred and fifty tons of merchan lise per annum to the mile of road in operation. Such a rate would give twenty-six million tons as the total 4G0 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. annual tonnage of railroads for the whole country. If we estimate the value of this tonnage at a hundred and fifty dollars per ton, the aggregate value of the whole would be three billion nine hundred million dollars. Vast as (hi.s com- merce is, more than three-quarters of it has been created since 1850. Up to the close of 18GG, wo had extended our lines so as to reach 3G,890 miles; making about thirty-eight percent of all the railroads in the world. In all Europe there are 50,117 miles, in North and South America 40,8GG miles, in Asia 3,GG0 miles, in Great Britain and Ireland 13,28G mile.'j, in France 3,082, and in Prussia 5,704, miles of rail- road. In the United States there are eighty-one square miles to each mile of railroad, and a mile of railroad to each thousand inhabitants. In Great Britain and Ireland, the proportion is nine miles of area to one of railroad, and one mile of ro.ad to each 2,189 of population; and in France the ratio i.s twenty-four square miles, and 4,172 of population, to one mile of railroad. One of the two grandest enterprises of the age is the Trans- continental Piailroad connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, and bringing America and Asia into neighborhood relations. The Union Pacific Railroad is now rapidly moving we.stward. It reached the Rocky Mountains in September, 18G7, — a distance of five hundred and seventeen miles from Omaha, Nebraska, where it connects with the great Eastern systems of roads centring at St. Loui.‘s, Chicago, Boston, and Now York. The California Central is building from the Pacific Ocean, eastward, to meet the Union Pacific; and they have already tunnelled the Sierra Nevadas, and hasten to meet their Eastern co-laborers at the earliest possible mo- ment. By this road. New York is within a week of San Francis- co ; and, by steam, Asia is within twenty-eight days of our great port on the Pacific. With these connection.s. the vast trade of Europe with Eastern Asia must cross this continent. •DEVELOPMENT OF LEARNING AND THE ARTS. 461 and San Francisco and New York be raised to a position of commercial enterprise heretofore unequalled. This vast work Avas boldly commenced by the United States in the midst of our gigantic civil war. Individual capital is munificently aided by the government Avith a grant of tAvelve thousand eight hundred acres of land to every mile of road ; to Avhich are added United-States bonds, for the least expensive portion, sixteen thousand dollars per mile ; the next class, thirty-tAVO thousand dollars ; and, for the mountain section, forty-eight thousand dollars per mile. This immense undertaking is noAv (fall of 1867) more than half completed. The cars Avill doubtless pass from ocean to ocean early in the year 1870. In the mean time, American genius has rapidly improved the comfort of railroad travelling. We may now at our pleasure enjoy our saloons and refreshments in the splendid cars fitting up for this and other roads ; and, AA'hen Aveary, at night Ave can retire to our state-rooms, and enjoy our repose, and Avake in the morning to find that Ave have moved as rapidly and safely in the hours of sleep as in the day. THE SAFETY STEAM-GENERATOR. We have not reached the highest perfection in the use of steam. Invention and discovery ought to reduce the bulk and expense of steam-apparatus, and secure us against the possibility of explosions. In this connection, it gives us great pleasure to introduce to our readers a recent invention by our felloAv-countryman, Thomas Mitchell of Albany, N.Y., which promises to accomplish these invaluable results. It has been examined and fully indorsed by scientific men and practical engineers. John Johnson, LL.D., Professor of Natural Science in the Wesleyan University at Middle- toAvn, Conn., in a letter to the inventor, says, “ Having been favored Avith an opportunity to witness the Avorking of your recently invented safety steam-generator, I take pleasure in 4G2 THE GREAT KERUBLIC. expressing iny views of it. The impression made upon iny mind is altogether favorable ; and, if 1 may not nllirin posi- tively that it is the greatest invention of the age, I can say, conscientiously, that I believe it will have the eflect very considerably to increase the importance and value of steam a> a motive-power, by diminishing both the cost of its per- fection and the danger of its use. I am happy to say that I consider your invention one of great importance and inter- est, as it cannot fail of coming into general use very soon.” Other testimonials express the same and even stronger convictions, without reservation. I have seen the movement of this beautiful invention as employed in working machine- ly; and I cannot see how it can fail to revolutionize the whole system of available steam-power in mechanism, loco- motion, and steam-navigation. From the following descrip- tion by the inventor, the reader will receive a clear idea of the steam-generator : — This generator takes the place of steam-boilers. Its con- struction is simply a cast-iron cylinder, lying horizontally within a furnace ; which furnace is formed of two-eighths of an inch wrought-iron plates riveted together, with a space between of about one inch. This space is kept fdled with water, thus protecting the iron case from the effects of the jeat The water thus heated is pumped into the generator. From this water, there is an open pipe into the air, so that no pressure is po.ssible. The generator is made to rotate by the steam-pump, making about two revolutions per minute over the fire in the furnace; thus securing an equal tempe- rature in its metal, and, of course, obviating the injurious effects of unequal expansion and contraction, and therefore giving it the greatest possible durability. One of these cylinders of ten-horse power is only thirty inches long by twenty diameter. There is a valve constructed like a safety- valve, on which a scale of figures is made. A spring, or weight, is placed on any of these, giving any number of pounds of water-pressure desired. The pump is kept con- DEVELOrMENT OF LEAENING AND THE ARTS. 4G3 slaiirly in operation. There is a half-inch water-pipe passing through the trunnions of the generator horizontally, which does not revolve, made tight by stuffing-boxes, and contain- ing holes on its upper side about two inches apart, and about a sixteenth of an inch in size. The water, passing into the generator through this pipe, becomes so highly heated, that it foams out of these little nozzles, and, coming in contact with the surrounding highly-heated steam, becomes steam itself before touching the metal of the generator. Suppose it is desired to run at sixty pounds of steam : the water- valve is set at this figure. The generator is now heated to a degree which will convert the water let into it immediately into steam : thus sixty pounds of steam is produced in about five seconds. This pressure, being equal to the water- pressure, prevents the introduction of any more water; and, there being no water in the generator from which to make steam, the steam cannot rise above the sixty pounds, and that, too, without regard to the degree of heat in the furnace. The two pressures, being thus equally balanced, render ex- plosions impossible. Now, as the steam-pressure is reduced by use, that remaining lets just water enough into the gene- rator to keep up the corresponding pressure, thereby secur- ing a steady supply of steam without regard to the quantity being used, and limited only by the amount of water a given size of cylinder is capable of converting into steam.” TELEGRArilY. Telegraphic communication began by the use of signals. Roman generals and North-American Indians alike availed themselves of this convenient method of overcoming distance and time. Fires, Hags, symbols formed of blocks of wood, illuminated letters, figures, telescopes, and mirrors were among the means adopted for this purpose. The way for the electric telegraph was prepared by the discovery, “ about the year 1729, that the shock could ba 4G4 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. tran-smitted long dlstartccs through conducting media with great rapidity;” by tlie invention of the Leyden jar; the experiments of Franklin; “firing alcohol by an electric charge, sent through wires, under water, across the Schuyl- kill in 1748;” and the Voltaic pile, discovered in 1800. In 1747, Dr, Watson discovered that “the earth it.self and intervening bodies of water might be made use of to com- plete the electric circuit.” The names of Le.sage of Genova, Lamond of France, Reizen of Germany, Don Francisco Salva, and Sr. Betancourt, are connected with important experi- ments extending from 1774 to 1797. On the track of this discovery appear the names of Francis Ronalds, England, in 1810; Harrison G. Dyer, New York, in 1827; and Sdmmcr- ing, Germany, beginning his experiments in 1809. The discoveries in electro-magnetism, commencing with Oersted of Copenhagen in 1819, opened a new era in the scientific eflbrts tending to tlio solution of this important problem. Then appear the names of Schweigger of Halle; Ampere of France; Prof Steinheil of Munich ; Cooke, Wheat- stone, Barlow, and William Sturgeon, of England ; all of ■whom made their contributions to the accumulating elec- trical thought of the age. Another stage of progre.ss is distinctly marked by the experiments of Prof Henry, made in Albany, N.Y., in 1828- 1830, greatly multiplying available magnetic force by the use of a covered wire. “ The current was so increased in in- tensitj’’, that the electric telegraph was at once made practi- cable for any distance.” Now Baron Schelling of St. Peters- burg, Councillor Gauss, and Prof Weber of Gottingen, enter the field, bringing their valuable experiments down to 1834. In 1836, Prof Daniell, England, discovered the method of sustaining a continuous current; and Prof Faraday, Eng- land, brought forward the inductive current; both important stops in advance toward the gre.it practical result destined to distinguish the age in which we live. In 1832, at Havre, on board the packet-ship “Sully,” our DEVELOPMENT OF LEARNING AND THE ARTS. 465 great countryman, Prof. Samuel Finley Bruce Morse, con- ceived the true idea of the electro-magnetic telegraph, and proceeded at once to make the drawings, which, after the most thorough legal sifting, have demonstrated his claim to be considered the true inventor of a system of telegraphic communication with all the essential apparatus required to render electro-magnetic and chemical power available in the grand system of telegraphy which now extends throughout the world. Slowly and carefully Prof Mor.se advanced in the prepara- tion of his machine and in practidtil experiments ; bringing out his invention successfully in New York in 1835, and producing communications through a circuit of half a mile. He then came before the government for an official recog- nition of his great discovery, but shared the usual fate of genius, — delays and vexations which seemed to be endless. Discouraged at home, he went abroad. England and France then had the opportunity of becoming the first great patrons of one of the greatest benefactors of the race ; but they suffered national prejudice, forms, and doubts to deprive them of this honor. Returning to his own government, and passing through conflicts and trials almost unendurable, he retired, on the last night of the session of 1842-1843, in complete despair. “ But in the morning — the morning of March 4, 1843 — he was startled with the announcement, that the desired aid of Congress had been extended in the midnight hour of the expiring session, and thirty thousand dollars placed at his disposal for his experimental essay between ^yashington and Baltimore. In 1844, the work was com- pleted, and demonstrated to the world the practicability and the utility of the Morse system of electro-magnetic tele- graphs.” * In consequence of these vexatious delay.s, he was antici- pated, in the production of the first actual working telegraph, by Prof C. A. Steinheil of Munich, in 1836. It was brought 6<) Appleton’s Cycloptrdia. 4G6 THE GREAT REPUDLIC. forward under the patronage of the Bavarian Government, and extended twelve miles, using the earth to complete the circuit. About the same time, Mr. William F. Cooke, a student at Heidelberg, taking his hint from the experiments of Prof Moncke, commenced a series of experiments, which, through the assistance of Prof Wheatstone, resulted in the English telegraph. The electro-chemical telegraph was brought to this country in 1849 by the inventor, Mr. Alexander Bain. It was a valuable improvement; but for legal reasons, and by arrangement, it has li%en incorporated with the working system of Morse. Prof Wheat.stone has continued his labors with important results. In the mean time, “ Mr. Alfred Vail of New York, M. Froment in France, Eoyal E. House of Vermont, David E. Hughes of Kentucky, and Jacob Bret in Great Britjiin,” invented printing-telegraphs, which arc doubtless of great value in the art The system of Mr. House “ is regarded as one of the mo.st wonderful and com- plete of the extraordinary inventions developed by the tele- graph.” To him belongs the honor of the first printed despatch ever produced upon a telegraph-line. It was sent in the autumn of 1847 from Cincinnati to JefiTersonvillc. Experiments are, of course, rapidly progressing. Defects are eliminated and excellences combined, while the invention of Prof Morse remains the grand basis of the whole, and the great practical method of telegraphy for the largest portions of the world. Indeed, it is a most unusual thing for any original inventor to include .so nearly and so fully all the fundamental principles of a great public improvement as did Prof Morse. The civilized world combines to recognize his claim, and extend to him the highest honors. From the sovereigns and governments of France, Ru.s.sia, Prus.sia, Swe- den, Belgium, Holland, Austria, Sardinia, Tu.scany, Rome, Denmark, Spain, and Turkey, and from citizens of England, he has received testimonials of gratitude such as have never been the lot of any American citizen. DEVELOPMENT OF LEARNING AND THE ARTS. 467 To him also belongs the honor of originating the sub- marine telegraph. He laid the first submarine telegraph- lines in New- York Flarbor in the autumn of 1842, and received at the time, from the Ameritan Institute, a gold medal for that achievement ; ” and it is claimed that the first suggestion of the Atlantic telegraph was made “ in a letter from Mr. Morse to the Secretary of the United-States Treas- ury, dated Aug. 10, 1843.”* I mentioned the American trans-continental railroad as one of the two greatest enterprises of the age. The Atlantic telegraph is unquestionably the other. From the first successful experiments of Mr. Morse in New- York Harbor, submarine telegraphy went on rapidly. The great leading mind in the struggles of twelve years, extend- ing from 1854 to July 27, 1866, resulting in placing the Old and the New World in almost instantaneous connection, was Cyrus W. Field, — a name which must ever stand high, not merely in the annals of America, but of the world. Dis- tinguished no less for his humility than for his high sense of justice, he awards to the great scientific men and noble patrons of progress in England the highest praise for their indispensable co-operation and unparalleled exertions uniting to secure for this great providential movement complete suc- cess; but the world combines to place the crown upon the head of our distinguished fellow-countryman, Cyrus W. Field. It is now wholly unnecessary to trace the steps by which this grand result was reached. It is enough, that, through- out the length and breadth of our land, we can read at our homes the great events transpiring in Europe on the same day of their occurrence, and even in anticipation of time by the clock. When we consider the genius by which this result has been achieved, and think of Franklin, Morse, and Field, with their great co-laborers in the field of discovery ; when we * For a full and valuable history of the telegraph, I refer the reader to Appleton’s Cyclopaedia, articles “ Telegraph” and “ Morse.” 468 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. see the gathering neighborhood of nations, and the grand unity of the race coming out of the confusion and strife of six thousand years, — we are constrained to exclaim, in the language of the fir.st telegraphic despatch in the world’s history, penned by an American woman, “ What hath God wrought ! ” Up to 1SG6, there were sixty-one important submarine or telegraph cable.s, amounting to ten thousand two hundred and thirty-one miles. The first commenced operation in 1851 ; but they had, at the above date, accomplished jointly three hundred and Ihirteen years of telegraphic work. Look, now, at the results of railroad and telegraphic com- munication, and behold the literal, of which the spiritual was seen by our great, Christian poet a hundred years in advance : — " Mountains rise, and oceans roll, To sever us, in vain.” ARCHITECTURE. Civil, military, and naval architecture may be regarded as progressive in the United State.s. It is treated as belonging to the useful rather than the fine arts. The utilitarian ten- dency of the republican mind shows itself in this depart- ment of industry. Our best architects study the practical and useful first, the elegant and beautiful if they have time. Many of them are good mechanics, have built houses for the convenience of poor men ; and the developments of gcniu.s, lifting them above the toil of handicraft, bringing them into the sphere of the beautiful, have generally been amid the limitations and discipline of poverty and the constant demand for cheap plans and low prices. The achievements of our clever artists are, on this account, the more creditable, and, at the same time, the more useful. We. moreover, harmonize with the tendencies of our times. The really grand in architecture seems to belong to other DEVELOPMENT OF LEARNING AND THE ARTS. 4C0 ages. The obelisks, pyramids, temples, palaces, and tombs of Egypt will never be reproduced nor imitated in America or elsewhere. The magnificent temples of India, and the grand and imposing structures of Greece and Rome, belong wholly to the past. Paganism could exceed Christianity in the enormous wastes of power which struggled to symbolize the greatness of their conceptions «f the gods. It has long since exhausted its resources in these efforts, and lapsed into barbarism in its attempts at architecture as well as its modes of living. The early Christians introduced in their splendid cathedrals a much purer ideal of God and worship, but gave undue position to ornaments in their church architecture and dec- orations. This era also, we believe, has departed, not to re- turn. There will, probably, be no other specimens of imposing grandeur and inspiring beauty thrown around the simple worship of the Lord Jesus, at all comparable to those which still remain in Europe the admiration and wonder of trav- ellers. The movement in this department of art is away from the physical toward the spiritual. Hence simplicity and beauty have taken the place of grandeur and extravagance ; a fact which shows clearly that America is in harmony with the age. The manifestations of tyranny, which absorb the toil and means of a generation of millions for the aggrandize- ment of the sovereign, are superseded by the Christian utili- ties, which distribute resources of enjoyment among the masses. Pyramids and cathedrals are the types of the dead past ; railroads, steamboats, telegraphs, chaste, convenient church-edifices, and halls of learning, the types of the pres- ent. We have no lamentation for the departure of the symbols of despotism, paganism, and corrupted Christianity, but rather glory in the fact that the Great Republic leads the world in the direction of the useful, the beautiful, and the true. This is the direction of democratic freedom and pure Christianity. 470 THE (fnEAT REPUBLIC. In the mean time, under the control of simple good sense, our artists and artisans, acting in jiarmony, are keeping pace with the advancing wealth and culture of our people. Palatial residences, tine public building.s, and especially beautiful houses of state and of worship, are rising up rapidly around us. We can, it is true, show but few specimens of pure Doric, Ionic, or Corinthian ; but we have preserved and u.<5ed something of the spirit of them all, while the semi- Gothic, Old English, Romantique, and various composites, are giving an air of wealth and taste to our church and other edifices. PALMING. We are not di.<5posed to make pretentious claims of prog- ress in the fine arts in America. This would be absurd, as we are yet in the infancy of national life. We are quite con- tent with the simple truth, which shows a real and relative development of taste worthy of our land and our freedom. In portraits, we began in Boston as early as 1067 ; but, ac- cording to Mr. Tuckerman, the colony now known as Rhode I.'^land was the scene of our earliest art.* Here Smybert began his work, and by a copy of a cardinal by Vandyke, placed in Yale-College Gallery, kindled the fires of genius in the soul of young Alston, so famous in a later day. In Pennsyl- vania, Benjamin We.st arose from obscurity to become the great representative of American genius, and give distinction to our country by such productions of his master skill as “ Christ Rejected ” and “ Christ healing the Sick.” Jarvis, the eccentric nephew of John Wesley, came for- , ward to attract attention. His “ Perry at Lake Erie,” and numberless other productions, combined with his genial social qualities to make him a general. favorite. The.“ Ariadne ” of Vanderlyn w’as also “regarded as a miracle of beauty.” * It gives us pleasure to refer to “American Artist-Life,” by Mr. H. T. Tuckerman, — a new work of great value. We are under special obligations to the publishers, G. P Putnam & Son, for the use of the proof-sheets in advance of publication. DEVELOPMENT OF LEARNING AND THE ARTS. *471 “ Henry Inman, than whom no votary of the pencil in America had more of the true traits of artist-genius, whose few refined and graceful compositions, and portraits of Wordsworth, Chalmers, Macaulay, and others, amply attest his skill and originality, was cut off in the prime of his years and his faculties. Thomas Cole, a landscape-painter, as truly alive to the significance of our scenery as a subject of art as is Bryant as one of poetry, and who united graphic pow- ers with poetical feeling, had but just reached his meridian when he passed away.” * Charles Wilson Peale, an honest mechanic, found the spirit of art stirring within him, and became a student of West; rose to distinction as a portrait-painter, and contributed much to the progress of art and natural history by his museum in Philadelphia, and his influence in founding the Pennsyl- vania Academy of Fine Arts, to seventeen annual exhibitions of which he was a contributor. Rembrandt Peale, second son of Charles Wilson, added to the reputation of his fiunily and his country by his brilliant talents as a painter. His ‘‘ Roman Daughter,” ‘‘ Court of Death,” and portrait of Washington, gave him an enviable fame as a spirited idealist as well as a truthful delineator. The name of Charles Loring Elliott, born in Scipio, N.Y., 1812, has become historical in American art. He is justly celebrated for the accuracy of his likenesses. Fraser, Trum- bull, Stuart, and Durand have also added lustre to the art- fame of their country. Frederick Edwin Church was born at Hartford, Conn., in 1826. His spirited drawings and brilliant colorings have raised him to the highest position as a representative of American art at home and abroad. His famous view of Niagara Falls, in the judgment of English critics, “ in the rush of the waters and the fine atmospheric effects, realizes the idea of sound as well as of motion, and has done more than any other of its class to impress Europeans with a knowledge and * Tuckurman’s American Artist-Life, p. 10. 472- THE GREAT REPUBLIC. appreciation of American art.” * But we cannot give even a catalogue of our deserving historical portrait and landscape painters. “ Within the last few years, the advance of public taste and the increased recognition of art in this country have been among the most interesting phenomena of (he times. A score of eminent and original landscape-painters have achieved the highest reputations, private collections of pictures have become a new social attraction, e.vhibitions of works of art have grown lucrative and popular, buildings expressly for studios have been erected, sales of pictures by auction have produced unprecedented sums of money, art-shops are a delecUible feature of Broadway, artist-recep- tions are favorite re-unions of the winter, and a splendid edifice has been completed devoted to the Academy, and owing its erection to public munificence ; while a school of design is in successful operation at the Cooper Institute Nor is this all : at Rome, Paris, Florence, and Dus.seldorf, as well as at Chicago, Albany, BuflTalo, Philadelphia, Boston, and New York, there are native a/eZiers, school.s, or collections, the fame whereof has raised our national character, and en- hanced our intellectual resources as a people.” t SCDLPTCRE. In this department of the fine arts, American genius ha,? reached a very high distinction, A few names are suflicient to represent the progre.ss of our brief history. Horatio Greenough was a native of Boston, born in 1805. He was a natural sculptor from his boyhood. While a col- lege-student, he formed the model after which Bunker-hill Monument was constructed. lit 1825, he was in Rome. Here he enjoyed the instructions of Thorwaldsen, but learned more from his fellow-students. At Boston again, in 1826, we * Appleton’s Cyclopadia, art. “ Church, Frederick Edwin.” t Tuckerman, p. 12. DEVELOPMENT OF LEARNING AND THE ARTS. 473 find him modelling busts of John Quincy Adams, Chief Jus- tice Marshall, and others. But soon again he is in Italy, with Ins residence in Florence. His first marked encouragement came from James Fennimore Cooper, who commissioned him to execute the “ Charity Cherubs.” This act of Mr. Cooper was highly appreciated, and gratefully acknowledged. From the example and influence of this distinguished American he received numerous orders from his countrymen for busts and other pieces of statuary, the most important of which is the colossal statue of Washington, now standing in the eastern grounds of the Capitol. A memorial of this worthy artist, by Mr. II. T. Tuckerman, has done much to preserve the record of his labors and moral worth. He says, “ Horatio Greenough left a void not only in the thin rank of our sculp- tors, but among the foremost of Art’s intelligent and eloquent advocates and expositors. Not soon will be forgotten his copious ideas, independent spirit, and genial fellowship.. No American artist has written more effectually of the claims and defects of art-culture among us.” Hiram Powers was born in Woodstock, Vt, July 29, 1825. His early life was that of an ordinary American farmer’s bojL At length he worked his way to Cincinnati, where he showed his mechanical genius and business capacity in connection with a clock-maker. A German sculptor awakened in him the desire to be an artist, and taught him to model in plaster. Then, for seven years, he had the charge of the Western Museum in the Avax-work department. In 1835, he began at Washington a successful career in modelling busts of di.s- tinguished men. Then, under the patronage of Nicholas Longworth, he went to Italy j since which, Florence has been his home. Fie now needs neither eulogist nor monument. His “ Eve,” “ Greek Slave,” and “ Fisher-Boy,” with numer- ous other miniature works, give him a world-wide fame, and reflect the highest honor upon his country. He has led the way in departing from the ideal, and embodying in marble a loving devotion to Nature and truth. 60 474 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. Tlioifias Crawford, a native of New-York City, was bom an artist, March 22, 1814. He began to draw and sketch as soon as he wa,s able to move a pencil. Ilis studies were con- ducted first with a wood-engrarver ; then with Messrs. Frazer and Launitz, monumental sculptoi*s, in his native city ; and at the scliool of the National Academy of Design. After pro- ducing indications of talent in portrait busts, he was found at Rome in the summer of 1835. Here he spent several years of the most devoted study and labor in the studio of Thorwaldsen. During this time, his almost incredible devo- tion and splendid genius produced many fine jiicces, and raised the hopes of his friends to a very high degree. In 1839, he brought out his celebrated “ Orpheu.s.” This secured him the patronage of the Hon. Charles Sumner in an order from Roston for a copy in marble, which, exhibited with other works from Mr. Crawford, formed the opening to a career of the greatest success. His studios in the Plaza Barberini were highly attractive to men of genius from all countries. His colos.sal equestrian statue of Washington, twenty-five feet high, for the State of Virginia; his grand historical and allegorial pieces; his figure of Liberty, in group with allegorical representations of the Arts, Commerce, and Civilization, for the new Capitol, — are works of the highest merit. Finally, the colossal statue of the Genius of America is a fitting crown for the Capitol at Washington and the genius of the artist. I cannot deny myself the pleasure of mentioning one other mime, — Mr. K. D. Palmer. In the city of Albany is a quiet studio which any gentleman of taste may feel himself privileged to enter. It is the home of calm thouglit, pure sentiment, bold conception, and chaste imagination. It is where the artist studies and toils from pure affection for the beautiful and the true. It is where the “Infiint Ceres” throws out the light of a soul through marble features; where ‘*The Morning and Evening Star” shine in baas-relicf with a .'-oft radiance indicating the very incarnatitm of light ; where the DEVELOPMENT OF LEARNING AND THE ARTS. 475 “ Spirit’s Flight,” with the eyes of the mother resting on the symbol of the atonement, and a true child ‘‘full of graceful simplicity,” fixes the gaze of tenderness and love. Then look at the ‘‘ Indian Girl.” She has found a crucifix, and holds it carefully and inquiringly in her right hand : in her left, loosely held as if forgotten, are the feathers gathered for the adornment of native grace, — beautiful, touching, spiritual. There the White Captive” seems ready to speak, while you are mute with sympathy and admiration. “The moment chosen by the sculptor is evidently that when the full con- sciousness of her awful fate is awakened, — perhaps the morning after the capture, when, no longer fearing pursuit, the savages despoil their beautiful victim, and gloat over her anguish. She is no longer breathlessly hurried onward, but standing there in the wilderness, desolate and nude, realizes through every vein and nerve the horrors of her situation ; but virgin purity and Christian faith assert themselves in her soul, and chasten the agony they cannot wholly subdue. Accordingly, while keen distress marks her expression, an inward comfort, an elevated faith, combines with and sub- limates the fear and pain. Herein is the triumph of the artist. The ‘ White Captive ’ illustrates the power and inevitable victory of Christian civilization. Not in the face alone, but in every contour of the figure, in the expression of the feet as well as the lips, the same physical subjugation, and moral self-control, and self-concentration are apparent. The ‘ beauty and anguish walking hand in hand the down- ward road to death ’ are upraised, intensified, and hallowed by that inward power born of culture, and that elevated trust which comes from religious faith.” * These and many other works of exquisite art are only in part the outward manifestations of the inner life of thought and feeling of our fellow-citizen, — Mr. E. D. Palmer, too diffident to allow himself to be named, and yet so far almost unconsciously demonstrative as to add lustre to the future of Aincrican art. Tuckerman’s American Artist, “Palmer.’ 476 THE GREAT REPUBLIC, Compelled ns we are to pause here, we can only ask our readers to stand reverently before the great Creator of mind and genius, and adore the wisdom, the power and love, so richly blended in these splendid creations. PIIOTOGR.VPnY. Tliis means the art of depicting objects by means of ligliL Priestley seems to have been the first to discover by chemical experiments that this was possible. The experi- ments of Schule, a Swedish philo.'^opher, who shared with Priestley the honor of discovering oxygen gas, tended further to demonstrate this possibility. The names of Count Rum- ford, Mr. Wedgwood, and Sir Humphry Davy, are also men- tioned as having made valuable contributions to discov- eries in this field. Daguerre in France in 1839, and, about the same time, Talbot in England, invented methods “for the fixation of the images of the camera obscura;” and the results were deemed of great importance. The proce.ss came to be called the daguerrotype, in honor of the distinguished French discoverer; and the pictures of outward objects were exceed- ingly sharp and fine. It is, however, to Dr. Draper of the New-York University that the world is indebted for the discovery that likenesses could be taken by light from the living presence. Dr. Draper announced his discovery in the London, Edinburgli, and Dublin philosophical magazines; and it is believed that he carried the art to so high a degree of perfection, that some of his portraits have not been excelled. “This great im- provement was accomplished at a time when the inventor of the daguprrotype had given it up as impossible.” * From this point, experiments have advanced until photog- raphy has become an immense business in the United States and elsewhere. The various forms of the art are so well known as hardly to need description. Ambrotype and pho- * Appleton’s Cyclopaedia, art. “ Photography.” developml:nt of learning and the arts. 477 tograph portraits have nearly superseded the old daguerro- types in popular use, but not in real artistic perfection. The result of the whole is to give to people of the most ordinary means the luxury of likenesses painted by the sun, which preserve the features of friends living and dead. The discovery is, therefore, of great value. The miniature in oil was so costly, that only the few could afford it ; hence pho- tography is a very large accession to the happiness and improvement of the masses, as well as the wealthy and most highly cultivated. It has come to be applied to depicting landscapes and copy- ing manuscripts with great distinctness and beauty, and is a grand accession to the convenience and perfection of the portrait-painter and engraver. Large as is the field of this art, its applications are destined to be still farther extended. It undoubtedly deserves to rank high among the astonishing discoveries of our own eventful times. Thus have we endeavored to present the development of learning and the arts in America, that our readers maj see how high above mere human possibility the mind of the Great Republic has been raised by the direct power of God. CHAPTER VIII. DEVELOPMENT OF MANHOOD AND HUMANITY. “The Americans arc a very old and a very enlightened people, who have fallen upon a n;w and unlaiundcd country, where they may extend themselves at pleasure, and which they may fertilize without difhculty. This state of things is without a parallel in tlie history of the world.’’ — De Tocquevillb. There is a higher, more important progress than the merely physical, — a greatness that ri.ses above the greatness of wealth and commerce, and quite as far above the merely intellectual. If the effect of climate or the configuration of our conti- nent had been to make us earthly and sensual, and, as a nation, we had become only large consumers and large tra- ders, the period of development in our history had been only the animalization of the race with an enormous growth of individualism, which would have made us the contempt and scorn of all pure intelligences on earth and in heaven. The Western continent, it has been noticed, is concave toward the sky; while the Eastern is convex. Our rivers run from the outer rims toward the great inward trough, and so seek the .‘sea by the way of the Missi.ssippi ; therefore, it has been very learnedly exj)lained, our minds run downward, earth- ward, and we are material, naturally and necessarily mate- rialists : while the land of the Europeans and Asiatics arches towards tlie centre, and their waters are drained each way towards the oceans; therefore the Europeans and Asiatics by great physiological laws look up, and are inevitably religi:)us, superstitious. 478 DEVELOPMENT OF MANHOOD AND HUMANITY. 479 If this argument were not a most ridiculous conceit, and therefore utterly unworthy of serious consideration, and if the tendencies were exactly what this physical theory of the moral man assumes, we have a strong and triumphant answer in the facts ; for, despite the convexity of the East and the concavity of the West, materialism and sensuality are rank and extended in both hemispheres. Even the present forms of religion are compelled to resist the downward tendency of fallen human nature, everywhere, by the most heroic exertions ; an era of rationalistic scepticism and another of kindred ritualism not unfrequently following rapidly on the track of great religious reformations. TRUE MANHOOD. The great truth is, that, in the Orient as well as the Occi- dent, men can be good and great only by aid from above. Under the action of this inspiration, selfishness and corrup- tion, there as here, recede, and give place to all the en- nobling feelings and acts of regenerated humanity. There and here, human pride and ambition substitute the material for the spiritual, the worship of the fine arts for the worship of the great Architect of the heavens and the earth, of church architecture instead of the Holy Being to whom these stately, magnificent edifices are consecrated. In Amer- ica, just as much, and no more, must be conceded. With- out the regeneration and the new life, we are earthly and sensual, exactly like Europeans ; and tend to idolatry in some form, like the Asiatics: while, just like both, under the power of the great spiritual resurrection, despite the concavity of our part of the globe, our nations are refined and exalted ; and we rise in the scale of greatness to the highest spirituality and benevolence. One grand announce- ment includes us all. ‘‘Ye must be born again” reveals at once the reasons for our despair and our hope. In the new moral creation, we have a marked development 480 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. of the native capabilities of man, and learn how the disabili- ties of our race may be eflectually helped, and our inherent vices eradicated. There man begins to live for man in distinction from self It cannot be controverted, just so far as the power of experimental religion extends in reforming and moulding the nature of a man, he moves from littleness to greatness, from selfishness to beneficence ; humility takes the place of pride; cha.stity, the place of lust; honesty, the place of fraud ; love, the place of hatred ; truth, the place of falsehood; industry and enterprise, the place of idleness and decay. These are all great elements of true manhood ; and the growth is so visible, that a man who denies it simply condemns himself for absurdity or dulness, narrowness or falsehood. Just as in individuals, so in nations. So far as the regene- ration of human nature advances, so far the nation rises in character and moral power. For all great moral achieve- ments of the race, sin is the infiincy of a people, righteousness their manhood. Virtue begins to reveal its strength under the cro.s.s, and piety unfolds its power in the exercise of true faith, — “faith that works by love, and purifies the heart.” True manhood appears in its types. The first Adam was a man combining the powers and susceptibilities directly created by infinite perfection. Ilis descendants were less than men by all their infidelity, disloyalty, depravity, false- hood, sorrows, groans, and dying. The second Adam was a man, — a God, it is certain, but nevertheless a man, a typal man ; and as the race became less than men by receding from the first typal man, so they become men just as they approach the second. In his fullest form, the second man was the Lord from heaven ; and thus the divine in union with the human becomes the highest type of manhood. Just as the human race becomes imbued with the grace and power of God under the po\ver of the second man, who becomes to believing sinners “ a quickening spirit,” do they approach this highest type of manhood. DEVELOPMENT OF MANHOOD AND HUMANITY. 481 The true manhood of a nation will therefore he, first the regenerated manhood of the Fall; then, so far as the new life succeeds, the restored manhood of Eden ; and thence the developed manhood of the old in the new creation. Let it he remarked, then, as a matter of fact, that the grow- ing greatness of the American nation is, so far as it has advanced, the progressive development of the new manhood. This is seen in the individual instances of reformation in the domestic Edens, which come of the restoration of love ; the social elevation, which makes vice disgraceful, and installs virtue and piety as the dominant forces of reason; and in the grand uprising of a whole people, counting martyrdom to honor and secure a great principle. We must reckon jas the result of the regeneration, not only the per.=!ons in whom it is developed as a new life, hut those in whom any divine influences have found room and liberty to begin their work. The general faith in the being of God ; the public universal acknowledgment that Jesus is the Christ, that he is the only hope of the world ; the condemna- tion of professing Christians for their improprieties and sins; and the universal homage paid to goodness, with the equally universal acknowledgment of the duty and necessity of reformation in order to perfect happiness and safety, — must be referred to the same source. These all broaden and heighten the manhood of our nation. Then comes the elevating power of science, confirming the truth and reflecting the glory of Christianity ; then the spirit of the press, imbued with the life of a great regeneration, moving the world mightily God-ward ; then the broad expansion of liberty, accepting and proclaiming the universal brotherhood of man ; finally the uplifting of the lowest, and the conse- quent rising of the whole to the sphere of power which reveals the inevitable, the indestructible, the endlessly-pro- gressive, in the national life. This era of the Great Republic dawns upon us to-day. It would happen, of course, in the coming of generations, 61 482 THE GREAT REPUDLIC. under such quickening influences, that individual minds, highly susceptible and broadly formed, would grow to dis- tinguished greatness. Hence, though not thoroughly Chris- tian, yet reached and stimulated by Christian forces, Franklin and Webster rose in statesmanship above Mirabeau and Talleyrand. Hence Washington and Lincoln, deeply imbue 1 with the religious spirit, Avere greater than Jeflerson ami Calhoun. Thus Williams and Edwards, Marshall and Mc- Lean, Judson and Olin, rose higher in historic renown than other men of equal mental greatness, and approached very nearly to the sublime purity and majestic strength of true manhood. But the elevation of the common mind by the power of a pervading Christian life, until justice is enthroned by the will of the people, will be a broader, greater fact. From this epoch in the nation’s history, the approach to typal manhood will be more rapid and more thoroughly sustained. ASYLUMS FOR THE DEAF AND DUMB. Works of humanity follow promptly the development of true manhood under the benevolent influence of Christianity. The best Christian minds of all countries, from mere love of the race, inquire anxiously after the welfare of the suffering and unfortunate. “ Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself” is the second great commandment of our beneficent Christi- anity ; and the law of action toward the needy is distinctly announced by our Saviour, — “All things Avhatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them.” Not merely the authority of these commands, but the actual feeling of regenerated natures, and the longing desires of enlightened good men in the spirit of a religion of love, move them to make efforts to relieve distress, to exalt char- acter, and enlarge the sphere and amount of positive enjoy- ment and usefulness. Hence it is that institutions for the education of the deaf and dumb, the blind, the insane, the DEVELOPMEXT OF MANHOOD AND HTTMANITT. 483 intemperate, and the idiot, arise in Christian countries, and are not found in heathen lands. As is usual in all great developments of civilization, the first efforts made for the deaf and dumb were crude and un- satisfactory, — a kind of feeling around in the dark after facts and agencies which only revealed their dim outlines. The code of Justinian held deaf-mutes incapable of the legal management of their affairs; and the wisest philosophers regarded the calamities of these unfortunates irremediable. In the middle ages, they were debarred from the rights of feudal succession. To Pedro Ponce, a Benedictine monk of Spain, belongs the honor of one of the first recorded attempts to educate the deaf and dumb. He died in 1504. Bouet followed, a half- century later. The Germans claim the precedence of a full century for efforts attended with success recorded by Rodolph Agricola, and thus make the successful endeavors of Parch, a clergyman of Brandenburg, to educate his deaf-mute daugh- ter by pictures, contemporary with those of Ponce. In the seventeenth century, small advance is asserted in this humane endeavor. The great error, however, was in attempting to educate by articulation ; and it was reserved for the Abb6 de I’Epee of France to originate the great movement which resulted in the use of signs, the natural language of deaf- mutes, and to found the first institution for their edueation. From this went out suggestions and teachers which founded * schools in Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Holland, and Spain. “ It was only from this time” (1755 to 1760) “ that the duty of educating them began to take hold of the public con- science.” About the same time, the efforts of Thomas Braid- wood in Scotland, and Samuel Ileinecke in Saxony, came to public notice. Our own system was brought from the school of De I’Ep^e, inl816„byour distinguished citizen, Thomas II. Gallaudet, whose equally distinguished son has done so much to perfect and extend the system in America. 484 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. As late as 1850, there were only a hundred and eighty institutions for the deaf and dumb in the world, numbering about six thousand pupils. There were about eighty small schools in Germany, forty-five in France, and twenty-two in the British Isles. Our highly-valued pioneer institution in Hartford was opened in 1817. The next began in New York, in the same year; and the next in Pennsylvania, in 1820. Kentucky fol- lowed in 1823, Ohio in 1829, and Virginia in 1839. In 1834, we had six institutions, thirty-four teachers, and four hun- dred and sixty-six pupils ; in 18G0, twentj^-two institutions, a hundred and thirty teachers, and two thousand pupils. It is easy to see that the work must be largely extended, a.s, in 1860, the number of deaf-mutes had reached fifteen thou- sand and seventy-seven. These institutions cost the several States about three hundred and fifty thousand dollars annually ; while over a million and a half has been invested in l)uilding.s, grounds, &c. The Columbia Institution in Washington is an ad- vance movement designed further to perfect the .system, and extend to these unfortunates the benefits of a college-course. ASYLUMS FOR THE BLIND. The appeal of the blind to our sympathies and humanity *is perhaps still more touching. Shut out as they are from the world of external beauty ; denied the pleasure of looking upon the landscape with its hill and dale, its flowers and fruit ; not permitted to see the countenances of those they love, nor read a line of all the world of literature so acce.s- sible to us, — it would be really strange if Christian benefi- cence should make no efforts to improve their condition. " L’lldpital Impdrial des Quinze Vingts was founded by St. Louis in 1260, and still exists. It, however, makes no efforts to instruct its three hundred inmates. Valentine Ilaiiy, receiving his hints from the success of the Abbe de DEVELOPMENT OF MANHOOD AND HUMANITY. 485 I’Epde in relief of the deaf-mutes, determined to see if the blind could not be aided by the sense of touch. Letters, maps, and finally books, were printed in relief: blind children touched them, and soon commenced to read. This good work began to assume form in Paris in 1784, and*in Liverpool in 1791; extending through France and England, and finally through all Europe. In the United States, in 1860, 12,635 were blind; being one to every 2,470 of the whole population. This, however, is only two-fifths of the number in Great Britain and Ireland, and three-fifths of the number in France. The causes of this difference in our fixvor have not yet been so well defined as to belong to historical records. But we have sufficient numbers to excite our deepest interest and most liberal ef- forts. Our institutions for the blind began in Boston in 1833. In 1860, they numbered twenty-three, and a thousand one ► hundred and twenty-six pupils and inmates; and so sure is the progress, that we may regard it as morally certain, that this unfortunate class will be well provided for by the provi- dent wisdom of our Christian States. The culture of so many good minds, otherwise completely dormant, is not only humane as a relief to deprivation and suffering, but a clear gain to the world. The Bible is the great book of the blind ; and it is intensely interesting to see with what fixed attention they trace, by the sense of touch, the name and revelations of God, and the plan of redemption by Jesus Christ. The educated blind manifest great love of music, and some of them considerable talent. They sing, and touch the instrumental keys and strings, with a delicacy and tender- ness quite peculiar to themselves; while their cheerful piety very largely sustains the Christian hope which founded their institutions. Surely no philanthropy rises to a nobler eleva- tion than that which becomes “ eyes to the blind.” 486 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. ASYLUMS FOR TDE INSANE. Perhaps no sufferers appeal more piteously to the Chris tian philanthropist than the insane. It is amazing to see how long they were con.sidered and treated as beyond the reach of remedy, mad enemies of all, fit only to be 1?hut up within dark prisons and darker cells, under control of physical power only. God only knows what tortures have been endured from this sad mistake, what rage and horror have resulted from a sense of injustice upon the part of those who were only partially insane, having sense enough of conscious right to make the wrongs of imprisomncnt and personal abuse severe and dreadful. It is hardly yet a hundred years since the light of true reason began to dawn upon the problem, “ Can any thing be done to ameliorate the condition of the insane ? ” The first movement in this direction was a general cura- tive hospital in Philadelphia, instituted by philanthropists, and incorporated in 1751. The charter, under the title of “ the constitutors of the Pennsylvania Hospital,” provided for “ the reception and cure of lunatics.” The hospital was opened on Feb. 11, 1752; and thenceforward one of its departments was specially appropriated to that cla.ss of pa- tients. To Virginia belongs the honor of establishing the first institution exclusively for the improvement of the insane. Under an act of incorporation, passed Nov. 10, 1769, a hos- pital was opened at Williamsburg about Sept 14, 1773. In the war, the buildings were occupied as barracks for the colonial troops ; but, after the war, they were restored to their legitimate use. The New-York IIo.spital was chartered by the Karl of Dunmore in 1771. It was opened Jan. 3, 1791 ; and in.sane patients were admitted in 1797. These were all the formal efforts made for this humane purpose before the beginning of the nineteenth century ; and “ the character of the treat- DEVELOPMENT OF MANHOOD AND HUMANITY. 487 ment was more custodial than curative.” Still they were beginnings of great historical value, as they indicate the genesis and growth of philanthropic feeling and inquiry in this important direction. In 1791, the benevolent Dr. Pinel, amid the horrors of the French Revolution, gave his thoughts anxiously to the relief of maniacs. “ He was connected with the Bicetre Ilopital, in Avhich many of the insane Avere confined in cells, and loaded Avith manacles and chains. After repeated solicita- tions, he at length obtained permission from the public au- thorities to remove these torturing implements of bodily restraint. He commenced by relieving an English captain who had been chained for forty years. The result Avas so favorable, that he relieved eleven others in the course of the day, and, in a few days, forty-one more. Thus began a move- ment of humanity which spread rapidly over Europe and America, and Avhich, in the relief it has extended and the blessings it has conferred, has had no parallel in the history of Christian civilization. About the same date, William Fuke, of York, England, in- augurated a more humane treatment for the insane by found- ing the Friends’ Retreat for the Insane at York, opened in 1796. In 1808, a separate budding for the insane Avas erected at the NcAA'-York Hospital. In 1797j seven acres of land Avere given to the State of Maryland by Mr. Jeremiah Yellot of Baltimore, “on con- dition that the government should found a hospital for the treatment of insanity and general diseases.” This institution Avas not opened until 1816. The Friends of Philadelphia “formed an association in 1812; obtained a charter; erected a building near the vil- lage of Frankford, but noAV AAuthin the limits of the city of Philadelphia; and under the title, ‘Asylum for the Relief of Persons deprived of the Use of their Reason,’ the insti^-ution was opened in May, 1816.” ' 4S8 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. The McLean Asylum for the Insane, a, branch of the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, was opened on the Gth of October, 1818. Up to 1830, we had five insane asylums. The Blooming- dale Asylum, New York, dates in 1821 ; the asylums at Hartford, Conn., and at Lexington, Ky., 1821 ; Stanton, \'a., and Columbia, S.C., 1828: since which period these institu- tions have extended rapidly throughout the States, regarded everywhere as indispensable to Christian civilization. As a material portion of the history of this humane move- ment, we mention with high .satisfaction the efforts of Mi.ss Dorothea L. Dix to improve the whole system for the treat- ment of the in.sane. Her enlightened, self-sacrificing, and 6ucccs.sful endeavors place her among the foremost pliilan- thropists of her sex and age. Her name and acts deserve to be written in letters of gold, and transmitted to coming generations. In the mean time, visits to the hospitals of Europe by Dr. Pliny Earle in 1839, and, later, by Dr. Kay; the A.s.sociation of Medical Superintendents of American Institutions for the Insane, suggested b^ Dr. Francis T. Stribling, superintend- ent of the Western Lunatic Asylum of Virginia, at Stan- ton ; and “ The American Journal of Insanity,” started in July, 1844, by Dr. Amariah Brigham, afterwards edited by Dr. John P. Gray and his associates of the a.sylum at Utica, N.Y.; with 'many other agencies conducted by our most enlight- ened philanthropists, — have contributed largely toward the improvement of institutions and means for the accomplish- ment of these most beneficent ends. The cause conducted so largely by private benefactors, and then chiefly by the several States, has at length become national. Congress, by the wise appropriations of sums at different times for grounds and building.s, amounting in the aggregate to $473,040, makes the people of the United State.? as such the benefactors of their most unfortunate brethren. “ The Government Hospital for the Insane was DEVELOPMENT OF MANHOOD AND HUMANITY. 489 specially intended for the insane of the army, the navy, the revenue-cutter service, and the indigent of the District of Columbia. It is situated on the eastern shore of the Poto- mac River, within the limits of the District of Columbia, and about two miles south of the Capitol in Washington. The principal building, constructed of brick, is seven hundred and twenty feet in length. Its architectural plan and inter- nal arrangements are among the best which have resulted from the experience and the studies of many able men em- ployed in this speciality. A farm of a hundred and ninety- five acres belongs to the establishment.” Dr. Charles II. Nichols, its first superintendent, deserves great credit for the perfection of the building commenced under his direction in May, 1853, and completed in 1862. Its number of patients, beginning in 1855 with sixty-three, had increased, up to 1861, to a hundred and eighty. According to the eighth census, the insane of the United States and Territories numbered 23,999. In 1859, 4,140 were admitted to thirty hospitals ; and 1,728, or 41.7 per cent, were discharged as cured. Forty per cent may be regarded as the average of cures from all classes of patients considered as a whole; whereas, of cases placed under proper treatment within the first year, from sixty to seventy out of every hundred recover. This is wonderful : it is the clearest possible demonstration of the advance in humanity which constitutes one of the chief glories of the nineteenth century. Instead of thinking of our sufiering brethren as shut up in dark dungeons, chained to stone floors, looking out through iron grates, and raving in anguish at evils which they can in no way comprehend, we may now look at them in splendid buildings, with prudent access to large airy halls and beautiful grounds, their con- finement and ills relieved by medical and moral treatment from skilful men and gentle nurses, with all the sanitary blessings of wholesome air, wholesome food and beverage, 62 490 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. beautiful and fragrant flowers, and inspiring landscapes Who can estimate the value of such a change ? ASYLUMS FOR IDIOTS AND INEBRIATES. Another class of human beings calling for pity are idiots ; of whom there w'ere in our States and Territories, in 18G0, 18,865, or one in every 1,666 of our population. The idea of doing any thing for the benefit of these mind- less ones is wholly modern and Christian ; and now we see, through the exhaustless skill and patience of humane sci- entific men and kind women, these unfortunates also slowly returning to consciousness and perception, and gradually rising to the exercise of reason, and even usefulness. Inebriates, the most criminal and yet pitiable of all de- mented people, arc also at length finding an asylum from the reach of their relentless murderers, the dealers in intoxi- cating liquors; and hope dawns upon minds and families over which has heretofore brooded only the darkest, deepest despair. At Binghamton, N.Y., and San Francisco, Cal^ are the two parent homes for the inebriate, for the Atlantic and Pacific slopes ; to be followed, let us trust, by others, until this also shall take its place among the great Christian movements of this noble country. CHAPTER IX. DEVELOPMENT OF NATURAL DEPRAVITY. “ Let us consider, that, for the sins of a people, God may suffer the best government to be corrupted or entirely dissolved ; and that nothing but a general reformation can give good ground to hope that the public happiness will be restored by the recovery of the strength and perfection of the State ; and that Divine Providence will iuterpose to fill every department with wise and good men.” — President Langdon. If, in any land beneath the sim, human nature might be expected to exhibit natural freedom from sin, and from infancy grow up to angelic manhood, it surely ought to be here. It would be difficult to mention one condition of natural perfection outside of the moral character of man, as man, whicl God has omitted in the preparation of this coun- try. We have found, moreover, an evident purpose to bring extraordinary moral power to bear upon the judgments, feelings, and purposes of the race in this Republic, with the view of accomplishing the most for human nature that can be done by means divine and human. But what are the facts? Evidently, there is no paradise here. We have utterly failed to demonstrate the natural purity of souls. We can boast of no national perfection growing up under the natural laws of development. Indeed, we have not even a state or country or city or neighborhood where depravity does not show itself, rising up so directly out of the natural moral condition as to suggest strongly that it must be hereditary. Every family finds rebellion against the right in its nursery, and even in the cradle. The neglect of even the sterner forms of discipline will soon reveal its absolute necessity ; and all assumptions of the righteous tendency 492 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. of childhood are painfully corrected by the production, as well as the influence, of pernicious example. Penal laws must go into every statute-book. The police, the seats of justice, the penitentiaries, the houses of correction, must he everywhere. The States of this Union are no exception to the moral delinquencies of peoples and governments ; and historical fidelity requires the chapter 1 am about to write. IXTE.MPERANCE. Love of strong drink is at least as natural to Americans as to any people; and it is cultivated to a depth and extent of vice which can gather no comfort from compari.'son with other countries. Ollicial reports for 1800 show that we were then employ- ing 1,138 establishments in the manufacture of spirituou.s liquors, producing 80,453,089 gallons of whiskey, high wine.s, and alcohol, 3,397 gallons of brandy, gin, &c., and 4,152,480 gallons of Ncw-England rum ; being a total of 88,002,988 gallons of strong liquors to circulate chiefly among our own people, and be used as a beverage just so far as a vicious appetite and depraved public sentiment, urged on by a vile cla.ss interest, can secure this result. To this must be added 970 e.stabli.shments for the man- ufacture of beer, yielding 3,239,545 barrels annually, to stupefy and poison our citizens. The estimated value of the.se pernicious liquors was $42,255,311 ; and, making all proper allowance for tho.se portions used for mechanical and medicinal purposes, we have here one intimation as to the cost of this ruinous indulgence. It i.s, however, only an in- timation ; for these liquors, before they get to the people, are multiplied by incredible dilutions. Their cost is increa.scd by enormous profits ; and the whole price which supports manufacturers, jobbers, and retail dealers and their fami- lies, — many of them in splendid attire, furniture, and equi- page, — comes from consumers, who are thus wickedly im- DEVELOPMENT OF NATCTEAL DEPRAVITY. 493 poverished ; and multitudes of helpless women and children are reduced to the extreme of wretchedness, and perhaps of crime. To this expense must be added, for these poor people to pay, the cost of clerk-hire and agencies, bar-keep- ers and rents, until the frightful aggregate rises above the reach of accurate estimate. Then taxes on the grand list must be added to the burdens of the people to support the poor-houses, penitentiaries, and hospitals required to sustain this accursed traffic. But the deep depravity, the wreck of virtue, and the untold horrors, which must be traced directly to this crime, can by no means be estimated in this world ; and it is the disgrace of our country, that, in so many of our States, the guilty traffic is sustained by law. With less than half our present population, it was estimated that we sent into the realms of the dead thirty thousand drunkards a year, and that “ one-fourth of the families of the United States were sufferers ” from this vicious habit. Some of our great men, like Dr. Benjamin Rush, sought to rouse the people to their danger. The strong ground of the Methodist-Episcopal Church, in her discipline and administra- tion against the use of intoxicating drinks, saved multitudes from ruin, and helped mightily to create the public sentiment out of Avhich temperance societies arose, — a movement which began in Moreau, Saratoga County, N.Y., in 1808, at the sug- gestion of Dr. B. J. Clark, and which has swept over a large part of the civilized world. If we must confess that the vice of dram-drinking did, at the close of the last century and the beginning of the present, go far toward fixing upon us the disgrace of being a nation of drunkards, it may be accepted as some relief that this great reform arose under the guidance of American philanthropists. Their heroic struggles, under the old pledge, to abstain from the use of spirituous liquors ; and the pledge of total abstinence from all that can intoxicate, dating from August, 1836 ; the or- ganization of the Washingtonians in 1840, with all their successes and failures, — indicate the depth of their con- 494 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. victions that a destructive vice was preying upon the public inoraLs and health. Sons of Temperance, llechabites, Cadets of Temperance, Good Templars, Dashaways, and other bene- licial .societies, sought in other Avays to exterminate tlie evil. The boldest measure of a virtuous and Christian people to protect themselves from this public wrong dates from Maine in 1851. Her legislature came forward with a law that pro- hibited, under severe penaltie.s, the sale of this pernicious beverage ; and prohibitory laws were adopted by several States. Around this question of the right and etlicipncy of absolute prohibition the battle has raged for many years, saving vast multitudes, and even whole towns, for the time being, from the dreadful seourge, and rousing all the energy of wicked men in defence of their traffic, with the fell purpose of saving their unrighteous and enormous profits from the interdict of law. In the mean time, the constitutional right of the suflering people to protect themselves by law from this baleful scourge has been established by the written opinions of the ablest jurists of our land, and, finally, by appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States. With the record of the American Temperance Union and its subordinate and cognate organizations on the pages of history; with such names on the roll of philanthropy as Dr. Beecher, Mai-sh, Neal Dow, and Gough ; and with the grand reforms actually accomplished in America, in England, and on the Continent, — Ave have some relief from the odium Avhich otherAvise adheres to our national honor. But the battle is by no means ended. The churches, the schools, the lovers of the race in our midst, and the virtuous press, are rousing to the conflict Avith a ncAv vigor; Avhile all the vices of the land are combined in the resistance. This Avar Avill noAv rise to grander proportions than ever before ; and Chris- tian REGENERATION, TOTAL ABSTINENCE, AND ABSOLUTE PROHIBITION, Avill be the rallying-cry of the good and the brave on the side of the right. The struggle Avill be long and varied in results ; but it can never end until our country is saved. DEVELOPMENT OF NATURAL DEPRAVITY. 495 LICENTIOUSNESS. Whatever may be the desire prompted by self-respect, we cannot be faithful to the history of our nation without ac- knowledging that the crimes of lust are alarmingly preva- lent in the United States. We have no desire to avail our- selves of statistics to show the extent of prostitution in our great cities, nor would it be any relief to demonstrate the fearful and even deeper degradation of France or England. It is sufficient to know that the extent in the United States of this common ruin furnishes sad evidence that depravity has its home in the passions, in the very fountains of domes- tic and social life. We cannot, therefore, feel that we have fathomed our private and social corruptions when we have searched with painful thoroughness the abodes of public and shameless vice, or the secret retreats of blushing crime in houses of assignation. The marred visnge, the trembling limbs, the excitable nerves, the prescriptions of physicians, and the disruption of domestic ties, tell how rapidly splendid hypocrisy is leading its victims to the doom of the shame- less debauchee. To a kindred origin we must ascribe much of the levity with which, in large circles, the marriage-contract is regarded. The number of divorces, and the corrupt adjustment of law to the convenience of this form of social vice, are shameful evidences of the. want of public virtue. We must, moreover, recognize “ the serpent in the dove’s nest,” and come to the understanding, that licentious abuse of marital rights, lead- ing to the crimes of abortion and infanticide, — crimes more befitting the savage or barbarous state than a land of Chris- tian civilization, — are alarmingly frequent, threatening the most sacred obligations and highest hopes of our country. No man can write faithful history, and ignore these humili- ating facts. We see the perils with which this tide of vice and woes threatens our beloved land, and unite with those who lift up the voice of warning. Let the mothers and 496 THE CHEAT REPUBLIC. daughters of America know their danger. Let tlie wisdom of domestic education, and a more refined conscience, assert their rights in our imperilled liomes. Lot tlie pulpit and the press be honest, searching, and prudent in endeavoring to correct the popular judgment. Indeed, philanthropists and reformers of every grade must go to the bottom of these vices and dangers, and take the remedies which the gospel ntfords. These alone are radical and of prevalent power. 9 SOCIALISM AND SPIRITISM. America cannot claim any distinction in socialistic folly equal to that given to France by St. Simon and Charles Fourier, and to Englan'd by Robert Owen. But we must confess to the presence of this leaven of iniquity in our midst. Starting from the extremes of religious fanaticism on the one hand, and infidelity on the other, a few minds in America reached similar results, in the destruction, for them- .selves and their follower.s, of all the cardinal virtue.s. These men, of course, “ drew away disciples after them,” and led them out to experiment the dreams of diseased imaginations. One class of fanatics seized upon the idea of religious per- fection, and became delirious with the excitements of animal fervor, which, to their conceptions, elevated them far above ordinary Christians, and freed them entirely from sin; then from the possibility of sin ; then exalted them to the sphere of new revelation.s, which gave to their own imaginings the authority of the divine mind; and finally made them su- perior to law and human control, sanctifying their vilest pa.ssions, and rendering supremely right and meritorious in them all the vices which degrade and destroy society. Of course, these fanatical spirits had no use for the Bible : the vagaries of their own fevered brains were of higher authority. They could not well endure even the outward restraints of common decency ; and they only wanted leaders of sufficient shrewdness to render this monomania available in schemes DEVELOPMENT OP NATDEAL DEPEAVITY. 497 of socialism wliicli would reduce depravity to a system, and surround it with an air of comfort and outward elegance to make it seem a new order of civilization. Of course, multi- tudes of these deluded people would become too crazy to be gathered into a new community : some would wander from home, and become ranging mendicants, exciting ridicule and pity ; others would be humanely arrested, and shut up in the mad-house ; others would die from exhaustion or premature disease, or by their own hands, leaving but a comparatively small number to become the obedient subjects of some im- perial fanatic, who can with perfect ease extort money, purchase lands, build houses, and embower himself amid the groves and flowers and luxuries of an Eastern harem. He has only to isolate himself and his degraded people sufficient- ly from the scrutiny of society to be beyond the reach of popular indignation and civil law, and expose enough of the outward beauties gathered around him by unlimited power to excite stupid wonder and admiration, and grant to his deluded proselytes sufficient license to make them contented with a paradise of sin ; and, while he can master disease and avoid death, he can claim greatness and success. It is not our purpose to dignify the examples of temporary triumph over the weakness of human nature by naming their heroes, or writing a directory to any establishment surviving the wrecks of those which have gone before. Socialism is mentioned, however, that its vices may be identified and avoided, and that we may not be accused of shrinking from due acknowledgment of the wrongs- and dangers which spring up amid our free institutions. To the mind of the great infidel experimenter, Robert Owen, it seemed naturally suggested that the fertile lands and democratic freedom of America would furnish a fliir field in which to demonstrate his theory of “A New State of Society,” “ The Formation of Human Character,” " The Ration- al System” of life, and “The New Moral World.” Over- whelmed by the rising self-respect and indignation of the 03 498 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. English people, he emigrated to America. Thirty thou- sand acres of land, and residences for two thousand people, on the Wabash River, in the very heart of the Great West, would do for the beginning of New Harmony in Indiana. Here he would place his fulcrum for the overthrow of Cliris- tianity, and the destruction of all governments that interfered with the self-development of the natural man, and imposed restraints upon natural aflinities of the human race. Rut his logical sequences refused to follow. Loss than four years sulhced to show this New Harmony a very Red- lam of discord, to dash all his mad schemes to atoms, and send him hack to England to repeat Ills experiments and failures at Orbiston in Lanarkshire, at Tytherly in Hamj> shire, and in the city of London. Invited to Mexico by the government, he made another grand efibrt and grand failure in the New World ; and tliere this brilliant socialistic lumi- nary burst and went out before the eyes of men. These two forms of gregarious vices nr-c enough to show that they may arise alike under a monarchy or a republic, and that steady Christian illumination will ultimately dissi- pate their darkness. A form of fanaticism, dilTeiing in no essential practical principle or result from those we have described, and begin- ning here with “ spiribrappings,” has not yet fully spent its force. To Americans it hardly needs description or exposure. It is enough to mark it as allied to ancient forms of necro- mancy, demoniacal possessions, and sleight of hand, by which the unwary may be seduced for a time into the belief that unexplained connections between matter and mind, the manipulations of cunning hands, and the low, ungrammatical, senseless ravings of crazed brains, constitute a new system of revelation from the spirit-world, that must supersede the teachings of the Bible, and overthrow all established sys- tems of religion, philosophy, and government. In historical reality, however, they only show, like all kindred forms of fanaticism, power to use ranting declamation, personal in- DEVELOPMENT OF NATUPAL DEPRAVITY. 499 flucnce, the press and the passions, to destroy all sense of religion and responsibility from the soul, break up the holiest himily ties, and let loose upon society a set of wan- dering vagrants, whose very brecith is moral pestilence, and whose haunts are the scenes of frenzied delirium and “ the hot-beds of vice.” It is of no consequence to us as a nation, but simple mat- ter of historic justice, to say, that, if our Republic was the scene of the latest outbreak of this old and foul superstition, our itinerant deceivers have found their largest number of votaries, and held their most profitable seances, under monarchical governments; which is sufficient to rebuke the attempts of some of their intelligent speakers and writers to charge the origin and support of ffinatical vagaries upon republican institutions, and lead us to mourn a common exposure and a common disgrace. MORMONISM is another form of human folly and vice, which has helped to give “bad eminence” to our country. There is really nothing new in this movement of the fanatical spirit. Long before the days of Joseph Smith and his transparent fraud of “the plates,” and the supernatural translations of their records, there had been multitudes of men who gave themselves out for inspired prophets, who assumed to command the obedience of deluded men and women, who made their own blasphemous ravings superior to the revelation of God, and took advantage of religious longings for the vilest purposes. Alas for the weakness of poor human nature ! It is pre- pared by Satan to be the victim of cunning fraud and degrading passions. In whatever country depravity may find its centres for the time being, it furnishes only occa- sion for common mortification and sorrow. But the organized strength and political importance of this great fraud entitle it to a more extended notice. Joseph 500 ‘ THE GREAT REPUBLIC, Smith, the founder of Mormonism, “ wa.s born at Sharon Windsor County, Vt., Dec. 23, 1805; and killed at Carthiige, 111., June 27, 1844. At the age of ten, he moved with his parents to Palmyra, Wayn(\ County, N.Y.” He grew up idle, dissolute, and ignorant “In 1833, upwards of sixty of the most respectable citizens of Wayne County testified that the Smith fiimily were of immoral, false, and fraudulent charac- ter, and that Joseph was the worst of them,” 1 1 is pretended di.scovery of the plates in the earth “ in a hill near Manches- ter, Ontario County,” from which the Book of Mormon wa.s translated, was acknowledged by himself to be fal.se. The three witnesses whom he had induced to perjure themselves to certify to the appearance of the Angel Moroni, and the de- livery of the miraculous book, afterward quarrelled with him, and denounced him as an impostor. Ample internal evidence condemns the Book of Mormon as a poorly-concealed and low fiction. It was written as an historical novel by Solomon Spalding, a graduate of Dartmouth College ; and copied by Sidney Higdon, a man employed in a printing-office in Pitts- burg, where Spalding left it for examination. The testimony of those who had seen and heard it read in part or in whole, and especially that of Spalding’s wife after his death, is con- clusive upon this point. The manuscript was returned to her and produced after the Book of Mormon was published. She says, “ I am sure that nothing would grieve my husband more, were he living, than the use which has been made of his work. The air of antiquity which was thrown about the composition doubtless suggested the idea of converting it to the purpose.s of delusion. Thus, an historical romance, with the addition of a few pious expre.ssions and extracts from the Sacred Scriptures, has been construed into a new Bible, and palmed off upon a company of poor deluded fa- natics as divine.” From this book. Smith and his family began to preach a new religion. Foolish, idle, and easily-deluded people gathered about him ; and at Manchester, N.Y., April 6, 1830, DEVELOrJMENT OF NATURAL DEPRAVITY. 501 “the Church of the Latter-day Saints” was formed. Reve- lations soon began to be announced, pretended miracles were asserted, and the fatal delusion began to spread. Under the direction of their leader, this rabble of vile • enthusiasts settled in Kirtland, 0. ; where their frauds upon neighboring communities so excited the indignation of the people, that they drove them from their midst as an insup- portable nuisance. They fled to Missouri, where many out- rages were committed. They were driven from Jackson County and from Clay County, and at length located at Far West. Further exposures of their iniquitous and trea- sonable plans were made, under oath, by Thomas B. March, president of “the twelve apostles,” and Orson Hyde, another of their apostles. Their organized band of avenging Danites, and their bold threats of a war of extermination against their opposers, brought them into violent collision with the people of Missouri. The governor called out the militia. Smith and Ptigdon were arrested and imprisoned under charge of “ treason, murder, and felony ; ” but Smith escaped from jail, and Rigdon was released by writ of habeas corj)us. The Mormons agreed to leave the State, and, to the number of thousands, moved on to Commerce, 111. ; and Smith, by pre- tended revelation, ordered the people to build there the city of Nauvoo. Land had been presented to him by Dr. Isaac Gallard; and tlie prophet, by the sale of lots, realized a fortune estimated at over a million of dollars. Indulged by a vicious and extraordinary charter granted by the Legislature of Illinois, Smith was now a man of im- portance. He was mayor of Nauvoo, first president of the Church, and commander-in-chief of the Nauvoo Legion, with the rank of lieutenant-general. A hotel was erected in which Smith and his family should have place “ from generation to generation for ever and ever.” “A revelation” now pro- nounced Smith “ seer, translator, prophet, apostle of Jesus Christ, and elder of the Church;” and profanely said, “The church shall give heed to all his words and commandments 502 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. which he shall give unto you; for his word shall yc receive as if from my own mouth, in all patience and faith.” * Thus did this vile, blasphemous deceiver ri.sc to the posi- tion of absolute power; and under its shield, and with pre- tended revelations, he commenced, more boldly than before, to gather about him deluded women, and give authority to the licentious doctrine of polygamy. Ilis criminal practices became unendurable to many of his own followers. They denounced and prosecuted him, and, by the sworn testimony of insulted virtuous women, fixed upon him and his leading supporters the crimes which destroy society, and bring upon guilty offenders the wrath of God. The heads of the church, fearing the violence of the storm which was gather- ing, published a denial of the doctrines of polygamy ; but no such mendacity could blind the eyes of personal witnesses of their persistent efforts to give to general prostitution the pro- tection of municipal law in the name of religion. This arch-criminal and his leading disciples refused to obey the law, until they were persuaded that it was useless?, and submitted to be imprisoned. One form of illegal violence had given pretext for another : the mob assaulted the jail ; and the two Smiths, Joseph and Ilirain, were shot dead. Brigham Young, an uncultivated but shrewd and powerful man, born at Whitingham, Vt., June 1, 1801, and who had joined the Mormons at Kirtland in 1832, soon appeared with sufficient native force to put down all rivals, and assume the supreme power, which, at the moment of death, had fallen from the arch-deceiver Smith. Henceforward this one dar- ing, unscrupulous mind becomes (he organizer of this grand system of concentrated abominations. Brigham Y'oung was too shrewd to attempt the develop- ment of this scheme of iniquity in the midst of civilization, and very easily invented the “ revelations,” which led the reckless outlaws beyond the Rocky Mountains, on to the great American plateau stretching westward to the Sierra * Sec Appleton’s American Cyclopedia, article “ Mormons." DEVELOPMENT OF NATURAL DEPRAVITY. 503 Nevadas. This region of vast solitudes, but eapable of suc- cessful cultivation, and of sustaining a very large population, was a fitting place for the planting of this now formidable colony of corruption. Young reached the region of the Great Salt Lake, July 24, 1847 ; and the great body of the Mormons, in the fall of 1848. Here they have built a city and a vast temple. From this point they have sent out their missionaries to different parts of the world, and espe- cially to Great Britain, whence they have brought large numbers of men and very much larger numbers of women to be the victims of their gross deceptions and base passions. Here they have openly avowed the system of polygamy, and glory in the number and comeliness of the abused and sacri- ficed females who crowd their harems. Here they show a pretended obedience to civil rulers, but organize treason, and, for the present, defy the Government. From this point they extend their towns and labors, cultivating new fields, and consorting at pleasure with hostile Indians in their savage assaults upon helpless emigrants. Well may the scathing denunciations of our Saviour to the scribes and Pharisees be addressed to them: “Woe unto you, hypocrites ! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte ; and, when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.” It is unnecessary to trace this great iniquity firrther. It is sufficient to say that it must go on until it is fully devel- oped and has spent its force. Government has no right forcibly to prevent religious delusion as such; but it has full power to suppress outlawry, prevent conspiracy against its own sovereignty, and protect its citizens in their rights among the vagrants who brand them as “ Gentiles,” and per- secute them for the exercise of the purest forms of Christian worship. How long this desired discipline may be delayed, we may not know; but mutual jealousies and angry recrim- inations amongst themselves, the rising self-respect^ of the Government, and the hardly restrained indignation of the 504 THE GREAT REPUDLIC. American people, indicate that the time for retribution, or submission to the laws of the land, draws nigh. In the mean time, there is the least possible apology for charging this monstrous, morbid growth upon true repub- licanism, as it has for a long time depended mainly for main- taining and increasing its population upon its annual throngs of proselytes from the subjects of mouarchies in England or on the continent of Europe. It is useless to attempt a refer- ence of this or any other form of private or social vice to any methoil of civil government. It is simply and only a development of natural depravity. God’s answer to this shameless eflrontery, as to the great Mohammedan apostiusy, is quietly coming to the cars of men, and will soon be audi- ble in the solemn announcements of retributive justice. CORROPTION IN RELIGION AND POLITICS. It cannot be claimed that in America more than else- where the sacred nahie of religion has never been misai> plied, nor that the Church has been in all cases preserved from dangerous error. Men bring to the consideration of religious as well as other questions darkened intellects a'nd depraved hearts. A common tendency to substitute per- verted human rea.son for divine omniscience and revelation in matters of faith appears in rationalistic infidelity alike in Germany, England, and America. No matter where or in what form it appears, this sceptical spirit seeks the satisfac- tion of felt religious want without the new birth and a life of self-denial The churches of the United States in com mon with Christendom have felt the paralyzing effects of unbelief and of the spirit of a naturalistic philo.sophy, which alike deny to the thirsty soul the pure waters of life, and fail to realize in time the true hope of immortality. Just in proportion as this pride of intellect Ills predominated over simple jiiith in the Bible and in the Christ of history, religion has revealed weakness instead of vitality and power. DEVELOPMENT OP NATURAL DEPRAVITY. 505 It must, moreover, be stated that the great apostasy from Rome has become numerically strong in America. An accu- rate estimate of this pervading power requires a glance at its general organization. According to “ The Pontifical Annual for 18G6,” the Catholic census for the world includes 57 cardinals (G of whom are bishops), 43 priests, and 8 deacons. Of the 57, 29 reside at Rome, the others abroad. There were at that date 11 “ vacant hats.” There were, moreover, 12 patriarch- al sees, 154 archiepiscopal, and G92 episcopal. ‘‘ To these must be added 22G sees in partihus injidellum, — 30 arch- bishoprics, and 19G bishoprics. Of the patriarchs, 5 belong to the Eastern, and 7 to the ^Latin churches ; of the arch- bishops, 24 to the former, and 134 to the latter; and of the bishops, 4G are Eastern, and G4G Latin. In the 5 parts of the world are 9G sees, which hold their authority directly from Rome. The number of apostolic vicars is 101; of delegations, 5 ; of prefectures, 21 ; of abbeys and prelate- ships of no diocese, 14. Pius IX. has raised 12 cathedrals to the rank of metropolitan churches; has erected 4 arch- bishoprics and 9G bishoprics; and has created 15 vicarates, 1 delegation, and G prefectures.” .\ccording to the latest statistical statements, there are in the Roman-Catholic Church 310,000 monks and nuns. The male orders have the following membership : Franciscans, 50,000; School Brethren, 1G,000; Jesuits, 8,000 ; Congrega- tions for nursing the sick, G,000 ; Benedictines, 5,000 ; Do- minicans, 4,000; Carmelites, 4,000 ; Trappists, 4,000; Laza- rists, 2,000 ; Piarists, 2,000 ; Redemptionists, 2,000, &c. The female orders count about 190,000 members, of which 20,000 nuns are in America. A glance at these figures will show the sources of our Catholic population, and the organized power which lies be- hind the propagandisin which blindly seeks to convert this Republic to a vast province of ecclesiastical Rome. The annual emigration from Europe includes numbers of Ro- 506 THE anEAT REPtJBLIC. manists quite sufficient to explain the ratio of Catholic increase in America. Adopting the rough estimate of 2,000 Eoman Catholics to one priest, there were supposed to be 4,400,000 in the United States in I860. In 1808, there was 1 Catholic to 08 Protestants; in 1830, 1 to 29 ; in 1840, 1 to 18; in 1850, 1 to 11; in I860, 1 to 7. That is, between 1840 and 1860, the increase was 125 upon each 100, while the nation only increased by 30 to 100.” In 1801, they reckoned in the United States 7 provinces, 48 dioceses, 3 vicarates, 45 bish- ops, 2,317 priests, 2,517 churches, 1,278 stations and chapels, 49 ecclesiastical institutions, and a population of between 4,000,000 and 5,000,000. To understand the Romanism of to-day, and accurately measure the dangers with which it threatens our free Repub- lic, the following Diets must be carefully studied : — First, published statistics of the Roman Catholics in this country must be considered as quite unreliable. They in- clude large ma.sses of immigrants, who here utterly ignore practical Christianity. They are simply baptized Catholics, educated in that faith, but have no other claims to Christian character. In regard to the great public vices, they can in no ivay be distingui.died from the mass of unregencrato wicked men. If the right of Romanists to membership were to depend, like other professed Christians, upon regular and virtuous, not to say holy, live.s, instead of baptism, auricular confc.ssion, and absolution; if thorough discipline were to re- nounce those who are a .scandal to the name of Christian, — their numbers would bo in no way formidable here or else- where. If all baptized Protestants were to bo reckoned as members of their respective churches, without regard to their voluntary acceptance of church relations, and in the absence of Christian discipline, our numbers would be swelled to such proportions as to quiet the fears of rela- tive increase in numbers and power. Let us next turn to the claim set up by the Romish DEVELOPMENT OF NATURAL DEPRAVITY. 507 Church with respect to jurisdiction and prerogative, and observe its relation to modern eivilization. The pope’s encyclical letter, addressed, Dec. 8, 1864, to all Catholic bish- ops, must be good authority. He informs the public, that, upon coming to the chair of St. Peter, he “ beheld a horrible tempest stirred up by so many erroneous opinions, and the dreadful and never-enough-to-be-lamented mischiefs which redound to Christian people frOra such errors;” and as his predecessors had exerted their apostolic authority against all “ heresies,” so he had “ condemned the prominent most grievous errors of the age.” But he found it necessary to come forward again with apostolic authority to arrest espe- cially the alarming doctrine of freedom in the exercise of religion. From totally false notions of social government, he says, men “fear not to uphold that erroneous opinion most pernieious to the Catholic Church and to the salvation of soul.'j, which was called by our predecessor, Gregory XVI., the insanity [deliria mentum), — namely, that ‘liberty of con- science and of worship is the right of every man ; and that the right ought, in every well-governed State, to be pro- claimed and asserted by the law ; and that the citizens pos- sess the right of being unrestrained in the exercise of every kind of liberty, by any law, ecclesiastical or civil, so that they are authorized to publish and put forward openly all their ideas whatsoever’, cither by speaking, in print, or in any other method.’ ” This “ liberty of conscience and of worship ” is denounced as “the liberty of perdition,” and, in the lan- guage of St. Leo, as a “ most mischievous vanity.” It is allinncd, moreover’, on the authority of “our most wise and courageous predeces.sor, St. Feli.x, that it is certain that* it is advantageous for sovereigns, when the cause of God is in question, to submit their royal will according to his ordi- nance to the priests of Jesus Christ, and not to prefer it befoi’c them.” Among the things condemned and to be utter- ly put down by bishops and all the faithful is the propo- sition, that “ Protestantism is nothing more than another 508 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. form of the sanctioned Christian religion, in which it is possible to be equally pleasing to God as in the Catholic Church.” Biblical societies are mentioned among the “ pests ” which “ are frequently rchuked in the severest terms” in the encyclicals and allocutions. Nothing is more heterodox than to affirm that “ kings and princes are not Old}’ exempt from the jurisdiction of the Church, but are superior to the Church in litigated questions of jurisdiction; and that the Church ought to be separated from the State, ' and the State from the Church.” It is thus seen that every principle that is held dear to America is denounced by the very highest Romish authority. It is, moreover, held by the Catholic Church to be a great grievance, that in some of the States, “ in the matter of the tenure of ecclesiastical property, she conforms to the general laws providing for this object Thc.se laws, however, are based on principles which she cannot accept without depart- ing from her practice from the beginning, as soon as she was permitted to enjoy liberty of worship. They are the ex- pression of a distrust of ecclesiastical power as such, and are the fruit of the mi.srcpresentations which have been made of the action of the Church in past ages. As well might the civil power prescribe to her the doctrines she is to teach, and the worship with which she is to honor God, as to im- pose on her a system of holding her temporalities which is alien to her principles, and which is borrowed from those who have rejected her authority.” We must not, therefore, expect our Roman-Catholic citizens to be satisfied with the laws of public trusts which are framed for all the churches indiscriminately, and the Ameri- can people as a whole. Their system cannot bend to us : our legislation must, therefore, accommodate itself to them. There is much in all this which seems sufficiently menacing to the liberties of the world, and of our Republic in particu- lar. But it is worth while to note that these attempts at ecclesiastical domination are not successful in Europe. The DEVELOPMENT OF NATURAL DEPRAVITY. 509 reception of the encyclical on the part of the political press and legislatures in Catholic countries was decidedly unfa- vorable. The leading Catholic minds of France, Austria, Spain, Portugal, and Italy, gave unmistakable evidence of alarm at so daring an attempt to revive and give favor to the Romish doctrines of the dark ages ; and the demand for free toleration is much more urgent in Catholic Europe on account of these absurd pretensions. In the mean time, the temporal power of the pope, so per- sistently affirmed from highest Romish authority to be abso- lutely indispensable to the integrity of the Catholic Church, is really destroyed. Certainly not the power of the Emperor of France to maintain the pope’s authority over the little rem- nant of the former magnificent patrimony of St. Peter, but the power of the pope to maintain temporal sovereignty against the uprising freedom of his own subjects, is entirely gone. Much less could this claim, absurdly based upon the necessities of religion, be maintained for a single week against the free Catholics of the former Papal States. In other words, the assertions of this lordly authority are as haughty and imperious as in the days of Leo X. ; but they inspire no such terror, and produce general contempt instead of alarm. True, the essential Roman-Catholic Church has not changed : but the world has changed ; her people have changed. In Italy, the very seat of her power, the sentence of excommunication is alike disregarded by prince and court, bishop and priest; and it may be justly said that there is not a sovereign or nation in the world for whom the thunders of the Vatican have any terrors. This is simple history ; and it is certain that the eyes of the most enlightened Catholic countries are turned away from the church of repression toward Christian civilization and progress. It may seem to us that the rapid gains of Romanism in the United States indicate a purpose to transfer the seat of priestly domination to America; and this may be true. But the purpose will fail. Whether it be more dangerous to 510 THE GREAT REPUDLIC. have a larger number of Catholics here, and a smaller num- ber in Ireland and on the Continent, we might be unable to say ; but it is so evidently a part of God’s plan for bringing the darkness to the light, that it is no irreverence to say, he evidently does not fear it. The battle is coming on ; but we are certain that the Bible w'ill conquer. Nearly allied to the great apostasy of which we have written is corruption in politics. The freedom granted to the citizen by the government of the people may be greatly abused. Demagogues may use it for selfish ends; party spirit may rise above national claims; bad men may aspire to oflice, and succeed ; bribery and misrepresentation may determine an election, pass law.s, and corrupt the scats of justice. All this has occurred here, and it is no relief to us to show that it is so everywhere ; that bribery and corrup- tion in elections are reduced to a system in England, and so utterly shameless as to allow of no attempt to deny them or obviate their damaging power. If it be true in theory that all this is easier and more likely to occur in a republic than under a constitutional monarchy, it is not true in fact These are vices wdilch do not inhere in systems of govern- ment. They are back of all governments. They arise from a common depravity, indicate a common danger, and re- quire a common remedy. The race is coming to feel the imperative demand for a divine regeneration of society, the grand model of which is found in every true Christian in whose heart, purposes, motives, and acts, old things have passed away, and all things become new. Until this grand consummation is reached in the common humanity of our nation, we must battle with political dis- honesty. We shall find the very bulwarks of civil liberty clandestinely or fearlessly assailed. Politicians will put for- ward candidates who are deemed “ available,” without due regard to virtue or capability; parties and individuals will give and receive bribes for votes ; the most salutary laws will be sacrificed, and the most perilous licen.se will be DEVELOPMENT OF NATURAL DEPRAVITY. 511 pletlgctl, for the votes of r corrupt organization supposed to hold the balance of power. Hundreds of thousands of the people’s money will be granted to a fallen church, for fear of losing its votes ; and thus in a free country the church of absolutism and repression will be as munificently endowed by the corruption of parties as though it were established and supported by law. Just in proportion to the develop- ment of our common depravity will be the ascendency of unprincipled men and vile women, and the danger to our free institutions. For our safety from the elfects of all social and na- tional crimes, we must look to God, and do the right. That we are not overwhelmed, but, on the contrary, rising in moral force before the eyes of the nations, is due to the fact that expci'imcntal Christian power is mighty in the land ; and, amid all the storms and perils of sin, “ the Lord of hosts is with us ; the God of Jacob is our refuge.” CHAPTER X. DEVELOPMENT OF TRUE RELIGION. "Religion, os such, is reason in tho soul and heart. Thus freedom in tho State U preserved and csuibiishcd by religion.” — IIeoel. Tncs far in the history of the Great Republic, we have found everywhere the presence of a power stron»;er than the power of man, producing the principles, vitalizing the facts, and controlling the devclopincnt.s, which were evidently e.«sential to the success of a great Christian government. We have also found bold and persistent antagonisms to this provitlential effort to advance the human race be- yond all its precedents in intelligence, goodue.'^.s, and power. Sometimes these antagonisms have appeared in the form of kingly oppres-'^ion and bloody war; sometimes of unfaithful- ness to the plans of God, and rights of man ; sometimes of deeply-.<«eated and strongly-<]eveloped immorality: but, in all ca.ses, this rebellion against the true and the right has been traceable directly to the scriptural account of the fall and depravity of man. We shall still behold these opposite forces in determined, and .sometimes fierce, collision. Intensely interesting as the conflict has been, it is destined to become much more so. The spirit of oppression a.ssumes various forms; but it is always the same. It seems to be chiefly malicious toward man ; but its real war is with God. Since the temptation in Eden, the Prince of Darkne.ss has never abandoned the pur- pose to rule and destroy this splendid creation ; but no usurpation of power has been conceded, no right of divine sovereignty surrendered. The active assertion of ab.solute 512 IIL .. II ' DEVELOPMENT OF TRUE RELIGION. 513 divine prerogatives is more evident at some times and in some places than others, but never more evident than now, and in this country. The force by which God is advancing among men to sub- due all things to himself is true Christianity. In the devel opment period of our history, we have traced this power in every thing good and hopeful to its great source. We now desire to observe it more closely, and see what has been its position and work in the structure and vindication of our government, and how fiir its special development affords indications of future triumph. We shall look at it first in its several distinct organizations. THE PROTESTANT-EPISCOPAL CHURCH. We have seen that the Church of England came to this country with its first settlers, and was recognized as the Established Church of Virginia and a large portion of the early South. In comparison with all other churches, it would seem thus to have secured the advantage of precedence and position. The strain of the Revolution, however, showed that its organic connection with the British Government was its greatest misfortune. “ ‘ The war of the American Revolution,’ * says our ablest living canonist and historian, ‘ left the Protestant-Episcopal Church in this country in a position different from that of every other religious denomination in the land. It alone was entirely broken up in its polity. The other societies had sys- tems involving no connection with the English Church : the war, therefore, could not affect their government; at its close, they had but to proceed according to the rules and principles of an already existing organization : very slight modifica- tions, if any, were necessary to them. Not so, however, with * These extracts are taken, by permission, from “ The Claims of the Protestant-Epis- copal Church upon the American People,” by Rev. George 1). Cummins, D.D., now Assistant Bishop of Kentucky. 514 THE GREAT REPCmUC. the Episcopal Church : it had been identified with the Estab- lished Church of the mother-country; nay, was, in one sense, part and parcel of it By the war, its government was en- tirely subverted : it had, therefore, to commence dc novo the work of framing a system.’ “ As soon as the long struggle of the Revolution was over, and this Great Republic was, by God’s blessing, free and inde- pendent, the fathers of our church were the very first to move in organizing and adapting the ecclesiiistical polity to the new nationality. “ We contend that this church has peculiar claims upon the reverence and love of the American people ; that it is marked by characteristics which render it eminently fit to be a blessing to this nation in this crisis of its history. “The tirst of these features is the conservatism of the church. With many, we are aware, this feature is our reproach : to us it is our boast and rejoicing. The Epis- copal Church is eminently conservative ; a keeper and guar- dian of sacred trusts and legacies of the past, which God has ordained shall be unchanging and unchanged like their great Author. “ Why, then, does this feature of the Episcopal Church fit her to be a ble.ssing to this land and nation? Because she is a bulwark against the mighty tide of innovation and error which men falsely call progres.s. This age is most markedly an age of free-thinking, of wild and rash and dangerous speculation, — an age marked by the reckless casting-away of the faith of the fathers, and of trampling upon the work of their hand.s. ^Let us break their hands asunder, and cast away their cords from us,' is said of all the venerable tra- ditions and institutions of the past. New forms of error multiply upon every hand. New organizations of unbelief and false belief spring up like the rank growth of a night under the shade of ma.s.sive fore.st-trees. Our ears are saluted on every side with the cry, ^ Lo ! here is Christ; lo ! there is Christ' But amidst them all stands serene and DEVELOPMENT OP TRUE RELIGION. 515 calm the church of our fathers, witnessing ever to the ancient and pure faith, ‘ the truth as it is in Jesus,’ the ancient creeds, and the apostolic order of Christ’s Church. Her ministers may prove faithless at her altars, and fall into deadly error; but no personal defection of these can stifle the great voice ever sounding forth from her sublime ritual, echoing the voices of apostles and confessors and martyrs. ‘‘ Another characteristic of the Episcopal Church adapts it eminently to the needs of our times. She is the very sym- bol of AUTHORITY AND OF LAW. She claims to be divinely in- stituted. Her ministry derives its power from God, and not from man. She recognizes divers orders in the ministry, and demands submission, deference* and godly obedience, from one to the other. How admirably is she thus qualified to train her children into reverence for and obedience to authority, — the authority of parents, of magistrates, of rulers ! “ The subject suggests to us the great mission which this church has to fulfil towards the American nation and peo- ple, and especially the part we are to perform in the new era upon which the nation has just entered. All danger to the stability of the government has passed away, — danger, I mean, from material sources. But a mightier, a sterner test yet awaits it. Its salvation or its ruin must depend upon moral forces. War tested its strength : peace will test its virtue. An unprecedented career of prosperity opens before us, and e.specially in this section of the Republic. “ What are the perils, which, as patriot churchmen, we are bound to prepare for, and from which we earnestly believe the Church of Christ offers an ark of refuge ? They divide them.selves into two classes, two great antagonistic forces, — Romanism and Infidelity, spiritual tyranny and spiritual license. Romanism, with its wonderful sagacity as a human polity, its keen insight into the future, has long acted upon the con- viction that the seat of power in this Republic is to be the 51G THE GREAT REPUBLIC. Valley of the Mississippi. Hence the persevering and too often succe.ssful efforts to secure a foothold in every settle- ment of the West Hence the accumulation of property, purchased, to a great extent, by the contributions of propa- gandist societies in Europe, who.se treasuries are filled by men hostile to our institutions. Hence the establishment of schools of every grade, to monopolize, if possible, the edu- cation of our youth, and that, too, by men and women trained in the cloisters of the Old World, and whose fir.st love and highest duty are towards an Italian prince, and not to American nationality. This formidable power, more formidable because it holds enough truth to hide from men’s eyes its gigantic errors^, and is .so earnest in practical benevolence as to make men forget its past history of cru- elty and oppression, — this corrupt church is a real danger to the Republic. Speaking by its pontifical head, it pro- claims that liberty of conscience, of speech, of thought, and of the press, all that we hold dearest as American citizens and Christians, are delusions to be exploded, and eradicated from men’s minds. “ Over against this peril rises the opposite, — the Antichrist of Infidelity, threatening to sweep away all the old foun- dations of our faith, — even the sure Corner-stone which luinian builders have ever rejected, but which was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, the Rock of salvation. Immigration is rapidly bringing to our .shores vast numbers who have identified Christianity with the civil and ecclesias- tical despotisms of the Old World, and who, in their intense re-action from such baneful influences, have adopted the wildest forms of unbelief. This foe to Christ and his Church is not idle. It has its schools, its pulpits, and its presse.s. It tends directly, and by a headlong descent, to .socialism and to anarchy. It makes light of marriage ; it profanes unblushingly God’s holy day. Its end is death, — death to all which we have prized as most precious in the legacy of our departed state.smen and Christian fiithera DEVELOPMENT OF TRUE RELIGION. 517 “ What mind of man can estimate the responsibility of the Church’s mission at such a crisis? How shall we falfil it? how rise to the greatness, the grandeur, of the situation ? These are questions which may well stir our souls to their very depths. Her first great mission must be to bear witness to the truth, — ‘ the truth as it is in Jesus,’ — to the old and ever- lasting gospel, ‘ the power of God unto salvation.’ Against infidelity she must lift up ceaselessly the standard of her Lord; ‘contending earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints,’ the infiillibility of God’s holy word, and the full and free salvation offered to man through the atoning sacrifice of the Lamb of God upon the cross, — ‘ a full, per- fect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world.’ “ ‘ Preach the everlasting gospel : ’ this seems to be now the mes.sage of her ascended Lord. Tell the heedless, reck- les.s, dying millions, of salvation, of the cross, of eternal life : this is their profoundest want, deny it as they may ; and this is our highest work. We need great-hearted, mighty preach- ers, as in days of old. We need men of the boldness of St. Peter at Pentecost ; of St. Paul’s death-defying heroism at Ephesus, at Corinth, at Jerusalem; of the loving tenderness of St. John. We need the jealous love of the truth which dwelt in Athanasius and Augustine ; the burning eloquence of the golden-mouthed John of Antioch, and Gregory of Nazianzen. We need men of Luther’s boldness and Me- lancthon’s tenderness, the fearlessness of Latimer, the judi- ciousness of Hooker, and the fervid piety of Leighton and of Ken. May the Lord give the word, that great may be the company of the preachers ! “ Against Romanism our testimony must be no less strong and clear. We must assert the claims of the Reformed Catholic Church of Qjhrist to be the Church of the apostles and of early days, cleansed of the defilements of the dark ages. We must expose the pretensions of that corrupt 518 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. church, by showing her real weakness, her partial truth, to be the most dangerous form of error. We must awaken to a consciousness of the great trust Christ has committed to our hands. We must be wise to discern the times, and to neglect no instrumentality which may hasten the coming of the kingdom of God.” The general statistics of the Protestant-Epi.scopal Church for 18GG show 34 dioceses, 44 bi.shops, and 2,4 8G priests and deacons ; the whole number of clergy, 2,530 ; parishe.s, 2,305; communicants added, 14,138; present number of communi- cants, 1G1,224 ; Sunday-.school teachers, 17,570; scholars, 157,813; contributions, §3,051,GG9.G4. This church lias under its charge 14 colleges, 9 theological seminaries, and 24 academies. Epi.scopalians attach high importance to sound and varied learning in every depart- ment of society. They publish 10 weekly periodicals, 5 monthlies, and 1 quarterly. CONGREO.\TION.\L CUCRCnES. Congregationalism, as we have seen, came to this land with the Pilgrim Fathers. It is to be distinguished from Puritan- ism, though the Puritans were Congregationalists. As a mode of church government, it claims conclusive authority in re- gard to definitions of faith, and spiritual, financial, and disci- plinary control for the individual church. The field of their greatest prosperity is New England ; but they have extended their labors into other parts of the United State.s. They numbered, at last report.s,-2,719 ministers, 268,015 communi- cants, and 283,798 Sunday-school scholars. In 1860, they had 2,334 churches, valued at §13,327,511, accommodating 95G,351 people. The American Home Missionary Society (chiefly Congregationalist), in the year 1865, sustained 802 home missionaries at an expense of §1^9,965; and, through the American Board, they sent abroad 90 missionaries, be- sides male and female helpers. These laborious and self- DEVELOPMENT OF TKUE RELIGION. . 519 sacrificing men and women have honored their Master, and the whole Christian Church, by the most exemplary purity, devotion, and efficiency in the hardest foreign fields; and are still moving on with the evident approbation and bless- ing of God. The Congregationalists are vigorous workers through the American Tract Society, the American Sunday- school Union, and among the freedmen of the South. They publish 6 weekly periodicals and 4 able quarterlies. In the department of education, they labor chiefly through schools and colleges which are not ostensibly denominational, and exert a widely-diffused influence' in favor of the broadest education of the masses and the highest culture of public men. With respect to their patriotism and Christian power in the formation, development, and defence of this Republic, in proportion to their numbers, history awards them a very high position. In our account of the struggle for colonial independence, so large a space was, of necessity, given to Congregational influence, that less is required here. We refer our readers especially to a large part of the period of preparation. Rev. B. F. Morris* says their ‘‘form of church government is democratic. It was of Puritan birth ; and, like the faith of the Puritans, it came fresh and vigor- ous from the word of God. It is the embodiment and prac- tice of the American doctrine of popular sovereignty applied to church government, as it is to all the civil affairs of the nation. Each church is an independent Christian democracy, where all the members have a right to a voice in the government of the church, and whose decisions are subject to no reversal by any other ecclesiastical tribunal. The Bible is regarded as the text-book in theology and politics in Church and State, as it is in the form of church government ; and, holding the Bible as the standard of form as well as of faith, the Puritans and their descendants con- stitute their eccle.siastic form after the pattern set them * Christian Life and Character of the Civil Institutions of the United States, p. 421. 520 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. in the Bible. The fruits of their faith and purity every where abound. “‘The principles of their religious .system have given birth and vigor to the republican habits and republican virtue and intelligence of the sons of New England.’ The Congrega- tional churches were not only schools of Christian faith, hut of freedom, in which the ministers were the teachers, and the people the pupils ; and whence came the men and women to fight and pray for freedom and the battles of the Revolu- tion. During the Revolution, there were in New England 575 ministers and 700 Congregational churches, almost all of ■which were in active sympathy with the cause of liberty. In every possible way, they gave manifold proofs of their patriotism. It is no violence to truth to affirm, that, without the devotion and earnest activity of these chnrche.s, the Revolution never could have been effiected. Their faith, and form of church government, were in harmony with the reigning spirit of liberty, and energized with all the efiTorts of patriots with piety and ardor, and infused into that great conflict those Christian ideas and principles which impart a divine dignity and grandeur to a people struggling to be free.” Rev. George Mooar say.s,* “It has been the peculiar for- tune of these churches to stand intimately connected with the civil life of the two Anglo-Saxon nations. Great writers not of their communion have given them the credit of preserving the constitutional freedom of England. Certain it is that the.se churches furnished the ecclesiastical ammu- nition for the figlit which the Independents made under Vane and Milton and Cromwell. Certain it is that the Congregational churches of England now take the lead, as for years past they have done, in tho.se movements which promise the final severance of the Church from the State. But it is in our own country that these churches have their eminent record in behalf of civil freedom and all that enters Addiioiiian Lecture, San rrancisco, Nov. 9, 18(i5. DEVELOPMENT OF TRUE RELIGION. 521 moiJt, vitiilly into the pro.speiity of a free nation. It was given to them, and is a glory which no other churclies can in the same sense share, that they founded, and their polity entered fundamentally into, this American Republic. The compact which the Pilgrims of ‘ The Mayflower ’ signed was ‘ the birth of popular constitutional liberty.’ I speak not at random, nor in the spirit of empty self-gratulation. When De Tocqueville began his investigations in America, he began at Boston, and with the town-meeting. He finds that the purest and most distinctive elements of the American nation are to be found where the town-system prevails. ‘ The farther we go to the South’ (this is his language), ‘the less active doe? the bu.siness of the township or parish become. It has fev/ ir magistrates, duties, and rights; the population exercise? u less immediate influence on affairs ; the public spirit of (he locaHcommunity is less excited, and less influ- ential.’ This town-system fades out in just the proportion that we recede from the region, east and west, where Con- gregational influence and emigration have prevailed ; for the town-system had its origin in the Congregational Church. The typical school-system of America had the same birth. The American college had its origin in Harvard and Yale, founded by Congregational churches. The republican spirit was earliest and strongest in New England. The church polity of those States, says a Tory writer, ‘had hardened them into republics.’ John Wise’s book concerning that polity was reprinted twice at the Revolutionary epoch, and was read with new interest, we doubt not, by men who took a promi- nent part in the organization of the independent nation. If there be any church polity which may be called Ameri- can, it is this. It was born of the same impulse which gave us free institutions. It was thought out by the men wdio planted those institutions. All its affinities ally it to the American history and character. “ It is a significant fact, confirming what has just been said, that, in the region covered by the late Rebellion, only one 00 522 TUE GREAT REPUBLIC. church of this name existed before the war. It was in no close connection with the sisterhood it claimed. It may be doubted, indeed, whether it did not rather disown such con- nection. The spirit of these churches was too Puritan and free to allow of their existence on slave soil. But no sooner had freedom asserted its sway there than twenty such churches were planted in three months, carrying with them the same seeds of loyalty which their sister churches had before borne across New York to Ohio and the great North-west “ And why did we have that bitter and fierce onset upon the Puritin States, unless, in those cities and towns of the forefiithers, there dwell in more perfect development than elsewhere those radical principle.s which have led on and still lead the nation ? That eminent Kentuckian, Robert J. Breck- enridge, who has so gallantly led the loyal thinkers of his State, wrote, in the height of the recent struggle, ‘ I never doubted, and now less than ever, that the roots of whatever produces freedom, equality, and high civilization, are more deeply set in New England than in any equal population on the face of the earth.’ Let me not be arrogant enough to claim that all this comes from the intluence of the churches in which these had their early home ; but the calm, philo.soph- ical inquirer, wliether he be native or foreign, who shall go beneath those surfaces of rugged soil and climate which seem now to be the universal solvents of social problems, will not rest till he trace an intimate connection between those churches and the freedom of this whole land. Such a one, reading to-day the telegrams which tell with what over- whelming majorities Ma;=-sachusetts keeps her place, as of old, at the head of Union States, cannot fail to remember, that in sight of her sandy cape the Pilgrims signed their civil compact, and that on her soil they asserted and illustrated the freedom of the local church. So' is it again demon- strated that the pure free churches of God are lights of nations as well as of souls : they are the salt of the political as well as of the moral earth.” DEVELOPMENT OF TRUE RELIGION. 523 THE BAPTIST CHURCH* " The Baptists claim that they have been, from the first, the true and undeviating conservators of the rights of man to self-government and soul-liberty. Early in the present century, the King of Holland appointed his chaplain. Dr. Dermont, and Dr. Ypeig, professor of theology at Gronin- gen, to prepare a history of the Dutch Baptists, with the purpose of tendering them State patronage if their origin seemed to warrant it. The work of these thorough histo- rians was published at Breda in 1819 ; and the king at once offered them support from the State treasury, ^vhich they declined, as irreconcilable with their holy principle of per- sonal liberty, and responsibility to God. These historians say, ‘ The Baptists may be considered as the only Christian community which has stood since the days of the apostles, and as a Christian society which has preserved pure the doc- trines of the gospel through all ages.’ They add, that ‘ the perfectly correct external and internal economy of the Bap- tist denomination goes to confute the erroneous notion of the Catholics, that their communion is the most ancient.’ This testimony harmonizes exactly with that of Sir Isaac Newton, who said, ‘ The Baptists were the only Christians who had never symbolized with the Church of Rome.’ And John Locke puts the case more strongly still when he says, ‘ The Baptists were -from the beginning the friends and advocates of absolute liberty, just and true liberty, equal and im- partial liberty.’ John Milton, the champion of republican- ism against Salmasius, was a Baptist, and exerted the greatest possible influence as a secretary to the council of State, under Cromwell, in establishing the constitutional rights and reli- gious liberties of Great Britain. “As the time approached for the colonies to shako off the civil yoke of Great Britain, the Baptists of America seized the opportunity to break off also every trammel of religious * From a very able paper Rev. Tiio.ma8 Aiimitaoe, D.D. 524 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. t}Tanny in the govermnent of the colonies themselves, as? they should come to assume the independency of States, Their American history had been little else than a perpetual struggle for toleration among Protestant sects ; and as they claimed that they never were Protestants coming out of the Church of Rome, because they had never been in it or of it, but had been the outside ‘ heretics’ of all ages, they deter- mined to spare no effort to make the power and breadth of their principles felt in founding the grandest empire of the earth. Their principles were radical, rooted in the man- hood of man, and covering all his responsible relations towai;d both God and man. “ The Baptists had been so schooled in conscience, and so scourged into unconquerable resistance to tyranny at the hands of the Puritans in New England, Episcopalians in Virginia and Georgia, and Catholics in Maryland, that they were prompted by every honorable incentive to organize in the most spirited manner for the Revolutionary contest. Scarcely was the fust shot fired at Lexington before every Baptist on the continent sprang to his feet, and hailed the echo as the pledge of his deliverance from foreign and domestic oppressors. In the field, and out of the field, they were among the first to sacrifice and suffer for the American cau.se. “The first Continental Congress was held in Philadelphia in 1774, two years before the Declaration of Independence It had been in session little more than a week when Bap tist committees memorialized it for a general redress of grievance-s. On the 14th of October, they obtained a hear- ing, in which they besought Congress to secure the rights of conscience for all. Here they met with determined resLst- ance from the Massachusetts delegation, who insisted, that, with them, ‘it was a matter of conscience to support minis- ters by law,’ and that the Baptists denied ‘ them the liberty of conscience in denying their right to do so.’ “ Yet, while the State-church party were resorting to every DEVELOPMENT OE TRUE PvELIGION. expedient for the defeat of full religious freedom, the masses of the people began to see that the principles of the Bap- tists were to shape the future civil government of the country. Benjamin Franklin was their firm friend. Patrick Henry became their able defender, against the persecu- tions of the Episcopal Church, at the Virginia bar. But they were indebted most of all to Thomas Jefferson and Janies Madison. Jefferson seems to have been greatly assisted by the Baptists in forming those clear and com- prehensive democratic ideas which have immortalized him as the apostle of democracy. Curtis states, on the authority of Mrs. Madison, ‘ that there was a small Baptist church which held its monthly meetings for business at a short distance from Mr. Jefferson’s house, eight or ten years before the American Revolution. Mr. Jefferson attended these meetings for several months in succession. The pastor, on one occasion, asked him how he was pleased with their church government. Mr. Jefferson replied, that it struck him with great force, and had interested him much ; that he considered it the only form of true democracy then existing in the world, and had concluded that it would he the best plan of government for the American colonies’ “After all, it was in Virginia that the Baptists fought their great battle. As early as 1606, every form of religion had been prohibited in the colony, but that of the Established Church of England, on pain of arrest and imprisonment. Four years later, the code of Sir Thomas Dale required every person in the colony to pass a satisfactory examination of their faith at the hands of the Episcopal clergy ; and, on re- fusal to do so, ‘ for the first time of refusal to be whipped ; for the second time to be whipped twice, and to acknowl- edge his fault upon the sabbath day in the congregation; and, for the third time, to be whipped every day until he hath made the same acknowledgment, and asked forgiveness of the same ; and shall repair to the minister to be further instructed as aforesaid.’ In 1623, a tax was levied for tlie 52G . THE GREAT REPUBLIC. support of the Episcopal ministry. In IGIO, tlic Grand Assembly enacted that none should preach hut the clergy of the Estahli.sliment, and enjoined the governor to see to it ‘ that all nonconformists depart the colony.’ The year IGGl brought an enactment of greater stringency ; namely, that every nonconformist should pay a fine of twenty |)ounds sterling for every month that he should ah.sent himself from the Episcopal Church ; and, if absent for a } ear, ho should he arrested, and I'equired to give security for his good behavior, or he imprisoned. Bc.sides, the Grand Assembly decreed that ‘ all persons who refused to have their children christened ’ by a lawful minister ‘ shall he amerced two thousand pounds of tobacco.’ The result was, that no Bap- tist church was publicly organized till 1714; and the or- ganization then effected was due principally to the Act of Toleration, passed under William and Mary. But, for a hundred years after that, the magistrates and clergy resorted to every possible subterfifgc to evade the Toleration Act. Obsolete laws were hunted up, and no form of violence left untried to crush them out. Dr. Hawks says, in his ‘ History of the Protestant-Episcopal Church in Virginia,’ that ‘no dissenters in Virginia experienced, for a time, harsher treat- ment than did the Baptists. They were beaten and impris- oned ; and cruelty taxed its ingenuity to devi.se new modes of punishment and annoyance.’ In 1775, messengers from sixty Baptist churches met to consider their duty to God and their countiy. They memorialized the State Convention, — that convention which instructed the Virginia delegates to Congress to declare independence. Of that memorial, which covered the whole question of civil and religious freedom, ‘The Journal ’ says, ‘ An address from the Baptists of this colony was presented to the convention, and read, setting forth, that, . . . alarmed at the opprc.ssion which hangs over America, they had considered what part it would he proper for them to take in the unhappy contest ; and had determined, that, in some cases, it is lawful to go to war ; and that we DEVELOPMENT OF TRUE EELIGION, 527 ought to make military resistance to Great Britain in her un- just invasion, tyrannical oppression, and repeated hostilities.’ The deputation which waited upon the convention consisted of Rev. Messrs, Walker, Williams, and Roberts. They suc- ceeded in enlisting three of its members in their cause of full religious freedom ; namely, Jefferson, Madison, and Henry, who submitted the document to the body. Its effect was powerful upon the whole country. Dr. Hawks says, in refer- ence to this effect, ‘ The Baptists were not slow in discover- ing the advantageous position in which the political troubles of the country had placed them. Their numerical strength was such as to make it important to both sides to secure their intluence : they knew this, and therefore determined to turn the circumstances to their profit as a sect. Persecution had taught them not to love the Establishment, and now they saw before them a reasonable prospect of overturning it entirely. In their association, they had calmly discussed the matter, and resolved on their course : in this course they were consistent to the end.’ “In 1779, all things being now ready for a final vote, the question was settled, and the Establishment was finally put down. The Baptists were the principal promoters of this work, and, in truth, aided more than any other denomination in its accomplishment. After their final success in this mat- ter, their next efforts were to procure the sale of the church property. Inch by inch was gained, and point by point taken up. For fifteen years, the Baptist General Committee continued its labors. In 1785, the Baptist General Conven- tion pressed the legislature for the passage of the Act for Establishing Religious Freedom, which was accomplished through the efibrts of Mr. Madison. Two years after this, the Act for incorporating the Episcopal Church was re- pealed ; and, in the same year, the Baptists commenced an agitation, through their General Committee, upon the repeal of the glebe laws, which resulted in the sale of those enor- mous estates which had been appropriated to the Established 528 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. Church by order of tlie legislature. Says Dr. Hawks, ‘ That vote decided the fate of the glebe.®!. The war which they (the Baptists) had waged against the church was a war of extermination. They seemed to have known no relentings, and their hostility never ceased for seven and twenty years. They avenged themselves for their suflerings by the almost total ruin of the church.’ Thus after a most stubborn re.«ist- ance, hair’s-breadth after hair’s-breadth, the last vestige of religious oppression was swept away in Virginia. Still, it was not till the year 1832 that Massachusetts fully took her place side by side with Virginia on the subject of re- ligious liberty ; and Connecticut did so but a few years sooner. “ A few words upon the influence of the Baptists in forming the General Government mu.st close this paper. The Con- stitution of the United States was adopted in 1787. Imme- diately thereafter (March, 1788), the Virginia Baptist General Committee took up this question for discussion, ‘ Whether the new Federal Constitution, which bad now lately made its appearance in public, made suflicient provision for the secure enjoyment of religious liberty.’ After full investiga- tion, it was unanimously agreed ‘ that it did not.' The committee then consulted with Mr. Madison as to what could be done in the case, who recommended them to address Gen. Washington upon the subject. They also sought the co-ope- ration of the Bapti.sts in other States of the Union ; and sent out Elder John Leland as their representative, who secured their cordial co-operation. The sixth article in the new Con- stitution read, ‘ No religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.’ In August, 1789, the Baptists sent a well-digested and formal address to Washington on the subject by a dele- gation from their body. lie pronounced their position right, and the next month he carried through Congress this amend- ment : ‘ Congress shall make no law respecting an estab- lishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof’ DEVELOPMENT OF TPvUE RELIGION. 529 This is a part of our present Constitution. The correspond- ence on that occasion is worthy of the men whom it im- mortalizes on both sides. The Baptists said to Washington, ‘ Wlien the Constitution first made its appearance in Vir- ginia, we, as a society, had unusual strugglings of mind, fearing that the liberty of conscience, dearer to us than property or life, was not sufficiently secured. Perhaps our jealousies were heightened by the usage we received in Vir- ginia under the royal government, when mobs, fines, bonds, and prisons were our frequent repast.’ To which the Presi- dent replied, ‘ If I could have entertained the slightest apprehension that the Constitution framed by the Conven- tion, when I had the honor to preside, might possibly en- danger the religious rights of any ecclesiastical society, certainly I would never have placed my signature to it ; and, if I could now conceive that the General Government might ever be so administered as to render the liberty of conscience insecure, I beg you will be persuaded that no one would be more zealous than myself to establish effectual barriers against the horrors of spiritual tyranny and every species of religious persecution.’ Since that time, no body of Ameri- can Christians has been more faithful to the government, or has done more to perpetuate our liberties, than this denomi- nation during the early periods of its history. They sup- ported the war of 1812 as unanimously and as earnestly as that of 1776. “ With reference to the late Rebellion, the facts are too recent in the public mind to need repetition here. The Bap- tists of the South went with the South, and those of the West and East and North stood by the National Govern- ment with most remarkable unanimity.” Baptist statistics for 1866 show in the United States 609 as.sociatiohs, 12,955 churches, 8,346 ordained ministers, 92,- 957 baptized, and 1,094,806 members;* colleges, 30; the- ological schools, 14 ; periodicals, 36, of which 24 are weekly, * American Baptist Almanac, 186(3. 67 530 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 10 monthly or semi-monthly, ami 2 quarterly; expended for foreign mis.sions, for the year, $220,000 ; home missions, about $240,000 ; money for the Publication Society, $90,000 ; Bible Society, $44,000.* THE PRESBYTERIAN CIIURCII.t “The Presbyterian Church has contributed its due jiropor- tion to the moral and civil development of the United States. We do not propose to contrast its inlluence with that of other churche.s, but, by simple and direct statements of the part which it took in our early history, to connect its olficial and individual acts with the growth of our free institutions. “ There are five principal sources from which the Presby- terian Church of this country has drawn its members, — the English Puritans, the Dutch Calvinists, the French Hugue- nots, the German Calvinists, and, more largely than from any other, the Scotch and Scotch-Irish Presbyterians. “‘The history of American colonization is the hi.story of the crimes of Europe.’ The same remark might be made of the sources of American Presbyteriani.sm. The English religious persecutions drove out the Puritans, and, in stiTl larger numbers, the Scotch and Scotch-Iri.sh. The Germans came to this country under similar pre.ssure. The infamous Revocation of the Edict of Nantes drove out the French Huguenots ; and Holland ‘ had long been the gathering-pUce of the unfortunate.’ With a common love of liberty, and deep religious principle, these made the broad foundation of the present Presbyterian Church. It has been estimated, that, b}’ the year 1750, their number, outside of New Eng- land, amounted to between one and two hundred thousand. “ The first beginnings of the Presbyterian Church proper date back to about 1680. In 1716, there were four presby- teries, associating the churches in Long Island, the Jerseys, * Letter of Rev. 0. B. Stone. I From an admirable paper by Rev. Roheet Sthono, A.M. DEVELOPMENT OF TRUE RELIGION. 531 * Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, with scattered churches in the Carolinas, all united under the Synod of Philadelphia. The growth of the church from this period was constant and rapid, by reason of large immigrations; until, in 1788, a 'General Assembly was constituted, associating the synods and presbyteries after the model of the Church of Scotland. It will be seen from this how widely the church wris extend- ed, and over how large a part of the country its influence reached. “ Its character and influence may be fliirly though indirectly judged from its sources. Its members came to this country to seek for religious and political freedom. Having found a place for its exercise, they established their principles in pro- portion to their power. What Bancroft says of East Jersey, is true, in a measure, of other sections, and the other sources of our church: ‘Scottish Presbyterians, of virtue, education, and courage, blending a love of popular liberty with reli- gious enthusiasm, came to East Jersey in such numbers as to give to the rising Commonwealth a character which a century and a half has not effaced.’ They were friends of education, of strict morals, and of the sabbath. As mem- bers of God’s Church, they upheld his laws as supreme. As citizens of the State, they were devoted to freedom and justice. In our struggle for independence, we find them invariably on the right side ; the first to suffer, the first to fight, the first to declare for independence ; prominent among its supporters; and stamping on the new-formed government those principles of popular freedom, represen- tation, and confederation, which were their distinguishing traits. “ In making these broad statements, we intend no ungener- ous comparisons, nor do we claim for these men exclusively the parentage of freedom. Bancroft’s wmrds are both beauti- ful and true: ‘ American independence was the work, not of one, nor of a few, but of all ; and was ratified, not by Congress only, but by the instincts and intuitions of the nation; just 532 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. as the sunny smile of the ocean comes from every one of its * million of waves.’ But it is fair, and our definite object, to inquire how far this church nurtured, and was in sympathy with, these popular instincts. ^ “The Pre,sbyterian Church, by its government and spirit, is pre-eminently republican. Its ministers are equal among themselves. Its churches are united by presbyteries and .synods under a General Assembly. The authorities over the individual are a series of graded courts, composed of ministers and ruling elder.s, with the right of appeal for the maintenance of religious liberty and justice. ‘ Hiding elders are properly representatives of the people, chosen by them for the purpose of exercising government and di.scipline in connection with pastors and ministers.’ The great repub- lican principles of our National Con.stitution are' thus evi- dently in accord with the principles which our church has drawn from the Bible for its government. So, again, in its spirit, the church is also republican. Its doctrines of grace, called, since Calvin’s day, Calvinism, make all men funda- mentally equal before God ; and they recognize no other distinction between man and man than such as is the result of the sovereign grace of God working in him without re- gard to condition, class, or previous merit. The doctrinal spirit of the church thus fits the outward form of our government. The church sends out the influences of its fundamental principles into the State of ivhich its members are citizens. “It is only to be expected, then, that we shall find the Pre.sbyterian Church in this country acting prominently in vindication of its liberties and government, as well as pro- moting religion. ‘We shall find,’ says Bancroft, ‘ that the first voice publicly raised in America to di.‘isolve all con- nection with Great Britain, came, not from the Puritans of New England, or the Dutch of New York, or the planters of Virginia, but from Scotch-Irish Presbyterians.’ The refer- ence here is to the famous Mecklenburg Declaration. Once DEVELOPMENT OF TETJE RELIGION. 533 more : the first declaration for independence from the con- stituted authorities of a State came from North Carolina in April, 177G, and can be traced to the same influences.* This reached Congress six weeks before the National Declaration was made. These facts are not sufficiently known in the country, not even among Presbyterians. They are not set forth here as in rivalry with Lexington and Massachusetts, but as fruits of identically the same principles and spirit. They show how the religious element in the country was everywhere foremost, and all sections hand in hand, in the struggle for liberty. The spirit of our people was shown, also, by the organized voice of our church. The Synod of New York and Philadelphia nerved her people for the com- ing conflict, a year before the Declaration of Independence, by a pastoral letter ; and appointed also a day of prayer for the country and for Congress, which was continued year by year till the close of the war. As this was our record at the beginning of the war, so was it sustained at the close by another pastoral letter from the General Synod, calling upon the churches to return thanks to God, and, at the same time, congratulating them ‘ on the general and almost universal attachment of the Presbyterian body to the cause of liberty and the rights of mankind.’ “ From this brief summation of facts, let us turn back to the Mecklenburg Declaration. In May, 1775, a convention of delegates, twenty-seven in number, chosen by the people from the militia districts of Mecklenburg County, N.C., met at Charlotte to discuss their political oppressions and rights. Their decisions were to be binding on all the people. In view of the acts of these representatives, and our present purpose, it is important to trace their religious connection. They were, every one of them, P reshy ter Ians ; one a minister; their president, secretary, and seven others, ruling elders.f These issued the famous Mecklenburg Declaration of Inde- * B.ancroft, viii. 3, '52; Foote’s Sketches of North Carolina, pp. 43, 44. t Foote’s Sketclics, pp. 34-44. 534 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. pendence, from which we give one spirited extract : ‘ Besohed, 3d, Tliat we do hereby declare ourselves a free and independ- ent people; are, and of right ought to be, a sovereign and self-governing association, under the control of no power other than that of our God and the general government of the Congress: to the maintenance of which independence we solemnly pledge to each other our mutual co-operation, our lives, our fortunes, and our most sacred honor.’ “ The most casual reader will notice the analogies in lan- guage and sentiment between this and the National Declai’a- tion, which was fourteen months later. “ We have illustrated thus the warm attachment of Pres- byterians and their church to our national principles of liberty, and also their distinguished services. Two points remain to bo illustrated, — the inUuence of their republican principles on our government, and their services in seem ing complete religious liberty. “On the first point, the proofs must necessarily be indirect. The framers of our Constitution followed no model directly^ but rather built on fundamental principles. Yet the Pre.s- byterian churches of the Pieformation presented to them a model government, in which these principles were fully recognized, — religious republics, with stable and true foun- dations, defended b}" great arguments drawn both from the rights of man and the revelation of God. Our adoption, not only of the great principles, but of analogous details, shows the force of the influence exerted. lion. W. C. Preston of South Carolina says, ‘ Certainly it is the most remarkable and singular coincidence, that the constitution of the Pres- byterian Church should bear such a close and striking re- semblance to the political Constitution of our country.’ “ On the second point, we have the testimony of Ban- croft: ‘The rigid Presbyterians proved in America the sup- porters of religious freedom.’ “In the colonial period, Congregationalism was established in most of New England, except Rhode Island. In all south DEVELOPMENT OF TEUE EELIGION. 535 of New England, Episcopacy was the favored form. In both sections, other churches existed by toleration. Now, in oppo- sition to any kind of church establishment, even for them- selves, it has been asserted, and may be fairly claimed, that Presbyterians urged and secured the doctrine of religious liberty, — the entire independence of Church and State. Their record on this point was just as clear in those new States, where their influence had become overwhelming, as in those where they had not the supremacy. They proved to be above temptation. Their services during the war, throughout the country, were so distinguished, and their position so prominent, that no other denomination could have competed with them in securing favors from the Gen- eral Government. But they never made a move in this direction. On the contrary, they felt compelled, by a dec- laration of synod, ‘ That they ever have renounced, and still do renounce and abhor, the principles of intolerance,’ to allay the apprehension that they, in turn, might prove intol- erant. “ One point was still left undebated ; viz., the policy of establishing and supporting all religions, as against the lib- erty and independence of all. On this point, the decisive and final struggle was in Virginia. A bill for the support of religion in all denominations, by means of a general assessment of the people, was introduced in 1777. It was opposed, on principle, by Baptists, Quakers, and Presbyteri- ans ; fought against by petitions, memorials, and conventions; the agitation ranging through seven years. The honor of the long struggle belongs to all three parties : the power was exerted mainly by the Presbyterians. At the last wa- vering moment, in 1784, when the legislature seemed dis- posed still to press the measure, the Rev. John B. Smith, on behalf of the Presbytery of Hanover, was heard lor three successive days against it. ‘ This decided the matter: the whole scheme was abandoned.’ The great principle of the rightfid independence of Church and State, new then, old 53G THE GREAT REPUBLIC. and glorious now, was thus established. It was adopted by the smaller States on each side of Virginia, — Maryland and Delaware, the Carolinas and Georgia, — and in 1789 was incorporated into the Federal Constitution.” The following extract is from the report of Professor Ilenr}^ B. Smith to the General Conference of the Evan- gelical Alliance at Amsterdam : — “ Outside of New England, where Congregationalism has the ground, the Presbyterian churches extend, in various subdivisions, throughout the country. The main branch of the church was divided, in 1838, on divers questions of doc- trine and polity. The two main divisions are popularly, not ecclesiastically, known as Old School and New School. The Old School, 18G7, reports 35 .synods, 17G presbyterie.s, 2,G22 churches, 2,302 minister.s, 24G,350 communicants, and con- tributions to the amount of $3,731, 1G4. In its foreign mis- sions it has 40 churches, 330 ministers and teachers, and 1,200 members. Tlie New School, 18G7, reports 23 synod.s, 109 presbyterie.s, 1,870 minister.s, 1G1,539 communicants, 103,242 Sunday-school scholar.s, and contributions of $3,- 100,870 for all its objects. Its increase last year was 10,938 members, and nearly $1,000,000 in contributions.” Meas- ures are in progress for uniting these two departments of the church ; which it is earnc.stly hoped may succeed. In all the great departments of education, literature, and mis.sionary effort, the Presbyterjans are among the most enlightened, self-sacrificing, ijnd energetic of our Christian citizens. The Old School publi.sh 11 weekly periodicals, 4 monthlie.s, and 2 quarterlies, of the highest grade ; the New School, 11 weeklies, 10 monthlie.s, 1 semi-montbly, and 1 quarterly, of high literary merit. The Pre.sbyterians sup- port numerous colleges and seminaries, generally not osten- sibly denominational; and, while they labor earnestly to cir- culate their own literature, they give their most devoted energies to the American Bible Society, and all the other great American institutions. DEVELOPMENT OF TRUE RELIGION. 537 THE METHODIST-EPISCOPAL CHURCH.* As surely as the sun makes the day, religion has made this Iiepublic. In the building of our free institutions, the churches have been the great formative agencies. Each has had its own work, and left its peculiar impress. Al- though the youngest of the great Christian organizations, we claim, that, in forming the character and determining the place of this nation in history, the Methodist-Episcopal Church has been among the most influential. The itinerant system of ministerial labor was precisely adapted to the wants of a new and growing country. “The older churches had local strength; but they lacked the instrumentalities whereby the gospel could be made to keep pace with the advancing lines of settlement and the spread of population. M^-riads of immigrants were leaving the shores of the Old World to seek a home in the New. Mul- titudes of our own people were annually migrating from the seaboard, and the abodes of civilization, to explore the wilds that lay westward. The older Christian bodies saw the people passing away from churches and ministers, but had no aggressive force, no arm of sufficient length, no agency sufficiently mobile, to follow the rapid march. “The Methodist itinerancy supplied the lacking means. It rendered it possible to maintain regular religious service in any little neighborhood where there was a single family willing to open their house for divine worship, and entertain the minister for a day. The class-meeting bound the con- verts together in the bonds of tender Christian love, and, in the hour of spiritual peril, brought to the help of each the strength of Christian friendship. The quarterly meeting, with its generous hospitality and social enjoyments, its three or four stirring sermons, its love-feast, with its rich experi- ences and thrilling songs, was a holy festival, worth all the Baints’ days in the calendar. The annual conferences were * From an able paper by Rev. J. T. Crane, D.l). 6 » 538 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. councils of war, where Christian soldiers told of their victories with tears of joy, and where they laid their plans for bolder campaigns and more extended conquests. “Methodism not only sought out the people, but won them. From the very beginning, the great Head of the Church crowned its labors with wonderful success. Organ- izing its feeble scattered societies in 1784, with only 83 preachers and 15,000 members, it numbered, seven years thereafter, 259 preachers and 03,209 members. In 1810, fifty years from the date of Philip Embury’s first sermon, there were 095 preachers and 214,235 members. In 1800, at the close of a hundred years of evangelical labor, the Methodist-Episcopal Church numbered a mighty host of 7,570 ministers and 1,032,184 members. “ Meanwhile, the Church, broad and elevated in her plans, and active and strong to execute them, has entered into every department of legitimate labor, and gathered with an unwearied hand all the elements of evangelical power and efficiency. Our sabbath schools reported last year (1800) 153,039 officers and teachers, and 914,587 scholars, with 2,542,000 volumes in the libraries ; while the children’s paper (‘The Sunday-school Advocate’) circulated 300,000 copies, and the expenses of the schools amounted to $285,- 000 for the year. Statistics for 1807 show that we have 1,145,184 communicants, 17,473 preachers, and more than 1,000,000 Sunday-school scholars. In the department of religious publication, we have the book concern, with 7 depositories in our principal cities, with an aggregate capital of $1,213,000, and sales amounting, in 1860, to $1,245,000. The church also publishes 9 papers, with a weekly circu- lation of 147,000 copies, besides an able and successful ‘Quar- terly Review.’ For the general education of the people, we have 23 colleges, 3 theological schools, and 84 seminaries or academies; in all, 110 institutions of learning, with 770 in- structors and 22,305 students. In the year named, the church expended $275,000 for foreign, and $254,000 for DEVELOPMENT OF TRUE RELIGION. 539 domestic missions; contributed |107,000 for the gratuitous circulation of the Scriptures; collected $23,349 for the Tract cause; gave $19,850 for the Sunday-school Union, and $50,- 000 to aid weak societies in the erection of houses of wor- ship ; and at the same time has made, chiefly for purposes of education and church extension, a grand Memorial Cen- tenary Collection, amounting to $7,000,000. This exhibit of numbers and results belongs to the original family of Methodism on this continent, — the Methodist - Episcopal Church. Eight other organizations, numbering more than 1,000,000, identical in doctrine, and differing little in usage, have arisen from the parent stock. “ It will thus be seen, that, by a fair estimate, the Method- ists mould the principles and influence the actions of about one-third of our entire population. “ The Methodist-Episcopal Church has not gained its great numerical strength by any indirection. We have not courted the suffrages of the frivolous, the worldly, or the wicked, by flattering them with the promise of an easy way to heaven. For the whole hundred years of our history, we have borne a steady testimony against wrong, urged the necessity of inward and outward holiness, the reality of spiritual religion, and the value of high attainments in the divine life. ^ “The simple, just, and generous theology of Methodism has been the means, in the Divine Hand, of saving the nation from fatal religious error, and of breathing a new life into the older religious organizations. “ A century ago, the religious state of the country was very far from being satisfactory to the pious and the thoughtful. “The prospect was dark. Without virtue as well as intelli- gence among the people, free institutions are impossible. New-born liberty was in danger of perishing in its infancy. A new spirit on the part of the churches was needed. Some more efficient instrument of aggressive warfare, some new agency strong enough and bold enough to cope with the evils of the age, was required. God was not limited, indeed. 540 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. to any one mode of accomplishing liia great purposes ; yet nono will dispute the fact that he chose Methodism as the chief agency for doing the work. He called to this ministry Dr. Thomas Coke and Francis Asbury, and their fellow- laborers; men of deep piety and fervent zeal, men of miglity faith and courage and energy. They did not appear with a novel system of theology. The great doctrines of the Triune God, of human depravity, a general atonement and universal grace, and man’s consequent just accountjibility, were the theme and the life of sermon, song, and prayer. The people heard and felt. The heart of the nation was reached, and its conscience was roused. A new church organization, fresh, vigorous, laboriou.s, shot up into sudden strength, and began its career of evangelical power. The older ehurclies caught the inspiration; and a new era of religious faith and hope, and bold aggre.ssive movement against the enemy, was inaugurated. Thus the tide of spiritual death which threatened to overwhelm the nation was arrested; and large numbers of the people were deeply imbued with the feeling of per.^onal liberty against despot- ism oil the one hand, and licentiousness on the other. All this immense moral power has wrought against every species of, bondage, and in favor of the true republican liberty which is triumphant in the United States to-day. “^letbodism, at the very beginning, joined battle wdth the sins that threatened national ruin. There is a gigantic crime which has haunted the footsteps of civilization through all human history. As soon as a people emerge from barbarism, and begin to realize their superiority over the savages around them, they are tempted to take advantage of their strength to enslave the weak and the helplcs.s. And slavery is sure to curse the oppressor. The plagues which smote the Egyptians are but the symbols of the multiform evils which this crime against humanity brings in its train. Sooner or later, it rolls a Eed Sea of slaughter and woe upon those who deny justice and mercy. The early Methodists spoke out boldly against the wrong. DEVELOPMENT OF TKDE RELIGION. 541 ‘‘ Intemperance is another gigantic evil, the sin and the shame of our Christianity and our civilization. The rule of Mr. Wesley, incorporated into the discipline of the infant societies at the very dawn of Methodism, not only prohibits intoxication, but forbids buying or selling spirituous liquors, or drinking them, unless in cases of extreme necessity. As early as 1780, it was resolved to disown those who distil grain into liquor. This was almost half a century before Dr. Nott, Dr. Beecher, and others who are commonly regarded as the pioneers of the Temperance reform, began their labors. Let it be remenbered, too, that the Methodist- Episcopal Church advanced at once to the true ground, — total abstinence from all that intoxicates. Here, also, the church has borne a steady testimony from the beginning. “ The spirit of Methodism harmonizes with the spirit of liberty, and tends to strengthen in the popular mind the principles upon which free institutions are based. When religion enters into the heart, and becomes the master- passion, it cannot fail to influence the mental attitude in regard to all questions which have in them a moral element. Not only will it demand care and caution in coming to con- clusions, but often supply the premises by which the conclu- sion is reached. He who receives cordially and in good faith a system of religious doctrine, will find, that by virtue of a certain mental process which is too subtile and swift to need language, or even allow its use, it supplies the light ^y which he views, and the rule by which he measures, a thou- sand other things. “The generous theology of Methodism favors civil liberty. Personal freedom, the ballot, popular education, equality be- fore the law for all citizens, are the natural corollaries of the doctrines of a general atonement and universal grace. No system le.ss broad can justify the republican argument, or become the inspiration and the organizing power of univer- sal liberty. They who are convinced that Jesus Christ, by the grace of God, tasted death for every man, must be bold, 542 THE GREAT REPURLIC. indeed, if they dare .to oppress their fellows, denying them their rights. Thus the theology of Methodism has infused a silent yet powerful element into our political life, incul- cating a broad humanity, recognizing the divine interest in eveiy .human being, and asserting everywhere fraternity and the rights of all races and all men. “ Americans reason. As they pass from the house of God to the civil assembly of the citizen.s, they cannot *in cither place wholly forget what they hear in the other. He who glowed with patriotic delight as he listened to the enuncia- tion of republican doctrines, demanding equal rights for all men, becau.'^e God created them free and equal, rejoiced when the pulpit proclaimed salvation for all. He who listened to the arguments of the Methodist ministry, and was convinced that God is no respecter of persons, and went thence to the popular meeting, and heard the great truths of the Declaration of Independence, felt that his religious belief, and the American theory of civil government, rest on the same foundation of eternal truth. Thus Methodism has re-enforced the fundamental principles of our Republic, and strengthened their hold upon the popular mind. “ And, while MethodLsm has thus been powerfully progres- sive in its inlluence upon our civil institutions, it has always carried with it those salutary tendencies which make prog- ress safe and real. Revolirtions do not always lead to free- dom. A people may break the chains of tyranny, and stand for a moment free, but, having no solid religious conviction to keep them from excess, destroy by folly what they bought with blood. Methodism has cast the prophetic salt into the fojintain of. our national life. Turning many from sin to righteousness, and warring everywhere against the vices -which unfit men for good citizenship, laying upon all within her pale the strong restraints of her preaching and her duscipliue, she checks the passions which are destructive to law and public order. Preaching a free salvation in free churches, to which the poor, and the stranger of our own or DEVELOPMENT OF TRUE RELIGION. 543 other lands, were welcome, she has built up the nation in the principles of rational liberty, not less really and effectually than she has strengthened the walls of the general Church. “ The Methodist-Episcopal Church, by its peculiar organi- zation, has tended powerfully to the preservation of our national unity. In 1784, when our church adopted its ecclesiastical organization, it was the first among the re- ligious bodies of the country to affirm the rightful inde- pendence of the American people, and recognize the new government; thus binding all our people to loyalty and civil obedience. On Thursday, May 28, the Conference met in New York, Bishops Coke and Asbury being both in attend- ance. By order of the Conference, an address to President Washington was prepared ; and, on the second day of the session, the bishops waited upon him, and performed the office as.signed them. Bishop Asbury reading the address. In the name of the church, they congratulate Washington on his ‘appointment to the presidentship of these States,’ recognize his great services, and declare that they ‘ place as full confidence in his wisdom and integrity for the preserva- tion of those civil and religious liberties which have been transmitted to us by the providence of God, and the glorious Revolution, as we believe opght to be reposed in man.’ They speak also of ‘ the most excellent constitution of these States, which is at present the admiration of the world ;’ and pledge their fervent prayers for him, and the welfare of the Lf.tion over which he was called to preside. “ Washington made a fit reply, thanking them, and the society which they represented, ‘ for the demonstration of affection ; ’ expressing a hope, that, ‘ by the assistance of Di- vine Providence,’ he would ‘ not altogether disappoint the confidence reposed in him;’ and assuring them ‘ in jiarticu- lar, that be took in the kindest part the promise they made of presenting their prayers at the throne of grace for him; and that he likewise implored the divine benediction on them and their religious community.’ 544 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. “ Its language having become inapplicable, by reason of the abrogation of the Act of Confederation and the adoption of the Constitution, the 23d Article of Religion was changed so as to recognize the Constitution of the United States as the su])reine law of the land ; and a new clause was added, afhrming that ‘ the said States are a sovereign and inde- pendent nation,' as if the author of the change bad received prophetic warning of the events of later days. With its whole weight, our church gravitates in tlie direction of national unity. The church itself is a unit, ‘ fitly joined together, and compacted by that which every joint suppli- eth.’ The common pastorate of all the ministers over all the churches, the methods of distributing ministerial service, the mode of supervi.sion by means of the presiding eldership, and the general superintendency, are so many strong cords wherewith to ‘ undergird the ship.’ Every pa.stor and every society feels an interest in every other, becau.se, by the law of the church, they are liable at any time to bo brought into the closest relations. The rapid interchange of pastors through all the land has tended to preserve both ministry and laity from local narrow view.s, and make their love for the church in its unity equal to their regard for the local society. Both ministry and laity are trained to love and ■ respect the whole church. Every individual man shares the pain of every local failure and the joy of every victory. Every church is but one wheel in the vast en- ginery, and feels every impulse and every jar, however remote the cause. The same pulse throbs throughout the whole body, from the heart to the farthest extremity. “A church thus compactly organized, instinct in every fibre with zeal, energy, and courage, wielding a living theology, harmonizing so perfectly with the spirit of our civil insti- tutions, winning the suffrages of so vast a multitude, and binding them together in so warm a brotherhood, could not fail to infu.se a large measure of its own distinctive spirit into the nation’s life.” DEVELOPMENT OF TRUE RELIGION. 545 OTHER CHURCHES. Lutherans. — The Lutheran Church numbers, in all, 421 synods, 1,644 ministers, 2,915 congregations, and 323,825 communicants. Of these, there are connected with the Gen- eral Synod 23 synods, 695 ministers, 1,255 congregations, and 110,450 communicants. The rest are embraced in other synods. There is a general synod at the South. A new synod is projected, on the basis of a more strict adherence to the symbols. A convention for this object was held at Reading, Penn., in December, 1866, attended by representa- tives from 15 synods; but no further action has yet been taken. The two Western Scandinavian synods number 40,000 members. The emigration from Scandinavia alone last year was 29,000, chiefly Lutheran. There are 29 Lutheran periodicals in the United States (14 of which are in the German language), 15 theological schools, and 17 colleges. Reformed Church in America. — 'Churches, 444; ministers, 461; candidates, 8; communicants, 57,846; Sunday-school scholars, 46,411: contributions for congregational objects, $765,980; for benevolent objects, $277,209. Its last synod, by a vote of 109 to 10, submitted the question of dropping the words “Dutch” and “Protestant” from its title, and adopting the name of “The Reformed Church in America;” and the change has been effected. They have a theological seminary with 34 students, and two colleges with 264 stu- dents. They have thoroughly organized and efficient boards of education; publication and domestic and foreign missions, with foreign missions in India, China, and Japan. German Reformed. — This church has 2 synods, 29 classes, 476 ministers, 1,162 churches, 109,258 communicants, 11,088 baptisms, 5 colleges, 3 theological schools, and 9 periodicals : contributions for benevolent objects, $60,882. The Tercen- 546 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. tenary of the Heidelberg Catocliism \va.s duly celebrated, and an excellent edition of the same \va.s issued. In connection with this, more than $100,000 were raised for the colleges of the church. It is proposed to drop the word “ German ” from the title of the church. The United Presbyterian Church was formed in 1853 by a union of the Associate Presbyterian and Associate Re- formed Churches. It reports, 1867, 7 synods, 54 presby- teries, 543 ministers, 717 congregations, 63,489 members, and $1,277,204 contributioiLs. In the eight years of its history, it has increased in its mini.stry from 408 to 543; and in its contributions, from an average of forty-one cents per member to an average of nine dollars. It has mission- ary presbyteries in India, China, Syria, and Oregon. It is anti.slavery and close communion in its character. The Presbyterian Church in the United States (the style of the Southern Church) was formed by a union of the Old and New School Churches (South) during the war. They report, 1867, 10 synod.s, 46 presbyteries, 66,528 communi- cants, 829 minister.s, 1,290 churche.s. The contributions are set down as $409,282. There are 340 churches and 4 pres- byteries from which there is no report. The numbers given are probably much below the facts. There is no present pro.spect of re-union with the Northern churche.s. The Cumberland Presbyterian Churches, North and South, are re-united. They had, before the war, 588 ministers, and 48,600 members. The Reformed Presbyterians in the North have two synods; one of about 100, the other of about 60 ministers. The United Brethren in Christ (organized 1744) is “ Ar- minian in doctrine, and Methodistic in polity.” It has 4,255 DEVELOPMENT OF TRUE RELIGION. 547 preaching places, 3,297 societies, and 91,570 members; con- tributions, $341,279. T’ie Moravians. — 89 mis.sion stations; 307 preaching placts; 213 missionaries, male and female, and 882 assistants ; expended, $120,189. Under the religious instruction of the Unitus Fratrum, there are 177,609 persons in Europe and America. The adult communicants number 14,240. The Friends, or Quakers, of the orthodox side, number 54,000.* Freewill Baptists. — This denomination of evangelical Christians numbers (including Canada West) 31 yearly and 147 quarterly meetings, 1,264 churches, and 56,738 mem- bers. They have a biblical school and three colleges ; a print- ing establishment, publishing a quarterly review, a weekly, and a sabbath-school paper semi-monthly. They practise baptism by immersion. They are Arminian with respect to the doctrine of freewill, and are open communists. Concerning other evangelical churches and religious or- ganizations, such information as our limited space will allow, in addition to what has been already given, will be found in the following statistical tables : - SUMMARY AND RESULTS. Churches. Ministers Members. Methodist-Episcopal Church . . 14,889 1,032,184 ' MethodLst-Episcopal, South . 7,495 708,949 African Methodist-Episcopal . . 2,613 53,670 Protestant Methodist . 1,560 105,120 Evangelical Association , 727 51,185 African Zion Methodist-Episcopal 661 30,600 Wesleyan Methodist 400 25,620 Free Methodist 136 3,655 Primitive .... 64 1,805 Total .... . 28,545 2,012,788 * The above statistics arc taken chiefly from the Report of Rev. Ilnxitv R. Smith, I). I) 548 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. Churches. Miniate r*. Membera. Baptist Church . 7,869 1,041,003 Freewill Baptist . . 1,050 56,738 Campbcllito Baptist . 1,000 200,000 Anti-mission 700 50,000 Winebrenarians 273 23,800 Tunkers .... 100 20,000 Six-principle Baptist 72 3,000 Seventh-day Baptist 62 6,796 Total .... . 11,126 1,401,337 Presbyterian, Old School . 2,346 287,360 Presbyterian, New School . 1,779 138,074 Cumberland . 1,150 103,062 Southern Presbyterian . 840 United Presbyterian 560 67,900 Reformed Presbyterian . 119 16,000 Associate Reformed 91 2,581 Associated Presbyterian . 41 1,000 Total .... . 6,926 016,037^ Denominations. Methodists AGOREOATE NUMBERS. Ministers. 28,545 Members. 2,012,788 Baptists . 11,148 1,401,337 Presbyterians . 6,705 610,037 Congregationalists 2,719 208,015 Episcopalians . 2,530 161,224 Lutherans 2,533 269,985 United Brethren 1,077 102,983 German Reformed 505 91,200 Reformed (Dutch) 436 54,208 Moravian . 40 5,859 Friends , Minor sects 230 94,072 37,600 Grand total 57,068 5,110,568 * Some discrepancy between the statistics given in different places is inevitable, for the reason that they represent the facts at different periods. Simultaneous and full reports of the several churches do not exist. This, however, docs in no way affect the argument for which these figures arc brought forward. DEVELOPMENT OF TEUE EELIGION, 549 HOUSES OP WORSHIP. Denominations. Church Edifices. Accommodations, Value. ^Icthodists , 19,883 6,259,799 $33,093,371 Baptists . . 11,221 3,749,553 19,799,378 Presbyterians . . 5,061 2,088,838 24,227,359 Roman Catholics . 2,550 1,404,437 26,774,119 Congrcgationalists . 2,334 956,351 13,.327,511 Episcopalians . 2,145 847,296 21,665,698 Lutherans . 2,128 757,637 5,385,179 Christians . . 2,068 681,016 2,518,045 Union . 1,366 371,899 1,370,212 Cumberland Presbyterians 820 262,978 914,256 German Reformed 676 273,697 2,422,670 Universalists 664 235,219 2,856,095 Freewill Baptists 530 148,693 2,789,295 Friends 765 269,084 2,544,507 Reformed Dutch 440 211,068 4,453,850 United Presbyterians . 389 165,236 1,312,275 Unitarians 264 138,213 4,438,316 Tunkers . 163 67,995 162,956 Reformed Presbyterians 136 48,897 386,635 Mennonites 109 36,425 137,960 Jewish . . . 77 34,412 1,135,300 Adventists 70 17,120 101,170 Winebrenarians . 65 27,700 74,175 Swedenborgians . 58 15,395 321,200 Seventh-day Baptists . 53 17,864 107,200 Moravians . 49 20,316 227,450 Spiritists . 17 6,275 7,500 Shakers • 12 5,200 41,000 Six-principle Baptists . 8 1,990 8,150 Minor sects 26 14,150 895,100 Total . 54,147 19,134,753 $173,497,932 From reliable statistics of the population of the United States, and of the evangelical churches, Rev. D. Dorches- • Tiikcn from the census of 1860. It cannot be claimed that the figures are absolutely correct ; hut they can ho relied upon to show, in general, the relative material progress of the several uenomioations. 550 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. ter has ascertained that the ratio of communicants to the inhabitants ten years of age and upwards was as fol- lows : — In 1800, one communicant for 10 5-6 inhabitants. 1832, „ 1843. ,. 1850, „ I860, 7 1-3 5 4-25 4 31-33 4 2-8 “ During this same period, the population has increased nearly sixfold ; but the communicants of evangelical churches have increased nearly fourteen and one-half fold, or the in- crease of church-membership has been two and a half times greater than the population.” This progress is most encour- aging. It wouM certainly be a wrong use of language to call these dry statistics. They point directly to the great doc- trine of the atonement by the death of Christ, to the inspira- tion of the Holy Scriptures, the publication of tlie gospel by authority of God, the privilege of believing prayer, the new creation by the Holy Spirit; to the great reformation of heart and life, of principles and manners, distinguishing civ- ilization from barbarism. What man will claim the ability to estimate the influence upon the morals and piety of this nation which has come from all the sermon.s, and other pastoral labors, of more than fifty thousand ministers of the gospel, with those of their predecessors, since the landing of the first Christian colonists on this continent? Who will venture to describe the power of all the prayers, exhorta- tion.s, tears, and examples of the unque.stionably good among the more than five millions of enrolled laboring Protestant Christians of the country, and the multitudes who have gone before them? Were it possible to abstract all these benign influences from our history, the world would then see how dark a moral night would have set in upon this fair portion DEVELOPMENT OF TRUE RELIGION. 551 of the globe without them. We can, however, now say, unequivocally, that the Holy Bible, the Christian pulpit, Christian education, the religious press, and experimental piety, have been the chart of our liberties, the inspiration of our patriotism, the regeneration of civil society, and the exaltation of the national character. As a clear result, these States are proclaimed to the world, in their fundamental laws, to be Christian States; thus rep- resenting the common faith of the people. By authority of Congress, chaplains have been from time to time appointed to implore the blessing of God upon the Senate and House of Representatives, and “all in authority.” By law, this religious provision is extended to our army and navy. The holy sabbath is recognized in the Constitution. Of this the President is duly informed, by express provision, in Art. I., sect. 7. Dr. Adams says, “ In adopting this provision, it was clearly presumed by the people that the President of the United States would not employ himself in public business on Sunday. The people had been accustomed to pay special respect to Sunday from the first settlement of the country. They assumed that the President also would wish to respect the day. The people, in adopting the Constitution, must have been convinced that the public business intrusted to the President would be greater in importance and variety than that which wmuld fall to the share of any functionary employed in a subordinate station. The expectation and confidence, then, manifested by the people of the United States, that their President will respect their Sunday by abstaining from public business on that day, must extend, a fortiori, to all employed in subordinate stations.” Senator Frelinghuysen, before Congress, in 1836, said, “Our prede- cessors wisely determined, in accordance with the sentiments of at least nine-tenths of our people, that the first day of the week should be the sabbath of our government. This public recognition is accorded to the sabbath in the Federal Con- stitution. The President of the United States, in the dis- TUE GREAT REPUBLIC. charge of the high functions of his legislative department, is relieved from all embarrassment on Sunday. Both Houses of Congress, the offices of the State, Treasury, War and Navy Departments, are all closed on Sunday.” And again : “ The' framers of the Constitution, and those who for many years administered it, doubtless had in their eye the first day, the sabbath of the Christian religion. They were legislating, not for Jews, Mohammedans, infidels, pagans, atheists, but for Christians ; and, believing the Christian religion the only one calculated to sustain and perpetuate the government about to be formed, they adopted it as the basis of the infant Republic. This nation had a religion, and it was the Chris- tian religion. Christianity is the religion of this country, and, as such, is recognized in the whole structure of its government, and lies at the foundation of all our civil and political institutions : in other words, Christianity, as really as republicanism, is part and parcel of our laws,” GENER.A.L CRRISTIAN SOCIETIES. Tue American Bible Society, during the first ten years of its history, circulated 439,580 copies of the Bible ; the second decade, 1,549,848 copies; the third, 2,510,156 copies; the fourth, 6,772,338 copies; the fifth, 10,138,044 copies: thus furnishing to the needy by gift, and at very low rates to tho.se desiring to purchase, in all their various dialects, 21,409,966 copies of the Holy Scriptures. The Missionary, Tract, and Sunday-school Societies have felt this strong influence, and, in return, become grand pervading agencies for reaching the world. Orphan iu^ylums, penitentiaries, hospitals, soldiers’ homes, homes for the friendless, and, indeed, the haunts of the most degrading vices, have been reached by this indis- pensable means of instruction, comfort, elevation, and sal- vation. The funds furnished by business industry, and very largely by pure Christian liberality, show the public confidence in DEVELOPMENT OF TPvUE RELIGION. 553 the Bible Society, and the providential supply of it.s benev- olent demands. During the first ten years, the figures reached $449,552.73; the second decade, $954,897.94; the third, $1,233,039.95; the fourth, $3,042,632.44; and the fifth, $4,754,850.68: making the grand total in fifty years, up to 1866, of $10,434,953.74. The receipts from all sources, for the year ending 1867, coming from thirty-nine States and Territories, and from “ twelve foreign countries, which have contributed small amounts,” were $734,089.14; and the entire number of volumes issued by the society during fifty-one years is 22,667,926. Thus a great national book is circulated every- where under the patronage of national men, for the purifi- cation and elevation of national patriotism. The American Sunday-School Union, at their annual meet- ing in 1830, resolved, reliance upon divine aid, within two years to establish a Sunday school, in every destitute place where it is practicable, throughout the Valley of the Mississippi.” In eighteen months, 2,867 schools were estab- lished, and 1,121 visited and revived. In the year 1833, this resolution was extended in time, and enlarged to embrace the Southern States generally. It ivas reported, that, in nine year.'^, there had been established in connection with the society, or by its direct agency, 14,550 Sunday schools, containing 109,000 teachers and 760,000 scholars. Accord- ing to the report in 1860, during the eleven years preceding, the missionaries of the society organized about 20,000 new schools, containing about 760,000 scholars, taught by 127,000 teachers. During these yeans, the number of schools visited, aided, and strengthened by these missionaries, ivas much greater. During the past year (1866-7), these missionaries organized 1,671 new schools, having 10,559 teachers and 67,204 scholars.' They visited and aided 6,090 schools, hav- ing 45,175 teachers and 351,485 scholars. They visited 35,924 families; distributed 9,821 Scriptures and books, and 554 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. other Sunday-school requisites, amounting to $15,332.* Who can estimate the national power of tliese regenerat- ing agencies, forming and directing the rising generations of American citizens ? The Americ.\n Tr.vct Society (Bo.ston), — This institution, essentially New England in principles and sjurit, after some twelve years of independent labors in the circulation of Christian tracts and other religious literature, was merged in the American Tract Society in New York. In 1859, determining to send forth everywhere publications thorough- ly antislavery, it resumed its distinct organization. Since that time, it has accomplished a work of the greatest nar tional importance. “ It has furnished its publications to laborers, clerical and lay, wherever they were needed and there was a call for them. Sailors and landsmen ; the poor and neglected in our cities and large towns, as well as in the sparsely-populated portions of the country; various institutions, educational, humane, reformatory, and penal ; sabbath schools, feeble churches,” and especially the soldiers of our army and the freedmen of the South, — have been cared for and instructed by the agents and publications of this society. “It has re- ceived for its charitable operations, from May 1, 1859, to May 1, 1867, eight years, $386,889,77 : of this amount, $243,787.- 41 have been expended in the gratuitous distribution of re- ligious books, papers, tracts, &c. During the same time, the number of books, tracts, &c., published, has been 16,091,276 ; copies of periodicals of different kinds, 24,541,700. Total, 40,632,976.” t The Americ.\n Tr.\ct Society (New York). — This institu- tion has on its list 3,800 distinct publications, “of which 775 are volumes.” * From a paper by Rev. S. B. S. Bisb^ll. t From a paper by Rev. William C. Child, D.D. DEVELOPMENT OF TRUE RELIGION. 555 ‘‘Among the home publications are 900 in foreign lam guages for immigrants, thousands of whom have thus been enabled to read ‘ in their own tongue the wonderful works of God,’ with great joy, and often with saving benefit. “Of the periodicals, a total of over 106,000,000 copies have been issued, or, at present rates, 6,000,000 yearly, to 500,000 subscribers. “ Of the other home publications, 21,000,000 volumes have been printed, and 2,295,000,000 pages of tracts, — a flood of gospel truth which has certainly told with immense power on the character and destiny of America. Probably there is no inhabited country in the land where some of these publi- cations might not be found, and no citizen of the United States who is not indirectly benefited by their effects. “ Annual grants of our home publications are made to the destitute, amounting to some $50,000; and these have gone to working Christians, for circulation in prisons and hospi- tals, in sabbath schools and mission schools, in cities and in remote and lonely hamlets, to soldiers, and to sailors on our inland waters, and in hundreds of outward-bound vessels from every corner of the globe. “ Besides large amounts thus granted for foreign nations, a total of $560,000 in money has been granted from the first year to the present, to aid the missionaries, at twenty different stations in heathen lands, to print for this mission-work certain books which the society approves ; and thus 3,750 different publications have been issued abroad, including over 500 volumes in 141 languages. “Of the good results of colportage a volume might be written, and yet but a small part be told. In 26 years, it has done a work equal to that of one man for 4,137 years; it has sold 8,550,000 volumes, and granted 2,300,000; it has made 9,596,000 visits, in more than half of which prayer was offered or a personal appeal made ; it has found 1,292,- 000 Protestant families neglecting evangelical worship, 833,- 000 Ptomanist fiimilies ; 494,000 Protestant families without 55G THE GREAT REPUBLIC. Bibles, and 800,000 with no other religious book. It has, * to a good degree, met the wants of a rapidly-advancing popu- lation, where no book-stores, schools, or churches existed ; where the message of salvation would not otherwise have been borne. “The amount received and expended, from its commence- ment to this time, is over §9,000,000. “Among the reasons for its success, we notice the fact that the whole plan of operation is such as to secure re- sponsibility and efficiency. The foresight and liberality of friends have given the society a large and commodious building, where, with twenty steam-presses, tens of thousands of stereotype plates, and every f.icility for compo.«ing, print- ing, binding, and storing, its publications reach the number of 4,000 books, 30,000 tracts, and 20,000 papers, daily. So large and powerful a Christian agency operating upon the ma.sses must be an effective force for the improvement of national character.” * The American Seaman’s Friend Society is the concentration of earnest sympathy for those who “do business in great waters.” Christian philanthropy finds in seamen an im- portant class of men, capable of great excellence, and liable to the most destructive vice.s. Without our consent, they will be regarded abroad as representatives of a Christian nation. With what propriety, therefore, are the most self- sacrificing and devoted efforts made to give them, on land and on the sea, the means of grace and Christian culture ! This society has been in operation less than half a century, and it now has its chaplaincies in almost every part of the world. At homo and abroad, our seafaring men are cared for: our Bethel churches and ships, our “ homes” and hos- pitals, invite them to the blessings of holy worship and Christian hospitality. They are treated not so much as sailors as men ; and thousands of them are noble represen- From a paper by Rev. W. W. Rako. DEVELOPMENT OF TRUE RELIGION. 557 tatives of Atfierican Christianity, and many become truly devoted missionaries in foreign lands. Libraries of some 40 or 50 volumes each provide them valuable reading on shipboard. “Up to this time, Oct. 25, 1867, nearly 2,500 of them have been put afloat in the navy and merchant service, composed of over 100,000 volumes, and accessible to about 115,000 seamen at sea. The system is making a revolution in the conduct and character of sea- men on shipboard. Up to May 1, 1867, a few of these libra- rians had reported 518 hopeful conversions at sea through the influence of these books.” * YOUNG men’s CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATIONS.f “ The origin and progress of Young Men’s Christian Asso- ciations in America must always be cause of thankfulness to God. They were adopted from Germany and England ; and Providence has kindly aided their permanent establish- ment in this Western World. “ Who can recall, without a thrill of pleasure, the Samari- tan labors of the New-Orleans Association, when, in 1858, a fearful epidemic swept the streets of that city as with the besom of destruction ? Or who can contemplate, unmoved, the organized and fruitful sympathy, which, from its well- spring in the bosom of the New- York Association, flowed in an abundant and still enduring stream to minister comfort to the little ones of Norfolk and Portsmouth, Va., smitten orphans by a pitiless pestilence ? Blessed memories are there, too, of the firemen’s meetings, inaugurated in Philadel- phia, — an instrumentality owned of the Master, and there and elsewhere made the means of many a soul’s salvation. Nor can we forget the system of tent-preaching, by which, in our larger cities, the poor have had the gospel preached unto them. * From a paper by Rev. II. Loomis, D.D. t From a paper by Fkank W. Ballard. 558 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. “ No other agency has yet been discovered in which are combined, to the same degree, those desirable constituent elements, — catholicity, economy, sympathy, originality, pro- gressiveness, efhciency, and vitality. “ The meeting.s, the rooms, the library, the lectures, and the friendships of a well-appointed Christian association are calculated to attract and satisfy all the merely temporal cravings of a mind and heart not pre-occupied with vice ; while many a sorrowing subject of depravity has found in them an invitation to repentance, and an antidote to the poison of previous evil companionship.s. Superadd to these merely material attractions the e.xercise of that po.sitive religious influence which is professedly the main feature of a Christian Association, and the institution is made to assume no subordinate position in the moral machinery of the world. It becomes at once, and so remains, an indispensable adjunct to the Church, and, as thousands of new-born souls will tes- tify, a means of grace both owned and ble.ssed of God. “The Christian As.sociation, in proportion to its member- ship and their activity, becomes a moral police wherever it is establi-shed ; arresting the vicious in their mad career; preventing much of the sin that promises to ripen into crime; removing or diinini.shing, so far as its influence ex- tends, the teeming temptations of city life ; and attracting towards itself the confidence and love of tho.se who.se rescue has thus been wrought. By its well-arranged system of practical fraternity, the institution provides employment for the unemployed, homes and churches and friends for the stranger, nurses and phy.sicians for the sick ; and all this without other incentive than the consciousne.ss of dischar- ging duty, and the hope of winning souls to Christ. “The annual conventions invariably concentrate the deep- est sympathies of the Christian people in who.se cities they are held. At Montreal, in June, 1867, more than 500 dele- gates, from 106 localities, and representing an equal number of associations, held their ses.sions during several days, amid DEVELOPMENT OP TRUE RELIGION. 559 the solemn surroundings of crowds, — at times numbering 3,000 souls. And it has become the rule, that revivals of religion are the blessed legacies left behind as precious souvenirs wherever the conventions have been held. “A central organ has been successfully published during the past year, called ^ The Quarterly,’ which, under the editorial supervision of the Executive Committee resident at New York, has found favor with the associations, and has a self-supporting circulation of 2,000 volumes. “ Several associations have received from liberal friends of the cause large sums of money towards erecting permanent buildings) for their accommodation. In New York, more than $250,009 will be invested in a home for the Association of that city; the association in Chicago has already erected and occupied a splendid structure; while Washington, Bos- ton, Brooklyn, Philadelphia, and other cities, will soon be enriched by similar noble Christian edifices. “Most of the associations are enjoying the presence of the Master’s spirit ; and their prayer-meetings, Bible- classes, monthly meetings, and social gatherings, have usual- ly abounded in good results of glory to God. “There are some 250 Young Men’s Christian Associations in this country, aggregating about 40,000 members, and composed of memberships varying from 16 to near 4,000 souls each. The largest organization in the country, and one of the most active, is that of Brooklyn, N.Y., which had, in June, 1867, 3,895 members. Among the other important and influential societies are those of New York, 1,600 mem- bers; Boston, 2,300 ; Philadelphia, 2,500 ; Providence, 1,300; Troy, 1,258 ; Chicago, 1,000 ; Cincinnati, 500 ; Baltimore, 712; Harrisburg, 600; Washington City, 650; Pittsburg, 526. “ The power of such an institution as we have here de- scribed, in doing the work of Christ among the young men of democratic, republican America, and in promoting sterling patriotism, can scarcely be over-estimated.” 560 THE GUEAT REPUBLIC. THE GREAT REVIVAL. At length tliere is place for a revival of religion in the history of a great nation. Tlie Christian life is no accident- al fjict, no temporary influence, to be merely a subject of wonder or ridicule, and then pass out of sight. Religion is no mere segment of the great circle of philosophy : it is the inner force, the vitalizing power, of all philosophy, — the life and expo.sltion of history. A revival of religion in a revival of the national life. So far as it extends, the ten- dency to insubordination is broken down ; the very propen- sities which give to all governments their most serious trouble arc reduced to control, and finally eradicated; the reign of justice and of love begin.s, in the individual soul, to give strength and force to all right disposition.*?, growing and en- larging perpetually. This is true religion, — a revival of the right, the just, and the true. Now, let it extend until it subdues, reduces to order, and saves hundreds, thousands, throughout our various communities : is this nothing in his- toiy, nothing to a nation ? It was the fall of 1857. There had been a sudden and appalling overthrow of the business plans and prosperity of the city and country. Various reasons for this revulsion were given by political economists; but they were very conflicting and unsatisflictory. At length the thought began to move among the churches and business-men, that this was God arresting the headlong worldly schemes of men, and warning them not to set their affections on things on the earth. These convictions began to appear in the several cliurches ; and they soon found a rallying-point and a com- mon expression in a noonday prayer-meeting. The room was filled ; then another and another. Soon a large church was opened ; then others in other parts of the city ; then parlors in splendid residences, hotel drawing-rooms, vast public halls, and theatres, were converted into prayer-rooms. Christian men and women, old people and children, rich DEVELOPMENT OF TRUE RELIGiCN. 5G1 men and poor, all gathered daily, sometimes twice in the day, reverently to worship God, the great Sovereign of men. It was strange. Citizens who had heretofore shown no special interest in experimental religion, very rich merchants, high- minded lawyers, physicians, and laborers, — some recognized as virtuous, deserving, but unconverted, others as grossly prof- ligate, — all wept together over their sins, and triumphed to- gether, when one after another, to the number of thousands, they passed “ from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God.” Those who had been suddenly reduced from affluence to poverty rejoiced, and thanked God, with tears, that they had been brought by discipline to choose a better and more enduring treasure. Many who were still prosper- ous seemed to hear ringing through their whole being the demand, ‘^What shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” and body, mind, prop- erty, and talents were all freely laid upon the altar of God. PERVADING CHRISTIANITT. The great revival was no longer local : it was a movement — a grand, wide-spreading movement — away from vice and perdition towards virtue, holiness, and heaven. All agencies seemed to wait its commands, and bow to its control. If suggestions, appointments, or direction from some responsi- ble head, representing all the Church, were required, God had prepared the Young Men’s Christian Associations, and adapted them to this very necessity. The religious press, of course, but the secular press just as submissively, surren- dered its best services and most valuable columns to give the world due information of this grand movement. liailroads and steamboats bore the messengers of mercy rapidly from place to place, and rendered almost ubiquitous the multitudes given up altogether to labor for the salvation of men. The great national mail bore the tidings of salvation and the call to repentance over the continent; and the telegraph flashed 5G2 TIIK GREAT REPURLIC. the news of conversions, and words of warning and comfort, to dear friends hundreds and thousands of tniles away. The ships of our harbors bore out, with every sail, young con- verts, of various nations and tongues, to tell the glad tidings in other lands, and establish centres of prayer and revival inlluenees on distant continents and islands. Daily pra}'er- nieetings extended from town to town, from city to country, from state to state, and from land to land, until they literally encircled the globe, and countless multitudes were saved by faith in Christ. llow distinctly, now, does this power from God identify itself with “the new inspiration ” which decided the mind- battles ushering in the period of American independence! The life of God in man is soul-lil)erty, — is tiie clearest, full- est expre.ssion of freedom possible to human apprehension. And it is precisely thus that the life of the Church mani- fests itself as the life of the nation. Each individual created anew in Christ Jesus, each truly Christian family, each evan- gelical denomination, with all its enlightening agencies, ap- pears wrestling with the vices which destroy men, and throw society into disorder; sustaining virtue and law; concentftit- ing and then diffusing the elements of a high Christian civili- zation everywhere; bearing down all unjust enactments, and superseding them by a higher, broader, nobler eciuity. This divine, vitalizing force — the only thing so sul)tle and irre- sistible that it can literally permeate the social and civil organism, and master the evils which prey upon the rights of men — becomes at once attractive to every truth in the political condition, joins it to the grand unity of national strength, and thus reveals itself as the vitalizing force and organizing power of liberty. It is living justice. Remove it, destroy it, and liberty is dead ; extend it tbrough all the governments of earth, and the loorld is free. ] iLOKIS®[LMo PERIOD n. EMANCIPATION. CHAPTER L AMERICAN SLAVERY. “ What execrations should the statesman be loaded with, who, permitting one-half the citizens thus to trample on the rights of the other, transforms the one into despots, and the other into enemies, — destroying the morals of the one part, and the amor patrice of the other ! And can the liberties of a nation be thought secured, when we have removed their only firm basis, — a conviction in the minds of the people that their liberties arc the gift of God? Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, and that jus- tice cannot sleep forever. The Almighty has no attribute that can take sides with tis in such a contest.” — Jefferson. In another part of this work, we have seen that slavery in America was a legitimate result of caste in England. The distinction between labor and government became usurpa- tion and oppre.ssion. The idea that certain classes were born to serve was the complement of the feeling that wealth and high birth were a release from labor. An hereditary nobility harmonized with the doctrine of hereditary government and hereditary subjection. True, the formal assertion of this doc- trine, in its legitimate consequences, was not common in England at the time when this deadly evil began to work in the colony of Virginia ; but it was vital and practical in the customs of society, and it came here in the form of inden- tured apprenticeship. It most conveniently adopted from the S[)aniards the practice of enslaving the helpless Indians; and when, in 1620, the Dutch landed twenty negroes at 6Ki 5G4 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. Jamestown, and ofTered them for sale as slaves, it was not difficult to find customers. The slave-trade, which had been in progre.ss for more than four hundred years, was at this time led on hy Portugal, and became an extended and lucrative tratlic hy maritime na- tions generall}\ It had no reference to color ; hut when a few black men were brought from Africa, and exchanged for Moorish captives, it was found that they were a strong, powerful race of men, and they soon became a coveted article of traffic. The African slave-trade thus began, under the patronage of Prince Henry HI., son of John I. of Por- tugal, in 1418. It received a new impulse from the great revival of commercial activity following the discovery by Columbus, and the entrance of Africa by the enemies of the race. MEN ENSL.WED. The fii'st great fact which deserves to be mentioned here is, that slaves were human beings. In each of the.se plain, muscular bodies was a .soul, formed, by the power of God, to think and feel, to reason and will, — a .soul with a con- .science, capable of enjoying and suflering, redeemed by the blood of Christ, and stamped with immortality. Each slave might lie taught to fear God and read his holy Word, exercise saving faith in Christ, receive forgiveness of sin.s, and be thrilled with the hope of heaven.’ And the grandest fact of his natural being was, that he was free. God had made his power of volition a fundamental part of him. He had a right to breathe this free air, walk abroad when he pleased, work and earn his living, support and educate his family, keep around him the dear objects of paternal love, and obey the laws of chastity. But this cruel love of personal ease and aggrandizement, this lust of power, came in, and robbed him of all these rights. It bound his body, so that it could not go where his interest and duty required; it seized his hands, his feet, his AMERICAN SLAVERY. 565 muscles, his brain, his nerves, and said they should all work fo'' the benefit of a master. And there was no hope. Children’s children were doomed, down to the latest generation. Their numbers swelled, and their value increased. Every additional pound of sugar, tobacco, and rice, told the increasing woe of their bondage. The vast cotton-fields, and the triumphs of Whitney and Arkwright, all rose up to show how utterly hopeless was their future. Christians and infidels enslaved men, — thou- ands, millions, of men, women, and children, — and made laws to protect their villany. Is a greater crime than this possible ? MIND SUBJUG.ATED. Slave-owners were right in the judgment that the body could not be “held to service,” and the soul be free. There was dangerous power in soul-liberty. God made it to take control of brain and muscle, hands and feet. It must be suppressed, controlled absolutely, or it would break chains asunder like the withs of Samson. It was a crime to teach a slave to read. Ilis intellect, expanded, might seize with more power the thought of his natural right to free- dom ; he might catch in a newspaper a glimpse of the condemnation of the tyranny that bound him ; he might put on paper some allusions to his personal rights, and the rights of his wife and children : he must not learn to read, therefore. But the limitation of rights could not stop here. Igno- rance required by a great system of wrong would not be confined to slaves. The common people must not be edu- cated. They had no slaves, and might inquire why the few who held them were the governors of the land. They might expect even to associate with gentlemen. Education must, therefore, be the privilege of the few, of the wealthy, of the children of slaveholders, their blood-relations, and high-born friends. Common schools were dangerous. They would 560 THE GREAT REPUREIC. make the poor whites impudent, and difficult to manage at the elections. They might originate ideas of liberty that would be exceedingly inconvenient to an oligarchy. But mental subjection must extend farther than this, or the cherished institution would not bo entirely safe. Popu- lar sentiment must be moulded so as to force humanity itself to tolerate this enormous wrong ; nay, to accept it, call it right, extol it as the best and purest form of society. Slaveholders themselves must not indulge a doubt of their right to make “chattels” of human beings; much less might a stranger, a man who had been accustomed to free thought and free speech, utter sentiments of condemnation in the midst of slavery, lie would soon find that he had a master. The tyranny of custom and popular sentiment couhl not be restrained for lack of argument. It was learned and ingenious; and the violence of the mob would help in the last extremity to a summary conclusion and a glorious triumph. Laws which would allow a slave no will of his own, which would subject him in every respect to the will of his master which made it a felony to teach him to read, or to believe that he had a right to him.self or his wife or children, were necessary. The will of the people, the popular sentiment, must sustain these laws at all hazards, and, whenever the most reckless deemed it necessary, deal out summary pun- ishment to all advocates of liberty. This was mind sub- jugated. GOVERN.MENT INTIIRALLED. For a time, it seemed as if the whole United States might become slave territory. But the cold and the rocks of the North would not allow the negro to become a perpetual slave here. State sovereignty was, therefore, the next strong hope of Southern political leadens. Slavery must enter into every department of government, and absolutely rule the State. If an emancipationist should find his way into AISIEKICAK SLAVERY. 567 the legislature, he must learn his utter impotence. No man could be a ruler, in any controlling sense, who showed the least hesitancy with regard to the usurpations of slavery. The construction of State sovereignty must be so ex- tended and stringent as utterly to exclude the interference of the General Government with State despotism. All this was easy; for the few who deemed themselves born to rule had very little difficulty in making and interpreting law for the multitude, accustomed, from generation to generation, to know their places. Slavery must also rule the General Government. It must, therefore, dictate candidates, decide the elections, and con- trol the administration. It will be almost incredible in history, but it is now known to the world, that, in all this, it succeeded. For ‘three-quarters of a century, it seemed impossible to pass a law in Congress that had the' least tendency towards emancipation, or the amelioration of the condition of the black race ; or to avoid adopting a measure which was demanded, to increase the securities and extend the power of slavery. Equally hopeless was any attempt to bring forward a candidate for the presidency who was not known to favor the peculiar institution, or firmly pledged to guard its interests. Even the sacred right of petition must be frowned down and stamped under foot, lest the ears of slaveholders should be reached by a word in behalf of human freedom in the South, and the friends of the institution be insulted by some intimations of a popular sentiment, some- where in the Union, against this “ sum of all villanies.” This was not mere pretence : it was sober, downright earnest- ness; studied, persistent purpose, rising up from the very Ibundations of Southern society, handed doVvn from sire to son, and well judged to be an absolute necessity for the preservation of slavery. When the rapid growth of the free States, and the exten- sion of population into the North-west, over-balanced the South in the councils of the nation, there was only one 5G8 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. alternative, — guaranties from the free States, or secession. Slaveiy must rule the nation, or destroy it. Nor can we claim that these enormous burdens were lightened by the growth of mind, the refinement of man- ners, or the patronizing customs, of the South. Neither the conceded kindne.ss of a portion of the Southern iilanters to their slaves, nor the power of Southern hospitality, nor the skill and courtesy of leading politicians, could ever mean liberty’ to the people, black or white, South or North ; nor imply the right of free principles to a controlling inlluence in the government. CIVILIZATION FETTERED. The great foundations of civilization are laid in con- .science, in an accurate sense of justice; but slavery oblitei ates the broadest distinctions between right and wrong, and reconciles men to robbery. It crushes the feeling of per- sonal rights upon the part of the slave, and brings the slave-owner to consent to a life of dishonesty. It makes licentiousnes.s, with its brood of vices, so convenient and irresponsible as to demoralize a whole people under shield of popular social license. And this must produce a low standard of civilization. It ought not to be surprising to find in a country so polluted a few living in splendor, but the many in squalid hovels; a few in brilliant costume, but the multitude in rags; a few having the appearance of edu- cated softness and polished lassitude, while the great num- bers, u liite or colored, show the low breeding and animali- zation of menials, scorned and contemned whether they do right or wrong, vulgar and filthy in word and appear- ance. Civilization seeks to increase the productiveness of the soil and all the common blessings of life ; but slavery de- mands a large area of land, runs over it slightly, impover- ishes, and abandons it. It makes labv/r dishonorable, and, for its white population, substitutes hunting, fishing, idleness. AMERICAN SLAVERY. 569 and general dissipation. There will hence be a few palatial residences with costly furniture and sumptuous tables, amid multitudes of huts with broken chairs, benches, beds of straw, and the coarsest food. Civilization struggles to educate ; but slavery, as we have seen, denies education to the slave and to the masses of the poor whites. Hence vast majorities of the people will not be able to read or write ; will be shut out of the great world of letters, and consigned to a night of virtual barbarism. To avoid danger from liberalizing tendencies, school-books must be subjected to a narrow censorship, and all sentiments of personal freedom for the millions thoroughly expurgated. Sons and daughters of the ruling class must be sent abroad to be educated ; or teachers must be imported, and their instincts of humanity suppressed. Civilization requires a pure, experimental Christianity and a true literature; but slavery allows neither. THE PRESS AND THE PULPIT BOUND. When the great crisis came, how long a time liad elapsed since a man could safely publish a paper, or circulate tracts and volumes, which, with outspoken honesty and thorough- ness, sympathized with the slave, and advocated his right to freedom ! Nothing could be more inevitable in tlm slave States than the subjection of the press to the imperious dictation of the system. And just as inevitable was the submission of the party press in the free States, if the votes of this domineering interest were to lie won for the success of candidates. No political party whose periodical press ad- vocated emancipation, immediate or gradual, could hope for this vote, or had the remotest chance of success. Nothing can be more vital to liberty than the independ- ence of the pulpit ; but no minister of Christ could preach in a land of slavery, freed from the shackles of popuhir opinion, nor at all, unless it was known th.at he would com- 72 570 THE GREAT REPURLIC. pel the great law of love to harmonize with bonds and coer- cion. This is not all. The national pulpit must either denounce or tolerate robbery : it must either bear full and decided testimony against “man-stealing” and its mildest as well as its most brutal sequence.s, or it must subordinate its teach- ing to the great dominant idea of unity, and smother con- science in sympathy for slaveholding misfortunes. And thus it was. "When we thought and felt that every thing must bow to the one sentiment of confraternity, we preached care- fully, or not at all, the great common rights of manhood and the fearful crimes of slavery. All this, let it be observed, in a land of liberty, — the land of the great Declaration. And, thus far, this power had been mightier than the power of foreign oppre.ssion. Against that we rose in the strength of our manhood, and hurled it to the ground ; but to this we bowed, until its lordly dictations and insulting menaces became natural and tolerable, and until we had actually manufactured an entire department of law and logic and gospel and etiquette to accommodate and defend it. Thus the slave-power grew aud smiled, and preached and prayed, and raved and swore, until the cup of its iniquity was full ; and this is where the moral struggle that immedi- ately prt^ceded the war of emancipation found us. CHAPTER n. THE GREAT MORAL CONFLICT. “After ages will moralize on the hallucination under which an exceptional and transi- tional state of things, marking the last phase in the existence of an old feudal monarchy, has been regarded and confidentially propagated as the normal and final state of man.’' — Goldwik Smith. Could this state of American subjection to a foreign idea last forever? Was it possible that the domination of the slave-power would be final in the Great Republic, and the purposes of freedom, to which this splendid country was so early consecrated, utterly overthrown ? If the compara- tive skill, the daring and persistent purpose, of men could decide it, the answer would be clearly, Yes. If the wrong could hold its conquests by power, by bold and unscrupulous talent trained in the art of politics for many long years; if astute scheming upon the part of the few could control the many, — there could be no question : we were des- tined to be a g’^eat nation of usurpers and despots ; to live and rankle in corruption, and die under the visitations of God, remembered but to be despised and execrated wherever history should record our name. But if truth and right were imperishable, if true religion was in the conflict, if God would decide the question, then the answer was. No. But we must not forget that the plans of God develop slowly ; that they include a vast sweep of redeeming agen- cie.s, dealing with wrongs deeply rooted, and coming down from long-distant ages. Venerable in antiquity and hoary in crime, slavery had only yielded in one country, to reveal its strength in another; and here, in this land of liberty, it 572 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. gathered its power for its last and desperate conflict with the rights of man. It may not, therefore, be deemed strange, that, upon the part of the right, the preparations for the grandest and most appalling battle of all time should be long, profound, and finally irresistible. In 178G, Washington said, “ I never mean, unle.s.s some particular circum.stances should compel me to it, to jiosse.ss another slave by purchase ; it being among the first wishes of my heart to see some plan adopted by which slavery in this country may be abolished by law.” Jeflerson, writing from Paris in 1788, said, “We must wait with patience the workings of an overruling Provi- dence, and hope that that is preparing the deliverance of these our suflering brethren. When the measure of their tears shall be full, when their tears shall involve heaven itself in darkness, doubtless a God of justice will awaken to their distress, and by diffusing light and liberty among their oppres.soRs, or at length by his exterminating thunder, mani- fest his attention to things of this world, and show that they are not left to the guidance of blind fatality.” John Jay, in 1780, said, “An excellent law might be made out of the Pennsylvania one, for the gradual abolition of slavery. Till America comes into this measure, her prayers tc Heaven will be impious. This is a strong expre.ssion ; but it is just. 1 believe God governs the world; and I believe it to be a maxim in his as in our court, that tho.se who ask for equity should grant it.” Monroe, before the Virginia Convention, said, “ V/e have found that this evil has preyed upon the very vitals of the Union, and has been prejudicial to all the States in which it has existed.” Henry Laurens of South Carolina wrote to his son, Aug. 14, 1776, “You know, my son, 1 abhor slavery. I was born in a country where slavery had been established by British kings and parliaments, as well as by the laws of that coun- try, ages before my existence. 1 found the Christian reli- THE GREAT MOEAE CONFLICT. 573 gion and slavery growing together under the same authority and cultivation. I, nevertheless, disliked it. In former days, there was no combating the prejudices of men, supported by interest. The day, I hope, is approaching, when, from principles of gratitude, as well as justice, every man will strive to be foremost in showing his readiness to comply with the golden rule.” Patrick Henry said, " Slavery is detested ; we feel its fatal effects; we deplore it with all the pity of humanity. It would rejoice my very soul to know that every one of ray fellow-beings was emancipated. I believe the time will come when an opportunity will be offered to abolish this lamen- table evil.” These are only specimens of the honest and prophetic announcements of our great men, from the foundations of our government; and they show conclusively that the in- stitution of slavery was as anti-American as it was anti- Christian. Against these high inspirations of wisdom, and all the warn- ings of history in this Eepublic, for near a century, slavery advanced until it had reached the climax of insolence and oppression, which, in the preceding chapter, we traced up to our own period. Surely it was time for “ the uprising of a great people.” CHRISTIANITY REVOLTS. One thing was indestructible. The law of Jesus Christ, “ All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them,” was not made to be annihilated by human power, how’ever proud and defiant it might be- come. “ Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself” was the law of Christian life, written, not upon tables of stone, but upon the hearts of the regenerate of all time and all lands, and would ultimately gain the mastery over proud, oppres- sive selfishness. Accordingly, a very bold and formidable demonstration against slavery came from religious justice, 574 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. and love for the race. We do not claim that it was at first pure, uninixed Chri.stianity. In its bursts of indignation, it not unfrequently revealed an unchristian tcnn)cr, and a dis- position to prompt and summary justice not in harmony with the laws and plans of God; and when it was, without due consideration, claimed that the Holy Bible justified slavery, and the solid conservatism of the churches rose up in the way of radical reformer.s, a few denounced the Bible and the churches. But this rashness was gradually counteracted. Sound e.xegcsis soon rescued the Bible from the undeserved reproach of sanctioning slavery ; and members of the ch urches, in numbers constantly increasing, showed that their love of justice was superior to all prescriptive usage.s. The great principles of righteousnes.s, utterly denying the right of property in man, were found to have their very strongest security and expression in divine revelation and in the fun- damental doctrines of the Church. Agitation was fearful to the timid, and most honestly dis- couraged by a very strong conservatism in the Church and Nation. It seemed likely to sweep away the very founda- tions of public order, and result in the wildest anarchy. No doubt, denunciation sometimes assumed a bitternes.s, and measures of reform a recklessness, which few right-minded men would now attempt to justify; but, on the other hand, the cool complacency, the endless delays, of conservati.sm, the apologies for slavery, and, finally, the studied attempts to vindicate it in the face of its vile corruptions and atroci- ties, were very provoking. In the mean time, it began to appear that God was in the midst of the storm ; that he suffered, if he did not actually order, this terrific agitation to break up the reign of stupid- ity and death. It was, in fact, the trump of resurrection to the slumbering justice of the Church and the Nation. There was really no danger. Of course, as suppression began to appear hopeless, the principles of the conflict began to release themselves ; and a THE GREAT MORAL CONFLICT. 575 potent Providence compelled men to take sides in the great battle, the moral grandeur of which few men could distinctly see, none could comprehend. Conservative Christians and churches in the North began to reveal a strength of anti- slavery principle which had been hardly suspected. In the South, members of the churches, and the ministry, seemed shut up to a fatal blindnes.s. For many years, they generally conceded the wrong of the system ; but they felt the power of that terrorism which was everywhere, and shrank from the mission of “ liberty to the captives,” upon which they were sent by their great Master. They excused the wrong, and at length placed themselves at the head of its violent defenders. Thus it must be mournfully confessed that Southern churches committed a crime for which the atone- ment required has been bloody, protracted, and terrible. AVhen will the hour of forgiveness come ? Let us mingle our tears of penitence with theirs. We have been too deep- ly involved in their guilt to avoid a frightful participation in the demand for retribution ; and it may be feared that we have not yet exhausted the cup of our merited sorrow. But, all this time, true Christianity never wavered. Its great historic truth of the brotherhood of the race came out more and more distinctly ; and, even from the lips of “ unreasonable men,” it was a grand gospel, the very evan- gel of God to the oppressed American mind. Ardent and perhaps not very well regulated men in the Church took it up, and rang it through the land, until con- servatism was startled, said it was perverted, and made to mean “another gospel;” then affirmed that it was an old truth, and that, in obedience to its behest, the Church had always cared most wisely for both master and slave. But at length great and grave conservative men began to speak with authority to the men who held human bodies and .souls in thraldom, and say, “Let the oppressed go free,” so irre- si.stibly ditl the right work its way to the surface, and, amid the roar of battle, compel the people to listen to its proch»r mation. 576 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. True, schism rent church organizations here and there; sece.ssion .spurned what it thought an ecclesiastical inon.ster, and lied away, to be alone, or form new combination.s, which woiild give voice to justice in the name of God. Then slavery reached out its arm to grasp more power, and dominate over more millions; and the Church came sud- denly up to the question. Would she submit to these new aggressions, or risk her throateneil lo.sses? This was the (ii'st great public test which indicated that the age of compro- mises was worn out and must .soon be laid aside. And the Church endured the trial. Challenged to show her submis- sion and her shame, by accepting the advance of the slave- power Northward, or be torn asunder and go out of the ^va>^ she dug down after her old principle.s, and found them .‘jound and bright as ever. She threw herself upon the arm of God, and dared to do right. The crash came ; and one after another of the great denominations received the blows of the tyrant, looked mournfully upon their severed members, and, bowing reverently before God, found that their strength was in justice. In the land of the slave there were found .souls strong enough to endure the trial, and, in the face of the vilest persecution, deny the right of property in man. Faith in God, and the ultimate triumph of the right, brought up from the South to the throne of grace many fervent prayers, and into the ranks of God’s liberating army many strong, brave men. Loyalty, first to the truth, and then to the govern- ment, cost something there ; and its day of recognition and honor before earth and heaven was sure to -come. HUM.\NITY PLEADS. The first great mis.sion of truth in this grand upheaval was to show the wrong of the .‘ilave-system by the sufferings of its victims. The fair exterior of this pagan temple was always to be seen. The wor.shippers at its shrine were proud of it. THE GREAT MORAL CONFLICT. 577 See the soft luxuriance of its petted domestics, their com- fortable and even splendid costume.s, their sumptuous, fair, and boasted indolence ! See the fond attachment of these house-servants to their master and mistress, the devoted love between the children of fortune and the enslaved children of slaves ! See how reluctant they are to leave their masters ! — how they beg not to be sold away from the home of their childhood ! Most of all, see those multiplied thou- sands of converted, praying slave Christians ! — how they sing and jump and shout in exultant joy, in despite of their bonds ! And see how comfortable we are while these black people do our bidding, toil for us, and surround us with lux- urious elegance ! Is it not a beautiful system, a glorious structure ? But the age had become inquisitive. Groans and sighs were heard faintly from the inside of this temple. It was getting old ; and openings here and there let in the light, and revealed miserable objects to the eyes of strangers ; and men, persistent, — impertinent if you will, — demanded to know what was done in.side. Scores, hundreds, fled away, guided by the north star; and they told horrid tales, apd showed wounds fresh and bleeding, and scars deep and old. A wail came up from the rice-swamps, and the world heard it. The baying of blood- hounds, and the screech of lacerated victims, came from the dark woods and bloody streams. What did it all mean? Was this Christian slavery ? — a loving, voluntary, coveted, civilized bondage ? The world absolutely would know. Timid honesty, from the heart of the slave empire rising up in such formidable proportions amid the institutions of republican liberty, whispered explanations of these wounds and scars, these wailings and tears, — these men and women were not willing slaves; in large numbers they had to l)e scourged to their task ; and the brooding horrors of lear alone could keep them in bondage ; their occasional joy, and their affectionate gratitude, told that they were human, 73 578 THE GREAT REPURLIC. if they were “ chattels,” and could respond to kind treat- ment; that they could be Christians by the grace of God, if they were denied the privilege of reading the word of . God, But nothing in all this had prevented, or could pre- vent, the al)solute demand for force. Why did not those ser- vants go where they pleased ? work where they could nudvc honest bargains and obtain honest wages? Why could not they he the judges as to whether they would learn to read, or were well used? and why could they not, in the absence of white witnesses, come into court, testily to the violence indicted upon them, and receive justice? No: the truth must come out, and go abroad the world over, — it was a .system of cruel coercion. Travellers woidd tell it; poets would echo its wail ; and the pen would turn away from fiction, and write truth, stranger, wilder, more terrible, than liction. And what was to be the response to all this ? From Christianity, as we have seen, clear, strong, unequivocal con- demnation, with a kind but peremptory demand lor free- dom. But this condemnation and demand were unheeded; and ‘‘the sighing of the poor and the needy” went on. . Then pity began to weep and to plead. Christian humanity entreated, “ Bet the.se poor people change their residences and employers if they desire it. Let them learn to read God’s holy word. They long to know for themselves what con- solation it has for mourning captives and for penitent sin- ners ; let them read it.” Even natural humanity said, “ Don’t strike again ! See how the blood gushe.s, how the llesh quivers! Don’t .strike again; don’t tear that infant from its mother’s arms ; don’t sell the.se poor people away from their little ones, and chain them together like felons, and drive them off into the swamp.s, — husband.s, wive.s, and children, — hir and forever away from each other.” There was no possibility of suppressing this cry of hu- manity : it became increasingly tender and earnest ; it swelled louder and louder its notes of plaintive sorrow ; it.« THE GREAT MORAL CONFLICT. 579 circle of prayer and weeping spread wider and wider. Never before were such pleadings addressed to God or man ; never was the ear of man so utterly deaf, never the ear of God so quick and listening. JUSTICE DENOUNCES. There was another voice for the ear of oppression, — a deeper, sterner, more commanding voice. For what purpose was it said, Rob not the poor, because he is poor ; neither oppress the afflicted in the gate : for the Lord will plead their cause, and spoil the soul of those that spoiled them ” ? Surely this was not simply an announcement for the people then to hear and forget. It must have been a great fact for all time, an inevitable law which God would certainly exe- cute in his righteous wisdom everywhere. Then it spake in tones of authority to these masters as well as to oppressors of old, “ Rob not that poor man ; I am his witness, and I am your omniscient Judge : I will be his advocate. You have cruelly beaten him to get more labor out of him for yourself, and you give him no wages. But you have committed a higher crime than this : you have robbed him of himself, and made him your slave. The day of retribution is coming.” Oh, this is dreadful ! But listen again : Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver is cankered ; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days. Behold, the hire of the laborers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth ; and the cries of them which have reaped are en- tered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth.” Read thought- fully one word more: “Whoso stoppeth his ears at the cry of the poor, he also shall cry himself, but shall not be heard.” Thus did justice thunder in the ears of slaveholders their 580 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. crime and their impending calamities. They might see with their own eyes the beginnings of retribution. There were, in vast extent, all desolate and valueless, the fields which had been reaped by those who had been denied their wages. There were tlie figures of the census, showing the -border slave States cursed by some strange power, and, as compared with the free States by their side, doomed to inferiority ; and, more frightful still, these figures showed the alarming relative increase of the black over the white population. What could that mean ? Then there were prophets in these latter days. Grave, devout old negroes were on their knees night and day in prayer. They returned from tlieir interviews with God, alarmed for the fate of their masters. Perhaps no intelligi- ble words were spoken ; but the deep sigh and the ominous shake of the head meant ju.stice. Many poor black men were listener.*^, and understood the still small voice when ifsaid, ‘‘The cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of tlie Lord of sabaoth.” How quick and prompt is that subtle public sen.se which blanches the faces of oppressors when the word “ insurrection ” is whispered ! • The quakings of fear when the armle.ss hand appears writing on the wall are the beginnings of justice. Just before the storm broke, justice had a thousand tongues. The warnings came from violent and fanatical men, from great and good men, from political economists, from sober judges, from profound statesmen. Men every- where could feel it. There was sorrow in the air. There were signs of wrath in the clear sky as well as in the gather- ing storm-cloud. Great and wise men of other lands gave the alarm. They told us, in books, in periodicals, in mes- sages of kindness from across the sea, that we were nearing the fatal gulf. Flippant jests and loud bravado did but in- crease the awful apprehensions which came to the souls of men from this quickened sense of God’s all-pervading jus- tice. THE GREAT MORAL COKFLICT. 581 POLITICAL PARTIES TEMPORIZE. We must now return to the human side of this threaten- ing controversy. Men would not hear. Party spirit and sectional feeling rose high. Many shrewd men had their theories of relief and safety. Politicians sternly opposite to each other indicated a purpose to rule the storm. Here and there were men who said, “ Be just, do the right, and God will avert our perils : ” but the men strongest before the peo- ple said, “We must make concessions;” meaning, chiefly, there is no other way to majorities. There had been other storms and threatened destruction in other days ; and, in the midst of one of these storms, there had been a strong, bold attempt to fix a line between free- dom and slavery in this Republic, as though two utterly in- compatible and fiercely hostile institutions could permanently agree to rule a great nation. Slavery was uneasy within its limits. It could not be restricted. It must have more ter- ritory, or die. An empire had been added to its domain in Texas ; but this was not enough. Its covetous eyes were fixed upon the great North-west. There, above the line of the Missouri Compromise, must ultimately lie the balance of power in the nation ; and it must be gradually won. Political schemers in the North would yield this territory, enough for a State at a time, for votes to secure the success of a party. And quietly the proposition came before Con- gress to make a new State of enormous size, much of it above the line, and take up the line, leaving it open for the introduction of slavery. It was not a question to be settled by reason nor by history. The one party must do it, or fail. The other party must do it, or fail. The nation must do it, or the South would secede. Then the cry of danger came up from the American Sen- ate and House of Representatives. A few faithful men were there who did not fear the imperious edicts of the slave- power, nor the threat of breaking up the government, nor 582 TUE GKEAT REPUULIC. the bludgeon, the bowie-knife, or the pistol. They feared God, and reverenced justice. They .sent out their notes of alarm, and the people were startled. Could it he possible that slavery entertained the thought of moving northwanH There was the line, the great compromise line, that could not l;e taken up nor passed over. The South had pleaded com- ])iomises from the days of the Constitutional Conven- tion, and they surely would respect the Missouri Compro- mise. No: they would not. It was against the right to take slavery wherever the masters emigrated, and it mu.st come up. The outcry from Northern freemen was a little stronger and more threatening than usual. Something must be con- ceded ; and, for the .sake of getting rid of the line, the terri- tory of the proposed State shoidd be cut in two, and one of the new States might he free if the people insisted. It was done, and the line was de.stroyed. Henceforth it was an open question. The people were sovereign, and they could decide for themselves whether their new States should he free or slave. This was plausible. The South had no doubt but this doctrine of popular .sovereignty could be managed so that Kansas would be certainly a .slave State, and Nebras- ka probably. In the North, and especially in New England, a new idea seemed to come up, move about, and gather power: “ If it is to be a question of enterprise and majorities, we will try it. Let the compromi.se line go.” For once, “ the wise ” had been “ taken in their own craftiness.” The race was a hard one ; but the free spirit was roased, and it triumphed. If the doc- trine of the people’s sovereignty was fairly adhered to, Kan- sas would be a free State. But no thanks to political pai tie.s. This was the people. Parties truckled and bargained as aforetime ; but they w’ere gradually losing their hold of the popular will. The freemen of the North began to feel that their liberties were endangered, and to show strong symp- toms of a purpose to take the direction of affaii's into their THE GREAT MORAL CONFLICT. 583 own hands. They could not control the nominations ; but they could emigrate and vote. They did ; and this was the movement from which the slave-power in America received its first significant check. THE STRAIN AND THE RECOIL. To the Southern mind, this rapid increase of Northern freemen, and hence the use that could be made of “ popular sovereignty,” was a revelation. It showed clearly that the control of the government by the ballot was no longer se- cure. As the people began to organize, the dominant major- ity drew closer to the slave-power; and the administration showed a strong purpose to add patronage to party tactics against the people, now evidently determined to commence a new struggle for liberty. The representatives of free principles won a decided majority in Kansas. Slavery, fol- lowing its instincts, tried first brute force; but John Brown, and other brave spirits on the border, showed this to be dangerous, and, in that form, certainly hopeless. The people, in what they deemed a legitimate way, organized a provisional State government, and, without slavery, ap- ]Jied for admission into the Union. The advocates of slavery organized, adopted a proslavery constitution, and appealed to Congress. The fearful crisis thus brought on is, for the present, sufficiently known. Slavery, with all the power of government patronage, undertook the desperate task of forcing a slave constitution and government on to the people of a free, inchoate State, against the expressed will of a majority of its people. This was an open repu- diation of the doctrine of popular sovereignty : it was more, — it was, by fair construction, treason agninst the fundamental principles of the Republic. The issue was joined between the parties of freedom and slavery; and the distinguished Mr. Douglas of Illinois ultimately refused to go with his party against his own doctrine of “ popular sov- 584 TUB GREAT KEPURLIC. creignty.” But he joined issue with Abraham Lincoln, who said, “ I believe this government cannot permanently endure half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved ; I do not expect tbe house to fall : but I do expect that it will cease to be divided. Either the opponents of slavery will arrest tbe further spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction ; or its advocates will push it forward till it shall become alikb lawful in all tbe State.s, old as well as new, North ns well as South.” Mr. Seward made his famous announcement concerning this contest in these words: “It is an irrepressible conflict i)etween opposing and enduring forces ; and it means that the United States must and will, sooner or later, become either entirely a .slaveholding nation, or entirely a free- labor nation.” Henceforth, therefore, there would be no attempt to con- ceal the aggre.ssions of the slave-power ; and the advocates of freedom must gather to tbe battle, and conquer, or be utterly overthrown. Contrary to the indignant rhetoric of Mr. Webster, in w’hich he asserted the impossibility of such an event, slavery was formally legalized in the vast Territory of New Mexico, and, beyond a doubt, as the result of dictation from Wash- ington. Under the leadership of Jefferson Davis of Mississippi, the Senate of the United States w’as to be tested, and the ad- vanced doctrines of the slave-power were formally indorsed. A series of resolutions, all for this one purpose, included the following : “ liesolved, That negro .slavery, as it exi.sts in fif- teen States of this Union, composes an important portion of their domestic institutions, inherited from their ancestor.s, and existing at the adoption of the Constitution, by which it is recognized as an important element in the apportion- ment of powers among the States ; and that no change of opinion or feeling on the part of the non-slaveholding States THE GREAT MORAL CONFLICT. 585 of the Union, in relation to this institution, can justify them or their citizens in open or covert attacks thereon, with a view to its overthrow ; and that all such attacks are in man- ifest violation of the mutual and solemn pledge to protect and defend each other given by the States respectively on entering into the compact which formed the Union ; and a]-e a manifest breach of faith, and a violation of the most solemn obligations.” Mr. Harlan of Iowa moved to amend this defiant resolu- tion by the following : “ But the free discussion of the mo- rality aud expediency of slavery should never be interfered with by the laws of any State or of the United States ; and the freedom of speech and of the press on this and every other subject of domestic and national policy should be maintained inviolate in all the States.” This amendment was promptly voted down, and the original resolution was adopted. The vote stood twenty-five yeas, and thirty-six nays. Another of these famous resolutions read, “ Resoloed, That neither Congress nor a territorial legislature, whether by direct legislation, or legislation of an indirect and un- friendly character, possesses power to annul or impair the constitutional right of any citizen of the United States to take his slave-property into the common Territories, and there hold and enjoy the same while the territorial condition re- mains.” This was adopted by thirty-five yeas to twenty-one nays. Thus did the Southern oligarchy set up the claim, that slavery was the normal state of all our vast Territories ; and that, if they became free, it must be by the success of the free voters in a struggle against an institution already estab- lished, and fortified by custom and law. If this were true, then, in reality, the United States had ceased to be a gov- ernment and nation of freedom, and existed simply for the purposes and in the spirit of oppression. Another resolution declared, that “all acts of individuals or of State legislatures to defeat the purposes or nullify the 71 58G THE GHEAT KEPUBLIC. requirements of the fugitivc-slnve hiw, auJ the laws made in pursuance of it, are hostile in character, subversive of the Constitution, and revolutionary in their eflect.” Thus the free citizens of the’ free States were to be lirmly held to the obligation to arrest, and forcibly return to bondage, all struggling, panting slaves who had reached their territory. One other step in advance wjis to be demanded ; but that was deferred for consideration in the Democratic National Convention, which met in Charleston, S.C., on the 2od of April, 1800.* This was a most important meeting. It w;is to be settled whether Northern men would endure a fur- ther strain for the sake of the oligarchy. The resolutions pro[)Osed re-atlirmed the right of slaveholders to take their slave - property into the Territories, and there hold it; but, in addition, they as.serted the duty of the government to protect them in this right. This was the last step in advance now propo.sed by the slave-power; but it was one step too far. Many distingui.<;hed men felt that they had long enough submitted to the domination of a power that they really abhorred. They were now asked to commit the whole United-States Government to sbind up with any number, however small, and, by force, enable them to establish slavery in any Territory against the will of a majority of the people ; and this demand was argued in a way to extend the duty of protection into the free States and to the slave-trade. 'J'o this they could not, would not, c<^nseut. The Southern delegates, declining all attempts at compromise, withdrew, organized apart, and adjourned. The majority also adjourned without making a nomination. The rest is known. Our readers now understand what we mean by the strain and the recoil. The free spirit of the North had been so long crushed by the bony hand of this inexorable tyranny, that, in very agony, it writhed out of its grasp. The American Conflict, by Horace Greeley, p. 309, et seq. THE GE.EAT MORAL CONFLICT. 587 ANOTHER GRAND CRISIS IN HISTORY. As, before the great Revolution, the gathered power of free- dom had reached a point at which it 'must assert itself, — ■ a period in history in which the right of foreign domination must be resisted by force, or become absolute and perpetual ; so now it began to appear, that, for the questions of power between freedom and slavery, the hour of decision was at hand. Despotism had become defiant, and would brook no control. It had thrown off all disguise, and openly demand- ed simple, absolute, unconditional submission. On the other hand, the^rights of liberty could no longer be ignored. They had risen calmly and slowly to a position of firmness and self-respect, which began to say to the slave-power, “ Thus far, and no fiirther.” The time had come in which the question could not be settled by threats nor by argument. The South must now take by force what it had so imperiously de- manded, or own that the day of its insolent dictation had passed. The North must prepare to resist, even to death, the assaults which would soon be made, or own its subjection to this imperious despotism. There would, it was true, be one more appeal to the bal- lot ; but this, so far as the slave-power was concerned, was merely nominal. Simply to gain time, they named their candidate, but took measures which they were perfectly aware would result in his defeat. Old party lines were an- nihilated ; and, from the chaos, two, only two, grand parties could be seen distinctly revealing their outlines, — one the party of freedom and loyalty, the other of slavery and re- bellion. Men became grave and solemn under the power of these momentous events. Not America alone, but the world, was interested. Liberty could not falter and die here for this continent merely. Slavery could not now complete its usur- pations and consolidate its power for America only. Clear- sighted philanthropists in England and on the continent of 688 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. Europe knew that we were making history, not for ourselves alone, but for the race. Hence the grand divisions of men which were forming here, promptly extended themselves around the globe. Freedom and oppre.ssion revealed their •indissoluble unities, and prepared for the battle. One question only remained to be settled : Would the representatives of liberty in the United States be firm? would the}’ receive calmly the menaces of destruction to their cherished government, and of cruel, bloody war, and move steadily on to the clear, (inal announcement of the great decision? Another grand crisis of history had come. The crisis had passed. Adr.\h.\m Li.ncoln was elected Pre.s- ident of the United States. The clock of ages struck, and the human race moved into the opening period of a new dispensation. v.l«- ff. .-iv . \ ■,! ,:#' ;s' CHAPTER III. THE WAK OF SLAVERY AND FREEDOM. “ Mr. President, — I have heard witli pain and regret a confirmation of the remark I made, that the sentiment of disunion has become familiar. I hope it is confined to South Carolina. I do not regard as my duty what the honorable senator seems to regard as his. If Kentucky to-morrow unfurls the banner of resistance, I never will fight under that banner. I owe a paramount allegiance to the whole Union, a subordinate one to my own State.” — Henry Clay. From the final public decision of the freemen of the North to resist at any cost the aggressions of slavery, to the blood}^ attack of the rebels upon American soldiers, the time was brief But a few momentous events must occur, and these were hastened by the impatience of Southern leaders. This would seem to have been the time for sober reflec- tion ; for broad, statesmanlike views of the true reasons for our national greatness. It would surely have been wise to have carefully considered the distinctive influence of free- dom in making us a nation; the direct antagonism of slavery to republican liberty; the evident favor of Providence, shown in the rapid, powerful development of free principles ; the deep-seated aversion of the civilized world to the institution of slavery; the improbability that rebellion, however power- ful, could succeed against national authority and resources; the fearful carnage of civil war; the wail of sorrow that must come up from our happy homes ; the track of desolation over the fields of blood ; the sad spectacle before the world of destructive violence in the heart of the Great Republic. Beyond a doubt, reasonings upon these graver themes Avere suppressed. Southern men could not think their own 590 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. tlioiiglits, nor litter their true sentiments. When tlie first overt acts of treason were perpetrated, a large majority of the people were oppo.sed to the movement. If they could have been organized, they might have triumphed over their intolerant, aspiring leaders ; but, as Southern society was constituted, this was impo.ssiblc. The large majorities were used to being governed ; and the resistance of sound wisdom was soon overwhelmed by the surges of passion. The rebel press and the leaders of public sentiment ordered patriotism and tearful love of the national Union and the old tlag to be silent ; and it was silent ! SECESSIO.N. ■The historian of the Southern Confederacy has placed on record the contempt for freemen of the North, and the self-complacency of the South, which had been cultivated and dififused everywhere for three-ciuarters of a century, and which ought to be mentioned as the first grand error that made secession po.ssiblc. “ The intolerance of the Puritans, the painful thrift of the Northern colonists, their external forms of piety, their jaundiced legislation, their convenient morals, their lack of the sentimentalism which makes up the half of modern civilization, and their unremitting hunt after selfish aggrandizement, are traits of character which are yet visible in their descendants. On the other hand, the col- onists of Virginia and the Carolinas were, from the first, distinguished for their polite manners, their fine sentiments, their attachment to a sort of feudal life, their landed gen- try, their love of field-sports and dangerous adventures, and the prodigal, improvident aristocracy that dispensed its stores in constant rounds of hospitality and gayety.” Slavery es- tablished in the South a peculiar and noble type of civiliza- tion.” “The civilization of the North was coarse and materialistic: that of the South was scant of show.s, but highly refined and sentimental.” * Lamentable as it Is, the * The Lost Cause, by E. A. Pollard, pp 50. 51. THE WAIi OP SLAVERY AND FREEDOM. 591 South came up to the greatest question in history under the control of this ignorant deception. Moreover, the sectional doctrine of State rights, which we have met so frequently in the history of the Republic, now came to its ultimate expression, affirming that the Union was a mere expediency for the temporary convenience of the States ; that each State was an independent sovereignty, having the right to withdraw from the confederacy of States at its pleasure ; that we had no American nation, only as each State was a nation in itself ; that the people of the United States neither had originally, nor had acquired, any interests in common, which a single State might not sacrifice at any moment. It was now easy to see the purpose for Avhich this doctrine of State rights had been adhered to with such persistent tenacity. The time had come which had been contemplated for more than a generation, Avhen it was to be used as a most potent weapon for destroying the national government. The leaders of this conspiracy thought they saw in the election of Mr. Lincoln the long-desired occasion for the uprising of treason. Under the call of Gov. Gist, on Mon- day, Nov. 5, 1860, the Legislature of South Carolina met in extra session, first to choose electors for President and Vice- President, but chiefly to provide for open secession. In his message to this legislature. Gov. Gist said, “ I am con- strained to say that the only alternative left, in my judgment, is the secession of South Carolina from the Federal Union. The indications from many of the Southern States justify the conclusion that the secession of South Carolina Avill bo immediately followed, if not adopted simultaneously, by them, and, ultimately, by the whole South.” He recommended “ to place the whole military force of the State in a posi- tion to be used at the shortest notice.” A few honest efforts were made to stem the tide by bringing forward the idea of waiting for co-operation from the other slave States; but this policy, which had heretofore enabled the conservatives 592 THE GREAT REPURLIC. of South Carolina to triumph over constructive treason, was of no avail at this time. The hill for a convention to give the semblance of authority to the secession of the State passed finally ou the 12th of November. On the 17th of December, this convention met at Colum- liia. Mes.sages encouraging the daring act of secession came from Alabama and Mi.ssissippi. One message came which was promptly suppressed. It was from fifty-two members of the Legislature of Oeorgia, urging “delay and consultation among the slave States.” This was the last appeal of reason which these violent conspirators had patience to hear. On the twentieth day of December, 1800, the fatal act of se- cession was passed. South Carolina was declared to be“ now and henceforth a free and independent commonwealth.” Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mi.ssis.sippi, and Ijouisiana soon followed. In Texa.s Arkansas, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia, the conspirators were ballled for awhile by the people, large majorities of whom voted and acted with great vigor against the proposed treason ; but they were at length overborne by Southern feeling, led on by the most un.scru- puloiis intrigue. Missouri, Kentucky, Maryland, and Dela- ware alone, of the Southern State.s, finally resisted the reck- less attempts of fraud and violence to involve them in the criminal act of secession. The leaders did not pretend that the election of Mr. Lin- coln had been unconstitutional, nor that it was tire real cause of this movement. In October, 1856, a secret convention of Southern governors, called together by Gov. Wise of Vir- ginia, was held at the capital of North Carolina. The pur- pose and spirit of this convention may be judged by the declaration of Gov. Wise, “that, had Fremont been elected, he would have marched at the head of twenty thousand men to Washington, and taken pos.session of the Capitol, pre- venting by force Fremont’s inauguration at that place.” * In the secession convention of South Carolina, Mr. Parker said, Greeley, i. 329. THE WAR OP SLAVERY AND FREEDOM. 593 “ It is HO spasmodic effort that has come suddenly upon us : it has been gradually culminating for the last thirty years.” Mr. Keitt said, “ I have been engaged in this movement ever since I entered political life.” Mr. Rhett said, “ The secession of South Carolina is not an event of a day ; it is not any thing produced by Mr. Lincoln’s election, or by the non-exe- cution of the fugitive-slave law : it has been a matter which has been gathering head for thirty yeans.” Thus was this grand conspiracy deliberately nurtured, ostensibly in the in- terests of the South, but really to give power to an oligarchy against the liberties of mankind. It had been managed with great skill, and chiefly by a few ambitious men. It was virtually conceded that the people were not generally in favor of the measure. Mr. Mullin said, “ If we wait for co-operation, slavery and State rights will be abandoned, and the cause of the South lost forever.” Mr. Edmund Ruffin of Virginia said “he wished Virginia was as ready as South Carolina ; but, unfortunately, she was not.” No : the people loved their government, and did not wish to sacrifice it on the altar of seccional ambition. Mr. Alexander II. Stephens of Georgia, in his celebrated sjjeech in which he undertook to stem the tide of ruin, said most truthfully, “ Some of our public men have failed in their aspirations, that is true ; and from that comes a great part of our trouble.” Had Mr. Stephens stood firmly to his position, his history would have closed grandly ; but his fixtal adherence to State rights led him to say that he should go with his State. He went, and, by accepting high office under the rebel government, gave reason to suspect that he was not wholly free from the per- sonal ambition to which he had so correctly ascribed the dangers of the Republic. TREASON AND REBELLION. The first overt act of rebellion was the ordinance of seces- sion. It was an open, formal renunciation of the authority 504 THK OHEAT UEVUnUC. of tlio United States. Very };rave (lueslions arose from this act. Should the law iininediately as.sert its premjija lives, (ill the jdaces of national trn>^t made vacant hy the eonspiraev, and arrest the leading; conspirators? Wouhl the jrovern* ment j)ro'nj)tlv increase its defences and the ninnher of men in arms within its rebellions territory? No. V’helher wise or unwise, it would Ibrhear: it was great, magnanimous, and paternal, and would only remonstrate: it would do nothing, that, in the slightest degree, could he const riual into hos- tility. In the mean time, rehellion went on. The South imme- diately began to arouse her j)eople lor stern war. Her mem- bers of Congrc'is kept their places, ami uttered l)oId, dedant trea.son in the House of Kepresentativ(‘s and in the Senate. lUit Northern men replied with lorhearanee. or not at all. Conservatives were allowed to take the lead. Uepresenta- tives of strong States were ready to j)ledge the repeal of all, obno.vions laws, and promise that there .■^houlil he no obsta- cles thrown in the way of the recovery of fugitive slave.s. Most condescending compromise measures were l)rong!.f for- ward ; hut Southern men defeated them. A Peace ( 'ongre.ss was called, in which the greatest exertions were made to satisfy the proud, defiant spirit that seemed to have no other purpose hut to increase the irritation and to gain time. Brave, patriotic men iVom the border on both sides did their utmost to reach some pacific re.sult; but it was literally iin- jio.ssible. A few men of broad national views stood up man- fully (or the honor and dignity of their country ; but the}’ were overwhelmed by the power of trea.son on the one h:md, and conciliation on the other. . Only God could have ju'cvent- ed and did prevent the pas.sage of measures which would have condemned the Biepublic to irredeemable disgrace. When the last grand crisis came, and only two votes were needed to compromise the government in behalf of the slave-power, Southern men refused the votes; and it was all over. Once more the voice of the Great S’ove reign \vas heard saying. “Thou shalt not bow down to them.” THE WAR OF SLAVERY AND FREEDOM. 595 But rebellion went steadily on. The Executive was with- out nerve. He declared that the government had no power to coerce a State. There was treason in the cabinet. The Secretary of the Treasury was a Southern man ; and he had managed so as to reduce the nation to the very verge of bankruptcy. The Secretary of War was a Southern conspir- ator; and he had sent off all the arms within his reach to the South. Mr. Pollard, their own historian, says, It had been supposed that the Southern people, poor in manufac- tures as they were, and in the haste for the mighty contest that was to ensue, would find themselves but illy provided with arms to contend with an enemy rich in the means and muni- tions of war. This disadvantage had been provided against by the timely act of one man. Mr. Floyd of Virginia, when Secretary of War under Mr. Buchanan’s administration, had, by a single order, effected the transfer of a hundred and fifteen thousand improved muskets and rifles from the Spring- field Armory and Watervleit Arsenal to different arsenals at the South. Adding to these the number of arms distrib- uted by the Federal Government to the States in preceding years of our history, and those purchased by the States and citizens, it was safely estimated that the South entered upon the war with a hundred and fifty thousand small arms of the most approved modern pattern, and the best in the world.” Thus had this faithless cabinet minister availed himself of his high position to betray the govern- ment he was sworn to defend. He made an additional bold attempt to supply the rebels with heavy ordnance ; but the prompt uprising and loyal resistance of citizens of Pitt.s- burg defeated this treacherous order. The Secretary of the Interior, also a Southern secessionist, had suffered an enor- mous fraud in connection with his department, tending to shake the public confidence in government securities. The obsequious power at the head of the Navy Department had scattered our ships-of-war over the world ; so that, at the opening of hostilities, we had but twelve vessels belonging 59G THE GUEAT REPUBLIC. to the home squmlron ; and only tliree of those, with a store- ship in the harbor of New York, were in Nortliern waters. There was, moreover, treason in tlie army. Several dis- tinguished generals and subordinate ollieers of the regidar army resigned their commission.s, and appeared in command of the organizing forces of rebellion. Finally, llrig.-Gen. Twiggs turned over his whole army in Texas, with |)roi> erty amounting to $1,200,500, besides real estate, to Gen. lien M'Culloch, repre.senting the rebels in that State. Thus, by one act of most dishonorable treason, the United States lost full one-half of her entire military force. It would seem that Providence permitted the government of freedom to come up to this terrible crisis, and commence its struggle for life, in a state of ab.solute helplessness. According to all human appearance, ruin was inevitable. In the mean time, the public property in the South was seized by the conspirators. One after another, our forts and arsenals, post-olHces and vessels, were surrendered to the rebels, or violently seized ; and on the ninth day of February, 1861, by a convention in Montgomery, Ala., as.sembled at the call of South Carolina, the great act of treason was consum- mated by the formal organization of the Confederate States of America. The Confederate Congre.ss elected Jefferson Davis, of Mississippi, President ; and Alexander II. Stephen.s, of Georgia, Vice-President. With protestations of a desire for peace, but a readiness for war, this treasonable organiza- tion entered upon its career of blood and ruin in the spirit of triumph. Mr. Davis said in Stephen, Ala., Y^our border States will gladly come into the Southern Confederacy with- in sixty days, as we will be their only friends. England will recognize us, and a glorious future is before us. The grass will grow in the Northern cities, where the pavements have been worn ofl by the tread of commerce. We will carry war wdicre it is ea.sy to advance, where food for the sword and torch await our armies in the densely-populated cities; and, though they may come and spoil our crops, we can raise them as before. TUB WAR OP SLAVERY AND FREEDOM. 597 while they cannot rear tlie cities which took years of indus- try and millions of money to build.” Mr. Stephens said of this new government, "Its founda- tions are laid, its corner-stone rests, upon the great truth, that the negro is not equal to the white man ; that slavery, subordination to the superior race, is his natural and normal condition. This our new government is the first in the his- tory of the world based upon this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth. This stone, which was rejected by the first builders, is become the chief stone of the corner in our new edifice. I have been asked. What of the future ? It has been apprehended by some that we would have arrayed against us the civilized world. I care not who or how many they may be ; when we stand upon the eternal principles of truth, we are obliged to and must triumph.” See also with what complacency this otherwise truly great man alludes to the future of the old United States, and the gracious arrangements made for their accommodation, as, one after another, thej^ should by necessity turn to the glorious Confederacy for protection. " Our growth,” he says, " by accessions of other States, will depend greatly upon whether we present to the world, as I trust we shall, a better govern- ment than that to which they belong. If we do this. North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas cannot hesitate long; neither can Virginia, Kentucky, and Missouri. They will necessarily gravitate to us by an imperious law. We made ample provision in our constitution for the admission of other States. It is more guarded, and wisely so I think, than the old Constitution on the same subject; but not too guarded to receive them so fast as it may be proper. Looking to the distant future, and perhaps not very distant either, it is not beyond the range of possibilitj’, :md even probability, that all the great States of the North-west shall gravitate this way. Should they do so, our doors are wide open to leceive them, but not until they are ready to assimilate with us in principle. The process of disintegration in the old Union 598 THE GREAT REPURLIC. may be expected to go on with almo-^t absolute certainty. We are now the nucleus of a growing power, whicli, if wo are true to ourselves, our destiny, and our high mission, will become the controlling power on this continent.” FORT SU.MTER. When the undisguised treason of South Carolina appeared, .Major Robert Anderson, a gallant Kentuckian, had com- mand of seventy men, with headquarters at Fort Moultrie. Regarding this position as critical and unsafe, he quietly removed his small garrison to Fort Sumter. It was farther from Charleston, and a better fort This the leaders of the Rebellion considered an ofl’ence to the nation of South Caro- lina. Their papers denounced it as an act of hostility, and in violation of an express understanding with the govern- ment Mr. Floyd profes.sed to be very indignant at this breach of faith, and demanded that Mr. Ruchanan should order our troops to evacuate the forts in Charleston Harbor. As the President hesitated, and Floyd saw no further oppor- tunity of serving the cau.se of .secession without danger to himself, he made this the occasion of his resignation, and went deliberately from under the eyes of the government over to her deadly foe.s. In the mean time, the volunteers from South Carolina, and then from other Southern Sbites, came into Charleston in great number.s, armed and drilled, ready to open the war They immediately took posse.ssion of Fort Moultrie, and commenced a vigorous improvement of all their military defences. The feeling of concern and alarm began to extend through the North. Timid, conservative men joined with tha rebels to entreat Mr. Buchanan not to do any thing that would irri- tate the South, or provoke hostilities; while brave, manly patriots demanded that Fort Sumter should be immediately re-enforced and provisioned. The Legi.slature of South Caro- TUE WAR OF SLAVERY AND FREEDOM. 59D lina resolved, that “ any attempt by the Federal Government to re-enforce Fort Sumter will be regarded as an act of open hostility, and a declaration of war.” Gen. Dix, then Secre- tary of the Treasury, had attempted, but too late, to save two or three vessels at Mobile and on the Mississippi, and had sent that despatch which thrilled the patriotic heart of the nation, — “ If any man attempts to haul down the American tlag, shoot him on the spot.” Government determined to make an effort to relieve our garrison. For this purpose, “ The Star of the West,” a small steamer, left on the night of the 5th of January, with two hundred and fifty men and a supply of food, for Fort Sumter. She reached the waters off the city of Charleston on the 9th ; and, as she moved np toward Fort Sumter, “ she was fired upon from Fort Moultrie and a battery on Morris Is- land, and, being struck by a shot, put about, and left for New York, without even communicating with Major Anderson.” Thus the conspirators commenced the war. On the third day of March, P. G. T. Beauregard was com- missioned by Jefferson Davis as a brigadier-general, and placed in command of all the forces at Charleston. On the (lay following, Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated President of the United States. A small number of vessels had been collected, and sent to the relief of Fort Sumter ; the President frankly and humane- ly sending word to the men leading the Rebellion, that these vessels were not to make war upon them, but “ to supply Fort Sumter with provisions only ; and that, if such attempt be not resisted, no effort to throw in more arms or ammunition will be made, without further notice, or in case of an attack upon the fort.” Under instructions from Mr. Walker, Confederate Secretary of War, Gen. Beauregard, on the 11th of April, demanded the surrender of the fort, which Major Anderson promptly declined. After notice of a single hour, at half-past four. * Greeley, i. 412. 000 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. A.M., on the twelftli dny of April, 1801, tlie first gun was fired at Fort Sumter, from Fort Johnson, by Mr. Ruilin of Vir- ginia, who craved the privilege as a distingui.shed honor. This gun awoke the nation from its slumhers. To the Con- federate rebels it was the signal of the complete triumph of the slave-power and the death-knell of the Union : in fact, however, it was the death-knell of slavery, and the formal announcement of a new era of liberty to the continent and the world. The conllict was sliort. Immediately the fires of Moid- trie, Cumming’s Point, and the iloating-battery, answered the signal gun from Johnson ; and a sheet of llaine encir- cleil the doomed fort and its gallant defenders. Major Anderson made no hasty response. As was fitting, for two hours and a half this rebel fire poured its missiles upon the government fort without a note of response, that the world might know that the Confederates began the war. At length the guns of Major Anderson told the world that the nation would resist, and fight for its life. For thirty-four hours, this storm of ruin fell upon Fort Sumter, to he answered by the few guns of the Republic amid sufibcating smoke and the flames of every thing combustible. The provisions of the little garrison were almost exhausted, their guns dis- mounted, their ammunition nearly gone. A chivalrous feel- ing rose in the hearts of the assailants toward their heroic countrymen in their imperilled condition. Mr. Wigfall of Texas risked his life to induce Major Anderson to cease re- sistance. Representatives of the conspirators took up the negotiation, and the fort was surrendered. The brief d“- spatch of Major Anderson to his government, dated April 18, 1861, will explain the whole : “ Having defended Fort Sum- ter for thirty-four hours, until the quarters were entirely burned, the main gates destroyed, the gorge-wall seriou.sly injured, the magazine surrounded by flame.s, and its door closed from the effects of the heat, — four barrels and three cartridges of powder only being available, and no provisions THE WAIl OF SLAVERY AND FREEDOM. GOl i) It pork remaining, — 1 accepted terms of evacuation offered by Gen. Beauregard (being tlie same offered by liim on the lltli instant, prior to the commencement of Iiostilities), and marched out of the fort on Sunday afternoon, the 14th in- stnnt, with colors (lying and drums beating, bringing away company and private property, and saluting my flag with fifty guns.” Ir. is not as a battle between armies that this event is to be considered ; for it was simply seventy men in a beleaguered fort, with nothing in preparation for war, maintaining with the greatest heroism the honor of their nation and flag to the last moment, against some seven thousand men with all the munitions of war and perfection of appointments which money or science could provide. Not a man had been killed (God so ordered), excepting one by the bursting of a gun in firing the salute. But enough laid been done to “ fire the Southern heart,” and to awaken in the breasts of patriot Americans the spirit which would rise to vindicate the na- tion’s honor, and save our liberties. PROVIDENTIAL ADJUSTMENTS. We have seen, that, whether willing or otherwise, American freemen were brought sternly up to confront this menacing despotism. No cringing submission, no humiliating com- promise, could avert the danger. All the endeavors of men, however rash or grave, were baffled by a power to a large extent unseen. Thus did God indicate that the time had come for a final settlement of this grand question of the continents and the ages. The war, as it advanced, would show that vast sums of money were required to meet its expenses ; and, in the re- duced condition of government finances, faith in God, and confidence in the people, took the place of visible re- sources. We were compelled to fight. The bayonet wns at our breasts. The shouts of defiance from the gathering 76 G02 THE GKEAT UEPUBLIC. hosts of rebellion were ringing in onr ears. Tlie overt acts of treason were rapidly impoverisliing us, and taking away the means of resistance. Tliere was no alternative but to rise in arms, or hand over the fairest country and best government in the world to the hopeless rule of an odious tyranny. In such a cri.sis, how manifestly the wisdom of God rises above the folly of men! It soon began to ajij)oar that he had given to the friends of the government every- where a large amount of surplus wealth, aud a disposition to use it freely in defence of the public libertie.s. It was, moreover, a striking consideration that the rich and exhaust- less mines of gold and silver on the Pacilic slope, and on both sides of the Kooky Mountains aud the Sierra Nevadas, had been hid away during the long ages, and then di.'^covered and developed just in time to meet this grand emergency. Without the large annual yield of the precious metals from these mine.s, it may be safely said that the resources for the war would have been soon exhausted, and the absolute destruc- tion of trade must have compelled a premature accommoda- tion. Equally providential was the fact, that the death- struggle of the slave-power to get control of our Pacific em- pire in advance of the crisis signally failed. God stirred up the spirit of a few brave men to fight that battle on the coast ; and they were Christian men, Christian ministers in- deed, who moved to the front in the conflict, and, at the ri.‘ee with a part of his brigade from Johnston’s army, Col. Bartow with a portion of his brigade, and Imhoden and Ilicliard.son with six additional pieces of artillery, came up, and entered vigorously into the conllict The rehel.s’ right, in the woods, was pre.s.sed severely by Sykes’s battalion. Col. Bee, now in command of the Confederates, re.sisted with great bravery and strength; hut the Union troops pre.ssed him hack, and .'<0011 became masters of that part of the (ield. They swept acro.ss Young’s Branch, and forced the enemy up the slope to the top of the hill. Hampton, with his famous legion, rushed in to restore the battle, hut, a.s Johnston said, “only helped to render ellicient service in maintaining the orderly character of the retreat from that point.” On the top of the ridge stood Col. Jack.son with his brigade, dressed and calm as on a public parade. “ There,” said Bee, “ is Jack.son, standing like a stone wall and ever thereafter he was “ Stonewall Jack.son.” Let us now turn to another part of this bloody field. The movement of Evans to meet Hunter had left an open- ing in the Confederate lines. From the tops of trees it was seen that Evans was receding from the fire of Hunter’s men. His re-enforcements coming up increased his stubborn resistr ance, but without decisive effect. Tyler ordered Sherman and Keyes to move up to Hunter’s left. This was done promptly ; but, the enemy yielding to the energy of Hunter’s force.Xj Sherman, reporting to M‘Dowell, was ordered to join THE WAU OF SLAVERY AND FREEDOM. 607 in the pursuit of the enemy, who were falling back to the Sudley-springs Road. Keyes formed on the left; and Ileintzel- nian swept over the conquered field, and came up vigorously into action. Victory for the grand army of the Republic now seemed certain. M‘Dowell had three divisions, including some eighteen thousand men in admirable position; and, fiushed with victory, they were ready to move on, and finish the battle. Johnston and Beauregard, seeing the critical condition of their army, ordered up fresh troops. The brigades of Holmes, Early, Bonham, and Ewell, with the batteries of Pendleton and Albertis, promptly entered the struggle. The Confeder- ate commanders rode rapidly four miles to the front, and threw themselves into the places of dreadful slaughter. Johnston seized the colors of the Fourth Alabama, and of- fered to lead the attack. Gen. Beauregard leaped from his horse, and, turning his face to his troops, exclaimed, “ I have come here to die with you!” The courage of their fainting army rose again. Many of the broken troops, fi'ag- ments of companies, and individual stragglers, were re-formed, and brought into action. The battle was restored, and now raged furiously on the plateau around the Henry and the Robinson Houses. The brigades of Bee, Evans, Bartow, Bonham, Jackson, Hampton’s legion, and Fisher’s regiment, with the batteries of Imboden, Pendleton, Albertis, and others, now formed a new line of battle ; and they were as- sailed with terrific energy by Union forces under com- mand of Wilcox and Howard, supported by parts of Porter’s brigade and Palmer’s cavalry on the right, Franklin and Sherman in the centre, and Keyes on the left. The batteries of Rickett and Griffin were on the right, and that of Rhode Island on the left. Schenck’s brigade and Ayres’s battery on the other side of the run, and nine thousand men under Miles at Centreville, were in reserve. The enemy’s right now rushed to the charge ; and Jack- GOS TflE GREAT REPURLIC. son hurled his coluiun iigainst ami broke the Union centre. The Confederates gained a temporary success, taking the plateau, and capturing several guns; hut the Union inliintry moved up in heavy force, and regaiiied the field. Once more victory perched on the banners of Liberty, and a certain tii- umph seemed just at hand. It was now two o’clock. Fresh troops from Johnston’s army came up. Keserves were brought forward, and another dreadful contest came on. The Confederates came forward with ringing cheers and dreadful energy, which threatened to carry all before them. Keyes charged up the slope, through rebel cavalry and infantry, and took the Hob- iuson House. A still fiercer conflict raged on the Union right, around the Henry House. The lines surged one way nnd the other. Griflin’s and Rickett’s batteries were captured and reca])tured. “Three times the Confederates overran GrifUn’s battery, and three times they were repulsed ; while thrice also the Union batteries surged in vain against the Confederate position.” * The battle hung in suspen.se. The heat was dreadful ; and the suflering of the Northern troops was almost beyond endurance. The Confederate commander now ordered up Ewell’.s, IIolme.s’.s, and Early’s brigade.s, who had been guarding the fords against the demonstrations of Miles and liichard.son. These fresh troops burst upon the Union lines with dreadful fury. M‘Dowell brought up Howard’s brigade, almost fresh; Tyler swept through the abatis, and, carrying the batteries at the stone bridge, deployed in the open country beyond. Schenck, with his fre.sh brigade, da.died across the stone bridge, and moved on to the right of the enemy. The third grand crisis of the battle had come ; when suddenly on the enemy’s left, more than a mile distant, the front of a column was .seen in motion. By signals, Beauregard was warned to “ look out for the enemy’s advance on the left.” Was it Pattenson, with his eighteen thousand fresh troop.s, to relieve the pant- * Decisive Battles of the War, by Swinton, pp. 13-42. THE ■\VAE OF SLAVEKY AND FHEEDOM. 609 ing, bleeding freemen, and decide at once this dreadful struggle? or was it the long-expected remaining forces of Johnston, moving up to give sudden triumph to the mangled hosts of slavery ? All eyes were strained to catch the light of the banners. “ At this moment,” says Beauregard, “ I must confess, my heart failed me. I could not tell to which army the waving banners belonged.” He gave to Col. Evans orders for Johnston to make hasty preparations for a re- treat. Gazing still at the advancing column, a gust of wind shook out the folds of the flag; and it was the stars and bars. “ Col. Evans,” exclaimed Beauregard, his face lighting up, “ ride forward, and order Gen. Kirby Smith to hurry up his command, and strike them on the flank and rear ! ” Cheer after cheer rose from the Confederate ranks. Horror seized the bleeding, panting Union men. On, on, came the proud column, with their weapons of death glittering in the sun. In a few moments more, they struck our staggering ranks in flank and rear. Early’s fresh brigade, coming up at the in- stant, fell upon our right flank ; and Gen. Beauregard led on his now fierce and rallying hosts in the centre. It was too much for our wearied, bleeding volunteers, sweltering under a Southern sun, to endure. They were forced down the long-contested hill; and the battle of Bull Run was lost. The heroic efforts of our generals to re-form their columns were but partially successful. A battery, dashing to the rear for a re-supply of ammunition, was supposed to be in retreat ; and a panic began. Masses of troops, demoralized, surged against each other. A shot from Kemper’s rebel bat- tery struck the horses of a wagon, crossing Cub-Run Bridge : the vehicle was overturned, and the passage obstructed. Amid the confusion, the Confederate artillery began to play upon the masses rushing for the obstructed bridge ; and a scene which beggars all description followed. Horses, cannon, men, and carriages were crushed together in one tumultuous ruin; members of Congress, gala-day spectators, who had been waiting to echo the exultant shout 77 GIO THE GUEAT KEPUnLIC. of a Union victory, ami join the hosts of freedom as tliey moved in triumpli “ on to Richmond,” were now struggling* for their lives amid the surging mass rushing toward Washington. The Confederates seemed stunned by the appalling sight, and paralyzed by the eflects of their victory : so suddeidy and unexpectedly had they been re.scued from ruin, that commanders and men seemed not to have strength enough remaining to endure their joy. There was no pursuit ecjual to the opportunity. The only movement of importance of this kind attempted was checked by a single battery, with a column of brave men from the reserves at Centreville; and the Confederate chieftains gave up their ho.sts, first to de- lirious joy, and then to repose. The Union men were without power to think, command, or obey, until the}' had reached their quarters at Alexandria. So little of the true promptness and energy of a succe.ssful campaign appeared in the rebel army, that a courageous commander, with a small body of men, .soon turned back on the track of the route, and, gathering up at his leisure enormous quantities of fire-arm.s, heavy ordnance, and am- munition, brought them in safety to the Union camp. Several things in this first teruible battle for the preser- vation of the Union .seem at first inexplicable. Why did not the re.serves under Miles move promptly down upon the enemy when the crisis came, and the fords were nearly abandoned to concentrate all the rebel forces in the second grand crisis of the battle? Perhaps their commander re- ceived no orders: certain it is that he was in no condition to understand or execute them. Richard.son, his next in command, literally implored permission to move, but was not allowed. Thus nine thousand fresh troops listened to the noi.se of the battle, which was at length literally destroy- ing their companions in arms, without being allowed to march to their relief Why were not fresh re-enforcements brought up from the stations in the rear, and hurried on I'rom Washing- THE WAK OF SLAVERY AND FREEDOM. 611 ton ? The infatuated Union authorities were too sure of an easy conquest to give room to ordinary prudence. Why did not Patterson detain Johnston at Winchester with half the number of men, and make our victory certain? or, at least, why did he not follow Johnston with such celerity as to over- take him on the grand field of action ? or, at the very least, why did he not fall upon that body of men detained for the want of railroad conveyance, and prevent the appear- ance of that splendid column on the field in the last grand crisis ? To all this it may be answered, that there was con- fusion of orders from headquarters, or that the time of large numbers of Patterson’s three-months’ men had expired. But all the explanations given are inadequate. How easily could all these conditions have been controlled by the Hand above us ! The time had not come. What depths of humiliation for our national sins were yet to be reached ! what severity of discipline, what struggles for justice, before God could permit our arms to triumph ! Had the onset been delayed till our army organizations and drills began to ap- proximate true military order; had the transportation of troops and supplies been prompt, so as to have brought our forces into action on Friday, as was intended, instead of Sunday ; had Hunter and Heintzelman been able to get their forces into position on the enemy’s right before the firing of Tyler’s signal gun ; had the commander of the reserves retained his sobriety and self-control ; had Patterson moved promptly, and engaged Johnston only for twenty-four hours, — how certain would have been our victory ! But God would not permit any of these contingencies to control the result : if he had, and the Union troops had moved on to immediate and suc- cessive conquests, we should to-day have been a nation of slaveholders ; and the cry of injustice would now rise up to Heaven against us. We had learned the character of our foe, gained successes sufficient to demonstrate our patriotism and power on the battle-field, and received a discipline of inestimable value. This was all Providence intended. 612 TJIE GREAT REPUBLIO. ball’s bluff. The freemen of the nntion were humbled and roused by the disaster of Bull Run. Volunteers from every part of the country poured into Washington; and the .\riny of the Potomac was re-organized under Gen. George B. M*Clellan. In September, he held his lii-st grand review, and seventy thousand men moved with great military precision at his com- mand; but still the number increased, until absolute neces- sity for space crowded back the rebel forces in the immediate vicinity of Washington, resting upon the laurels of Manas- sas. On the 20th of October, Gen. M‘Clellan ordered Gen. Stone to ‘‘ keep a good lookout on Leesburg, to see if dem- onstrations made by Gen. M'Call from Dranesville had in- duced the Confederates to retire ; ” and Capt. Philbrick, from the Fifteenth Massachusetts, with a few men, was ordered to cross, by the way of Harrison Island, to the N'irginia shore, and reconnoitre. They ascended Ball’s Bluff for this purpose ; but the only appearance of a hostile force was a small camp of rebels not well guarded. Col. Devens was direct- ed to .send five companies of his regiment quietly, and attack the camp at daybreak. Col. Lee, Twentieth Mas.sachusetts, was to take charge of the island with four companie.s, and send one of them over to the Virginia shore to wait the re- turn of Col. Devens. Col. Deyens accordingly crossed, and drew up his five companies just at daylight. Scouts were sent out, who reported that they could find no camp. Col. Devens advanced to within a mile of Leesburg, and, seeing no enemy, halted in a wood, reported to Gen. Stone, and waited further orders. At seven, a.m., he di.scovered a company of riflemen, and three of cavalry ; but they retired as they were approached. Col. Devens then fell back to the bluff, where he received orders from Gon. Stone to remain. He found he had twenty-eight offi- cers, and six hundred and twenty-five men. At about twelve, THE WAR OF SLAVERY AND FREEDOM. 613 M., with his little army in an open field of about six acres, he was attacked by musketry from the surrounding woods. Falling back nearly to the edge of the bluff, he was re-en- forced by Col. E. D. Baker with his brave California regi- ment, who immediately saw that our men were in a critical condition, and would have called them away ; but it was too late ; they were already engaged. Col. Baker was a sena- tor, and might have excused himself from danger ; but his patriotism and bravery would not allow it. He had seen the demon of rebellion loose, and raging in our midst, and his soul of fire could not be restrained. While his over- whelming eloquence pleaded for his country in the senate- chamber, there was treason in the air, treason in the army and navy, treason in the cabinet, treason in the halls of congress ; and he could not stay. He rushed to the field to be compromised, sacrificed by a mistake, a crime. Where was the responsibility ? No one could tell. He did not in- quire. His simple exclamation, “ This is a bad business,” lin- gers upon our ears to-day like the knell of death. Col. Baker, as the highest officer in the field, assumed the command. He promptly arranged the order of battle. The Fifteenth Massachusetts, CoL Devens, six hundred and fifty- three men, was on the right ; the Twentieth Massachusetts, Col. Lee, three hundred and eighteen men, in the centre ; the California regiment, Lieut.-Col. Wistar, and the New-York Tammany regiment. Col. Milton Cogswell, in the rear of the California regiment, on the left, — one thousand nine hun- dred men in all. These brave Union soldiers were hardly formed before they were attacked ‘by rebel infantry from the woods. A desperate struggle of two hours ensued. Col. Baker exposed himself like a common soldier. His brave and gallant bearing amid the slaughter gave courage to his diminishing forces, and made him a mark for rebel bullets. A little before five o’clock, he fell, shot through the head. The rebel who shot him fell instantly pierced by the bullets of the bravo soldiers who 614 THE GREAT R/:I*DDL1C. rushed to save their idolized commander. His body was borne away in mournful triumph. Col. Cogswell, seeing our men rapidly falling, took the brave resolution of cutting his way through to Edwards Ferry, only three miles distant, where Gen. Stone had a strong force unemployed ; but, in the attempt, he met a fresh Mi.sslssippi regiment advancing from the direction of the ferry expressly to cut off the retreat. Our troops gave way, and rushed down the blulf, to find no provision for their escape. The rebels advanced, and poured into the struggling, helple.ss mass a most destructive fire. The single flat-bottomed boat was over-loaded, fired into, and sunk. “ The life-boat and skiff were upset and lost, and the work of unresisted .slaughter went on.” * A few escaped in the darkness to tell the tale of another frightful disaster to the arms of the Republic. Why re-en- forcements were not sent from Edwards Ferry, why there were no transports to provide against casualties on the banks of a deep river, no one can tell : we only know that our troops were left to be slaughtered, that our beloved Baker had fallen, and that the fair fame of the nation was once more tarnished. PORT ROYAL. As an evidence of the elastic power of the United States?, in contrast with the twelve ships of all kinds available when the war began, on the 24th of October, 1861, six months from the attack on Sumter, a fleet of fifty sail, under Rear- Admiral S. F. Dupont, moved out grandly from Hampton Roads with sealed orders. So well had the .secret of its de.s- tination been kept, that the excited people, whether Union- ists or Rebels, could not tell where the intended blow was likely to fall. Soon, off Cape Hatteras, this proud fleet encountered a most furious storm. It was a crisis in the faith of our loyal * Greeley, i. 623. THE WAR OF SLAVERY AND FREEDOM. 615 people. It seemed as if God was angry Avith us, and had commissioned the Avinds of heaven to destroy us. At length, however, the storm abated ; and Sunday evening fourteen sail of the scattered fleet hove in sight. Monday noon the flag-ship “Wabash,” and some thirty-six more vessels, joined the squadron off Port Royal. Tuesday, Avhile the admiral Avas making his dispositions for battle, he Avas attacked by three rebel gunboats ; which, how- ever, Avere soon willing to retire. Fort Walker on Hilton Head, with twenty-three guns, and Fort Beauregard on Bay Point, with fifteen guns, guarded the entrance to Port-Royal Sound. At nine o’clock Thursday morning, “ The Wabash” gave the signal for advance, and led the way ; and the “ Susquehanna,” “ Mohican,” “ Seminole,” “PaAvnee,” “Unadilla,” “Pembina,” “Bienville,” “Seneca,” “Curlew,” “Penguin,” “OttaAva,” and “Vandalia,” vessels se- lected for their light draught, followed in single file, with ports open, and bristling Avith heavy guns. The first attack was destined for Fort Walker. Beyond the entrance of the harbor lay. the little rebel fleet, under command of Tat- nall, but recently an honored officer of the American navy. Still farther in the rear was “ a fleet of steamboats, that had come from Charleston to Avitness the destruction of the Yankee fleet.” As Dupont approached Hilton Head, a tremendous fire Avas opened upon him from Fort Walker; but he moved on in silence until three vessels Avere in position, Avhen their broadsides Avere delivered ; and “ the shot and shell from seventy-five guns fell in one wild crash on the fort.” He moved on; and, one after another, the ships followed, deliv- ering their fire Avhile in motion. Thus the wooden vessels Avere at no time stationary targets for the artillery of the fort ; and, moving in a splendid elliptical circle, they poured a constant fire, first into “ Walker,” and then into “Beaure- gard.” An eighty-pound rifle-ball went clear through the mast of “The Wabash;” another pierced her after-magazine, GIG THE GREAT REPUBLIC. letting the water into it: but she kept on her sublime wn}', proudly leading the long file of llaming ships. Capt. Ro- gers said, “‘The Wabash’ w’as a destroying angel ; hugging the shore; calling the soundings with cold indiflerence ; slowing the engine so as to give only steerage-way ; signal- ling the vessels their various evolutions; and, at the same time, raining shell, as with target-practice, too fast to count.” The gunboats found an available position in a cove, and commenced an enfdading fire on Hilton Head. At twelve, m., Admiral Dupont gave the signal, and his ships withdrew for his men to re.st, and take refreshments ; but the gunboats kept up a galling fire. At three o’clock, p.m., just as Admiral Dupout was about to commence again his dreadful circuit of death, the firing from the forts ceased. Capt. Rogers rowed directly to Fort Walker, and found it deserted. lie juomptly raised the stars and stripes above the ruins. No pen can describe the elec- trical cfl'ect of this .eight. For five hours, these grim mariners and the army of (Jen. Sherman had endured the perils, or watched the progres.s, of this terrific battle ; and now the flag of their country waved in triumph iu token of victory. Cheers rose from thousands of heroes; and “The Star-span- gled Banner” rang out through the Southern air. Gen. T. W. Sherman landed his troops, and assumed command. It is impossible to exaggerate the happy effects of this victory. The government of the Republic had re- sumed its functions within the territory of South Carolina. Port Royal [iromptly rose to importance as a naval depGt Her piers and docks were alive with improvements. This first great achievement of the navy had filled the country with triumphant joy. Our disasters on land were well-nigh forgotten. The rebel coast was thrown into the greatest alarm. Dupont, the naval hero, whose praise was upon the lips of patriots everywhere, moved from place to place ; and, driving the rebel forces inland, he raised the flag of our Union over Fort Clinch, Fernandina, and St. Augustine, THE WAPw OF SLAVERY AND FREEDOM. 617 Fla. ; and the whole coast of Georgia was held bj his squadron.” * ROANOKE ISLAND. Jan. 11 and 12, 1862, Commander L. M. Goldsborough left Fortress Monroe with a fleet of thirty-one steam gunboats, mounting ninety-four gun.s, accompanied by eleven thousand five hundred men under command of Gen. Ambrose E. Burnside. This army was mainly from New England ; and its three brigades, commanded by Gens. Foster, Reno, and Parke, “ embarked with their materiel on some thirty to for- ty steam transports.” The expedition had been fitted out, chiefly in New York, to break the silence in the East. Roanoke Island was included in the rebel command of Ex-Gov. Henry A. Wise. His force was notoriously in- adequate for so important a defence ; and he made the most energetic appeals to the Confederate War Department for in- crease of men and means. He was, however, simply ordered to repair to his post. The rebel Secretary of War, Benjamin, despised the Union forces and people, and showed, as did the improvident Southern people generally on the Eastern bor- der, the slackness resulting from their disastrous victory at Manassas. Arriving at Hatteras Inlet on the 13th, our ships met with great difficulty and some serious disasters in attempting to cross the bar. It was the 5th of February before our fleet and stores could be re-adjusted, and the order given to move. On that day, sixty-five vessels passed slowly up Pamlico and Croafan Sounds, and anchored within ten miles of Roanoke Island. At eight o’clock, a.m., on the 6th, the fleet moved ; and at eleven o’clock it Avas arrested by a storm, and delayed till ten, A.M., of the next day. Passing through the Roanoke Inlet, a rebel fleet of seven gunboats appeared, but, moving before our vessels, showed no disposition to engage. At * Farragut and our Naval Commanders, by Headley, p. 135 : see also the whole chap ter. 78 GIS THE GREAT REPUBLIC. twelve, M., our fleet came under fire of a strong battery knou n as Fort Bartow, when the rebel gunboat.s, which had evidently intended to lead us there to destruction, paused, and joined in the battle. Our brave men tore away, or moved over, the piles intended to obstruct their advance. “ Soon,” says Mr. Pollard, “ the air was tilled with heavy reports, and the sea was disturbed in every direction by fragments of shell. Explosions of shell rang through the air; and occa.sionally a large hundred-and-twenty-four pounder thundered across the waves, and sent its ponderous shot in the midst of the tlotilla. At time.s, the battery would be enveloped in the sand and dust thrown up by shot and shell.” The rebel flag-ship, “ The Curlew,” was struck by a hundred-pound shell from “ The Southfield,” and soon enveloped in flames; the propeller “ Forrest ” was di.sjibled ; and the remainder of the rebel fleet retired tinally from the conflict The barracks of the enemy were consumed by our fire, and heroic efforts were required to subdue the flames bursting from the fort By eleven o’clock at night, Gen. Burnside had landed seven thousand five hundred men within two miles of the fort Through a long, rainy night, these heroic men crouched in the mai'sh, eagerly waiting for the dreadful work of the morning. Before them was Fort Bartow, a substantial earthwork, with abatis, moat, and ten guns; farther on, batteries Huger and Blanchard, with fourteen guns. Leading to Bartow was a single causeway swept by the enemy’s guns, and, on either hand, bogs, which could be pas.sed only with the greatest dif- ficulty ; and they were crossed by an intrenebment, behind which the rebels intended to make a desperate stand. At the word, our heroic men rushed upon the enemy’s line, and carried it with the utmost gallantry. Here among the slain fell a brave and splendid young man, O. Jennings Wise, son of the governor. Fighting through the moras.s, up to within ca.sy range of the guns from the fort, Burnside’s troop.s, finding it impracticable to obey the order to turn the enemy’s flank through the marsh, were ordered to charge THE WAR OF SLAVERY AND FREEDOM. 619 over the causeway. ‘‘ The order was obeyed with such prompt- ness and energy as to defy all resistance : then, throwing themselves down to escape a fire of grape from the batteries, part of the Fifty-fii'st New-York, with Hawkins’s Zouaves and the Twenty-first Massachusetts, instantly rose, and rushed over the rebel breastworks, chasing out their defenders, and following them in their retreat, securing by their impetuosity the capture of a large number, as no time was given for their escape from the island.” * The results of this grand achievement were of the greatest importance. Remaining forts and batteries fell ; the rebel fleet was pursued ; and, there being no hope of escape, it was burned- by its own men. Mr. Pollard says we “had taken six forts, forty guns, nearly two thousand prisoners, and up- wards of three thousand small arms ; secured the water-ave- nues of Roanoke River, navigable for a hundred and twenty miles ; got possession of the granary and larder of Norfolk, and threatened the back door of that city.” The fall of Newbern, after a tremendous battle, was a direct sequence of the triumph on Roanoke Island : the time had come for the pride of the Rebellion to be humbled. FORT DONELSON. Let us now turn our eyes to the West. We there see Missouri saved to the Union by the prompt decisions and energetic action of Capt. (afterwards Gen.) Lyon, who fell in the moment of victory, greatly lamented by the American people ; the formidable and imposing measures of Gen. Fremont, and the flimous, terrific charge of his “body-guard;” the treason of Gov. Jackson, with his pretences to take Missouri out of the Union against the de- clared will of a large majority of her people ; the reckless attack upon his own State by the rebel general Price, and the cruel «iege and slaughter at Lexington. We see also * Greeley, ii. 76. G20 THE GKEAT REPUBLIC. the gathering of Union forces from the West, — men whose pioneer habits hail prepareil them for this war, and whose large intelligence and clear-sighted patriotism had deter- minec ihem to hew their way to the mouth of the Missis- sippi ; we see the first iron-clad tleet ulloat on the Mis- sis.'^ippi, commanded by the brave, devout, and energetic Commodore Foote ; and we catch the first sight of Gen. U. S. Grant, the great American, who.se calm judgrnenl, keen eye, and desperate valor, were to shed imilying lustre upon our arms and nation. The Confederates, finding that Kentucky and Mis.souri had settled down into their proper position as loyal States of the Union, determined to repudiate the doctrine of State rights, and made war upon their brethren in slave territory. They determined to take military possession of the “ upper centre zone” of the West, lying above the Tennessee lliver. This enormous task was intrusted to the command ot Gen. Albert Sydney Johnson, an officer formerly of high repute in the regular army of the United States. When the war broke out, he had control of our foixies on the Pa- cific, with headquarters at Alcatraz, San Francisco. As he evidently waited his opportunity to turn his command against his country, and tear from the head of the nation her golden crown, California, Oregon, and the Territories of our vast Pacific empire, were .saved from the horroi-s of the Rebellion by the sudden, unannounced arrival of Gen. Sumner, who promptly relieved the future rebel general of his command. True to his purposes of treason, he soon found his way to the Southern army, where he was recog- nized as first in importance among the commanders of treason. Commodore Foote with his formidable war-fleet, and Gen. Grant, now intrusted with the command, under Gen. Halleck, of a large military district, had agreed upon the plan of their campaign. The Cumberland and Tennes.see Rivers were guarded by Forts Henry and Donelson. These THE WAR OF SLAVERY AND FREEDOM. 62] were the keys to the upper and lower centre zones of this great war of the West; and after the preludes of Belmont, where Grant gained a surprising advantage over the rebels, and destroyed the camp, but was flanked, and obliged to retire ; and of Mill Springs, where Gen! Thomas gained our first brilliant victory on land, — Grant and Foote moved boldly into the rebel territory to attempt the reduction of these forts. The combined land and naval attack upon Fort Henry was ordered for the 6th of February, 1862. Grant was to move to the rear of the fort to co-operate with Foote, and to prevent the escape of the garrison ; but the energetic naval commander ran up the Tennessee to within cannon-shot of the en*emy, and commenced the action with such promptness and spirit, and dashed the rebel batteries to pieces with such fury, that the garrison surrendered to the commodore before Gen. Grant could force his way to his intended position. Johnson saw his danger, and, resolving to defend Nash- ville at Donelson, threw into the fort sixteen thousand of his best troops. The works had been constructed under the eye of a skilful engineer, and were very strong. Its river-defences were admirable ; but, for the arrest of land-forces, the place was badly chosen. Anticipating the approach of Gen. Grant from Fort Henry directly toward a line of hills which would command the works, the Confederates took possession of these hills, shielding their forces by a line of earthworks, rifle-trenches, and abatis. By the greatest exertions, they were completed before Grant arrived. Gen. Grant, with two divisions of fifteeen thousand, men, reached his position on the afternoon of the 12th. The second division, under Brig.-Gen. C. F. Smith, moved to the left; and the first, under Brig.-Gen. J. A. M‘Clernand, to the right. On the morning of the 13th, the action com- menced by a furious cannonade. In the afternoon, a bold attempt was made to take an important point by assault, in which the forces of Grant were vigorously repulsed by the Confederates. C22 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. Friday the 14th, Commodore Foote appeared with his noble licet of iron-clads, gunboats, and transports, bringing ample supplies of rations and ammunition and ten thousand men, all welcomed by ringing cheers from the army. Tliis splendid re-enforcement, constituting a third division under Gen. Lew. Wallace, was ordered to take position between the commands of Gens. M'Clernand and Smith. The 14th was oceupied by Gen. Grant in getting the troops just arrived into position. Commodore Foote, having perfect confidence in his iron-clads, moved up promptly, and commenced the action ; but he met a far different reception from that at Fort Henry. The rebels had arranged two formidable bat- teries so as to take frightful eflect by plunging fire upon the ves.sels of the fleet They consisted of eight thirty-two- pounders, three thirty-two-pound carronades, one ten-inch and one eight-inch columbiad, and one rifled tliirty-two- pounder. The rebels reserved their fire until the com- modore brought up his fleet within less than four hundred yards of their batteries: then they suddenly opened with so terrific a fire as to soon end the strife on the water side of the fort. This action lasted only an hour and a half ; but fifty-four patriots were killed or wounded, while not a Confederate was killed, nor had their batteries received any injury! The American people had learned one more lesson; and the brave commodore retired to repair his fleet, while Grant prepared to reduce the fort by siege. He was one of tho.se extraordinary men who could fight with the most chivalrous daring, or wait in perfect self-command until his time should come. Two days had sufficed to show the army of the Republic that the Confederate general had prepared this position for a most stubborn defence, to cripple and send out of the action a valuable and trusted fleet, and also to convince the rebel chiefs in command that Fort Donelson must soon become untenable. A Confederate council of war, therefore, resolved upon a desperate effort to clear the only practicable road to Nashville. THE WAR OF SLAVERY AND FREEDOM. 623 At five o’clock on the morning of Saturday, the 5th, they moved out to assault M‘Clernand’s division promptly drawn up in order of battle, — the right under McArthur, the centre under Oglesby, and the left under W. H. L. Wallace. Adroitly taking advantage of a ravine, the Confederates gained the rear of the Union right flank. Sustained by a corresponding movement by Pillow’s wlidle line, they swept the Union right brigade from their position. Buckner brought up his forces, and furiously attacked M‘Clernand’s left, commanded by Col. W. n. L. Wallace. The Union infantry stood firm, and poured in so deadly a fire from rifles and batteries, that the rebels recoiled, and settled back, greatly demoralized. The brigade of Oglesby was overborne by the masses brought to bear upon them by Pillow, who followed up his successes vigorously, and pays the Union troops the compliment to say, “ They did not retreat, but fell back fighting, and contesting every inch of ground.” Col. Wallace’s brigade stood firm as a rock against all the shocks of superior numbers of perfectly des- perate rebels : but, about to be enveloped by Buckner’s divis- ion, Wallace withdrew his men; and at nine, a.m., by throw- ing their whole force upon one-third of the Union army, the first purpose of the Confederates had succeeded, and the road to Nashville was cleared. Gen. Lew. Wallace, on M^Clernand’s left, had sent one brigade to the assistance of the right ; only, however, to be overborne by the advancing tide of Confederate success. Seeing the critical condition of the array, Gen. Wallace now despatched his remaining force under Col. Thayer, who moved up at double-quick, and deployed on the top of the hill, forming a firm wall against the Confederate advance, and behind which the troops, who had not fled, but retired to refill their cartridge-boxes, could re-organize. lie reminds us of Stonewall Jackson on the heights of Manassas. Just at the time when the Confederates were in triumph over their supposed victory, moving eagerly up the slope, they met a fire so deadly, that they recoiled and retired. Drawn THE GREAT REPUBLIC. G‘^.4 up .igain out of range, they were forced to another attack, and were again repulsed with .severe lo.ss. Gen. Grant now appeared on the held. He had been absent in conference with Commodore Foote, arranging the future of the campaign. Then the hrm greatne.s.s and bold daring of the commander appeared. He afterwards said, “ 1 saw that either side was ready to give way if the other showed a bold front. 1 took the opportunity, and ordered an advance along the whole line.” Wallace, on the right, was simply ordered to retake the ground he had lost in the morning ; Smith, to storm the enemy’s works in front, (jen. Smith put himself at the head of Lauman’s brigade in battalion, with Cook’s brigade in line of battle on its left, to cover that flank, and make a feint against the front. Buck- ner’s column, seeing the danger, moved up rapidly to attack the storming party, but staggered back under the Union fire as often as they returned to the onset. The Union troops, “ tearing away the abatis, rushed forward, and seized the breastworks.” Buckner with his men took shelter within the defence.s, and left the brave Union men in po.ssession of the heights which commanded the main works of the enemy. * Let us now return to Wallace. He promptly obeyed his orders. He a.ssailed^ Pillow’s troops with such fury as to overwhelm him on the ground he had wrested from the Union forces in the morning, and drove him within his own lines. This was a dreadfid day’s work : some two thousand men on each side were strewn over the bloody field, gha.stly in death, or agonizing with pain from their severe wounds. The Confederate forces had been successful everywhere till they struck against Wallace on the hill and the great com- mander appeared on the field. They had missed their only possible opportunity of escape, received the rallying energy of the troops they* supposed they had destroyed, and were shut up within their defences now dominated by Union guns. Swinton, p. 78, and the whole description of the battle. THE WAR OF SLAVERY AND FREEDOM. 625 On that dreadful Saturday night, there was no rest for the exhausted troops on either side. On the cold, frozen field, amid the peltings of rain, sleet, and snow, the defenders of liberty must lie upon their arms : but not a murmur arose from their lips; they were there to eonquer or die. There was another council of war in the rebel fort. It was a time of terror and deep perplexity. We know the result. Floyd was too guilty a coward to share the fate of his companions in arms, and handed over the command to Pillow. Pillow remembered his base treachery, and, fear- ing the recoil of justice, passed over the command to Buck- ner, who had both the courage and discretion to share the fate of his brethren in rebellion. Floyd and Pillow made their escape with the men they could possibly smuggle away. Buckner sent a flag of truce to Grant to know his terms, and received for answer, No terms other than unconditional and immediate surrender can be accepted. I propose to move immediately upon your works.” Forgetting the sol- dier in his mortification, Buckner characterized the terms as “ ungenerous and unchivalric,” and accepted them. The battle of Fort Donelson was over. Nine thousand men surrendered at discretion, and the Union flag floated grace- fully over the fort. This was the Bull Bun of the West: it was more; for it broke up the whole line of Confederate defences, saved Mis- souri, Kentucky, and a large part of Tennessee, from the power of rebellion, moved the usurped government of trea- son two hundred miles down the Mississippi, gave us Nash- ville, prepared the way for the grand and costly triumphs of Shiloh and Stone River, and, by its moral effects, took away courage from rebellion, and gave it to freedom. FORTS JACKSON AND ST. PHILIP. While the nation waited for the slow development of the plans of McClellan, at Washington active minds were busy C26 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. with the question, What can be done in the mean time ? The West, as we Iiave seen, answered by moving down the Mis- sissippi, and fighting the terrible but decisive battles of Donel.>^on and Shiloh. One distinct meaning of all this w!is, that the great artery of Western trade must be opened to the Gulf. Gon. B. F. Butler believed that he could aid this great effort by troop.s from the East, and operations from the out- lets of the Mi.ssissippi. Encountering many and formidable dilficultie.«5, he was at length on Ship Island with thirteen thousand and seven hundred men. On the third day of February, 1802, Capt. David Glascoe Farnigut sailed from Hampton Roads in “The Hartford.” He had been appointed to command a powerful lleet which was to unite with Gen. Butler in an attempt to gain control of the Lower Mi.ssis.sippi. This fleet consisted of forty-seven armed ves.sels: eight of them were large steam sloops-of-war, seventeen heavily-armed steam gunboats, two sailing sloops- of-war, and twenty-one mortar-schooner.s. “The whole num- ber of guns and mortars was three hundred and ten, many of them very heavy and very good.” * The secrecy with which these formidable land and naval forces had been directed created the most excited public interest. Varkius theories of their destination were intimated ; the North hop- ing that .something wouM be done, and the South dreading the blow wherever it might fall. All doubt was at an end when Farragut and Butler met in consultation on Ship Island. The defences of New Orleans were such as to give plausi- bility to the popular idea, that they were absolutely invulner- able. Twigg.s, of infamous Texas memory, had been supersed- ed b}- Major-Gen. Lovell, who had fully completed an interior line of fortifications, which were deemed secure against any force the United States could bring to bear upon them. In the extreme nece.ssities of the Confederacy, however, the * Greeley, ii. 87, 88. THE WAR OF SLAVERY AND FREEDOM. 627 troops and materials of war which Gen. Lovell, by great industry, had collected to make these works available, were ordered away to contend with Grant and Buell. Two large iron-clads, “ The Louisiana ” and “ Mississippi,” which the citi- zens of New Orleans thought were to sink any vessels of war which might by any means come within their reach, were not finished. The exterior line of defence, including Forts Jackson and St. Philip, seventy-five miles below New Or- leans, was made as strong as means within the power of the rebels would permit. A first formidable obstruction to the passage of our fleet having been washed away, another, less difficult to manage, was constructed of “eleven dismantled schooners, extending from bank to bank, strongly moored, and connected by six heavy chains.” * Glancing now for a moment at New Orleans, we find the people given up to pleasure. With the utmost contempt for Northerners, they talked and laughed about the spectacle of a mad attack upon their invulnerable forts, which was about to add a new zest to their entertainments. Balls, parties, theatres, operas, and the like, were the incidents of every twenty-four hours. , On the 16th of April, the American fleet moved up the river to attack the forts. As they neared the scene of the combat, they saw coming down upon them a huge fire-ship. With blazing wood and turpentine and tar, it threw its glare over the scene ; and, roaring with flame, it floated dTrectly toward our fleet. Our men, it would seem, ought to have been stupefied with horror, as it moved on until its flames must, in a few moments, be communicated to our vessels of war. But there were no signs of panic : commands were coolly given and obeyed. A small company from “ The Iro- quois” entered a row-boat, moved up fearlessly, and, grap- pling the shij) of fire, towed it away to the bank, where it could burn itself out at leisure. On the morning of the 17th, we were within two and a Pollard, p. 250. G28 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. half miles of the forts ; and, at nine o’clock, the guns of Fort Jackson opened upon our lleet Capt. Porter, in command of our mortar-vessels, directed the fire in response, and trained his guns, so that, by ten o’clock, their terrible mis- siles began to reach their object. Three more fire-rafts came menacingly down to consume our valuable ships; but they were disposed of with the same coolness and bravery as the first. For a whole week, the roar of cannon and mor- tars told the frightful power of the combatants ; but the only apparent effect on the fort was an alarming fire from our hot shot, which threatened to consume every thing combustible it contained. The fire was, however, finally subdued, A change in the position of the lleet w'as necessary ; and, after a council of war, Capt Farragut calmly decided that some, at least, of his vessels of war must pass the forts. “ What- ever is to be done,” he said, “must be done quickly. When, in the opinion of the flag-ofhcer.s, the propitious time has arrived, the signal will be made to weigh, and advance to the conflict.” An officer of a French ve.s.sel which had been up to the forts told Capt Farragut that it w’as impossible to pass them. Ills reply wa.s, “ I am ordered to go to New Orleans, and 1 intend to go there.” Farragut could depend upon the prompt obedience and extraordinary skill of his commanders and men. He says, “Every vessel was :is well prepared as the ingenuity of her commander and officers could suggest, both for the preser- vation of life and the vessels.” Capt. Bell, with “ The Pinola,” “ Itasca,” “ Iroquois,” “ Ken- nebec,” and “ Winona,” had been despatched to perform the difficult task of cutting away the obstructions which the Confederates had established near the forts. A rocket from the fort gave our daring men a momentary light ; and, w'ith chisels and hammers, they assaulted the chains. A storm of shot and shell fell upon them : but they w'rought on until the chains parted ; and slowly the vessels swung around, leaving the channel clear. Three days after, a gallant recon- THE WAR OF SLAVERY AND FREEDOM. 629 noissance, and a gun from “ The Itasca,” announced that the passage was still open. At two o’clock, the signal rose on the Hag-ship ; and the men promptly prepared for the dread- ful work before them. Some had slept quietly ; others had paced the decks with nervous anxiety; but many of our men had been engaged in solemn prayer. “The Hartford,” with the flag of Capt. Farragut, “The Rich- mond,” and “The Brooklyn,” moved up close to the west bank, opening fire upon Fort Jackson as they advanced. “ The Ca- yuga,” “ Pensacola,” “Mississippi,” “Oneida,” “ Varuna,” “Ka- tahdin,” “Kineo,” and “ Wissahickon” passed close along the eastern shore, responding to the fire of Fort St. Philip. Capt. Bell, commanding a third line, consisting of “ The Sciota,” “Iroquois,” “ Pinola,” “Winona,” “ Itasca,” and “ Kennebec,” moved between the two other divisions. The mortar-boats, under Capt. Porter, kept their position, and opened a new and most terrific fire upon the forts ; while “ The Harriet Lane,” “Westfield,” “Owasco,” “Clinton,” “Miami,” “The Jackson,” and “ The Portsmouth,” attacked the water-battery below the fort. The roar of these guns, the rolling thun- ders of the forts and batteries, the blazing shells streaming in circles through the air, made the scene terribly sublime. Capt. Bailey, with “ The Cayuga,” first drew the fire of the forts as he passed through the opening in the obstruc- tions. He, however, ran close under the guns of Fort St. Philip, which received broadside after broadside of grape and canister as his whole line passed safely through this frightful gantlet. “ The Pinola,” “ Sciota,” and “ Iroquois,” of Capt. Bell’s line, also rushed through unharmed. The most terrible destruction seemed to centre upon the flag-ship “ Hartford.” A frightful fire-ship came down, with the ram “Manassas” in its rear. Moving as if directed by an evil spirit, it came directly on toward “The Hartford.” Far- ragut’s guns kept up their fire as though no danger were near. Sheering a little, he avoided the fire-raft for a moment, poured in a most destructive broadside upon Fort Jackson, G30 THE GUEAT REPUBLIC. and ran aground. The fire-ship daslied against him, and in- stantly tlie rigging of “The Hartford” was in fiames. At this awful moment, there was no disorder: the firemen turned the hose upon the tlames; the engines tugged away, and moved the ve.ssel from the ground ; the orders of Farragut were calm and imperious, and promptly obeyed ; the gun- ners served their guns, and fired as regularly as if they were out of harm ; the flames were subdued ; and the head of the noble ship was turned upward, and ru.shed hy the forts. The terrible ram “Manassas” drove her huge iron beak furi- ously into the starboard gangway of “The Brooklyn,” firing from her opened hatchway at the smoke-stack of the latter as she came up, whose hags of sand protected her smoke- pipe, and her ingenious chain-armor saved her hulk. The ram passed on, and “ The lirooklyn ” rushed up the stream. Still under the raking fire of Fort Jackson, she w’as furiously assailed by a large rebel steamer; but she hurled against her a heavy broadside, and .sent her out of the fight. Next, abreast of Fort St. Philip, with only thirteen-feet soundings, she brought all her guns to bear, and poured in a storm of grape and canister that silenced the fort; while the men were seen from the masts of “ The Brooklyn,” by the blaze of her shells, running in terror for a place of safety.* The apparently impossible was achieved. Farragut’s squadron had passed .the forts, the rebel squadron was de- stroyed, and the great battle was over. The sequel of this naval engagement, which will ever be renowned in history, rapidly developed. Our vessels of war moved on to New Orleans, silencing every battery on their way. The scene in the city beggars all de.scription. We have no pleasure in detailing the anguish and the rage of these mi.sguided people. Their obstinacy and in.solence, however unwise, were perfectly natural. The flag of rebellion was hauled down, and the stars and stripes waved in its place. The rebel army, under Lovell, had wisely left the city to the * See Greeley, ii. pp. 83-93 ; also Headley’s Farragut, pp. 67-69. THE WAR OF SLAVERY AND FREEDOM. 63] mercy of its conquerors. Ships and cotton had become, by their own hands, blazin'^ masses of fire on the water : their stores were consumed, or given up to pillage ; their forts were surrendered; their costly munitions of war were de- stroyed or captured ; their capital was taken ; and the American ileet moved boldly up the Mississippi to be hailed with shouts of joy by the fleet from above. Europe saw that there was no safety in acknowledging the Confederacy. "the monitor” AND "THE MERRIMACK.” In the ordinary materials of a navy, the Confederates could not rival the United States. It was, therefore, a just con- clusion upon their part, that, by at least one iron-clad, they must be made stronger than the Union at any given place or time. For this purpose, they raised our fine ship "Merri- mack,” cut her down, and covered her with enormous plates of iron, weighing in all over seven hundred tons. They furnished her also with a strong cast-iron beak, designed to be driven furiously into the sides of our wooden vessels, and sink them. She was finished, and had received her battery of eight nine-inch Dahlgren, and four seven-and-a-half-inch Brooks l ifle-guns, by the fifth day of March, 1862. At about one o’clock on the 8th, she was seen, in company with two gunboats, rounding Sewall’s Point, and advancing toward Newport News. Her advent had been for some time expected and dreaded ; and, now that she actually appeared, all true hearts were moved with dread. Receiving the terrific broadsides of "The Congress” as she passed, without showing the least concern, she bore down upon " The Cumberland.” The fire of both these brave ships was well delivered ; but their heavy shot glanced from the ar- mor of " The Merrimack,” doing her no harm. Presently, with a full head of steam, she drove her strong beak into the side of " The Cumberland,” and opened a chasm, through which 632 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. the water rushed ; and she began at once to fill and settle. Her brave oflicers and men resolved never to strike her col- ors to the defiant rebel monitor; and, firing broadside after broadside, they went down with their colors flying. “The Congress” bad been engaged by “ The Jamestown” and “ Yorktown,” consorts of “ The Merrimack and, attempt- ing to escape, she ran aground. She gallantly maintained the unequal fight until the crusliing shot of “ The Merrimack ” bad torn her almost literally to pieces, and she bad taken fire in several places ; then, to save her wounded from the flames, she lowered her flag. ^ “ The Minnesota,” “ Roanoke,” and “ St. Lawrence,” at- tempting to escape one after another, ran aground in water .so shallow, that tliey could not be reached by the monster, or they would have been destroyed with the utmost ease. Evening coming on, “The Merrimack” with her two attend- ants turned her prow toward Norfolk. Her Confederate offi- cers and men, proud of her achievements, bad no doubt of being able to finish the destruction of our .squadron in the morning, and move on to New York if they pleased. The joy in Norfolk, and soon throughout the Confederacy, was unbounded, only equalled by tlie dismay and forebodings at Fortre.ss Monroe and through the North. At eight o’clock that evening, a small, low, nonde.script ves.sel made her appearance : it was Erics.son’s “ Monitor,” commanded by Capt. John Lorimer Worden. But, seeing her diminutive size, the liearts of our brave officers and men sank within them. The night wore away ; and, early on the 9th of March, “The Merrimack” came out again. Moving deliberately toward “ The Minnesota,” she saw what, in derision, was termed a “ Y^ankee chee.se-ho.v,” steam directly up by her side. The great battle promptly began. The heavy shots of “ The Merrimack” rolled harmless from the turret of “The Moni- tor ;” and her commander, amazed at the audacity of the little craft, and seeing that he could not penetrate her armor. THE WAR OF SLAVERY AND FREEDOM. 633 dashed over her to crush and sink her : but this also failed. In the mean time, a shot from “ The Mgnitor ” found way into the armor of “ The Merrimack,” and she began to leak. She turned suddenly, and hurled her missiles at “ The Minnesota ” and “ The Oregon ; ” but “ The Monitor ” slipped in between her and her victims. Angry at this impertinence, gathering frightful momentum, she drove her beak fiercely at the little “ Monitor,” and, shivering her own timbers, passed by, leaving only a dent in the armor of the mysterious, audacious little craft. After four hours’ conflict, mortified and crippled, the monster rebel limped away ; and her career of destruction was ended. It is useless to attempt a description of the results of this great battle. The exultation passed from the rebels to the friends of the government. Our surviving naval heroes could only cheer, and offer thanks to God for their deliver- ance. The American people, and presently the world, knew that a complete revolution in naval warfare had been wrought, as it were, in a day. There are no limits to the effect of this grand historic triumph of liberty in Hampton Roads. But how came this mighty little stranger here at this precise juncture? The genius and science of Ericsson had triumphed. The government had made a cautious contract with him ; and he had, with incredible energy, embodied his original elaborate thoughts in this little floating, masked, turreted battery. If, in his wandering search for patronage, France or Eng- land had seized this invention ; if the timid confidence of our government had been delayed a single day ; if there had been one particle less of executive ability in the great Swedish American ; if there had been one failure in mate- rial, or the adjustments of numerous parts of this wonderful combination of inventions constructed in so many different places ; finally, if the ocean had been wild and perilous, so as to have detained “The Monitor,” — our squadron in Hampton Roads must have been utterly ruined, the blockade broken. G34 THE CHEAT REPDBIiC. and our wooden ships everywhere dashed to piocen and sunk. But God superintended this whole aflh’r All tiiese contingencies were in his hand ; and every ot»6 of them obeyed liis will to save a favored nation. THE PENINSULA. The winter had worn away; the early spring was rapidly passing; and the vast Army of the Potomac wjis still engaged in drilling in and around Washington. President Lincoln, who always acted for the people, oixlered an advance. Gen. M‘Clellan had under his immediate command about one hundred thousand men. With this splendid force he moved upon Yorktown; but not deeming it prudent to at- Uick Magruder, who had only about seven thousand men in command, he “sat down” before the town, and “sent to Wa.'ihington for siege guns.” He continued thirty days in- trenchiug, and preparing to open tire upon the enemy’s works by breaching batteries. He would have been ready by the Gth of May; but, on the 4th, he di.scovered that there were no rebels there: Magruder had retreated, with the purpose of finding a better place for resistance. A prompt pursuit fol- lowed, under Gen. George I). Stoneman. Hooker, under com- mand of Heintzelman, reached the enemy’s new position at Williamsburg, and, with characteristic impetuosity, ad- vanced at once to battle, intending to give him no time for preparation. Gen. J. PI Johnston, commander of the Confed- erate forces, had hastened his troops to meet Gen. M‘Clellan and defend Richmond. Gen. Hooker was therefore confront- ed by Longstreet in force ; and a fierce and terrible con- tlict ensued. By some strange oversight, this brave com- mander was left to contend against enormous odds for nine hours without re-enforcements. At length, Gen. Hancock, by order of Gen. Sumner, reached the enemy’s left, and by a brilliant charge drove him from his position at the point of the bayonet. THE WAR OP SLAVERY AND FREEDOM. 635 This desperate battle cost us fifteen hundred and seventy- five men in killed, wounded, and missing ; but it compelled the Confederates to retreat, leaving more than a thousand wounded on the field. Gen. Franklin’s division had been sent by Gen. M‘Clellan up York River to West Point. He was joined by Gen. Dana with a part of Gen. Sedgwick’s division. After a severe engagement, the enemy, composed in part of Wade Hamp- ton’s legion and Whiting’s Texan division, withdrew. Gen. Stoneman now moved to open communication with Gen. Fi anklin. Gen. Smith’s division followed ’on the direct road to Richmond. The Confederates, deeming Norfolk unsafe, abandoned it, blowing up and burning every thing that could be destroyed, including the renowned “Merrimack” and two other iron- clads unlinished. The city was surrendered to Gen. Wool by the civil authorities. Norfolk in our hands, and “ The Merrimack ” destroyed, our fleet, under command of Commodore Rogers, now moved up the James River to within eight miles of Richmond. This brought him immediately under the enemy’s heavy guns at the famous Drury’s Bluff, two hundred feet above the water, with the river obstructed by piles and vessels ; sharp-shooters and infantry in rifle-pits greatly increasing his danger. His men fought bravely, until the bursting of a hundred- pound Parrott on “The Naugatuck” added a new terror to the situation ; and the fleet moved down the river. M‘Clellan’s forces were now on the Chickahominy, a slug- gish stream passing through a miserable, sickly swamp. At New Bridge, on the 24th of May, the hostile forces came into collision. The battle was fierce ; but the triumph of the government forces compelled the retreat of the rebels, and removed the contest to Seven Pines or Fair Oaks, on the direct road to Richmond. On the 31st of May, at one o’clock, p.m., the bloody battle of Fair Oaks was initiated by an overwhelming attack G3G THE GKEAT UEPUBLIC. from Gen. D. II. Hill’s division on Gen. Casey, who was not quite prepared for it. Prodigies of valor were achieved by both sides on this dreadful field. Men fell, wounded and dying, or slain in heaps. Distinguished otiicers, in large num- bers, were sacrificed as of no value. The advantage was decidedly with the Confederates, until a quarter-past three o’clock, P.M., when Gen. lleiiitzelmaii’s division came warmly into the battle. The rebel comuiander-iii-chief fell danger- ously wounded. The command devolving upon Gen. G. W. Smith, he was suddenly paralyzed, and borne from the field. Jefl'erson Ddvis, in person, led a rebel charge to repel the advancing columns of the Republic. The spirited command of Gen. Sedgwick now came in between lleintzehiian and Couch, and poured a torrent of canister from his twenty- four guns; and Sedgwick, moving his columns gallantly for- ward, swept the held. Farther to the right the battle raged, where Gen. Abercrombie was fighting against overwhelming forces; and Gorman’s brigade of Sedgwick’s division moved promptly to his assistance : other regiments, under Gen. Burns, came up under a most destructive enfilading fire ; and, as they were in danger of being overwhelmed, the voice of Burns, ‘•Steady, men, steady!” rolling along their rank.s, was an- swered by cheer after cheer, and the rebels were checked. Farther still to our right the Confederate forces were hurled against our ranks, where Gens. Sumner, Sedgwick, Dana, Burns, and Gorman, with the greatest bravery and skill, com- manded our men. At eight o’clock, p..m., the rebels gave up the contest for the day, and left our forces in posse.ssion of the field. There was more fighting on the next day ; but the Confed erates were not fierce and hopeful as before. It was the sequel of a great battle already decided. Neither party could crush the other; but the advantage was decidedly with us. M'Clellan’s despatch to the War Department .said, “ The victory is complete, and all credit is due to our officers and men.” THE WAR OF SLAVERY AND FREEDOM. 637 Next morning, June 2, a bold reconnoissance by Gen. Hooker to within four miles of Richmond showed no enemy but pickets. Gen. Robert E. Lee was now in command of the Confed- erates, and had evidently resolved to collect all his forces to resist McClellan and save Richmond. June 25, we were vigorously attacked by A. P. Hill at Mechanicsville. D. P. Hill’s and Longstreet’s divisions came into action ; but our brave men repulsed them with dreadful slaughter. McCall’s reserves, who had never before been in battle, behaved with the courage and daring of veterans. McClellan, perceiving that the enemy would soon be strongly re-enforced, withdrew our troops to what he deemed a better position. This order was obeyed at some risk, as our forces were compelled, while they were hilling back, to resist furious onsets of the enemy. We were at length ready, and the terrible battle of Gaines’s Mill immediately followed. Stonewall Jackson, generally supposed to be in the Shenan- doah Valley, at the most critical moment of the battle came on to the field with his splendid corps, and fell upon our right flank with the greatest fury. The carnage was dread- ful. After a long and brave resistance, overwhelmed by num- bers, Porter’s infantry were compelled to fall back ; when he opened upon the Confederates with eighty cannon, and checked their advance. Cook charged their right flank with his cavalry, but was received with such a withering fire, that his horses became utterly unmanageable, and, by their wild movements, threw some of Porter’s men into confu- sion. At this critical moment, Fiench’s and Meagher’s men rushed with cheers to the front, and the enemy postponed the battle till morning. During the night, however, our forces were withdrawn across the Chickahominy. This movement enabled the enemy to claim a victory, and cost us the loss of our base of supplies, with enormous quantities of military stores. During these contests, there was the greatest consternation 638 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. in Richmond. “ The Confederate Congress had adjourned in such haste as to show that the members were anxious to pro- vide for their own per.'sonal safety. President Davis sent his family to North Carolina, and a part of the government archives were packed ready for transportation. At the rail- road depots were piles of baggage awaiting transportation; and the trains were crowded with women and children, going to distant points in the country, and escaping from the alarm and distress in Richmond.”* What must have been the surpri.se of the rebels, when the next morning, after the -vSt.\tes Christian Commission arose from the conviction, that, with relief for the bodies of our soldiers, there was an imperative demand for more thorough atten- tion to the wants of their souls. Ju.st as the Sanitary Com- mission came in to supplement the labors and supply the defects of the medical staff and commissariat of the arra}'^ THE WAR OF SLAVERY AND FREEDOM. 669 the Christian Commission came in to the aid of chaplains and other Christian philanthropists, to give the blessings of experimental Christianity, with temporal supplies, to our needy soldiers. It was organized in Philadelphia on the 16th of Novem- ber, 1861, in response to a call from the Young Men’s Chris- tian Association. George H. Stewart, Esq., its most promi- nent man, and a multitude of other noble philanthropists, devoted time and wealth and prayers to this great enter- prise until the war was over. “ In both means and men there was no lack, but a steady and rapid growth, of abundance, without a parallel in the history of Christian charities. Every day of its ex- istence seems to have given the Commission a wider range, and a firmer hold upon the affection and confidence of the churches and patriots of the land. In the first year, its receipts amounted to $231,000 ; in the second year, they reached $916,837 ; in the third year, $2,282,347. From January to May of the fourth and last year of its activity, the donations were $2,228,105.” For the whole period of its services, from the 16th of November, 1861, to May, 1866, in cash, services, provisions, clothing, &c., its Christian charities and labors for the relief of our soldiers were estimated at $6,291,107.68. Dele- gates commissioned, 4,859, — working in the aggregate, without compensation, 185,562 days; boxes of stores and publications, 95,066 ; Bibles, Testaments, and other portions of Scripture, 1,466,748 ; hymn and psalm books, 1,370,953; knapsacks, books in paper and flexible covers, 8,308,052 ; bound library-books, 296,816 ; magazines and pamphlets, 767,861 ; religious weekly and monthly periodicals, 18,126,- 002; pages of tracts, 39,104,246; “Silent Comforter,” &c., 8,572 ; sermons preached by delegates, 58,308 ; prayer- meetings held by delegates, 77,744; letters written by dele- gates for soldiers, 92,321.* For the above extracts and figures, I am indebted to Rev. T. A. Febnlbt. 670 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. “ The home-comforts, provisions, delicacies, clothing, and ten thousand appliances, for the relief of the sufl'ering, w hich people showered upon the army, were conveyed to the sol- diers through the hands of volunteer laborers fresh from home, whose only pay for their toil was the blessing of God, and the gratitude and happiness of those for whom they labored. Cofl'ee-wagon.s, called by the soldiers ‘ Chris- tian artillery,’ were drawn along the lines, furnishing the men with hot cofl'ee, fresh toast, &c., during the battle. On the field, gathering up the wounded ; in the field-hospitals, bathing and dre.ssing wounds; by the side of the dying, ofl'ering prayer, or snatching a few last word.s for the be- reaved family at home, — these laborers w'ere found in large numbers. It was estimated by the ollicers and surgeons of the Army of the Potomac, that, during the Wilderne.ss cam- paign alone, at least three thousand lives w'ere saved, besides all the sufl'ering alleviated. But while these men carried in one hand bread which perisheth, in the other they carried the bread of heaven. While they labored to heal the wounds of the body, they also aided the wounded soul to step into the fountain opened, and be healed.” * Wo.\i.\N IN THE War was an angel of mercy. From the common walks of virtuous life, from the highest circles of culture and atlluence, Christian women entered the hospitals and the fields of blood, to sacrifice comfort, health, and even life itself, to relieve our sick and uying soldiers; to bless them with woman’s tenderness, her gentle voice, her kind instructions, and faithful prayers. From Maine to California, they bore incredible hardships, toiled night and day in societies, festivals, and fairs, and in manufacturing lint and bandages for the w’ounds of our martyr-heroes. Christian labor w’ent beyond direct army'-work ; and noble, heroic men volunteered without pay to bear all the trials of the camp and the march and the field, rushing into the very jaws of death to save souls. Everywhere the build- * Communication of Rer. C. P. Ltfobd. THE WAR OF SLAVERY AND FREEDOM. 671 ing of rude chapels, fiiithful preaching, and meetings for prayer, frequently amid the bursting of shells, revealed the noblest Christian heroism in the work of regeneration. Gra- cious revivals and conversions, numbering hundreds and thousands, resulted from these self-sacrificing labors. Let it now be observed that every church in the loyal North, in all their official bodies, sustained the government by the most hearty resolutions, the outpouring of their treasures and men, and the boldest action. The religious life poured through the nation’s heart to its very extremi- ties, giving great force to these words from our beloved President, Abraham Lincoln. They were spoken in response to a thoroughly loyal message, through their committee, of the General Conference of the Methodist-Episcopal Church, in the midst of the bloody march of Grant to Richmond. “ Nobly sustained as the government has been by all the churches, I would utter nothing which might in the least appear invidious against any. Yet, without this, it may fairlj^ be said that the Methodist-Episcopal Church, not less devoted than the best, is, by its greater numbers, the most important of all. It is no fault in others that the Methodist Church sends more soldiers to the field, more nurses to the hospitals, and more prayers to Heaven, than any. God bless che Methodist Church, bless all the churches ! And blessed be God, who, in this our great trial, giveth us the churches ! ” No mind in America rose more grandly up to the reli- gious significance of the war than that of Abraham Lincoln. Let us record the solemn words uttered in his last inaugu- ral address : “ Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondman’s two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said, ‘The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous alto- gether.’ ” 672 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. MURDEROUS REVENGE. The nation wa.s in triumph. A day liad burst upon our sky more glorious than any which ever before shone upon any land beneath the sun. Joy and gratitude swelled the hearts of our- free millions. The Rebellion was crushed ; slavery was dead. Peace came, with her rich consolations, to bless our land, so long distressed and bleeding. No oppressed heart, no tired brain, felt such relief as the heart and brain of Abraham Lincoln. No spirit of hauglity triumph appeared. He had tears for the suffering and the bereaved, pity for the conquered, and pardon for the rebel- lious. He was the grandest type in existence of a great, magnanimou.s, conquering, Christian nation. From these heights of ex ul tint joy, the millions of Ameri- can citizens were suddeidy plunged into the deepest distress. Abraham Lincoln was slain ! The hand of a vile assassin had taken away the most precious life on the continent. No intelligence so direful ever burdened the telegraphic wire.s, no sorrow so deep and awful ever settled down upon the heart of a nation. At twenty-two minutes past seven o’clock, on the morn- ing of the 15th of April, 1865, the great and good Mr. Lin- coln breathed his last The liLst expre.ssion of the vileness of slavery, the fell revenge of expiring oppression, the concentrated malignity of thirty years, struck the highest, purest representative of American freedom ; and he died for the country, which, in the hands of God, he had lived to save. War and darkness o’er the nation ;;loomed ; Terror ruled the Capitol. The chief, Still great in death, lay pale and unentombed. Embalmed in myriad flower* of love and grief ; While round him sadly, higher, day by day. The dirges rose and slowly died away. What reck we now the assassin’s word or blow 1 The struggling Samson with his dying prayer THE WAR OF SLAVERY AND FREEDOM. Did Dagon’s temple with its gods o’erthrow, And ]>lant the holier shrine of Freedom there. Foul Treason tangled in his meshes lies, While radiant Truth soars upward to the skies. ’Tis done ! Bear slowly out the sleeping form, The mighty dead. Triumph sueceeds the strife. He saw the sun arise beyond the storm. And drank from him the glorious tides of life. Oh ! death is but the hero’s tranquil rest When nations honor, and when Heaven has blest. Now boar him slowly out by muffled drum. Ye soldiers, comrades whom be loved so well ; Around him let the mighty heroes come Whose stars their fields of death and victory tell : Bow low, and tenderly that name repeat, — Your wateliword in advance or dark retreat. Now bear him out where seaport cities rise. And wealth and commerce on the nations wait; Where masts and spires, encircling, kiss the skies In The Repudlic’s eastward golden gate. A nation’s moan rises the mountains o’er; Atlantic answers the Pacific shore. Now rest him here ; for, lo ! the people come, — The high, the low, — bis children all, they seem,— With ashy face, and lips of marble, dumb. This pageant vast — ’twere like a mighty dream Of some far planet, where the light of day Had for eternal ages died away. But no : earth yet may claim Jehovah reigns ; The nation of the free is still his care : He, though the great ma.y die, the right maintains ; He gently bends to heed the lowliest prayer ; And, now crushed hearts of nations to him call. He heeds their cry ; he marks the sparrow’s fall. Homeward still bear him on. There shall he rest ’Mid prairie-flowers that hail the golden sun. When Freedom’s States, from east to glorious west, For God and Truth and Liberty are one. Ye heroes, who for freedom lie so low. The noble soul of Lincoln joins you now. Build high the monument; the storied bust Crown with flowers ; let childhood’s tender years With beauty bend lamenting o’er his dust. And hallow deathless glory with their tears; Then on the skies the bright inscription read, — His noblest monument is a nation freed. 85 674 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. AriM, MT CoujiTBT ! pird thoc for Uie fipht; Lead on the von of nationii }rct to romo : The hcavena are amiinp for the (truppling right, And star-eyed Freeo to glory guides thy way ; And Time’s last twilight kindles into day.* • Burial of Llnooln, By L. W. P. CHAPTER IV. THE TRIUMPH OF LIBERTY. “ As for me, I dare not, will not, be false to Freedom. Where the feet of my youth were planted, there, by Freedom, my feet shall ever stand. I will walk beneath her ban- ner ; I will glory in her strength. I have seen her friends fly from her, her foes gather around her ; I have seen her bound to the stake ; I have seen them give her ashes to the winds : but, when they turned to exult, I have seen her again meet them face to face, resplendent in complete steel, brandishing in her right hand a flaming sword red with insufferable light. I take courage. The people gather around her. The Genius of America will at last lead her sons to freedom.” — Senator Baker. “ We know how to save the Union. The world knows we know how to save it. In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free, — honorable alike in what we give and what wo preserve. We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last, best hope of earth. Other means may succeed : this could not, cannot, fail. The way is plain, peace- ful, generous, just, — a way, which, if followed, the world will forever applaud, and God must forever bless.” — Abraham Lincoln. Amid the carnage of terrific battle, it was almost impos- sible not to ask, Why must this desolating war continue ? why must our brave troops be slaughtered, and no decisive victory follow ? Some there were who thought they saw the reason in the crying injustice of slavery. It began to be most earnestly said that Providence demanded justice as the condition of victory. Was it true that the American people had not yet comprehended the meaning of this dreadful chastisement, — that God would lead them through their trials to see their great sin, and renounce it? Did God intend to destroy slavery by this war? Many thought so ; a few said it in eloquent words, and appealed to Heaven in fervent prayer for this result. Among others, the Prot- estant ministers of Chicago and vicinity intensely believed it, and sent a deputation to lay their views before the Presi- dent. They were kindly received ; and, while he held his own opinions in abeyance, he drew out their strongest ar- G7C THE GREAT REPUBLIC. guments in favor of emancipation by proclamation, ns a war mea.sure, ami their answers to objections not his own. He said, “ I raise no objections against it on legal or eon- stitiitional grounds; for, as commander-in-chief of the army and navy in time of war, 1 suppose 1 have a right to take any measure which may best subdue the enemy.” He was simply an.xious to know the state of the public mind, the degree of advancement in the track of his own profound judgment<. lie hail checked his own commanders because they were in advance of the people : but he at length came to the conviction that the people would sustain him ; and hence, on the twenty-.second day of September, 18G2, he i.ssued a proclamation containing these words: “On the first day of January, in the year of our I>)rd one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves in any State, or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion again.st the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free.” The people were electrilied. Good men were filled with delight and gratitude. The rebels were wild with fury. The Northern enemies of the President denounced it as a most tyrannical a.ssumption of power : but, having taken his position, he was immovable ; and according to promi.se, when the hundred days had expired, he i.ssued THE GRE.XT PR0CLAM.\TI0N. “ T. Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, by virtue of the power in me vested as commander-in-chief of the army and navy of the United States in time of actual armed rebellion against the authority and government of the United States, and as a fit and necessary war-measure for suppressing said rebellion, do on this first day of Jan- uary, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and in accordance with my purpose so to do, publicly proclaimed for the full period of one hundred days THE TRIUMPH OF LIBERTY. 677 from the clay first above mentioned, order and designate as the States, and parts of States, wherein the people thereof respectively are this day in rebellion against the United States, the following ; to wit ” [the names of the rebel States, with exceptions, are then mentioned]. “ And, by virtue of the power and for the purpose afore- said, I do order and declare, that all persons held as slaves within said designated States, and parts of States, are, and henceforward shall be, free ; and that the executive govern- ment of the United States, including the military and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of said persons. ‘‘And I hereby enjoin upon the people -so declared to be free to abstain from all violence, unless in necessary self- defence ; and I recommend to them all, that, in all cases when allowed, they labor fiiithfully for reasonable wages. “ And I further declare and make known that such per- sons, of suitable condition, will be received into the armed service of the United States, to garrison forts, positions, sta- tions, and other places, and to man vessels of all sorts in said service. “ And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of jus- tice, warranted by the Constitution upon military necessity, I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind, and gra- cious favor of Almighty God.” Thus spake the wisest, best man of our times ; and near four millions of slaves leaped at once into liberty ! From that moment, God commanded victory to the armies of Free- dom. BLACK WARRIORS. Prejudice against color so thoroughly pervaded the North as well as the South, that the government did not at first entertain the idea of admitting Africans to the army. The most determined purpose was manifested to fight their bat- 678 THE GUEAT REPUnLIC. ties, but allow them no opportunity to fight for themselves. Dreucllul revei*ses; and the absolute necessity for men, joined with the devoted loyalty of the blacks to the government, overcame these scrnple.s. People of color showed most val- uable kindness to Union men attempting to escape from rebel prisons, by furnishing food and relief to famishing soldiers, and as guides to our armies. At length, they met with a friendly reception as “contrabands;” and finally they rose to the dignity of .•soldiers in the army of Freedom. The proclamation indicated some of the perilous methods in which they might .serve their country, and they moved promptly into all the positions declared open to them. The outcry of the rebels against this measure, characterizing it as a harharous attempt to encourage all the horrors of insurfcc- tion, and their terrible threats and proclamations of retali- ation, were strangely inconsistent. From the first moment of hostilities, they availed themselves of the services of their able-bodied .slaves to strengthen their army ; and if the slaves did not appear in the rank and file, yet their hard field-labors released other.s, and added them to the fighting force. Indeed, as no insurrection, no acts of harharisin, followed, and our strong colored troops were performing prodigies of valor, in their last extremity the rebels undertook to devi.se a method of making soldiers of their slaves ; but it was too late. Indeed, it might he unsafe for them, hut safe for the nation ; for the instincts of the slaves were in favor of liberty. When the world saw the promptness with which, to the number of 178.975, they volunteered to enter the army, the ease with which they accepted the most stringent di.sci- pline, their noble military hearing, and the desperate valor with which they charged the enemy or led a storming col- umn, there was no longer any question as to the rank and value of black warriors. A recognition of the true manhood of the oppres.sed race w^as thus, by act of Providence, forced upon the American people. This was the second great triumph of liberty. THE TBIUMPH OF LIBEBTY. 679 THE VICTORIES OF BLOOD AND OF TRUTH. The American people had passed through unparalleled suf- ferings. Our dead, fallen in the struggle, numbered at least 325,000 ; and some 200,000 had gone into the spirit-world fighting for slavery. More than half a million of the American people had perished to settle the question, whether America should be slave or free ; and the wail of sorrow, coming up from every part of the land, pierced the heavens. Great was our anguish, and great had been our crime ; but God’s purposes in regard to the United States were now becom- ing more evident, and men were awed before the majesty of his power. We began to realize “ the mission of great suffering.” Our victories were not merely over the em- battled hosts of rebellion, but over the prejudices of ages. We had conquered ourselves. See what opinions had gone down in this struggle, and what truths had taken their place ! We thought slavery was chiefly a misfortune : we had learned that it was an enormous individual and national crime. We thought it could be met by concessions, but learned that it must be destroyed. We thought it could be eradicated by truth, but learned that it could go out only in blood. We thought the war must be one of white men, but learned that the slaves were to have place and rank in the battle for free- dom. We thought we could save the Union, and concede “ the right” of property in man ; but we learned that liberty and Union must stand or fall together. We thought we were fighting for the sovereignty of the government, but learned that we were fighting to emancipate the negroes and the nation. We thought, when the war was over, we must then deal with slavery as we might be able, but learned that the war could not be ended until we had “ proclaimed liberty throughout the land to all the inhabitants thereof.” We thought the manhood of slaves must be the result of long and almost impossible culture ; but we learned that it was in their very being, and must have recognition and justice GSO THE GREAT RERUBLIC. before the era of education could begin. Finally, we had learned that God had determined to extend to the nation the regeneration which had long been recognized as the jirivi- lege of the individual only. So grandly rose truth in its new incarnation to enter upon its broader, mightier mission to the world. THE GREAT AMENDMENT. The Great Proclamation had released the slaves in the ter- ritory dominated by the Confederacy, and, with what seemed anomalous inconsistency, left in shivery those who were within the actual .sovereignty of the United-lStates Govern- ment. This showed, not the principles or wishes of the Pre.si- dent, but his loyal obedience to the Constitution. He would not advance a single step in favor of his most sacred princi- ples without the clear authority of law ; but the nation must make the great fundajuental change. When the Constitution wa.s established, it .seemed to have but one great task ; which was, to work out of itself the wrong of a blind, almost concealed, indoi'sement of slavery. Ilroad and strong and sound in the main its it wits, it was not equal to the work of shielding so enormous a vice from the blows which would be levelled at it by the hand of justice. Some there were, who, even in the earliest days of its authority, fore.«aw that it mu.st .some time purge itself from this vice, or be overthrown by it Nothing could be logically clearer ; and yet the power and sophistry of class interest and astute political leaders bewildered the people, and nearly succeeded in making the vilest tyranny and most odious ca.ste appe.ar to be the true intent of the fundamental law. It was only when the ruin which had been so long and insidiously work- ing within the government broke out in overt acts of rebel- lion that the nation rou.sed itself to the necessity of casting out from the Constitution this warring element of defiant oppression. Accordingly, on the thirty-first day of January, 1865, the great amendment was finally adopted by Congres.s. THE TRIUMPH OF LIBERTY. 681 Subsequently indorsed by the required numbers of States, it became Article XllT. of the Constitution ; namely : “ Sect. 1, Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a pun- ishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. Sect. 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.” This achievement, reserved for our own day, was the strong- est possible development of essential liberty. Other previous amendments were of comparatively small importance. There are some to follow, which will render more distinct and un- deniable the equality of all men before the law, and make still clearer acknowledgment of the humble dependence of our great providential nation upon the arm of Almighty God. It was, of course, indispensable that the States should adjust their civil governments to this grand development of national freedom. This they are now in the act of doing. Amid the agonies of revolution, under authority practically irresisti- ble, the oligarchy yields to democracy, and the Declaration of Independence comes out distinctly to take its place in the State governments. “ We,” now of modern times, we South and North, we the representative power of the nation, in Congress, conventions, and legislatures assembled, now, as did the Revolutionary fathers, hold these truths to be self- evident, — that all men are born free and equal, and endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, and among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness ; and that all true governments derive their just powers from the con- sent of the governed.” These grand old announcements are at length to be thoroughly practical in the Great Republic, and take their place in essence and form in the Constitu- tions of the Nation and the States. This is development such as ought to mark the century just following the great year of 1776. Other amendments yet to be made, whether general or 682 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. local, radical or conservative, liberalizing or guarding the fundamental law, are of comparatively little importance. They may be tried, found imperfect and improved, or im- practicable and abandoned ; but this advance is organic and irrevocable. At the close of this remarkable period, we look back with amazement at the events which have occurred. It may well be said, there have been no other such ten years of history on this continent The work of long ages seems to have been crawded into a few brief years. The most sanguine reformers did not expect to live long enough to see revo- lutions so grand, and all in favor of liberty ; but we have seen them, and are constrained to say, “ It is the Lord’s doings, and it is marvellous in our eyes.” .(1 ,■ I I vtjil w'4 (»“ 'KiA'’ ,. o «' ' ift* ,' /' tAiW..); ■ , k.!v ^ ,. , O ■*’*-. ■ ' lU "'-'' V . . ,^ > V ' Wl, W: >t 9 ffmi\ tt Z PERIOD V. MISSION. CHAPTER I. THE NEW NATION. “ It is the third huge gate of barbarism, the monarchical gate, which is closing at this moment. The nineteenth century hears it rolling on its hinges.” — Hugo. “America is now the grandest combination of power, stability, unity, freedom, and happiness, the world has seen.” — Partridge. A REVOLUTION SO great as that through which we have just passed could not leave us precisely the same as before. It is true, we have the same country, the same climates, the same physical resources of wealth and happiness : but we have changed ; and, in our changed condition, we present a strong contrast to almost all nations emerging from pro- tracted, desolating wars. The strength of the Great Republic has been but partially tested ; for we have been at war with a large portion of our own people. Looking at the development of our resources, and the achievements of our arras, in this divided state, we are compelled to ask. What would they have been if our war had been against invasion from a foreign foe ? Look at the men brought into the field from the numbers of our loyal citizens. From April 15, 1861, to April 15, 1865, the calls of the President charged against the several States amounted to 2,759,049 men. Of these, 2,656,553 are credited, showing that the Northern States and Territories 083 684 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. actually sent this large number of men into the great strug- gle, lacking only 102,496 of the whole number called for; and these were rapidly coming in when .the close of the war arrested the people in their march to the held. Besides the above, 120,000 “emergency men” and 178,975 colored troops sprang to arms, at the call of the government, to save their country and their liberties. On the 1st of March, 1865, our military force of all aims, ollicers, and men, amounted to 965,591. On the 1st of May, 1865, — just two months later, — the number had swelled, by enlistments alone, to 1,000,516. According to the public judgment of the most enlightened of other nations, these liicts are without a parallel in history. Of our brave citizen-.soldier.s, there were, during the war, killed, wounded, and missing, 441,316; while the killed, wounded, and missing of our rebel foes reached 765,765: making the frightful aggregate of victims to this Rebellion 1,207,081. When the war clo.sed, we held of our Confederate foes 98,802 as prisoners of war; while the whole number of men surrendered to our arms amounted to 174,223. Now, when we place by the side of these e.xertions of power, and cxhau.stious of numbers, the fact, that our popu- lation steadily inci'eased during the whole period of the war, we .‘^hall have .some idea of the moral force of people, with which w'e enter upon our future mi.ssion. Look at the cost of the war. As a single fact toward an approximate estimate, consider, that, for the five years ending June 30, 1866, the expenditures for the war and navy de- partments increased more than $300,000,000. Add the amount paid for pensions (already between $15,000,000 and $16,000,000 annually), add also the interest of the public war debt, the expenditures of the loyal States for bounty, relief of soldiers through the great commissions and other- wise, the maintenance of military force in the rebel States during tUeir unsettled condition, the enormous destruction THE NEW NATION. 685 of property in the war districts, and the value of the labor of our millions taken away from the pursuits of industry to exhaust their time and strength in military campaigns, and the amount swells beyond our power of estimation or proper conception. Notwithstanding all this, we begin our new career with largely increased wealth and business energy. Look at the national debt. On the 31st of August, 1865, it rose to $2,735,689,571, — its highest point. To this must be added the debts of the several States and local corpo- rations, amounting to about $650,000,000. The aggregate of these public debts seems so enormous, that great financiers in England and on the Continent have regarded repudiation and the utter bankruptcy of the nation as inevitable. We moved from the war into the future with this debt. Look at our resources. The Great Republic does not stagger under these enormous burdens. Our people paid income-tax, in one day, — viz., the 31st of August, 1865, — $2,315,000; on the 4th of September, 1865 (a Sunday preceding), $4,066,731.42 ; and on the 2d of January, 1866 (New-Year’s holiday preceding), $4,068,000. These figures show the highest amounts reached in a single day. The growth of wealth may be seen by the following figures. In- come-tax yielded in 1864 114 , 919 , 279.58 1865 20 , 567 , 350.26 1866 60 , 894 , 135.85 The whole amount realized from this source from 1862 to 1866 is $164,8.65,018. Our aggregate revenue from cus- toms, internal revenue, and direct tax (including also loans and treasury-notes), reached in 1864 $ 1 , 358 , 758 , 614.58 1865 1 , 805 , 939 , 345.93 1866 1 , 270 , 884 , 173.11 Can a people commanding such resources, with reasonable 686 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. financial economy, be wrecked for the want of funds ? Let •it be observed, that, notwithstanding the predictions of our foreign friends, we have paid all our interest, amounting, os it did for 1866 (including treasury-notes), to $133,067,741.- 69 ; and from the 31st of August, 1865, to the 1st of October, 1867, we had reduced the principal of our national debt $262,412,124.24. Thus we begin our great future.* ORGANIC UNITY AND REGENERATED PATRIOTISM. During the reign of slavery, sectional tendencies greatly impaired and threatened our united strength. Though the ultra doctrine of State against National rights was thoroughly exploded by our clearest-minded shitesraen, it nevertheless exerted an injurious infiuence over the national feeling of multitudes. The first great fact of the new nation is the acknowledged indissoluble unity of all the States and Terri- torie.s. We are not merely so many millions of people, liv- ing in good or bad neighborhood ; we are not so many great sovereign States of rival and antagonist power. We now know for ourselves, and the world understand.s, that, like “ liberty and union,” our great States are “ one and insep- arable now and forever.” This aggregates our strength, bringing all our millions of people and wealth into one grand whole ; and this can no longer be regarded as a unity of accidt '.its, a unity by external pressure or arbitrary power. It is a unity of principles, of national life and development ; by the clearly expressed will of God, an organic, indLssoluble unity. Strong and enthusiastic has been the feeling of American patriotism from the first. It has, however, been vitiated by sectional institutions and vices, especially those of slavery. But the patriotism of the new nation has passed through the fire. Its dro.ss has been given to the flames. It has been “ tried, and comes forth as gold.” Now we love, not one town or one State merely, not the North or the South * OfiBcial statistics, from lion. C. Cole, senator from California. THE NEW NATION. 687 alone ; but we love our whole country. Southern patriots have suffered by the assault made upon its integrity, and Northern people in its defence, as hardly any people ever suffered before ; and now the whole land, baptized in tears and blood, is unspeakably dear to us all. Woe to the nation which shall attempt to place hostile foot upon it ! Every inch of this vast country is now sacred soil, — sacred to liber- ty and to God. True, the time has not yet come for the largest, fullest realization of this regeneration of national patriotism. The bitter prejudices of a generation at least must pass away before its obstacles will be removed, and the love of country throughout our growing millions shall reach the national breadth and power which now rises up before us as our cer- tain destiny. True, also, the task of experimental Christian- ity, in grappling with our personal and national vices, is hard, and practically endless. Just so far, however, as it advances, it will extend our patriotic devotion to our whole great country into the sphere of a true philanthropy, and proportionally increase its power. THE TRANSITION. The history of reconstruction cannot now be written. It is not yet accomplished. The chaos immediately following a bloody war and a great revolution must have time to re- solve itself into order. Popular legislation and a passing administration cannot lead as promptly to executive strength as could a pure-minded, absolute despotism. There will, of necessity, be a great variety of opinions as to the methods of rehabilitating States resolved by rebellion into their in- organic elements. Party spirit will struggle hard for the mastery, and only by degrees will the true methods of wis- dom evolve from the strife. We shall not, therefore, chroni- cle the contests or the decisions that are seeking to iden tily the facts and principles which must assume the mastery in our final adjustments and future developments. 688 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. A few things incident to onr critical, transition period, we have distinctly seen. The feeling of revenge, gradually nar- rowing the scope of its hostility, and triumph moderating into magnanimity and fraternity, point the way to a hopeful future. In the mean time, it has been evident that our released mil- lion.s could not, without help, wisely and safely assume their new lelations of independence and equality before the law; and hence liie Freedmen’s Bureau has been an absolute neces- sity. It has been shown by indisputable facts that former rebel masters would seek to invent methods of virtually re- manding them back to slavery ; that they would not, with- out the presence and authority of the General Government, deal with their former slaves as freemen, nor would they all render obedience to civil national law without the pres- ence of a power competent to enforce it Hence acts of Congress for the reconstruction of State governments have included adequate military force; and obstinate local inju.s- tice has been, in some instances, compelled to yield to the power of a strong national government, now, more than in any former period of our history, beginning to be known and realized as everywhere present In the mean time, it can be aflirmed with gratitude that regenerating influences from the various churches have found their way through our distracted South ; and, subduing rebel- lion against God, they have inspired consideration and love for man, until it may be claimed that the most hostile parties are gradually losing their asperities. Around and within the newly-organized churches of the South a true and noble citizen.ship is rising up in loyal obedience to the government and to God. Thus another indication of the true power of reconstruction reveals itself It is not yet. however, time to write the history of this great regenerating force in its work of re-organizing civil society. The loyal people, white and colored, by thou.sands and tens of thousands, are getting their places in the Church of Christ; and, just so far as this work extends, the strength and harmony of the new nation appears. THE NEW NATION. 689 IMPARTIAL SUFFRAGE. The vindication of justice in a free government requires a free ballot. Loyal men must be allowed to express their wishes as to their representatives. They must choose their own rulers, and, subordinately to the Constitution, make the laws of their own States, and bear their just part in the law- making, judicial, and executive departments of the General Government. The growth of ideas on this subject has been very rapid in this country during the period of emancipation. The basis of suffrage has been changed ; the privilege has been greatly extended ; but the questions raised have not yet been settled. The partiality of the old nation seems to have been marked in the new for destruction. The persistent pur- pose manifested by disloyal men to reclaim the control of government in their respective States, and to resume the positions in the General Government which would enable them, as in other days, to control the nation, has been used, in the providence of God, as the means of giving the ballot to the black men of the South. This decision we regard as irreversible ; and it is utterly impossible to over-estimate its importance. The colored people are peaceable and loyal. They seem to want only simple justice. Their good be- havior amid the great changes which have been going on in their favor has astonished both enemies and friends. They have no disposition to fight for their rights ; but going in vast numbers as they now do to the polls, by the side of their former masters, they can protect themselves. Heaven and earth proclaim this just. It is as surely the order of Providence as was the Great Proclamation. God would not permit the war to close till liberty was proclaimed ; he would not permit the South to settle down upon any policy of reconstruction until their former slaves, the victims of hoary oppression, were proclaimed to be men, and, as men, were permitted to exercise the rights of freemen. For 87 600 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. the poor oppres.sed race it wan a proud day when they first went to the polls in the District of Colinnhia, and wielded the ballot, which denionstrateil their emancipation, and proclaimed their right and ability peacefully to defend their freedom. Here men would have arrested this innova- tion ; but right onward it moved, until the very obstinacy of rebels became its most potent instrument, and in every State of the South the stalwart men of the jiroscribed race were .seen marching to the polls. So much is irrevocable. It .seems now diflicult to tell when our people of color in the Northern States will be admitted to the same privilege ; nor can it now be said what will be the basis of suffrage when the nation is finally settled : it surely will not be the color of the skin. The new light of the Great Revolution has destroyed forever the darkness of this gro.ss absurdity. It certainly will include loyalty to the nation. Treason in the Great Hepulilic has slain its right to votlic: has, b}- general con.sent. taken its place by the side of the first nations of the globe. But, iu modern civilization, profounder facts must be considered. The laws of increase in popula- tion, the laws of unity, the development of physical and moral force and executive power, the spirit of governmen- tal institutions, the progre.ss of intelligence and virtue, and the guidance and approval of Providence, must determine the relative position of any people among the nations of the world. In all these respect.s, hereditary sovereigns have watched their new rivals across the ocean, anxiously expect- ing to witness their failure, until the last grand crisis has pa.s.sed, and at length the people of America take their place by the side of the mightiest princes; and no haughty power affects to despise or dares to insult them. Indeed, the affectation of superiority over the Great Republic in the elements of a growing, vital civilization, in the energies and resources of a great government, has pas.sed away from the most powerful nations of earth; while the ease and mag- nanimity, the firmne.ss and influence, of the government of the American people in such august presence, demonstrate their rank as a firsU;lass power. • POPULATION, AND INFLUENCE ABROAD. Thus we enter upon our future mission ; and, regarding the regular laws of increase as they have been established through a great number of years, our official census shows, that, in 1880, we shall have a population of 56,450,24 1 people; in 1890, 77,266,989; in 1900, only thirty-two years hence. THE GREAT REPUBLIC IN HISTORY. 701 vve .shall number 100,355,802 ! Assuming that there is to be no great judicial interruption by decree of Providence, what grandeur of development is before us ! Looking for- ward only a generation, the results of God’s great plans for this vast continent are positively overw'helming. But the growth of population is not to be considered alone: it is only one condition of real progress. We may look out upon the future increase of all the products of the soil, the advance in all the useful and elegant arts, the prog- ress in discoveries, in manuhictures, and commerce, the development of our mines, of our institutions of learning, of our great and powerful American manhood, with the spirit of a living, renovating Christianity pervading the whole; and we may form some idea of what is before us. But all this must come in to swell our influence abroad. We have passed the period when it is desirable to think of it as the power of legitimate protection ; and it would be equally unworthy of us to consider our coming greatness as the ability to overawe or triumph over other nations, small or great. Rather let it be considered as an indication of a responsibility so high and extended as to call for the profoundest humility and the noblest sense of justice. Our influence over the governments of the Western continent must not be that of overshadowing greatness, but of mag- nanimous fraternal kindness. To the nations of Europe we must present an example of liberal opinions, sustained by firm integrity and high-souled international right. How utterly unworthy of the Great Republic would be airs of superiority in strength or wisdom ! How much have we yet to learn from other nations ! how long shall we have reason to dig in their mines of greater antiquity ! and how much that is great and true in the liberty-loving millions of the Old World will demand our recognition ! 02 THE GREAT REPUBLIC. THE NATIONS OF EARTH ACKNOWLEDGE, RESPECT, AND TRUST THE GREAT REPUBLIC. If it be matter of grave importance for us as a nation to know what are our accumulating elements of power, ami in what manner we are entering upon the historical period of our mis.sion, it is also matter of decided interest to know in what spirit we are received by the great family of nations. This is not a recent question. It began to receive its answer immediately after the Declaration of Independence ; but now it assumes a new aspect Tlie question is no longer one of patronage, hut of the matured, decisive response to the per- manent establishment of this new element among the gov- ernments of earth. Now that it can no longer he regarded as e.xceptional or experimenUd, how is it regarded ? The answer is most grateful to the American people. Diplomatic relations are desired and established between the United States and all the nations of the civilized world. There is the highest regard for our rights and opinions. Our citizenship commands the most fraternal and honored consideration. Our free institutions and rapid growth have come to be the admiration of the greatest statesmen, as well as of the masses of Europe. English lords do not hesitate to quote our financial policy and discretion as a model for the British Empire. The French emperor imitates our pop- ular elections, by submitting to the people, in some form, the question of his crown : when he attempts to impo.se a gov- ernment upon Mexico, he demands a vote; when he deter- mines to annex provinces to his empire, he calls the people to vote; when he proposes the transfer of Venice from Austria to Italy, the people are asked to expre.ss their will. When an Italian prime minister wishes to adopt free tol- eration and universal equality of religious rights in the new nation, he refers to the Great Republic as his model. Scandinavia opens the way for evangelical Christianity. Prussia, under the lead of the great Bismarck, establishes THE GREAT REPUBLIC IN HISTORY. 703 a constitutional government for reconstructed Germany ; and even Austria dashes aside the Concordat, and her em- peror talks, in Hungary and at home, of a free government. What is all this but a spontaneous homage to the great and free institutions of our own noble Christian Republic ? From our Pacific metropolis we communicate directly with Asia. Our commerce follows rapidly in the track of our Christian missionaries ; and by both we are becoming extensively known by the millions of China, Japan, Bur- mah, and India. The silent, powerful workings of Christian liberty must inevitably accompany our progress. These facts indicate clearly our position in history, and our future mission. CHAPTER III. OOD IS TIIR SOVEREIGN. " We recoj^izo Qod u the Supreme I>inposcr of our national affairt : our peace and true prosperity depend upon our alle;;innee to him and his eternal principles of justice and right.” — CALiroBsiA Cosr. ok .M. K. Ciiuacii, 1867. The history, which, in its principal and controlling facts, has pa.'^eJ before us, has shown the hand of God so distinct- ly, that it must be a strange blindness which can conceal it He appears everywhere, not only as the Creator of our great continent, but as the grand, directing Providence, the gra- cious Sovereign, of the nation. We have his laws, not only in the book of revelation, but in the spirit of liberty which he has imparted to our government ; in the Christian char- acter of our institutions ; in the succession of facts rising above the power, and contrary to the inclinations, of men. These all reveal his stern condemnation of our personal and national sins, and his divine approval of individual and national virtue, of the true spirit of worship and piety throughout the land. We know his will. His orders to us are as distinct and peremptory as though they had been written upon the fair face of the heavens, or proclaimed in an audible voice to every ear from his throne above. We know, that, as our Sovereign, he forbids us to worship idols ; to be a nation of swearers, murderers, or adulterers ; to steal, bear fal.se witue.ss, or covet houses or beasts, people or land.‘«, which belong to our neighbors ; that he requires us to keep sacred the holy sabbath, and to honor fathers and mothers ; to love him with all our hearts, and our neighbors as our- selves. We know that all our attempts to enslave men are 70* GOD IS THE SOVEREIGN. 705 denounced by his law and his administrative justice in our guilty land; and that he requires justice of us, — clear, dis- tinct, elevated, universal justice. We know, that, as our great common Ruler, he disallows all our dishonesty, politi- cal corruption, intemperance, and bribery. If the plea of ignorance with regard to the will of a sovereign could ever avail for any nation, after the marvellous revelations of God in our history, it certainly cannot avail for us. REBELLION IS RUIN. We must obey. To be found in the wrong in the midst of such distinct and sublime revelations must be a grave of- fence ; but to be a nation of deliberate, practical atheists must be tlie highest crime. If our rulers dare to defy God ; if they treat his holy laws with contempt, profane his sabbaths, blas- pheme his name, become corrupt in character and in adminis- tration, — they will call down wrath upon us. If the people — the great body of the people, who are the source of civil and political justice — become corrupt and oppressive, forget- ting the lessons which have been taught them by unparal- leled mercies and the most awful judgments, we may now certainly know that overwhelming disasters are before us. If the Church should become recreant to her holy trust, now that she has been shown so clearly her higli position and responsibility ; if her ministers should become proud and ambitious, her members earthly and sensual, and her pure, spiritual life be sacrificed for forms and a dead ritualisth ; if the vain pretensions of philosophy and science should super- sede the pure, simple, and honest revelations of God’s word, — we shall be cursed for such ecclesiastical and national crimes. We know that this is God’s method of dealing with fallen churches and infidel peoples. Let the wrath which has fallen upon the Jew and tlie Pagan, the Mahometan and the Christian, for proud defiance of God, be our solemn warning. We are not above Almighty Power : we can by 706 TIIK GUEAT UEPUnLlC. no pos. ■ . . ! ■ ■;■'•'■ ■ vri !|iy. It Utit- ,. •" i:i lOliXi 1 : . : • ; 1 I - ’’m ■ , <-'0 ■••M- 1 4JI Iijitd' 1 ,il ' j I ■ • . . u(n I Vr ■’i. 'i I - > ;* 1 ilSf// 'It • • (1»»I 1 -/.ri II iHKl ■ t.f I'-/, / .laif' " :li hvtfii.' '*• •»(/ .. i»i*l i i V . . 3q. 'll. '» i^n ■ si 7/ .-ln-1 •■ ' I'UJt ' ■ ,tl 'i I.Kitt r .;.". V tr , 1 < I (/ •' '-'triur lii. . t ' * ’ l» 1 '* 1 tk(> • mT'' s ' i'ldil lit '-V . ,.ii '! n umI y , • . /. i.ii > ' ,ti HI / 'T . iki 'nr..; II rtf .11, .1 / 1 ,■ i'( IIMIV • ' '■•• »!>> %! V. ■ '* 1 >. 'il<' M. ! ' ,'0 . lii'-. Uj n li'I . -f v< 11. •-• . •f n'\'. v' • ». .'ll*. • I.,, . /,■ .1 . •lioiil'. . 'N. .1 . iJ. ■Hi ' V ^ ^ .,;'t