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poetry^”
TILK AMERICAN *»OETS.
BY WILLIAM WALLACE.
BRYANT.
A river flowing through
The flewer-enamel'd plsxi n
’Tis thus thouatand'st to view.
Thy song without a staira-
WILLIS.
His spirit like a vase
Os alabastershrines,
W here gems and fire have place
On nature’s holiest shrin es.
FERCIVAL.
An eagle in the sky
Os song, he proudly mou n ts,
And rears his crest where lie
Castalia’s purest founts.
HALLECK.
A etreamlct in the morn—
A torrent in the night,
When stars arc o’er it born.
Are emblems ol his might _
DANA.
He strung his solemn lyre
With chords that seraph sown,—
Yet oft the wildest fire
Darts round the minstrel* s throne.
WETMORE.
An oak, around whose form
The greenest ivy clings.
Soar; :g alike incahn and storm,—
To us thine image brings -
PIERPONT.
He strikes Ins harp, and lo T
Our patriots round us tli rongl—
What tears of rapture flow
At his inspired song.
JOHN NEAL.
A whirlwind in the clouds •
Vesuvius spouting flame,
Pale ghosts in snow-white s lirouds,
Must typify thy name.
GALLAGHER.
Bold as the storm that roll
Around our western skies.
The thoughts that fill thy
To us in song arise.
HILLHOUSE.
A mighty alp of mind ;
■Within its shadow, flowe r~B,
Where poesy's enshrine’d
In amaranthine bow'rs.
FAIRFIELD.
Wild as the sybil’s tone
His burning thoughts arc 1
A tow’ring alp his throne—
His wreath the stars of lie aven.
WHITTIER.
Lound as the trumpet’s blast.
Sweet as an angel’s lyre
His words in years long pas t
Gushed out in patriot fire -
MISCELLAN ZEOUS.
From the Southern Literary Messenger.
POLITICAL RELIGIONISM.
BY A SOUTHROI'T _
1. A Letter to the Hon. Henry Clay , on the Annexation
of Texas; by William E. Chann. ing, D. D. Boston,
1937.
2. “ Texas,” Quarterly Review, Junes, 1833.
[concluded.J
We have the greater reason tocom plain of Dr. Chan
ning, because he speaks ex-catheara the sanctity of his
lawn is invoked to give weight to his testimony He is
an American citizen, supposed to t»o elevated by the
character of his function above the influence of party
or local feeling; he professes to be consumed with love
of country, and to be steadfast in his faith as to the sta
bility of our institutions; and yet he tn ingles freely in the
discussion of the most agitating poli t ical questions ; he
advocates .'chimes which have already shaken and
which still endanger the Union; to check the growth
of slavery’ in the south, he invokes the interposition of a
foreign government, and he supplies the friends of
“stronger governments,” and the enemies of republics,
with endless aiguntents to inveigle against the de
moralizing tendency and frail texture of republican
institutions. The reveries and libels of foreigners we
might safely despise, though we w-ell knew that the
trumpet of Miss Martinean had been filled with the
voice of the northmen, for they spoke* in a tone to awa
ken the sleeper and to startle the dca f. Let us not con
ceal the humiliating truth. These men, in their mis
taken zeal, become the most dangerous enemies of the
cause of freedom, of the peace and. prosperity of our
common country, and labor in that imost destructive of
all earthly missions to shake the fait At of our people in
the strength and stability of their inst i tutions. And these
boding dreams, these hallucinations of minds heated
with intemperate zeal, furnish a gcxxlly and perpetual
repast over which the enemies of republican establish
ments gloat with rancorous rapture.
The policy of the government in relation to the re
moval of the Indians, being definite I y settled, let us re
flect a moment upon the fatuity of tfcaose agitators who
seek to resist the action of the executive by inciting
the Indian to rebellion, for such is the onlyresuit of their
interference. The accumulation of Indian tribes on
•nr southern and vt.item frontier, where the slave
population i> most denis, both of ■swvhieh claves the
Devoted to Literature, Internal Improvement, Commerce, Agriculture, Foreign and Domestic News, Amusement, &c.
northern fanatics constantly feed with discontent, con
centrate a force hostile and formidable to the white
man ; and in the event of foreign interposition, which
these enthusiasts openly invoke, the Mexican, the In
dian, and the Negro, fortified with all the sympathies
of their northern brethren, are prepared to assail the
Anglo-Saxon of the south. Are these fit allies for the
northmen ? The British power is invoked. Is this
allegiance to the Union, or fidelity to confederates ?
The great family of European nations has already
been shaken to its centre, thrones subverted, and the
superstitious observances of centuries dissipated by the
first-breathings of free principles which our French
allies of the revolution introduced among them. To
weaken our institutions at home by domestic strife, to
arm the cold, calculating fanatic north, against the im
patient and fiery south, to repel the working of our
principles abroad, is the policy of those nations; and
they are not a little indebted lo those churchmen who
delight in evil auguries, and who exaggerate the licen
tiousness of our people as if it were the greatest of pub
lic virtues.* And when one so distniguished as Dr-
Channing volunteers his testimony’, it is seized upon
with avidity, and published to the world, not as the
re vilings of a prejudiced foreigner, but as the impartial
declaration of a native citizen, a vessel of election, an
oracle of truth, one anointed of heaven.
The language of European writers in relation to our
civil and political establishments, betrays that degree of
ignorance which is the mother of fear. The true char
acter of the colonists and the nature of their institutions
have never been properly understood by the people of
England. Negligent to observe the progress of the
human mind in the new world, the inquisitive specula
tions of its inhabitants upon the natural rights of man,
and their extraordinary enterprise in thedevelopeinent
of the plenteous resources of the country; when the
long suppressed energies of this youthful but adventu
rous people burst forth into successful action, the disci
plined European, trammelled by hereditary prejudices
and observances, regarded it as a trancient ebullition of
feeling worthy only of derision. They mistook it for
the mountain torrent that would pass away with the
storm that gave it birth: they knew not that it was
the stream of human opinion, which th# accession of
every day would swell, and which was destined to sweep
into the same oblivion the resistance of conservative
bigotry and powerful oppression. The uncompromising
love of freedom which induced the early colonists to
abandon the home6and the graves of their fathers, and
to subdue a wilderness in order to escape oppression ;
the dangers to which in their infancy they were exposed
from the vicinage of a murderous foe, and the hardships
incident to their new situation, naturally inspired them
with an energy of character and loftiness of soul, un
known to their European kindred. The restraints of
the feudal tenures had been left behind them, and they
were warmly attached to the soil upon which they trod
they were the “ free-holders of the land, and the rent
day had no terrors for them.” The equality introduced by
the abolition of the law of entail and primogeniture, the
general diffusion of useful and practical knowledge, the
deep stake each individual had in the government, could
not fail to infuse into their bosoms that love of liberty,
that independence and elasticity of character, that
jealousy of power, which has led to the establishment of
a frame of government which is at once a blessing te
mankind and the hope of the nations. If we revert to
the continent of Europe, we will discover that the
principles upon which our government is framed, had
long been recognized, although no people hail carried
them into practical operation. History is an immense
collection of experiments of the nature and effects of the
various forms of government. Some institutions are
experimentally ascertained to be beneficial, some others
to be indubitably destructive to human happiness. The
philosophers of Europe had, for a century preceding our
revolution, listened intently to the testimony of ages,
and of nations, and collected from them the salutary
principles which regulate the mechanism of society, and
recognize the unalienable rights of the citizen. The
nature and excellence of free institutions had been re
duced to demonstration, yet these convincing argu
ments influenced the councils of no government, and
awakened to resistance no oppressed people. It was
at this propitious period when all Europe presented the
repulsive spectacle of a liberal theory opposed to a
barbarous practice, when the germs of free institutions
had taken root in the understanding and were entwined
with the affections ol man, thatour forefathers escaping
from the oppressive and time-honored establishments
which pressed them to the earth, sought at the extremity
of the ocean, a clime, in which they might substitute
for established formulas the pure and voluntary worship
of the Deity, and where they might erect political insti
tutions originating in compact,springing immediately
from the will of the people, and reposing upon the rights
of man. Deeply impressed with the injustice and the
absurdity of the various constitutions which chance had
scattered over the world, the comprehensive intellect of
our revolutionary fathers was extended in erecting a
stupendous and imperishable fabric, which reposing on
the immutable basis of popular right and general happi
ness, should exclude the defects and combine the
excellences of the multiplied political establishments
known to man. Antiquity could consecrate to them no
rule which reason did not respect; and they shrunk
from no .innovation to which reason conducted. Guided
by the popularity of reason, they stood out from rhe
shore, and leaving the ancient land-marks far behind
them, they sought by a bolder navigation to discover in
unexplored regions the treasure of public felicity. And
they found it. Notwithstanding the vaticnations of men
of evil augury and timorous apprehensions; notwith
standing the eagerness with which those sickly dreams
of a distempered fancy are repeated, by these who can
neither appreciate nor admire our governmeut, as if they
were the breathings of holy prophecy; we, the Ameri
can people, unscduced from our allegiance, unshaken in
our confidence in the excellence and permanency of our
institutions, feel, and are thankful that the Ark of the
Covenant is among us. If not more favored, at least
more thankful than the chosen people of Jehovah, we
w ill not proudly exult, but meekly bow down in grateful
ness for blessings, such as heaven in its mercy has scl
*But forthe unusual length to which it would have
extended our article, we would have invited the atten
tion of the public to other consequences of a serious
character,which flow’from these exaggerated statements
of the lawlessness of our people and the weakness of our
government. They have already occasioned difficul
ties, by many deemed insuperable, in the settlement
of the outrage at Schlesser on the Canada frontier. Our
own writers have so frequently published tothe world
the unbridled licentiousness of our people, and the ina
bility of the civil authorities to restrain them, that foreign
nations justify an invasion of our territory, and the cap
ture and cutting out of a boat, upon the grounds assumed
by Mrs. Trollope, Dr. Channing, and Miss Martincau.
But a full exposure of all the consequences of these
impurtationa upon our moral and national character
would requite a volume
MACON, (Ga.) SATURDAY MORNING, SEPTEMBER 22, 1838.
dom vouchsafed to man. “Ask of the days of old,”
exclaimed the indignant prophet when he rebuked the
repining Israelite, “ ask of the days of old, that have
been before thy time, fr mi the day that God created
man upon the face of the earth, from one end of heaven
to the other end thereof, if ever there was done the like
thing, or it ha h been known at any time.”
Let us assure Dr. Channing that we are not the de
praved people he has imagined us, and that in the whole
book of recorded time, he will scarcely find a people
equally numerous who are less depraved. And as the
British reviewer bases all his prophetic aspirations of our
speedy ruin upon the unfounded charges of the learned
divine, the framework of his argument falls, because
the foundations are hollow and unsound.
There is in France a school of philosophers and politi
cians, who have been appropriately denominated the
mystics ; they are not unfrequently led by clergymen,
and constitute in that crater of political convuleions, the
movement party. At the very head of this band of
agitators is the celebrated politico-religious demagogue,
the Abbe de la Mennais. Reformation of abuses by
he calm and peaceful agency es wholesome public
opinion, has no attraction for them. The whirlwind of
revolution is the only agent fitted to their rash designs
and heated imaginations. And this morbid desire for
revolution does not scent tobe entirely prompted by that
love of change or excitement, or by that ambition which
usually impels men to subvert existing establishments;
no, they are fanatics. They anticipate stupendous
results from the action of enthusiastic associations
forcing public opinion into rapid and straitened currents
and overthrowing in its resistless progress every barrier.
By an agency independent of, and trancending al law*
they expect through a long chain of revolutionary con
vulsions to effect a certain social revolution, which is to
consumate tfie happiness of the human race, by abolish
ing every vestige of slavery, and introducing a happy
millennium of universal equality. Let us not incline
to ridicule this fanaticism as too wild and destructive
in its character to engage the attention of reflecting men.
It has its attractive as well as its dark aspects; it is to all
appearence a mingling of heaven and earth. There is
widely dessemminated among us, particularly in the
northern and eastern states, a peculiarity of mental
character, in which a strong native sentiment of religion
is blended with a powerful tendency to skepticism
and infidelity. In the delirium of hope, these men di
vert all those aspirations which properly belong to a
future state, towards speculations upon the perfectabili
ty of mankind on earth. Unbeliever of ardent and
imaginative temperaments are very prone to fall inta
this fanatic trance; for, when incredulity draws an
impenetrable veil over the future, it is perfectly natural
that men should become the dupes of these gross delu
sions. And why should this aetonish reflecting men,
when the distinguished divine, who has become the
apoligist of Kneeland, the blasphemer, boldly sustains
Tappau the agitator?
We will invite public attention to a few more ex
tracts from Dr. Channing’B libel upon our character and
government, and hasten to conclude. “We are a rest
less people,” says Dr. Channing, “ prone to encroach
ment, impatient of the ordinary laws of progress, less
anxious to consolidate and to perfect than to extend our
institations, more ambitious of spreading ourselves over
a wide space, than of diffusing beauty and fruitfulness
over a narrower field. Henceforth we must •ease to
cry peace, peace. Our eagle will whet, not gorge its
appetite on its first victim; and will snuff a more tempt
ing quarry, more abiding blood in every new region
which opens southward. To me it seems not only the
right, but the duty of the free states, in case of the
annexation of Texas, to say to the slaveholding slates,
‘we regard this act as the dissolution of the Union.’ We
will not become partners in your schemes of spreading
and perpetuating slavery, in your hopes of conquest, in
your unrighteous spoils. A pacific division in the first
instance seems to me to threaten less contention, than
a lingering, feverish dissolution of the Union, such as
must be expected under this fatal innovation. We shall
expose our freedom to great peril by entering anew
career of crime. We are corrupt enough already,” Ac
“ Still I am compelled to acknowledge an extent of cor
ruption among us, which menaces freedom, aid our
dearea interests. That the cause of republicanism is
suffering abroad, through the defects and crimes of our
countrymen, is as true as that it is regarded with in
creased skepticism among ourselves. Abroad, repub
licanism is identified with the United States, and it is
certain that the American name has not risen of late in
the world." Deepiy as we revere the function of the
priesthood in its appropriate exercise, a love for truth
and justice to aur common country, compels us to pro
nounce these extracts a gross libel on the American
character and government. In the just indignation
which every man who respects the national character
must feel for this unwarrantable and unfounded abuse
by a Christian divine and native citizen, there is little
inclination to complain of the lo triumphes ! which the
British reviewer pours forth abundantly over the moral
degradation of a people, who, before the publication of
Dr. Channing, had persuaded themselves that they were
the purest, and happiest, and most intelligent of the
sons of the children of tnen. It is from publications of
this kind, that the enemies of republican institutions in
the old world derive those atrocious calumnies, w hich
represent us to the nations of the earth as the moat tur
bulent and demoralized of people. The article of Dr,
Channing had probably reached Europe when M.
Lackanal read to the French Academy of Moral and
Political Science, the following extract from his work
on the United States, to which we append a few obser
vations by a Paris correspondent:
“According to M. Lackanal, in the United States
‘nothing is easier, than divorce —nothing more secure
from judicial process and social disgrace than insolven
cy.’ His account of our negro slavery,and the condition
of the free colored people, rivals at least that of Mia 6
Martineau. ‘The Central of Federal Executive pawer
is without means of enforcing the law of Congress with
the States, who resist whenever they please. With
every American, individualism of personal indepen
dence is at its height. No American entertain the least
veneration for the law, or respect for the magistrate; he
creates both one day; he can unmake them the day
after; he never forget i that they are his work. The
people literally regard the President, the members of
Congress, the judges, as their serv ants, and give them
no other appellation. They slap them in the face, —so
great is their irreverence; witness the slap dealt to
President Jackson, and with impunity. If a member of
Congress ventures to call for law’s to repress popular
excesses, he only provokes new storms, —this is what
happened after the conflagation of the Ureuline convent
near Boston-’ Lackanal them read details of •rneral
Jackson’s treatment of legislators and judges at New
Orleans, of the execution of Arbuthnot and Arnbristcr
and similar adding—• tout as la pouvait event
son utilile; mats ces fails son t peu d'accord avec le re
spect qu'on proffesseen France jtour Its guaranties de la
loi.’ Mr. Lackanal thinks that General Jackson,while
President, let loose the reins of Democracy, in order to
become at length a necessary dictator, 'ln fine, the
futurity of the United States is a curious and pregnant
problem. Will these wild democracies ultimately fall
into the track, shape and polity of the old communities
of the world, or will the elements now fermenting in
America, engender anew regime and anew aspect for
human society ?’ I leave these question to the sooth
sayers. With regard to the superior respect manifes'ed
in France for the guaranties of the law, let the paint be
examined with a little reference tothe domestic history
of France under the old Bourbons, during the revolu
tion, or even since the revival or vindication of the
charter of 1830. France is still under the government
of state necessity; and the popular excesses are far
more numerous and grave, than those which occur in
the United States. The riots at Tours, Amiens, An
goulenie, Bordeaux, Macon, of recent date, cost more
blood than all the disorders of the kind which have #c
curredin the United States since the date of their con
stitution. Last week we had information of a femnie
commotion on the banks of the Rhone. The women
assembled in great numbers, broke down some dykes
just constructed, and fought a hard battle with the sol
diery called in by a sub-prefect to disperse or capture
the ladies. Were it not for the military force always
at hand, what would be the ostensible respect for law ?
—Unfortunately) throughout Europe, the influence of
lawseemstobe owing principally to the idea of an
overwhelming military coercion. Law ie received as
the work of selfish power, not of executives and legisla
tures instituted and acting for the national weal. How
ever, the comparatively few disorders, and the instances
of Lynch justice, of which so much is made in the Lon
don and Paris papers, together with the historical char
acter of European democracy, have produced an almost
universal impression that the American citizen is and
must be anarchical; and it is upon this supposod law
lessness that the writers on the Canada rebellion count
as a sure and all-sufficient auxiliary for that rebellion,
whatever may be the dispositions and proclamations of
our General and State authorities.”
That we shall ultimately attain our destiny—that our
decline and fall will at some future day add another to
the many lessons of experience, to instruct future gen
erations—will only furnish another proof of the perisha
ble nature of all human institutions. But that we shall
demonstrate the great problem of the capability of man
for self-government, and of the capacity of republican
institutions to secure the greatest share of happiness and
freedom to the greatest number, we can never doubt, so
long as the past is admitted to be an index to the fu
ture. Indeed it is by no means improbable that the
Union may be dissolved, and that we may be forced
into new associations by the agitators of the northern
states. And the blow which severs the bond will come
from the south, and the northmen will be startled in
the midst of their agitations, by the decisive active of a
people who have long since been convinced that upon
the delicate subject of slavery there is no longer any
union or sympathy between the free and the slave
states. That blow already impends. Indeed we have
twice seen the union of thes# states endangered. Once
by New England in the dark hour of adversity, and
once by South Carolina in the floodtide of prosperity.
And during the session of the present Congress, when
the southern members were driven from the hall of re
presentatives by the abolitionists of the north,the Union
for the time being was virtually dissolved.
But there are better days, there are brighter auspices
before us. Even the reverend gentleman himself, pro
phetic of evil as he is, is constrained to admit that a
mong dark omens ho sees favorable influences, reme
dial processes, counteracting agencies. And we will
venture to predict, that another lustre will not have
passed away before the whola band of agitators, with
their clerical leaders at their head, bowing down before
the indig*ation of a long suffering people, will be made
to confess and to feel that fanaticism is not religion,
that intemperate zeal is not charity, and that political
religionism is only calculated for the meridian of Spain.
It is a melancholy butgrowing conviction, that a con
siderable portion of our clergy is falling away from the
sound morality and staid sobriety of the fathers of the
American church. Ambition seems still to be a weed
of quick and early vegetation in the vineyard of Christ;
and surpliced priests, forgetful of the sanctity of their
function, and swollen beyond the girth of the canon,
plunge headlong into the turbid waters of political con
troversy, and instead of being ministrants of peace ant 1
good will, are constantly obtruding themselves upon’the
public, and mingling in the most exciting and exaspe
rating discussions. Sterne was a lewd hypocrite, and
has, we believe, had no imitators in this country; but the
politico-religious demagogue, Swift, has many compe
titors for the vile crown which he preeminently merited.
It is because of our reverence for the clerical order,that
we regret at all times to hear the voice of one consecra
ted to Christian meekness and charity, lifted up amid
the political clamor, where nothing pure can live and
retain its purity. The forum is no place for the priests;
and if he be earnestly devoted to the service of his Ma g
ter, the widow and the orphan, the sick, and the prison
er, the sorrowful and the dying, all the ministrations of
charity will so engage his feelings and occupy his at
tention, that he will have little inclination or time to
abandon his appropriate functions to fan the flame
political excitement, or to seek distinction by mingling
in the heady current of religious ar political fanaticismi
When not employed in the functions of their ministry,
prayer in the solitude of their chambers would suit theta
fin better than the publication ofletters to eminent states
men, derogatory to the national character and morals
They were consecrated to minister to the spiritual
necessities, not to pander to the intolerant feelings of
men; they were set apart to bless, and not to curse
mankind.
Whether we look to the extent of our territory, em
bracing every temperate clime, and teeming with every
variety of production, or to the character and promise
of oar tree institutions, evidences of the munificence of
a bountiful Creator crowd around us, and impel ue to
maintain that union upon whieh much of eur happi
ness and security depends, and which none but our
selves can put asander. Licentiousness and insubor
dination, the impatience which frets under a system of
established order, and the fanaticism which would huw
ry man by unnatural stimulants towards unattainable
perfection, these are the restless and natural enemies of
republican establishments; and the agitator and poli
tico-religionists are the high priests of intemperance and
misrule. We have opened anew volume in the book
of man, more precious than the last of the Sybil’s. We
have collected from the wisdom and experience of de
parted ages anew theory of government. It is an ex
p*ri»aat np* with pro*iaa *• ushers gsssnuoss. W#
j| C. R. HAKLEITER, PRINTER.
have no past history of our own to guide us; we stand
forth before the natrons of the earth bearing through a
wilderness the correecrnted emblem* of freedom, and ifi
after a weary pilgrimage, w» shall attain the promised
land, and infuse the spirit which • annates ns into stable
and permanent institatiOßs ; if wc shall kindle the di
vine flame of liberty upon altars surrounded and pro'
tected by a nation of invincible freemen ; if we shall
substitute, in the structure of govern* ntal machinery,
ths controlling powar of mind for absolute will, and
rational equality for artificial chucks and privileges I
then may the governments of the old world tremble for
their time-honored and eri.-pled observances, for the
ancient despotisms will ba erusi-sd baueath the vast
and magnificent structure cf democracy, which is al
ready pushing its foundations hr and wide, into the
confidence and a flections of mankind- It ie this princi
ple of democracy, now in the full sweep of successful
experiment, that alarms the despotism of the old world*
and induces its votaries, with thoughts that are fathers
to their wishes, to found, upon suck unmerited libels as
those of Dr. Channing and Mrs. Troloppe, prophetic
arguments of our speedy dissolution. These are men
whose the ughts, feelings, habits, associations and pre
judices, are closely interwoven with things of the olden
time, and have embraced with a thousand delicate ten*
drils which may ba sundered but never disengaged) the
crumbling ruins of the ancient fabric, whose moulder*
ing condition is concealed from themselves by the luxu*
rianee of their affectiens. They look upon all change
as ruin, and all decay as tlie fruitful source of life and
beauty. Although they seem to walk with eyes wil
fully darkened, yet intlieir hearts have they trembled;
for they have Cel’ the agitations beneath and around
them, and they “grope tremblingly among the bristling
energies of popular feeling as if they ware on the crater
of a volcano.” They live with the pset—they have no
hope for the future ; and the spirit which animates our
institutions, by a single breathing would shiver the en
chanted tailsuun which guards all their treasured
wealth. But for us, we are anew people, apringingat
once into the full vigor of life, unafflicted with the weak
nesses of infancy or the palsy of age; we have no re
cords of the past—no traditions of glory; we have com
menced our sublime career; our associations, our hopes,
our honors, arc all with the future; in the past wa behold
nothing but the sufferings of tha maay and the crime*
and oppressions of the few —and shrinking from the
contemplation of the dark ages of man, we hare opened
a sealed book, anew volatile filled, with the promise of
happiness and moral ezcellenca and dignity, tothe hu
man family, under the influence of the equality breathsd
forth in every lesson of that other book, whieh is called
the book of life. VVe are in the bud and promiae of
blossom and fruit; and like the rod of the prophet in
the tabernacle, the staff upon which we learn blooms
and fructifies. Let not the monarchists of Europe, mis
led by the intemperate language of enthusiasts or agita
tors, hug themselves in die forlorn hope that we
shall find it necessary to borrow their arulicial checks
epon the will of the people, end let not Dr. Channing
persuade himself that we shall require a “stronger go
vernment ;” our forefathers have impressed upon thair
descendants too lively an image of their sufferings under
the oppressions of kings and nobles, to permit thcgi td
abandon their own pure faith to bow down before such
idols in their western asylum. We are now the only
nation in whom the vital principle is active and progres
sive. Other nations have been—their onward career
is closed—their history is written in the fa te of other
empires which have preceded them in the march of
ruin. But in the structure of our own beautiful edifice,
it would appear that all the salutary lessons of history
had been gathered and studied, and that the temple
destined to flourish forevermore, had sprung up into fair
and beauteous proportions, not unlike the foam-bora
Cytherea from amid the wrecks of ages on the stormy
shores of time. Our institutions are based upen a sound
morality : and the genius of Christianity has imparted a
portien of its immortality to the institutions which em
balm it. What a sublime destiny is ours, and how im
measurably beneath contempt do those sink, who affect
to see in casual excesses that ruin which they rather de
sire than anticipate. What a sublime destiny is ours 1
Os that Anglo-Saxon race peculiarly constituted for
freedom, with political institutions admired by the
world, and only feared by ito oppressors, with a pros
perity like that of the Samian prince, so startlingly stu
pendous as to be its only evil omen; carrying civiliza
tion into the fastnesses of the forests ; erecting empires
and cities in the wilderness, in ona short generatfon of
the children of men; with ona eras stretched forth to
wards the abode of winter, and with the other reaching
towards the tropics, with opposite oeeaas for bounda
ries; to whom is it given to calculate the future eleva
tion and moral grandeur of this people ? And even
while men of limited views discuss the excesses of the
border, the frontier line has moved, and the theatre of
semi-barbaric strife has already been subdued by all the
refinements ofsociety. Before another century shall
have elapsed, empires will have sprung into being which
will render feeble the voice of those who demand tha
abolition of slavery. When this unhappy race shall
have been fitly prepared for freedom, when their eman
cipation can be effected with safety to the white man,
and when the slave states themselves in their own good
time, shall deem it wise and proper, then, and not be
fore, will the sons of Ham go forth from the house of
bondage. The single enemy, the natural foe of our
institutions, is licentiousness; for as all free instittition*
repose on the broad basis of morality, whatever tends to
introduce insubordination is eminently destructive.
And whenever the fanatic, the abolitionist, the politico
religius demagogue, in a spirit of wanton mischief
or misguided seal, throw their fire-brands among
any portion of the people, and stimulate them to
rebellion, let us reflect upon the wisdom of the Roman*
in the purer days of the republic, when they represent
ed LICENTIOUSNESS AS TH»N»E*STRUCI BT HEAVEN AT
tuf moment she strives to break a table or tk*
law and the balance or Justice.
Yet we entertain no serious apprehensions of tha
consequences of clerical interposition in secular and
political affairs; for, however deeply'' enthusiasts may
deplore it, the age of erusAdes, like the age of chivalry,
is past. Although eur peaee may be fearfully disturbed
(bra season, and the Union seriously threatened, th*
influence of the clergy in this country will ultimately
be restrained within its appropriate sphere ; and th*
moment its members mingle with excited crowds of
citizens, making broad their phylacteries with Strange
and unholy characters graven thereon, they cease to
compel or to merit this reverence of reflecting men.
They may bring religion into eontempt with the raaee
of the people ; but they can never shake this* estab
lishments or dissolve that Union, which were founded
in a deep jealousy of their controlling influence and
frightful corruption in other lands. But if, instead ts
matting th* aagry and v#»g*ful failing* of dthgUdf
NO 48-