GIFT OF 
 Prof. Ira B. Cross 
 
THE- PROGRESS 
 
 AND 
 
 tospetts 0f llmentH ; 
 
 OB, 
 
 THE MODEL REPUBLIC, ITS GLORY, OR ITS FALL 
 
 WITH A REVIEW OF 
 
 Causes of % Decline anfo Jfailm 
 
 THE REPUBLICS OF SOUTH AMERICA, MEXICO, 
 AND OF THE OLD WORLD; 
 
 APPLIED TO 
 
 THE PRESENT CRISIS IN THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 " Shall we, upon the footing of our land, 
 Send fair-play orders, und make compromise. 
 Insinuation, parley, and base truce. 
 To arms invasive?" 
 
 NEW EDITION. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 EDWARD WALKER, 114 FULTON-STREET. 
 
THIS VOLUME IS INSCRIBED TO 
 ALL 
 
 WHO LOVE AMERICAN INSTITUTIONS, 
 
 A.ND DESIRE TO SEE THEM PERPETUATED 
 
 tfje 
 
 DESCEND IX THEIR PURITY TO FUTURE GENERATIONS 
 
 447786 
 
" Breathes there a man with soul so dead, 
 Who never to himself hath said 
 
 This is my own, my native land?" 
 
 SCOTT. 
 
 " Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, 
 religion and morality aro indispensable supports. In vain would that 
 man claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labor to subvert these 
 great pillars of human happiness these firmest props of the duties of 
 men and citi/ens." WASHINGTON. 
 
PUBLISHER S PREFACE. 
 
 FOE some time past, the publisher of this work has enter 
 tained the idea of presenting to the citizens of the Union, a 
 volume devoted to national interests. Maturing his plans, 
 he laid them before a number of friends gentlemen dis 
 tinguished alike for their patriotism, social standing, and 
 wide-spread reputation and they were cordially endorsed 
 as the promise, if carried out, of supplying a book really 
 needed at this present crisis. 
 
 The gentlemen selected to write the various chapters, 
 were chosen with reference to their ability to treat upon the 
 subjects committed to their especial charge ; and the pub 
 lisher indulges the belief that their labor, careful research 
 and investigation, joined with their conscientious desire to 
 accomplish a work of so momentous interest, will be appre 
 ciated by every patriotic and reflective mind. 
 * The subjects treated of concern not only the statesman 
 and politician, but every American citizen, however hum 
 ble or exalted whether native or naturalized. They ex 
 tend over a vast range of valuable facts and historical illus- 
 
6 PUBLISHERS PREFACE. 
 
 trations pertaining to the rights and immunities of citizens 
 under a republican government. The present anomalous 
 state of political parties throughout the country suggests 
 a reason for the appearance of the work ; and in the 
 endeavor to meet this exigency it has been carefully pre 
 pared. 
 
 As a nation, we are essentially eclectic in character, 
 receiving constant accession to our numbers from all parts 
 of the civilized globe. It is, therefore, of the first import 
 ance to the integrity and security of our free institutions, 
 that the balance of power in the republic should be sedu 
 lously guarded ; that a spirit of nationality should rule in 
 the councils of our government ; and that the element of 
 foreign political faith, as well as foreign manners and cus 
 toms, be carefully precluded from vitiating our national 
 morals, the proud distinction of a free people consisting 
 in its public virtue, which is the animating and sustaining 
 principle of true democracy. It is not enough that we 
 glory in our boasted liberties, -we must be jealous of their 
 integrity must learn wherein consists their security, their 
 defences, and their danger. 
 
 It was a maxim of one of the " early heroes of liberty," 
 that " none could love freedom heartily but good men ; the 
 rest love not freedom but license, which never hath more 
 indulgence than under tyrants." This fact is amply sus 
 tained by the testimony of all history. The knowledge 
 which we acquire at our own expense is undoubtedly the 
 
PUBLISHER S PREFACE. 7 
 
 most efficacious, but that which we learn from the misfor 
 tunes of others is the safest, inasmuch as we receive instruc 
 tion without pain or danger to ourselves. 
 
 The "Yoice to America" is not the product of any 
 clique ; it enforces the opinions of no one party ; it has 
 not been prepared under the auspices, nor has it received 
 the sanction, of any set of men organized for political 
 purposes ; but the publisher has been cheered on in his 
 purpose, in the confident assurance that, notwithstanding 
 sectiona Ifeeling, and the specious pretences of fanaticism 
 and political partisanship, there is yet a sufficient number of 
 true-hearted Americans, pledged for the defence and pres 
 ervation of the inestimable privileges conferred upon our 
 common country, under the segis of a glorious constitution. 
 The book, therefore, goes forth to the world, claiming only 
 the deference due to honestly-expressed opinions. It relies 
 alone, for success, on the truth of its arguments, and the 
 sacredness of its mission. 
 
 NEW YOEK, August, 1855. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PREFACE 5 
 
 THE UNITED STATES RETROSPECTIVE AND PROSPECTIVE 13 
 
 THE ANCIENT REPUBLICS EARLY CIVILIZATION 27 
 
 SPARTA AND ATHENS 35 
 
 THE FALL OF ROME 53 
 
 ITALIAN LIBERTY IN THE MIDDLE AGES 73 
 
 THE ANGLO-SAXON RACE AND FREEDOM 83 
 
 HEROES OF THE FOUNDERS OF LIBERTY 97 
 
 THE BOUNDARIES OF COUNTRIES, HOW ESTABLISHED 133 
 
 ROMANISM AND FREEDOM 141 
 
 EFFECTS OF ROMANISM AND PROTESTANTISM ON CIVILIZATION 149 
 
 THE RIGHTS OF CONSCIENCE 167 
 
 RELIGIOUS TOLERATION 179 
 
 THE BIBLE THE CHARTER OF LIBERTY 191 
 
 PRINCIPLES AND PERILS OF OUR COMMON EDUCATION 201 
 
 THE POLITICAL POWER OF THE POPE 215 
 
 EVILS OF MILITARY ORGANIZATIONS EXCLUSIVELY OF FOREIGNERS 229 
 
 DEMORALIZING INFLUENCE OF DEMAGOGISM , 237 
 
 WHAT CONSTITUTES THE RIGHT TO VOTE ? 245 
 
 . FALLACY OF SUPPOSING AMERICAN INSTITUTIONS NEED NO SAFEGUARDS ... 261 
 
 NATURALIZATION LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES 273 
 
 UNITED STATES AND IMMIGRATION 283 
 
 THE CITIZEN OF A REPUBLIC 291 
 
 AMERICAN NATIONALITY. . . 299 
 
10 CONTENTS. 
 
 Page. 
 
 NECESSITY OF AMERICAN HABITS AND PRINCIPLES 315 
 
 RIGHT OF THE MAJORITY TO RULE 323 
 
 FREEDOM FROM FOREIGN INFLUENCE 329 
 
 ORIGIN OF POLITICAL POWER 337 
 
 MEXICO AND THE SOUTH AMERICAN REPUBLICS 3-45 
 
 AMERICA THE THEATRE OF THE GREAT DEMONSTRATION 355 
 
 SECRET SOCIETIES, THEIR USE AND ABUSE 3G3 
 
 THE AMERICAN REPUBLIC, THE HOPE OF THE WORLD 373 
 
 / 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 I. Secret Societies and Oaths, 3S1 
 
 II. Eelations of the Pope to the Civil Power, 385 
 
 III. Foreigners and the Elective Franchise, 3S8 
 
 IY. Religious Toleration Heretics and Eomanist Graveyards, 391 
 
 V. Military in the Church, 392 
 
 VI. American Nationality, 393 
 
 VII. American Elections, 395 
 
 VIII. What causes Election Riots 395 
 
 IX. Golden Maxims of Washington, 397 
 
 X. Maxims and Opinions of Eminent Statesmen, etc., 399 
 
YOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 THE TJHITED STATES -RETROSPECTIVE AM) 
 
 PROSPECTIVE 
 
 A 
 
 "With America, and in America, a new era commences in human affairs. This era is distin 
 guished by free representative governments, by entire religions liberty, by improved systems oi 
 national intercourse, by a newly-awakened and unconquerable spirit of free inquiry, and by a diffu 
 sion of knowledge through the community, before altogether unknown and unheard of." 
 
 DAMEL WEBSTER. 
 
 WHEN the inhabitants of the old Thirteen Colonies arose against 
 the despotic and mercenary aggression of England, they were three 
 millions of people, mostly scattered farmers. They inhabited a strip 
 of the Atlantic seashore a half-wild territory between the Allegha- 
 nies and the ocean about one thousand miles long, and a hundred 
 and fifty miles wide, and containing only six towns of any size, three 
 of which had less than ten thousand inhabitants, and none over twen 
 ty thousand. It is true that they were an enterprising, industrious, 
 honest, intelligent community a happy and flourishing nation in 
 fact, though not in form. But whatever were the precise point of 
 prosperity to which they had then attained, it was in spite of the 
 discouragements of their supreme government that they attained it ; 
 for the agriculture, manufactures, and commerce of the colonies were 
 capriciously controlled and restricted for the advantage of English 
 speculators; and the laws and constitutions of the little republics 
 were constantly attacked and insulted by the placemen of the English 
 administration, for the sake of enforcing arbitrary schemes of govern- 
 
13 A VOICE. TO AMERICA. 
 
 ment, fit only for tributary slaves. Navigation acts, stamp acts^ writs 
 of assistance, prohibitions of the manufacture of iron, the manufacture 
 of cloths, of hats, of every thing which Englishmen wanted to manu 
 facture, and endless other troublesome and unrighteous enactments, 
 perplexed and annoyed the provinces. Yet the new nation, which, 
 under the name of the United States of America, spoke itself into 
 being by the Declaration of Independence, contained all the elements 
 of a healthy, powerful, and vigorous life. 
 
 "With, the fervent sympathy of the majority of the people, but with 
 lukewarm aid or timid indifference from, very many; with over 
 whelming fears and doubts on the part of some of the wisest and best 
 men of the day, and even in spite of the venomous treasons and in 
 testine Avars of the Tory population, the new commonwealth agonized 
 through the seven years of the revolutionary struggle, fainting and 
 almost torn in pieces, and achieved what seemed at the moment to be 
 a fruitless independence. 
 
 At the end of that war it was indeed a nation in name, and one in 
 form ; but it had little of actual national life. It was repeatedly on 
 the extreme verge of falling into fragments into anarchy ; of return 
 ing to a monarchical form of government. One hundred and seven 
 ty millions of dollars in money had been actually spent in the war, 
 and that when money was worth nearly twice as much as it is now, 
 and when the nation was not one-twentieth as rich as at present. The 
 country had been ravaged through and through : crops had been de 
 stroyed, towns and houses burned. The inhabitants were sick, dis 
 abled, demoralized, fled ; manufactures had been encouraged but lit- 
 tie ; commerce was stagnant, or even utterly dead ; disbanded and im 
 moral soldiers roamed up and down, unable to obtain work, or to get 
 their wages, even in the good-for-nothing continental money, which 
 was worth sometimes three cents on the dollar, sometimes nothing, 
 and of which one hundred dollars were once given for a mug of cider. 
 The central government was everywhere despised and abused a beg 
 garly, strengthless shadow. It labored under an immense home and 
 foreign debt, which it could not pay ; it was an importunate and un- 
 
UNITED STATES KETRUSFEUTIYE A3D PROSPECTIVE, lo 
 
 welcome beggar for home and foreign loans, unsuccessfully, because 
 it could not meet its former engagements ; its requisitions upon the 
 States were neglected or refused ; it was even bullied in its own hall 
 by a sergeant s squad of unpaid mutineers dunning for their wages, 
 against whom the militia of Philadelphia declined to protect it, except 
 in case of actual assault and battery. 
 
 The States quarrelled with each other about lands, or insulted and 
 encroached on the miserable central government. There arose in 
 many of them, within a few years after the termination of the war, 
 home insurrections of their own. The whisky insurrection in Penn 
 sylvania ; Shays insurrection in Massachusetts, with the risings that 
 preceded it ; a similar mob in New Hampshire, which, for a time, be 
 sieged the legislature and courts of that State ; the general disorgani 
 zation of the western country, and other such tumults, showed the 
 unsettled and anarchic condition of men s minds, as well as their 
 poverty and distress. Wise men, the revolutionary fathers of the 
 country, communicated to each other their apprehensions of the loss 
 of our nationality, almost at its birth. Despondency weighed upon 
 the best of the patriots of the day, and with painful forebodings they 
 speculated upon the probabilities of many republics of a monarchy 
 of a retreat beneath the English power. 
 
 The native sense of the country, however, was at last aroused to the 
 exigencies of the case, and the people, responding to the call that 
 emanated from the Virginia Legislature, deputed that great and wise 
 assembly which created the Constitution of the United States a 
 frame of government the nearest perfection which the world has ever 
 seen ; by the operation of which the nation was at once invigorated ; 
 under which it forthwith sprang out into that unparalleled career of 
 growth, whose constantly increasing speed has already made all the 
 world astonished spectators, and which seems to possess an immortal 
 vigor equal to any emergency. 
 
 Within less than three-quarters of a century of national life under 
 this constitution, the United States of America have arisen to a prouder 
 height of physical strength and of moral power, than has ever been 
 
14 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 occupied by any other nation in the world. The allotted life of a man 
 covers a period equal to the whole existence of our mighty empire. 
 Men are this day alive and well who voted for the adoption of the 
 Constitution, and for Washington in 1789. At the end of the Revo 
 lutionary War, we numbered about three millions of people as 
 many as now inhabit the single State of New York ; now we are 
 twenty-five millions. Then we had nine hundred thousand square 
 miles of territory ; now we have three millions of square miles 
 half of North America three times as much as France, Great 
 Britain, Ireland, Austria, Prussia, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Hol 
 land, and Denmark a domain as large as the Roman Empire ever 
 was ; a territory by the side of which the possessions of the proud 
 est European dynasties are " but a patch on the earth s surface."* 
 European distances are steps to ours ; European rivers are brooks. 
 It is as far across the United States from New York to San Fran 
 cisco as from London to Ispahan, in Persia ; from New York to 
 New Orleans is as far as from Paris to St. Petersburg, or from Lon 
 don to Constantinople. The Mississippi is twice as long as the Dan 
 ube ; the Ohio is six hundred miles longer than the Rhine ; the 
 
 O / 
 
 Hudson is navigated, within the State of New York, a hundred and 
 twenty miles a distance greater than the length of the Thames. 
 Nor is this vast expanse in danger of falling apart by its own 
 weight : it is knit the tighter as it expands, by the iron bands of 
 the railroad and the telegraph. Our country extends through every 
 healthy climate. Avoiding the inhospitable wastes of the Arctic 
 snow, and the fever-haunted jungles of the tropic zone, it stretches 
 from the cold and bracing mountain air of New England and Oregon, 
 to the everlasting spring of the sunny South. Within our limits is 
 found every tree of the forest, from the towering pines of Maine, and 
 the more gigantic cedars of California, four hundred feet high ; the 
 northern oak, the birch, the beech, and the other hardy woods of its 
 kindred forests, to the live-oak of the south, the cypress, and the mag 
 nolia, the orange, the cocoanut, the banana, and the palm. We 
 * Webster s Letter to Hulsemann. 
 
UNITED STATES RETROSPECTIVE AN1) PROSPECTIVE. 15 
 
 grow alike the corn, flax, and wheat of temperate regions, and the 
 sugar and cotton, the rice and indigo of the south. From the bosom 
 of the earth we dig all the precious and all the useful minerals : gold 
 comes from California at the rate of sev r enty-five millions of dollars a 
 year ; pure copper is blasted or chopped out from the mines at Lake 
 Superior by the ton together. There is lead enough in Wisconsin to 
 supply the world ; iron is piled into mountains in Missouri, and its 
 ores are found in the majority of the States ; and the coal of single 
 States Ohio and Pennsylvania is sufficient to furnish all the earth 
 with fuel for thousands of years. 
 
 Nor are our treasures inaccessible. There is only one of the great 
 divisions of the earth Europe which has a greater proportion of 
 seacoast to the square mile than North America. The shore-line of 
 the United States, on the two great oceans and the Mexican Gulf, is 
 eighteen thousand miles. The land is pierced through and through 
 with enormous rivers, upon which we possess forty-nine thousand 
 miles of steamboat navigation, together with thirty-five hundred 
 miles of shore on the sides of the great northern lakes. Five thou 
 sand miles of supplementary artificial navigation by canals com 
 pletes this most enormous amount of internal water conveyance. 
 Within the single State of New York there are three thousand miles 
 of navigable inland waters. Besides the innumerable ordinary roads, 
 we are netted and woven together by twenty thousand miles of com 
 pleted railroads, and thirteen thousand miles more, now in process of 
 completion. Upon these inland routes a capital of one thousand mill 
 ions of dollars is invested in the gigantic transfers of our internal trade 
 and travel. 
 
 We have not been idle in improving the advantages of our situa 
 tion. Our wealth and industry our credit and commerce, both at 
 home and abroad, have enlarged to an immeasurable extent. At 
 the close of the Revolution we had possibly seven hundred and fifty 
 millions of dollars worth of real and personal estate ; now we have 
 at least fifteen thousand millions of dollars worth, besides fourteen 
 hundred millions of acres of public lands enough to give a large 
 
l. A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 farm to every man, woman, and child in the nation. Then, our am 
 bassadors were besieging European capitalists and governments for a 
 hundred thousand dollars ; now, the nation distributes at cnce forty 
 millions of surplus revenue ; bears four hundred millions of debt with 
 out feeling it, and sells the privilege of lending to her at six and ten 
 cents for every dollar that she will condescend to borrow. Then, we 
 had no manufactures ; now, we have more than five hundred millions 
 of dollars invested in manufactories, whose annual productions arc 
 worth more than a thousand millions of dollars. Our cotton manu 
 factories alone, while the English millmen confess that the business in 
 Great Britain has reached its very utmost capacity of development, 
 are now employing eighty millions of capital, arc using thirty-five 
 millions of dollars worth a year of raw material, and turning out a 
 yearly product worth seventy millions of dollars, and yet are stead 
 ily increasing, while we compete with our English rivals in our own 
 market, and all over the world. Then, we had neither commerce 
 nor shipping ; now, it is not long since we dismantled a national war 
 ship to send her, laden with the superabundance of our rich fields, to 
 stay the famine in Ireland. Of the same overflowing plenty we have 
 imparted to the starving people of Greece, of Madeira, of the Azores. 
 Our cotton crop, besides supplying the immense home demand just 
 stated, is sent across the sea at the rate of eleven hundred millions of 
 pounds a year, and, after being manufactured, supplies the primary 
 human necessity of clothing to all nations, from the tropic to the pole, 
 from the Englishman to the Chinese. 
 
 The extent of the shore line of the United States, on the Atlantic, 
 Pacific, and the Mexican Gulf, is about twelve thousand miles. The 
 northern and southern boundaries amount to at least six thousand 
 more ; making, in all, eighteen thousand miles equal to three quar 
 ters of the distance around the world. 
 
 Now we have the largest mercantile marine on earth. Fourteen 
 hundred steamers, measuring five hundred thousand tons, and seven 
 teen thousand sail vessels, registering four and a half millions of 
 tons burden, besides carrying a portion of our enormous mass of inter- 
 
UNITED STATES KETROSPECTIVE AXD PROSPECTIVE. 17 
 
 rial exchanges, are bringing yearly from abroad three hundred mill 
 ions of tons of foreign, and carrying away two hundred and eightj 
 millions of domestic merchandise. 
 
 These vast totals, indicating such limitless resources and sucli 
 superhuman energy, and demonstrating only the aggregate of th 
 resources in territory and riches wielded by our population, consti 
 tuting the greatest force on earth, yet only refer to physical power, 
 and do not by any means give a comprehensive view even of that 
 power.* However important our pecuniary wealth and material 
 power at this present moment may be, as securing to us a high 
 station and commanding influence in the great commonwealth of 
 nations, there are other departments in our national life, of profoundly 
 greater significance. The state of our intellectual, social, and moral 
 development, after all, is of infinitely more importance than our prop 
 erty per head, or our annual revenue. These mere acquisitions may 
 easily depreciate in value. Our vast mass of wealth naturally tends, 
 of itself, to be scattered and lost. It is the mind and the soul which 
 inform and impel the people of our country, which constitute their 
 real character, which alone can determine their lasting prosperity, 
 even in respect to dollars and cents, and which certainly are the only 
 basis upon which can be raised or maintained a collective or individ 
 ual character which can justify our national pride, or command the 
 respect of strangers. 
 
 Our condition in these respects the intelligence and morality of 
 our native population ; the social condition of the nation is such as 
 to inspire every patriotic heart with an exultation infinitely loftier and 
 purer than any boasts of riches or displays of strength. The right 
 training of our citizens for their duties to God and the State, has ever 
 been a principal object of our government. It is^true that the main 
 regulation of this subject, and the direction of the chief expenditure 
 
 * The statistics of the machinery employed in manufacturing a very import 
 ant and significant item although actually collected, are kept strangely concealed 
 in the Census Office ; nor is there any adequate estimate, yet compiled, of the total 
 machinery of all kinds owned and used in the United States. " 
 
18 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 for it, rests in the States individually ; yet the Federal Government 
 alone, doing what it could constitutionally do, has given outright, for 
 educational purposes, fifty-three millions of acres of land, which, even 
 at the minimum Government price, are worth nearly seventy millions 
 of dollars. Of public funds alone, besides the much greater amount 
 paid by individuals, there are paid for education annually, in the 
 United States, at least seven and a half millions of dollars. There is 
 no child so poor or vile as to be excluded from a good school educa 
 tion ; and if any children miss it, the fault is that of their parents or 
 themselves. In our schools are taught, not only the rudiments of 
 literature, but pure morals, and the elements of a just and manly char 
 acter. Entire freedom in true and right thought is encouraged; 
 and the result of our school systems, which are confessedly the best 
 extant, is such as fully to uphold their claim to superiority. In those 
 parts of the country where they have reached their completest devel 
 opment, only one native in four hundred is unable to read or write. 
 In the far northern State of Maine, there are more children at school, 
 in proportion to the population, than in any other state, kingdom, 
 or country whatever. In the whole United States, the proportion 
 of school-going youth is only exceeded by that in Denmark, where 
 attendance is enforced by law. 
 
 The tone of our national life throughout is such as to maintain the 
 intelligent independence and self-controlling activity, which our citi 
 zens learn in their childhood. No policeman, or spy, or uniformed 
 soldier prohibits our people from discussing the measures of govern 
 ment. We are not holden by force to follow the commands of hered 
 itary despots. We consider and inquire to our heart s content what 
 we would have the government do, and then vigilantly wa ich its exe 
 cution. No such broad political freedom was ever heard of before, 
 either in Greece or Koine, in Switzerland or England. The diffusion 
 of current information, and of intercourse among our citizens, has in 
 creased to a corresponding extent. The fecundity and ability of our 
 new r spaper press is without parallel. The best and brightest talent of 
 the day is increasingly employed in this business. In 1775, there were 
 
UNITED STATES RETROSPECTIVE AND PROSPECTIVE. 19 
 
 thirty-five newspapers in the whole country. That number is now 
 more than equalled in each of four single towns, and in two of them 
 it is tripled. In the whole country there are twenty-two hundred 
 newspapers, circulating a hundred and fifty millions of copies annually ; 
 and of periodicals of all kinds, more than twenty-seven hundred, cir 
 culating nearly four hundred and thirty millions of copies a year. A 
 single American monthly circulates more copies than all the magazines 
 of ftreat Britain together. Our Post-office Department, which, upon 
 its re-establishment after the Revolution, enumerated about seventy- 
 five post-offices, along a few coast-routes of some two thousand miles, 
 upon which it was thought remarkable that the mail came through 
 from New York to Philadelphia in three days, now numbers twenty- 
 five thousand post-offices, and sends its mail-bags over two hundred 
 and twenty thousand miles of roads. Seventy years since, steamboat 
 speed was impossible ; and railroads were not even conceived of in 
 dreams. Now our letters hurry along the water, in steamboats, at 
 twenty miles an hour, and fly across the land, by railroad, at fifty 
 miles an hour. But that is not enough for our restless people. It 
 will not do to wait for time, or to measure space. So forty-two 
 thousand miles of telegraph bring Maine and Louisiana New York 
 and St. Louis, within moments of each other, for the merchants who 
 cannot let their messages lag along on lightning trains. Nay, the 
 intervening space of the Atlantic Ocean is to be annihilated. The 
 wires are now being prepared for the ocean line, between Newfound 
 land and Ireland ; and the unreasonable philosopher, Faraday, not- 
 content that messages will be delivered in New York three hours 
 before they are dispatched at Liverpool, is grumbling in England 
 because there is to be an actual delay of two minutes. 
 
 The same keen and disciplined, but tremendous energy which has 
 driven us so swiftly onward in our career of material prosperity, and 
 which is yet surging hither and thither across the continent in accu 
 mulating waves, has operated alike in all departments of human 
 action. Not only have we excelled in the mere organization of 
 human industry and the gathering of riches, but Americans have 
 
20 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 stood pre-eminent in every domain of original thought, in every 
 sphere of labor, physical or mental. It would be too long a story 
 to enumerate the daring of our exploring seamen ; the exhaustless 
 fertility and practical adapteduess of our myriads of inventors ; the 
 triumphs of our mechanics, who have surpassed the world in making 
 whatever can be made, that requires beauty, strength, or skilful hand 
 ling. Their enormous clippers dash through the billows of every 
 sea, and their engineers go abroad to construct monster railroad* for 
 foreign powers. Their brass clocks tick within the households of 
 every nation, from England to China ; their pistols are arming the 
 officers and soldiers of all civilized troops. 
 
 In science and literature, even more than in such conquests over 
 the material world, has our career been rapid and our attainment 
 glorious. In all those departments of literary labor which are related 
 to the present needs and future progress of humanity in theology, 
 ethics, law, politics, political economy, education, natural sciences, 
 history, romance, poetry we are at least fully abreast of the very 
 foremost. 
 
 Even in the fine arts, hitherto always the latest blossom of civiliza 
 tions which have been refining for centuries, we have risen up sud 
 denly to the highest position. Our sculptors and painters are rivalling 
 the modern masters of artistic Italy, amidst the very shrines of the 
 muses, and the homes of the arts. 
 
 In all the realms of thought, both elegant and profound, we have 
 quietly surprised the elder nations out of supercilious contempt and 
 thorough ignorance, into admiring acknowledgment. A quarter of a 
 century ago, the assumption was coolly and currently made through 
 out Great Britain, that English writers w r ere sure of the monopoly of 
 the American market for an indefinite period. Since English authors 
 were good enough, why should we meddle with pen, ink, and paper, as 
 long as wo could be busy in raising raw material to support the man 
 ufacturing monopolies of Manchester and Leeds ? It was taken for 
 .granted that wo could not write either prose or poetry worth reading. 
 
 " We have changed all that." The works of Story and Kent, and 
 
UNITED STATES RETROSPECTIVE AXJ) PROSPECTIVE. 21 
 
 in general our Reports of Decisions in Law, Equity, and Admiralty, 
 are authority in English courts. Dwight and Edwards in Theology, 
 Prescott and Bancroft in History, Sparks and Irving in Biography, 
 are text-books on both sides the Atlantic. Within the last twenty 
 years, more than one thousand editions of American books have been 
 published in England, numbering at least six millions of copies, and 
 six and a half millions of volumes. Single American books have cir 
 culated outside of the United States, in ten and twelve languages, in 
 fifteen and twenty and twenty-five successive editions, to the amount 
 of half a million, a million, and a million and a half of copies. 
 
 " Who reads an American book ?" jeered Sydney Smith, a quarter 
 of a centuiy ago in the Edinburgh Review. The question of the 
 clerical satirist must now be, to have any force Who does not read 
 American books ? 
 
 Such statistics tell a proud story for our country. But it is not 
 merely in science, philosophy, or elegant literature, that American 
 thought is moulding the opinions of the world. Ever since the pub 
 lication of the Declaration of Independence our statesmen have been 
 confessedly, for breadth and depth of thought, and for power of reason 
 ing, the ablest of the age. W T ere there three such men outside of the 
 United States as Daniel Webster, Henry Clay, and John C. Calhoun ? 
 Our public policy has put us at the head of the world s progress in 
 international law. We have taken the lead in asserting a righteous 
 equality among the great commonwealth of nations. We compelled 
 England to discontinue kidnapping sailors by her piratical system of 
 impressment ; we first stipulated by treaty not to allow of privateering 
 in time of war ; we have successfully asserted the principle that free 
 ships make free goods.. Austria, at the imperative demand of our 
 Executive, sulkily releases American citizens, imprisoned on suspicion. 
 We first are moving to destroy the stingy monopoly, held by Denmark, 
 of the entrance into the Baltic Sea. Is it not a conceded fact that the 
 European nations, at the very farthest, cannot do better than to take a 
 lesson in government from our Republic ? Is it not our example 
 which is stinging and goading the restive democrats of Europe into 
 
22 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 their desperate revolts and crushed, but not conquered, revolutions ? 
 Have the despotic kings and emperors of that Continent more than 
 one thing to fear? is there more than one ghost at their banquets? 
 They are haunted by American Freedom if by naught else. 
 
 Reformers and revolutionists, tyrants and their victims, alike look 
 westward. Kossuth exhausts all the magic of his eloquence to engage 
 us for his dear, fallen Hungary ; Russia is our very good friend for 
 the time being and would not grieve us for the world ; Englishmen 
 look to our administrative forms for examples to be imitated by the 
 imbecile red-tapists of Downing-street. Blackwood s Magazine at last 
 admits that the truth of our power and progress fully equals all the 
 statements which have heretofore been considered " extravagant gas 
 conade ;" the Westminster Review terms our Republic " the pole-star 
 to which the eye of struggling nations turns," and, in a long article, 
 compares our effective and economical governmental methods with 
 the expensive follies of Victoria s administration ; the Edinburgh Re 
 view, which has heretofore spoken so bitterly and scornfully, concedes 
 the full reality of our physical prosperity, and our present success in 
 literature and art, and foretells for us a splendid future in each and all. 
 
 Hitherto, the energies of our republic have been expended in 
 developing the immense resources of our extended territory. We 
 have taken no position amongst the nations ; our name, in fact, wa-s 
 scarcely mentioned. But the Russian war has summoned us to Eu 
 rope ; American diplomacy has made monarchs thoughtful ; the 
 United States have come to be regarded, not merely as a great 
 nation, but as one to be courted and feared a government capa 
 ble of arbitrating in the affairs of the Old World, whose public 
 opinion is respected, and whose favorable decision is regarded as a 
 great moral power. Already, Europeans give us the possession of 
 tiiis entire continent. They apply the term American only to us. A 
 Mexican, a Canadian even, is never, by them, called American ; that 
 name they consider ours alone. Europe, in fact, embraces the Mon 
 roe doctrine. Every month sees our influence increasing. Steam 
 communication between the two continents lins reached an unparal- 
 
UNITED STATES- RETROSPECTIVE AXU PROSPECTIVE. 23 
 
 Jelled perfection, and yet is insufficient to meet the demands of our 
 business men. A fortnight, a week, a day, nay, an hour, is too long to 
 obtain information ere long, the submarine telegraph will put Amer 
 ica and Europe in momentary communication. All things tend to 
 give our country an immense preponderance in European affairs a 
 preponderance which is now beginning to be felt, and is deprecated 
 by the despots and tyrants of the Old World. 
 
 Such have the United States been such they are to-day. What 
 they will be a century from this time, is a question which it is be 
 yond the power of human prescience to answer, except by estimate or 
 conjecture. Of our future, some few elements may be considered ca 
 pable of reasonably reliable prophecy. That every ten years of our 
 future growth will surpass any preceding ten, is proved by our prog 
 ress hitherto. The last decade of our physical and intellectual prog 
 ress shows an advance greater than that of the preceding twenty 
 years, and greater than any other fifty years. For territory, within 
 the coming century we may have the entire continent of North Amer 
 ica ; for population, we shall have one hundred millions of people, not 
 of an effete and overgrown stock, like that hideous monster, the Chi 
 nese race, but a people of vigorous youth, foremost in the blessings of 
 freedom, and still marching onward, in the pure light of civilization, 
 towards the highest human development. 
 
 The Anglo-American is the king of men. He possesses all the 
 powerful and commanding nature of the Anglo-Saxon, the clear, cool 
 head, the sober, calculating mind, the regard for law, the obstinate ad 
 herence to justice ; but fused and fired by the pure bright air of 
 America, and yet more by the wide freedom of American life, into the 
 go-ahead and tireless energy, which endures no delay and brooks no 
 opposition. The Anglo-American is the controlling type, the leading 
 element of our future population. 
 
 America in 1950 promises to be, what the folly of the misproud 
 Celestial so -sillily calls his stolid people the Central Nation. Al 
 ready we stretch forth our hands to Europe and to Asia, and con 
 trol the commerce of two oceans, and modify the politics of two 
 
24: A VOICE TO AMERICA 
 
 continents. Europe, inspired by our example, already smokes and 
 groans in the rising ferment of revolutions. We have opened the 
 heretofore closed doors of distant Japan. American commerce and 
 American civilization are striding inland, up the vast streams of the 
 great Asiatic rivers and across her tremendous steppes. Even our 
 missionaries among the heathen are driven by the logical results 
 of Protestant Christianity to become founders of States and the 
 promoters of independent political action. The Christianized king 
 dom of the Sandwich Islands, was converted and liberalized by Pro 
 testant missionaries. A Christian civilization has gone from us to 
 commence the work of enlightening Africa, and has made a firm 
 lodgment within the small but vigorous Republic of Liberia. Our 
 missionary stations among the North American Indians, in Turkey 
 and Armenia, in China, have been the centres of a light which has 
 illuminated first the souls- and then the minds of the barbarians, and 
 which is gradually transforming them into self-governing and dignified 
 communities. "We have joined the Atlantic and the Pacific by rail 
 road ; we shall repeat the junction by telegraph and by canal. Throned 
 between two oceans, we shall control the mercantile exchanges of the 
 world, and with them the civilization and the welfare of mankind. 
 It is not for us to rule w r ith the barbarous violence of conquest. It is 
 not for us to force a prostrating commercial system upon tributary 
 millions by war, to steal colonies everywhere, to speckle the world 
 with our garrisons, and then to boast that the drum-beat of our army 
 ever greets the rising sun. 
 
 For us there is a safer, a surer, a nobler road, to a more desirable 
 and enduring empire. Our destiny is to show the nations what is the 
 greatest amount of national and individual happiness and prosperity 
 which is possible under laws free and enlightened, and with a people 
 self-governed and self-controlling. In the quiet and unaggressive ful 
 filment of that destiny we wield the lever which shall move the 
 world. 
 
 A free and lofty humanity, seeking all that is good by every means 
 that is right such is the ideal of man and his life, which became 
 
UNITED STATES EETKOSPECTIVE AND PROSPECTIVE. 25 
 
 practicable in our empire for the first time. That ideal life satisfies 
 all aspirations. Men will come to us to enjoy those privileges un 
 der our broad banner for a time, but, ere long, they will assert their 
 right to enjoy them at home. Before a century has passed, the United 
 States of America will stand peerless in strength and beauty, the pride 
 and excellence of the whole earth ; the refuge of the oppressed ; the 
 apostle of all truth ; the freest, noblest, happiest, purest among the 
 nations ; the crown and culmination of human progress ; the full 
 expression of human development, under the conditions of a national 
 existence based upon the eternal truths of Christianity, maintained 
 by laws enacted by the wide consent of all, restricting not one hair s 
 breadth the rightful activity or happiness of any invigorated and 
 intensified by the untrammelled play of those infinite powers which 
 God has given to man, and which are as comprehensive as the uni 
 verse of matter and of thought in which he exists. 
 
THE ANCIENT REPUBLICS: 
 
 A GLANCE AT EARLY (UTILIZATION. 
 
 " Out of history we may gather a policy no less -wise than eternal, by the comparison and applica 
 tion of other men s forepast miseries with our own like errors and ill-deservings." 
 
 SIB WALTER RALEIGH. 
 
 THE records of past ages are the inheritance of the present. They 
 are a study fertile in interest and value. They form the great text 
 book, to which all make their appeal. It is in the classic ages we 
 seek for the most splendid triumphs of art the purest models 
 whether in sculpture or poetry, in philosophy, science, ethics, or law. 
 "We gaze, through the dim vista of centuries, with deep and solemn 
 interest upon the ruins of those grand and colossal states and empires 
 which successively swayed the destinies of the world the Assyrian, 
 the Egyptian, the Grecian, and Roman. We are not only amazed at 
 their magnificence and splendor, but we are curious to know the 
 secret sources of their rise, progress, and decay. It is thus that 
 " history is philosophy teaching by example." 
 
 The Germans, who are distinguished for their love of antiquarian 
 research, yet fail, with all their zeal and perseverance, to derive all 
 the advantages of which the study is susceptible. Their deductions, 
 Coleridge compares to the stern-lights of a ship, illuminating merely 
 the past ; the true uses of history its warnings and teachings are 
 comparatively forgotten. May not every government read, in the 
 experience of the ancients, its dangers, its destiny, and its duties? 
 And especially to every republican government, are not the fall of 
 the classic republics, and the sanguinary revolutions of France, full 
 of admonitory interest ? Let us extract the moral which the eventful 
 story of the free States of antiquity suggests. A vast amount of labor 
 
A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 and learned research lias been expended upon the history of the 
 ancient republics, but comparatively little is written or known con 
 cerning their social economy, which formed the great moral lever of 
 society. We propose to take a brief survey of the causes which 
 superinduced the overthrow of these renowned States. We shall 
 avail ourselves of the best recorded testimony, and the best judg 
 ments of historians and political economists. If it be an admitted 
 maxim of liberal government, that the safety and happiness of the 
 whole community is the true and only end of all government ; and if 
 this is the basis of the republican form, and the converse of it, the 
 despotic who among us is not fired with a generous enthusiasm as 
 he pores over the details of the heroic virtues, and lingers over the 
 philosophic maxims of the sages of antiquity ? Who does not glory 
 in their brilliant though brief successes, or watch, with the sympathy 
 of suffering friends, their decline and fall ? The world is on the side of 
 liberty, and the history of its progressive development comprehends 
 the history of the race. The advocate of freedom is, therefore, the 
 friend of humanity. But it must not be forgotten that between true 
 liberty and unbridled license, there exists as wide a distinction as 
 between virtue and vice. The latter is the bane of the former ; they 
 have ever been antagonistic in their influences. 
 
 A mysterious system of causes has crystallized society into cycles, 
 in each of which some particular idea has become the dominant prin 
 ciple. These cycles are illustrated by the early idolaters of Canaan, 
 who had their Iconoclast in Abraham ; by the sophists of Athens, and 
 their Aristophanes ; those of Rome, with their Lucian ; the knights- 
 errant of modern Europe, with Cervantes ; the religious bigots of the 
 sixteenth century, with their polemical and philosophical scribes.* 
 Coleridge observes that " the Jewish theocracy was itself but a mean 
 to a further and greater end ; and that the effects of the policy were 
 subordinated to an interest far more momentous than that of any 
 single kingdom or commonwealth could be." Liberty, civil and 
 political, has also had its confessors and noble army of martyrs, aixl 
 \Dern. Rev., 1842. 
 
THE ANCIENT REPUBLICS. 29 
 
 the history of its heroic progress is filled with illustrious names and 
 deeds Pericles, Cicero, and Caesar ; Tell, Wallace, and Washington ; 
 Cromwell, Mirabeau, and Napoleon >^J^ese were, in the language of 
 an old dramatist, the planets of the ages in which they lived, and 
 illustrate their times. It was for her sacred cause that the ever- 
 memorable events of Thermopylae, of the Punic wars, of Marston 
 Moor, and the American war of Independence were enacted, the 
 last named of which has this proud distinction : that it is guiltless of 
 wantonly shedding the bk>od of the innocent ; and was triumphant 
 alike over tyranny and despotism, and the lawless passions of yictors. 
 Taking a bird s-eye view of history, we see Caesar, the pagan, prepar 
 ing the way for Christianity ; Charlemagne, the barbarian, for civili 
 zation ; and Napoleon, the despot, for liberty yet presenting the 
 anomalous character of the popular patron of aristocratical power. 
 
 The study of history is one of political and social progress. In 
 the earliest ages, society was in a crude, chaotic condition, equally 
 removed from the luxuries and refinements, as well as the amenities 
 and courtesies which characterize it in modern times. We discover 
 the germ of popular or republican power in Greece and Rome. 
 There was yet wanting in these republican States the great essential 
 of free institutions self-government. The intellectual force of Gre 
 cian character kept in check the revolutionary tendency of the fickle 
 populace, while in Rome the intellectual refinement of Greece tended 
 rather to emasculate than invigorate the body politic. The histories 
 of these States Greece and Rome are, therefore, those of our in 
 structors in the arts and sciences, guides in literature and patterns 
 of intellectual excellence, rather than the models of political or social 
 ethics. The history of the mediaeval ages which forms the connect 
 ing link between the remote past and the present although com 
 paratively barren of instructive teaching, is necessarily replete with 
 interest, being that of our more immediate ancestors, from whom we 
 Ixive derived our language, laws, and customs. The feudal system of 
 the Middle Ages, with all that may be justly urged against it, for its 
 severe exactions upon popular freedom, was yet a necessity of the 
 
30 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 times, while it superinduced a lore of heroism, patriotism, and virtue. 
 A romantic interest invests that long period of the world s eclipse ; 
 for although the populace surrendered themselves to the thraldom of 
 superstition and ignorance, it was the proud era of Papal pomp and 
 magnificence, of gorgeous cathedrals, splendid pageants, cloistered 
 learning, and the chivalrous exploits of the knights-errant. Society, 
 however, was in servile subjection. Two classes lords, or feudal 
 barons, with their vassals, or serfs constituted its great distinctions. 
 Feudalism accomplished nothing for popular progress. Amidst the 
 brilliant constellation of genius which at length dispelled the linger 
 ing darkness, came forth the great spirits of Liberty. Then came 
 the great revolutionary eras of modern times the English, the 
 French, and the American. These tended, in each instance, to de 
 termine the true sources of power, and to reveal the long-hidden 
 truth, that freedom is the birthright of the race. It was the Ameri 
 can "Declaration of Independence" which gave the full solution of the 
 problem, and assigned it a place in the common heart. It was that 
 modern " Magna Charta" which conferred upon the model republic of 
 the nineteenth century the full immunities and privileges of freemen.* 
 The great religious revolution originating with Luther and his 
 
 * " It is as a great, solemn political act, that it demands our highest veneration. 
 What had the world ever seen that was equal, that approached to it ? Go to 
 antiquity to Greece, to Kome travel over France, Spain, Germany, and the 
 whole of modern continental Europe, all was comparative gloom ; political sci 
 ence had not risen. Go to the isles of the sea to Britain, then the freest of 
 nations ; and Englishmen would proudly point you to their Magna Charta, as 
 their most valuable birthright, and the greatest bulwark of liberty which any 
 nation had raised. It was so. And yet how does it dwindle in contrast with 
 ur Declaration of Independence, which was a greater era in the history of 
 mankind, than Magna Charta was in the history of England ! The latter was a 
 concession, extorted by armed barons from their sovereign. It was what is 
 called a charter from the king, as the fountain of all right and power. He was 
 their lord and master the ultimate owner of all the soil in the kingdom; and 
 this was a grant forced, it is true, but still a grant from his grace and favor, 
 allowing the exercise of some rights to his subjects, and consenting to some 
 limits to his royal prerogative. 
 
 " The former is not a grant of privileges to a portion of a single nation ; it is 
 
THE ANCIENT REPUBLICS. 31 
 
 coadjutors, however, gave to the world the first grand impulse towards 
 freedom, by bursting the shackles of ignorance and superstition. Up 
 to the middle of the seventeenth century, the nations of Europe were 
 at a low state of civilization. A new era then dawned upon mankind, 
 by the discovery of the Western continent ; and there the spirit of 
 religious and civil liberty found its temple and its home. There Lib 
 erty had a most bold and adventurous priesthood men of heroism 
 and virtue, the pioneer-missionaries of the cross. 
 
 "The Puritans were men whose minds had derived a peculiar 
 character from the daily contemplation of superior beings and eternal 
 interests. Not content with acknowledging, in general terms, an over 
 ruling Providence, they habitually ascribed every event to the will of 
 the Great Being, for whose power nothing was too vast, for whose 
 inspection nothing was too minute. To know him, to serve him, to 
 enjoy him, was with them the great end of existence. They rejected 
 with contempt the ceremonious homage which other sects substituted 
 for the pure worship of the soul. Instead of atching occasional 
 glimpses of the Deity through an obscuring veil, they aspired to 
 gaze full on the intolerable brightness, and to commune with him 
 face to face. Hence originated their contempt for terrestrial distinc 
 tions. The difference between the -greatest and meanest of mankind 
 seemed to vanish, when compared with the boundless interval which 
 separated the whole race from him on whom their own eyes were 
 constantly fixed. They recognized no title to superiority but his 
 favor ; and, confident of that favor, they despised all the accomplish 
 ments and all the dignities of the world. If they were unacquainted 
 
 a DECLARATION, ~by a whole people, of what before existed, and will always exist 
 the native equality of the human race, as the true foundation of all political, of 
 all human institutions. It was an ASSERTION that we held our rights, as we hold 
 oar existence, by no charter, except from the KINO OF KINGS. It vindicated the 
 dignity of our nature. It rested upon this one inextinguishabte tru-th, which 
 never has been, and never can be wholly eradicated from the human heart, 
 pkced as it is in the very core and centre of it by its Maker : that man was not 
 rnadft the property of man ; that human power is a trust for human benefit, 
 and that when it is abused, resistance becomes justice and duty. " Sprague. 
 
32 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 with the works of philosophers and poets, they were deeply read in 
 the orales of God. If their names were not found in the registers 
 of heralds, they felt assured that they were recorded in the Book of 
 Life. If their steps were not accompanied by a splendid train of 
 menials, legions of ministering angels had charge over them. Their 
 palaces were houses not made with hands ; their diadems crowns of 
 glory which should never fade away ! On the rich and the eloquent, 
 on nobles and priests, they looked down with contempt ; for they 
 esteemed themselves rich in a more precious treasure, and eloquent 
 in a more sublime language, nobles by the right of an earlier crea 
 tion, and priests by the imposition of a mightier hand. The very 
 meanest of them was a being to whose fate a mysterious and terrible 
 importance belonged ; on whose slightest action the spirits of light 
 and darkness looked with anxious interest ; who had been destined, 
 before heaven and earth were created, to enjoy a felicity which should 
 continue when heaven and earth should have passed away. Events 
 which short-sighted politicians ascribed to earthly causes, had beeia 
 ordained on his account. For his sake, empires had risen, and flour 
 ished, and decayed. For his sake, the Almighty had proclaimed his 
 will, by the pen of the evangelist and the harp of the prophet. He 
 had been rescued by no common deliverer from the grasp of no com 
 mon foe. He had been ransomed by the sweat of no vulgar agony 
 by the blood of no earthly sacrifice. It was for him that the sun 
 had been darkened, that the rocks had been rent, that the dead had 
 arisen, that all nature had shuddered at the sufferings of her expiring 
 God ! 
 
 " Thus the Puritan was made up of two different men the one 
 self-abasement, penitence, gratitude, passion ; the other proud, calm, 
 inflexible, sagacious. He prostrated himself in the dust before his 
 Maker ; but he set his foot on the neck of his king. In his devo 
 tional retirement, he prayed with convulsions, and groans, and tears. 
 He was half maddened by glorious or terrible illusions. lie heard 
 the lyres of angels, or the tempting whispers of fiends. He caught 
 a gleam of the Beatific Vision, or woke screaming from dreams of 
 
THE ANCIENT KEPUBLICS. 33 
 
 everlasting fire. Like Yaoe, he thought himself intrusted with the 
 sceptre of the millennial year. Like Fleetwood, he cried, in the bit 
 terness of his soul, that God had hid his face from him. But, when 
 he took his seat in the council, or girt on his sword of war, these 
 tempestuous workings of the soul had left no perceptible trace behind 
 them. People who saw nothing of the godly, but their uncouth 
 visages, and heard nothing from them but their groans and their 
 whining hymns, might laugh at them. But those had little reason 
 to laugh who encountered them in the hall of debate, or in the field 
 of battle. These fanatics brought to civil and military affairs a cool 
 ness of judgment, and an immutability of purpose, which some 
 writers have thought inconsistent with their religious zeal, but which 
 were in fact the necessary effects of it. The intensity of their feel 
 ings on one subject made them tranquil in every other. One over 
 powering sentiment had subjected to itself pity and hatred, ambition 
 and fear. Death had lost its terrors, and pleasure its charms. They 
 had their smiles and their tears, their raptures and their sorrows, but 
 not for things of this world. Enthusiasm had made them Stoics, 
 had cleared their minds from every vulgar passion and prejudice, and 
 raised them above the influence of danger and of corruption. It 
 sometimes might lead them to pursue unwise ends, but never to 
 choose unwise means. They went through the world like Sir Ar- 
 tegle s iron man Talus with his flail, crushing and trampling down 
 oppressors mingling with human beings, but having neither part 
 nor lot in human infirmities ; insensible to fatigue, to pleasure, and to 
 pain ; not to be pierced by any weapon, not to be withstood- by any 
 barrier. 
 
 " Such we believe to have been the character of the Puritans. We 
 perceive the absurdity of their manners. We dislike the sullen gloom 
 of their domestic habits. We acknowledge that the tone of their 
 minds was often injured by straining after things too high for mortal 
 reach ; and we know that, in spite of their hatred of Popery, they 
 too often fell into the worst vices of that bad system intolerance 
 and extravagant austerity ; that they had their anchorites and their 
 
34: A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 crusades, their Dunstans and their De Montforts, their Dominies and 
 their Escobars. Yet, when all circumstances are taken into con 
 sideration, we do not hesitate to pronounce them a brave, a wise, an 
 honest, and a useful body."* 
 
 But we ask Where are the free nations of antiquity ? 
 
 "Gone, glimmering through the dream of things that were, 
 A school-boy s tale, the wonder of an hour." 
 
 It has been said that no civilized nation has, at any period of its 
 history, so completely thrown off its allegiance to the past, as the 
 American. The whole essay of our national life and legislation has 
 been a prolonged protest against the dominion of antiquity. This 
 disregard of ancient precedent is quite consistent with the intrepid 
 daring and sagacious policy of the revered founders of our national 
 institutions. It would be impossible to institute any analogy between 
 the governments of the ancient republics and our own ; yet we should 
 be willing to profit by the voices of antiquity be warned by its errors, 
 and incited and sustained by its virtuous examples. 
 
 * Macaulay. 
 
SPARTA AND ATHENS. 
 
 " Hnri vailed Greece ! where every power benign 
 Conspired to blow the flower of human kind." 
 
 THOMSON. 
 
 " The taste, love, and intuition of the Beautiful stamped the Greeks above all nations." 
 
 BCLWER S ATHEKS. 
 
 GREECE, with her matchless schools of learning and philosophy, 
 her arts and civilization, lustrous with the triumphs and trophies of 
 her splendor, has for twenty centuries ceased to exist, save in the im 
 perishable monuments of her intellectual glory and a few broken col- 
 amns of her once superb temples, her Parthenon, some of the beauti 
 ful creations of Phidias, as well as the classic Vale of Tempe, the rug 
 ged defiles of Thermopylae, and the towering heights of Areopagus. 
 We naturally ask whence did this mighty people derive the elements 
 of their greatness ? Some, by a fanciful conceit, have suggested that 
 it was in part superinduced by the influences of climate and the sce 
 nery by which they were surrounded ; that the physical geography 
 of Greece a combination of sea and mountains served to make 
 it the cradle of a bold and free people ; or, as Wordsworth apostro 
 phizes it 
 
 "Two voices are there: one is of the sea, 
 
 One of the mountains : each a mighty voice. 
 
 In both from age to age thou didst rejoice : 
 
 They are thy chosen music Liberty." 
 
 Such a theory is, however, manifestly untenable, as the abortive at 
 tempt, in modern times, to resuscitate Athens sufficiently attests. 
 
 " Tis Greece, but living Greece no more! 
 So coldly sweet, so deadly fair, 
 We start, for soul is wanting there!"* 
 
 Leaving the solution of the problem with the ingenuity of the curious 
 
 * Byron. 
 
36 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 in such speculative matters, we shall probably content the reader 
 by a rapid survey of the geographical limits of the Hellenic States, 
 together with an outline sketch of their rise, progress, and decay. 
 Greece, bounded on the north by the Cambuman mountains, which 
 separate it from Macedonia, on the south and east by the ^Eg^au, on 
 the west by the Ionian sea, extended two hundred and twenty geo 
 graphical miles in length by one hundred and foMy in breadth. In 
 its salubrity of climate, variety and fertility of soil, it possessed ad 
 vantages unequalled by any other country of similar extent. Situated 
 in the vicinity of the three quarters of the world, on three sides wash 
 ed by the sea, and abounding with commodious ports and harbors, 
 its advantages for commerce and navigation were scarcely less con 
 spicuous. It was divided into Northern Greece, comprehending 
 Thessaly and Epirus ; Central Greece or Hellas, which included At 
 tica with its Marathon, Megares, Boeotia with its Thebes, Plateca, and 
 Cha3ronea ; and the southern peninsula, or Peloponnesus, containing 
 Arcadia, Achaia with its twelve cities, and Laconia with its Sparta. 
 Its jurisdiction also extended to groups of islands adjacent in the 
 Ionian and .^Egccan seas, as well as more extensive separate islands. 
 
 Greece was originally peopled by several insignificant races of 
 barbarians : among them two principal tribes claim our notice the 
 Pelasgi and the Hellenes. These were of Asiatic origin, but of dif 
 ferent dialects. The Pelasgians settled in the Peloponnesus about 
 1800 B. C. Although rude in their origin, they are supposed to 
 have made some advances towards civilization, since they founded 
 the ancient states Argos and Sicyon ; and to them are attributed 
 those marvellous monuments termed Cyclopian. They spread to 
 wards the north, founded Attica, made settlements in Thessaly, and 
 existed as a people for one hundred and fifty successive^years. 
 
 The Hellenes subsequently so called from Helleu, one of their 
 chieftains originally the weaker of the two tribes, made their finst 
 appearance in Phocis, near Parnassus, under Deucalion. They after 
 wards invaded Thessaly, expelled from thence the Pelasgi, and sub 
 sequently drove them to Arcadia. The gradual spread of the various 
 
SPARTA AND ATHENS. 37 
 
 branches of the Hellenic tribe over Greece was effected by several 
 migrations ; after which they preserved the settlements they had al 
 ready obtained, until the later migration of the Dorians and Herac- 
 lidce, about 1100 B. C. 
 
 Besides these original inhabitants, colonies at the same early period 
 came into Greece from civilized countries, from Egypt, Phoenicia, 
 and Mysia. Much of their early attainments in domestic civilization 
 is to be traced to these foreign sources, as well as their mythological 
 and religious rites and observances. These, however, became in , 
 their adoption less Egyptian, Asiatic, or Thracian than Grecian. To 
 their religious system, in part, is to be ascribed their progress towards 
 polished refinement. The ancient minstrels or bards contributed to 
 this end, by their dissemination of moral and religious sentiment, 
 diverting them from a love of barbarous warfare to the advantages 
 of civilized life. The oracles of Delphi, Dodona, and Olympia were 
 no less powerful to the same end. The necessity of consulting these 
 sanctuaries naturally led men to regard the oracles as the common 
 property of the nation ; and thus these various tribes, who had been 
 hitherto strangers, met in peace ; and hence arose spontaneously the 
 first idea of a commonwealth and a confederacy. 
 
 It was at Delphi that the most important and the most protracted 
 of these political reunions that of the Amphyctions occurred. It 
 adopted the principle that none of the cities belonging to the league 
 should be destroyed by the others. We now discover the germ of 
 the chivalric spirit of the nation, and the development of its youthful 
 vigor in the heroic ages. A love of daring adventure and heroic 
 exploit, not only individually but also in confederate bodies, led them 
 beyond the limits of their fatherland. These emprises of valor being 
 rehearsed by their bards, they thus acquired a national poesy such 
 as no other people possessed, and such as contributed to the fuller 
 development of the national genius. At this juncture, when the 
 combined Hellenic nations were ripe for some grand military expedi 
 tion, came the memorable siege of Troy. The most important result 
 of that war was the kindling of one common national spirit a spirit 
 
 3 
 
38 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 which even survived all the domestic feitds and animosities. This expe 
 dition, which lasted ten years, and was crowned with such signal suc 
 cess, caused the Hellenes to regard themselves ever after as one people, 
 
 The Trojan war was quickly followed by tempestuous times, 
 internal strifes, and incursions from the ruder tribes of the North, 
 shook Greece during an entire century. The Dorians with their allies 
 strove to possess themselves of Peloponnesus, and, after repeated at 
 tempts, at length the Heracliclse succeeded in revolutionizing the 
 Hellenic States. The territories of Argos, Sparta, Messene, and Cor 
 inth were wrested from the Achreans, who had hitherto inhabited 
 them. The Achncans expelled, in their turn, the lonians, and form 
 ed the settlement called Achaia ; while the fugitive lonians were 
 received by their former kinsmen, the Athenians. 
 
 But among the consequences of this migration of the Hellenic races 
 must be reckoned likewise the establishment of Greek colonies in Asia 
 Minor an occurrence of the highest import to their national develop 
 ment. This colonization, commenced by the JHolian Hellenes, was 
 soon followed by the lonians, and even the Dorians. Among the 
 effects of these migrations and wars was not only an interruption to 
 the progress of civilization, but even almost entirely the annihilation 
 of it ; yet in this universal movement the foundation was laid of that 
 constitution of things which afterwards existed in Greece.* The 
 tribes which had migrated, as well as those which had been expelled., 
 remained at first under the dominion of their hereditary princes, some 
 for a longer, others for a shorter period. In the two centuries, how 
 ever, immediately subsequent to the migrations (B. C. 1100-900) 
 republican constitutions took the place of hereditary clanship in all 
 the Grecian countries, the distant Epirus cxcepted. These republics 
 continued to exist amid the various revolutions which happened, and 
 the love of political freedom became from this time the national senti 
 ment. In this newly-constituted order of things, each city with the 
 territory around it formed a separate state, and framed its own con 
 stitution ; hence there arose as many free states as cities. Although 
 * Heeren s Researches. 
 
SPARTA AND ATHENS. 39 
 
 thus parcelled out iuto a number of petty states, there existed a cer 
 tain unity among the Hellenic race, a certain national spirit : this was 
 produced in part by their custom of attending the national festivals 
 and games ; and this union was further promoted by the Amphic- 
 tyonic council, from which originated Grecian ideas of international 
 and judicial law. Even at this early period Sparta and Athens be 
 came distinguished for their superior constitutions and laws. These 
 two cities in fact constitute a leading essential in subsequent Grecian 
 history. We now approach a revolutionary era in the government 
 of Sparta. The Achaeans were previously governed by princes of the 
 house of Perseus; the royal power was now divided between the 
 families of Procles and Eurysthenes. Soon the Dorians acquired the 
 conquest of many of the cities of the peninsula-, and the Achreans be 
 came for a time their bondsmen. The Spartans, however, ultimately 
 usurped authority over the whole country, which they continued to 
 retain. The records of the two following centuries, to the time of 
 Lycurgus, are filled with a series of belligerent engagements on the 
 part of the Spartans with their neighbors, the Argives. Lycurgus 
 gave to Sparta about the year 800 that constitution to which she 
 was principally indebted for her subsequent splendor. His laws were 
 not written, but conveyed in apophthegms, which were confirmed by 
 the oracle of Delphi. The principal object of the laws of Lycurgus 
 was to insure the existence of Sparta, by creating and supporting a 
 vigorous and uncorrupted race of men. His grand maxim was, "that 
 children were the property of the State, to which alone their educa 
 tion was to be intrusted." 
 
 With the view of equalizing the two extremes of great wealth and 
 great indigence, he divided the lands into equal lots, proportioned to 
 the number of the- inhabitants. This partition of the territory met 
 with violent opposition from the opulent, as might have been expected ; 
 but such was the commanding influence of this great man, that he tri 
 umphed over all opposition. He also appointed public tables, at which 
 all citizens were enjoined to eat together without distinction. The diet 
 was simple, and each had to contribute his quota for the repast. On 
 
40 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 these occasions of public feasting, the conversation was restricted to 
 topics wholly of an instructive kind. Xenophon observes, " they 
 were schools not only of temperance and sobriety, but also for in 
 struction." Soon after the time of Lycurgus, the Spartans increased 
 greatly their territory by their wars with the Messenians ; and al 
 though a long interval elapsed before the former made any further 
 attempts at invasion, yet on the deposition of Demaratus, Cleoinenes, 
 his former colleague, was compelled to bear a part in the Persian 
 war. That struggle, together with the idea of supremacy in Greece, 
 which had now taken its rise, introduced a series of political rela 
 tions before unknown. " 
 
 It was at this epoch that the seeds of strife were sown between the 
 rival republics of Sparta and Athens. 
 
 The history of Athens during this period, observes Ilecren, is ren 
 dered important rather by domestic revolutions, which gradually 
 tended to convert the State into a republic, than by external aggran 
 dizement. The situation and peculiarities of Attica, rendering it less 
 exposed than other parts of Greece to the attacks of wandering- 
 hordes, favored the tranquil growth of national prosperity. The 
 history of Athens, as a State, begins properly with Theseus (temp. 
 1300 B.C.) ; although certain institutions, such as that of the Areo 
 pagus, the division of the people into nobles, husbandmen, and me 
 chanics, may be traced to the colony of Cecrops. The last king was 
 Codrus, who by a voluntary sacrifice of his life rescued Attica from 
 the inroads of the Dorians, in 1008. The period of the Archons 
 lasted till the year 752 B. C. From that time until G82 no remark 
 able events occurred, except the internal commotions which were 
 occasioned by the oppressive exactions of the aristocratic party. 
 From this state of anarchy Athens was rescued by Solon ; a man to 
 whom not only Athens, but the whole human race, are deeply in 
 debted, lie effected the happiness of his country, by remodelling 
 the constitution of the State. 
 
 Solon not only aimed to invest the administration of government 
 * HeerenV Kesenrclies. 
 
SPARTA AND ATHENS. 41 
 
 with the best intelligence and prudence of which he could avail 
 himself ; but his code for private life was no less deserving commen 
 dation. Unlike Lycurgus, he regarded polity as subordinate to 
 morals. Yet the reader need not be reminded, that the social condi 
 tion of Greece, as compared with that of the modern ages, had little, 
 indeed, to boast. Plato, Socrates, and other eminent philosophers and 
 sages, not only tolerated, but were even the avowed apologists of 
 polygamy, and its train of vices. The legislation of Solon was soon 
 disturbed by the factious tyranny of Pisistratus, who obtained by 
 force of arms the government of Athens. This usurpation was again 
 succeeded by the return of AlcmseonidaB, who, aided by a Spartan 
 army, took possession of the city in 510. This resulted in a modi 
 fication of the Constitution. Clisthenes, with a view of quenching 
 party spirit by a new combination of the citizens, increased their 
 elective powers. 
 
 A struggle with the Spartans and the allies, who sought to re 
 establish monarchy in Attica, soon ensued ; and yet the glorious suc 
 cess of the republic, in this her first effort in the cause of liberty, 
 gave fresh impulse to the national spirit. It was that which induced 
 Athens to unite with the Asiatic Greeks in the cause of freedom, 
 and which provoked the vengeance of the Persians ; and yet, but for 
 that daring encounter, Greece would probably never have achieved 
 that greatness and renown which have signalized her in the history of 
 the world. 
 
 It is, perhaps, sufficient for our purpose thus to sketch the outline 
 history of Sparta and Athens the two most important of the Grecian 
 States ; the others being of subordinate interest. Greece derives 
 her importance among the nations of antiquity, not only from her bril 
 liant successes in arms, her love of art and letters, and her liberal in 
 stitutions, but also from her numerous colonies. These spread along the 
 shores of the Mediterranean and the Black seas. The history of early 
 civilization, therefore, owes much to the efforts of Greece, for she 
 carried her influence east and west, far and wide. This gives us the 
 clue to the sources of her opulence, supremacy, and splendor. These 
 
42 A VOICE TO AMEBICA. 
 
 colonies, numbering over a hundred, had each its own peculiar form 
 of government, showing a wonderful variety of political views among 
 these people. "Of the Greek colonies, the most ancient, and in 
 many respects the most important, were those along the western coast 
 of Asia Minor, extending from the Hellespont to the boundary of 
 Cilicia. Here, ever since the Trojan war, which first made these 
 countries generally known, the JSolians, loniaus, and Dorians had 
 planted settlements. These were the most important for trade. Here 
 likewise, in the native country of Homer, the father of Grecian civil 
 ization, of Alcreus, and of Sappho, poesy, both epic and lyric, ex 
 panded her first and fairest blossoms ; and hence, too, the Mother 
 Country herself received the first impulse of moral and cultivated 
 tastes."* 
 
 When almost all the Grecian States and colonies submitted to the 
 Persian yoke, Sparta and Athens alone boldly resisted it. The ever- 
 memorable battle of Marathon proved not only the superiority of 
 Athenian heroism, but was also the preservation of Grecian liberty. 
 After the fall of Miltiades, the history of Athens becomes that of emi 
 nent generals or demagogues : Themistocles and Aristides were the 
 real founders of the power of the Commonwealth. The former, in suc 
 cessfully accomplishing what Miltiades failed to achieve, made Athens 
 also a mighty maritime power. While the rival State was thus ad 
 vancing in power, Sparta suffered from the insanity of one of her 
 kings, Cleomenes, and the arrogance of another, Leotychides. To 
 Themistocles belongs the glory of frustrating the second Persian in 
 vasion of Greece, under Xerxes. However weak might have been 
 the national leagues, separately^ being bound together by common 
 interests and animated by the controlling spirit of the Grecian de 
 liverer, they were irresistible. The great naval victory of Salamis 
 does not reflect greater glory upon the Greeks, than did the gallant 
 action of Leonidas with his three hundred Spartans : yet, as the plan 
 for the conduct of these engagements originated with Themistocles, 
 the pre-eminent merit of their success is to be alone ascribed to his 
 * Ilceren s Ancient Researches. 
 
SPAETA AND ATHENS. 43 
 
 statesmanship and military skill. Further successes by the battles of 
 Plattea on the land, and of Mycale at sea, ending in the destruction 
 of the Persian fleet, expelled forever from the shores of Greece that 
 mighty foe. 
 
 Sparta at this time acquired a temporary ascendency, yet soon the 
 command was transferred to Athens ; and not only was this the oc 
 casion of jealousy between these States, but it also had a decided 
 influence on all the subsequent relations of Greece. Then follows 
 about half a century of eminent prosperity to Athens : far different 
 was it with Sparta ; there rude customs and laws arrested the develop 
 ment of genius ; there men were taught to die for their country, 
 while in Athens they learned to live for it. The loss of Themistocles 
 was supplied by Cimon, who protracted the war against the Persians 
 in order to maintain the union of the States ; while the death of 
 Aristides and the banishment by ostracism of Cimon, concurred in 
 elevating Pericles to the head of affairs, who for forty years swayed 
 Athens, without either being archon or member of the Areopagus. 
 His administration was evidently of the democratic character, as that 
 of his predecessor was that of the aristocratic. 
 
 The idea of a perfect equality among the Grecian States is proved 
 to have been chimerical, since the minor independencies were 
 swayed by the more powerful ; and even between these Sparta and 
 Athens an almost uninterrupted strife for supremacy existed. Sparta 
 was now doomed to be abased before the great Theban general, 
 Epaminondas. In her distress, Sparta formed an alliance with Athens ; 
 while Thebes entered into a compact with Persia, A sanguinary 
 struggle between Sparta and Thebes left Greece but an independence 
 proceeding from enervation ; yet at the veiy time of the growing 
 power of Macedonia under Philip, she madly plunged into another 
 devastating civil war of ten years duration, known as the Phocian 
 war. " The treasures of Delphi circulating in Greece, were as inju 
 rious to the country as the ravages which it underwent. A war 
 springing out of private passions, fostered by bribes and subsidiary 
 troops, and terminated by the interference of foreign powers, was 
 
44 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 exactly what was requisite for annihilating the s canty remains of mo 
 rality and patriotism still existing in Greece."* 
 
 The very first advance of Philip was a premonition of the fate of 
 Greece, although the eloquence of Demosthenes warded it off until 
 the second invasion. The battle of Chaeronea was the commence 
 ment of the Macedonian ascendency over the Grecian republics. 
 The history of Greece, from the accession of Alexander of Macedon 
 until the final subjection to the Roman power, it is scarcely necessary 
 to detail. At the decease of Alexander, Sparta had been humiliated 
 by defeat ; while Athens remained the first State in Greece. Fre 
 quent revolutions, civil commotions, and State intrigues and crimes, 
 mark her declining career. While Greece was thus passing into her 
 decadence, Roman strategy and Roman valor were striving for the 
 transfer of the supremacy. Rome, taking advantage of the disorder 
 caused by the frequent factions and feuds which occurred between 
 the Achseans and Sparta, or Messene, conquered Macedonia ; and at 
 the sack of Corinth, the light of Grecian freedom finally vanished. 
 
 Of all the great nations of antiquity, none, perhaps, boasts of such 
 a rapid and brilliant career as Greece ; and her decline was as strangely 
 sudden. It may well be asked, whence came the efflorescence of 
 Grecian mind in the age of Pericles ? What was the element of 
 power that caused a handful of Greeks to overmaster the proud chiv 
 alry of the Persians ? what the mighty spell which made the Hel 
 lenic arms the terror of the surrounding nations, and won such 
 brilliant triumphs at Marathon, Salamis, and Platsea, as to fill all 
 Greece with the exultant shouts of Liberty, and blazon the scroll of 
 history with the records of heroic glory ? Yet was her triumph as 
 brief as it was brilliant. In a single generation, Grecian Liberty 
 readied its culmination, and in another century, its overthrow. The 
 conflicting and diversified character of Grecian society suggests a 
 clue. Hers was a social amalgam : all the gradations of wealth and 
 poverty, as well as liberty and oppression, were among its elements. 
 Hence feud and faction, as well as military despotism, were among 
 
 * Ileoren. 
 
SPAUTA AXD ATHENS, 45 
 
 the disturbing causes of the public weal. It has been eloquently 
 said, that Attic wisdom, Theban hardihood, and Spartan valor, could 
 not combine to save her; that very army which Greece had bred 
 and nourished, to reduce oriental pride, was turned, vulture-like, upon 
 herself. Thus Greece, with her battlements and towers, her glorious 
 triumphs in arts and arras, is hurled headloog from her giddy height, 
 a parricide, at once the shame and pity of the world ! 
 
 " When Greece with Greece, 
 Embroil d with foul contention, fought no more 
 For common glory and for common weal ; 
 But false to freedom, sought to quell the fire, 
 Broke the firm hand of peace and sacred love 
 That lent the whole irrefragable force, 
 And as around the partial trophy blushed, 
 Prepared the way for total overthrow. 1 * 
 
 The Commonwealths of Greece were generally the scenes of popu 
 lar commotion, the tyranny of one part oftthe people over the other, 
 or of usurping demagogues over the whole. Pericles, the noblest, 
 perhaps, of his class the world has ever seen, was yet a demagogue. 
 He sacrificed the last conservative institution of Athens for the 
 advancement of his own political power, the dictatorship. " It 
 cannot be denied that the Athenian democracy abused its absolutism, 
 and that the Athenian State made an unjust use of its supremacy 
 over the allies ; and thus viewed, there is some truth in the assertion 
 .of Isocrates, that the dominion of the sea was the source of all the 
 misery of Athens and Greece. But it is not fair to confine our views 
 to the abuse : what form of government, or what State, ever effected 
 so much in the same space of time for humanity, as Athens and its 
 democracy, during the brief period of their meridian glory ? Peri 
 cles, Phidias, Polygnotus, Sophocles, Socrates, Plato, Demosthenes, 
 were the children of the democracy ; and truly great must the public 
 spirit of that nation have been, which could foster, encourage, and 
 develop the genius capable of achieving their mighty deeds." f 
 
 * Thomson. t Tavlor s Nat. Hist, of Society. 
 
 3* * 
 
46 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 Although the age of Pericles was the age of glory to Greece, yet 
 it was then, as Pliny remarks, that Greece lost her freedom ; for then 
 she lost her virtue, and with it her love of art. Shall we not heed 
 the admonitory teaching of an eminent classic historian,* when he 
 affirms that the occasion of the Peloponnes.ian war the direst civil 
 calamity that befel Greece was the alUrjcd mutual rupture of the 
 thirty years league between Athens and Lacedaemon ; but that the 
 true cause was, the jealousy of the latter at the growing superiority 
 of Athens. Intestine feuds are the most implacable and deadly in 
 their influence and effects, and therefore most sedulously to be guarded 
 against in a confederacy of free States. A spirit of rivalry or jeal 
 ousy, resulting from differences of opinion and local interest, are 
 among the evils to which they arc exposed. The vaulting ambition 
 of Pericles for territorial acquisitions, is an illustration of this. 
 
 Webster, referring to Greece, observes: "Political science seems 
 never to have extended to their contemplation of a system, which 
 should be adequate to the government of a great nation upon princi 
 ples of liberty. They were accustomed only to the contemplation of 
 small republics, and were led to consider an augmented population as 
 incompatible with free institutions." They sought to evect systems of 
 more perfect civil liberty, but the light of the moral and mental 
 world of their time was not to be compared with that when our fore 
 fathers did the same. 
 
 The Peloponnesian war was succeeded by those protracted disasters 
 and civil commotions which tended to reduce and exhaust the Greeks, 
 and to destroy that bond of union once the palladium of their strength 
 and glory. It was at this crisis that Philip of Macedon, taking ad 
 vantage of their disorder, made himself master of all Greece, by his 
 coiwjuest at Chaeronea. 
 
 Grecian history has been presented in three aspects : that of Tlie- 
 mistocles, in which the statesman was subordinate to the general ; 
 that of Pericles, in which the general was subordinate to the states 
 man ; and that of Demosthenes, in which the statesman acted indo- 
 
 * Thncvdides. 
 
SPAKTA AND ATHENS. 47 
 
 pendently of the general. The first is distinguished by its love of 
 military glory ; the last, by its marvellous displays of Grecian elo 
 quencefor it was the age of the ten famous Athenian orators : 
 
 " Those ancients, whose resistless eloquence 
 Wielded at will that fierce democracy, 
 Shook the arsenal, and ful mined over Greece 
 To Macedon and Artaxerxes throne."* 
 
 The golden age of Grecian heroism, art, and eloquence, was from 
 the era of Solon to that of Alexander. From the reign of Alexander 
 to the extinction of taste in design and excellence in execution, not a 
 single name is recorded worthy of note, as meriting comparison with 
 the masters of the Grecian republic. The same applies with equal 
 force to the Augustan age of Rome, Homer s great epic was de 
 signed to exhibit the ill effects of division in a confederate power. 
 Virgil, on the contrary, flattered the oppressor of his country s liberty, 
 in his adulation of Augustus. 
 
 It is evident, therefore, that political liberty may consist with the 
 culture of the arts. Even the rugged Spartans delighted, for a time, 
 to embody and perpetuate their heroic achievements, by the chisel of 
 Bathycles ; and the sacred inclosure of Amyclce is no less memorable 
 as the depository of the earliest creations of Grecian sculpture. 
 
 It has been said there are few who, if asked in which of the States 
 of antiquity they would choose their own lot to have been cast, would 
 not name Athens since nowhere was there so much good, because 
 nowhere was there so much freedom. Yet that freedom was con 
 stantly jeopardized, both by oligarchical conspirators, and by the 
 tyranny of the sovereign people. The glories of Marathon and Sala- 
 mis are obscured when we remember that the same victories which 
 rescued the Athenian freeman but riveted the fetters of the Athenian 
 bondsman. These two factions destroyed her greatest man, Socrates. 
 The altar of Athenian liberty is overthrown, and its ashes poured out, 
 because it burnt with alien fires. Grecian polity differed fronj that of 
 
 * Milton. 
 
A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 our own times. It was far less expansive and comprehensive, pertai n- 
 ing merely to cities, rather than States or territories. We possess 
 little in common with the politics of the ancient free States. Their 
 circumstances were widely dissimilar to ours, while theirs was a pagan 
 and ours a Christian faith. Nor can the virtues or the vices of their 
 age excite any other than a philosophic interest. Yet, allowing for 
 this difference of circumstances and condition, there is exhibited 
 much that is suggestive and admonitory to be gleaned for the ad 
 vantage of modern times. 
 
 Chcnevix observes: "It was in Greece that mankind began the 
 new career which had a much greater affinity to true civilization 
 than any condition of society that could have been previously con 
 ceived. . It would be unjust to say that Asia, though luxurious, was 
 not civilized ; but the characteristics of civilization in that continent 
 were so weak as to give but little tincture to the general mind. In 
 Greece, the best mode of social progress became predominant, and 
 may be traced in every province of thought, as sensuality gave place 
 to intellect, and men found that the powers and faculties of each 
 might be useful to the whole community." The great conservative 
 principle or characteristic of civilization, as opposed to luxury, is 
 combination, the conviction that more may be obtained by unity of 
 design and concert of action, than by the divided wills of multitudes, 
 however numerous. He continues : "The difficulties which the Greeks 
 had to overcome sufficiently taught this lesson, and turned their social 
 career into the path of true civilization. It Avas thus that they be 
 came the parents of European advancement, and that the legacies 
 which they liavo bequeathed romain at this day among its richest 
 treasures. 
 
 " Since the independence of the United States, the North Ameri 
 cans principally followed the path which had been traced out by their 
 British forefathers ; and they were induced to continue in it because 
 they had many difficulties to oppose. But those difficulties, as in 
 ancient dreece, bespoke abundance more than poverty; and promised 
 such easy fertility and greatness, that it may be questioned, nohvith- 
 
SPARTA AND ATHENS. 49 
 
 standing the remembrance of past examples, whether civilization or 
 luxury will finally predominate. But this much may safely be con 
 jectured : Should the social improvement of the United States termi 
 nate in luxury, their luxury, like their vanity, will be much more 
 European than Asiatic." * 
 
 Another authority remarks that histoiy abounds in proofs that 
 almost all the good which nations have possessed is to be attributed 
 to social progress ; nearly all the evil, to luxury. " It was by the cor 
 ruption of civilization and the ascendency of luxury, that the fall of 
 Greece was caused, that the armies which had triumphed under the 
 banners of intellect, were defeated when summoned away from their 
 pleasures. It was because the influence of Lycurgus over the small 
 republic of his birth had banished from it all the means of sensuality, 
 that the power of Sparta, her domestic tranquillity, her good order 
 and virtues, lasted from the time of her lawgiver till the Achcean 
 league ; that, during five centuries, she was paramount in Greece, by 
 her abstinence. It was immediately following the Periclean age 
 which was that of Grecian luxury that her moral decline com 
 menced, in the age of Philip, or corruption, when her fall was com 
 pleted. By civilization she made conquests ; by her luxury she was 
 herself overthrown." 
 
 Bancroft observes : " The democracy of Athens, with all the imper 
 fections in every part of its public service, with the abuses attending 
 its finances, and the corruption which finally turned the elective fran 
 chise into a source of personal revenue, maintains its dignity in the 
 eyes of the world ; for there the elements of civil liberty were first 
 called into action. No tongue can adequately praise many of the 
 results of that State ; and it would also be difficult to display the de 
 ficiencies in its organization, and the gross injustice of its foreign 
 policy. Our own confederacy does not more surpass the Grecian in 
 the extent of territory over which its liberties are diffused, than in the 
 excellence of the details of its laws." 
 
 The admirable maxim of Isocrates is worthy the attention of mod- 
 * Chenevix on Nat, Char., 1832. 
 
50 A VOICE TO AMEEICA. 
 
 ern times, because it requires, as the foundation of national prosperity 
 and obedience to law, the establishment of the religious principle, as 
 the surest guarantee for both. His advice to Demonicus respecting a 
 citizen was : " First exercise piety towards God, not only in sacrifices, 
 but also in the preservation of oaths ; for the former indeed may be 
 an indication of abundant wealth, but the latter is a proof of integrity 
 of character." The growing influence and contending interests of 
 political parties in their struggles for ascendency, may superinduce 
 the corruptions and treacheries which tarnish our national glory and 
 jeopardize our national stability ; and thus we are in danger of re- 
 enacting the political immoralities and crimes of the ancient repub 
 lics repeating the history and calamities of those splendid yet 
 mournful examples of the past. The prerogatives of the Federal 
 government must be maintained inviolate the majesty of its author 
 ity supreme. In the multiplication of its constituent States there is 
 great tendency to a reduction of the central constitutional power. In 
 the desire for increasing territorial acquisitions, and a thirst for mili 
 tary renown, the harmony of the confederacy may also be fatally dis 
 turbed, and anarchy usurp its place. An instance of this we have 
 seen in the history of the Grecian republics. Severe and onerous 
 military services were sustained by the warlike and heroic citizens of 
 those ancient States, in consequence of this fostering, by the govern 
 ment, of an excessive desire for military power and conquest. A 
 military despot is surely no friend to national or civil liberty ; and 
 wherever the demagogue can take advantage of such social disorder, 
 lie is sure to do so. It may be well to repeat the warning given to 
 us in the brilliant but terrible example of Athens, it teaches us 
 that an insatiate lust of territory marks the overthrow of a free 
 State. 
 
 According to the political creed of Aristotle, the Grecian State was 
 antecedent to the individual citizen. He therefore possessed no inhe 
 rent personal rights, and was only allowed such immunities as were 
 conferred by the State itself. Our commonwealth acknowledges an 
 opposite rule. Both extremes are equally fatal to the liberties of a 
 
SPARTA AND ATHENS. 51 
 
 democracy; the one tending to an oligarchy, the other to lawless 
 despotism. 
 
 Bulwer remarks : " As in despotisms, a coarse and sensual luxury, 
 once established, rots away the vigor and manhood of a conquering 
 people, so in this intellectual people (the Athenians) it was the luxury 
 of the intellect which gradually enervated the great spirit of the 
 victor race of Marathon and Salamis, and called up generations of 
 eloquent talkers and philosophical dreamers from the earlier age of 
 active freemen, restless adventurers, and hardy warriors. The spirit 
 of poetry, or the pampered indulgence of certain faculties to the 
 prejudice of others, produced in a whole people what it never fails 
 to produce in the individual : it unfitted them just as they grew up 
 into manhood exposed to severer struggles than their youth had un 
 dergone for the stern and practical demands of life ; and suffered 
 the love of the Beautiful to subjugate or soften away the common 
 knowledge of the Useful. Genius itself became a disease, and Poetry 
 assisted towards the euthanasia of the Athenians." 
 
 The fundamental essentials to the security of a free State, are reli 
 gion, virtue, and intelligence in its individual citizens. This is the 
 palladium of her strength, and the augury of her greatness and glory. 
 These three great weapons of our strength will form the surest bul 
 wark of our defence against the evils which may menace our national 
 security, arising from the incessant influx of foreign immigration and 
 foreign political influence. Before the vestal purity and celestial light 
 of virtue, the shades of ignorance, superstition, infidelity, and crime 
 will flee away. With, the true -ight of Divine revelation for our 
 guide, and the ample experiences of the past for our instruction, we 
 may, and we assuredly ought to present to the world, not a mere 
 problematical experiment, but an accredited and actual illustration of 
 the great fact of a mighty nation of self-governed freemen a specta 
 cle " grander, vaster, and more majestic than any thing ancient states 
 men ever dreamed of." Is such a brilliant immortality to be conferred 
 upon these United States ? 
 
 With the lapse of centuries, the lustre of Grecian intellect has 
 
52 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 lost none of its splendor. It still towers in Olympian grandeur over 
 all the boasted achievements of intervening ages. Her proud tro 
 phies have defied the assaults of time ; and, whether in sculpture, 
 eloquence, or in song in military prowess, heroic virtue, or in her 
 love of liberty her name has .ever been a watchword on the earth. 
 Not only was Greece the home of the graces, but it was here that 
 Freedom first erected her mountain-throne. It was the triumph of 
 mind that gave the pre-eminent glory to Greece ; and Greece was the 
 glory of the earth. What a galaxy of great men she gave to the 
 world Pericles, Epaminondas, Socrates, Aristotle, Demosthenes, Ho- 
 mer, Plato, and Alexander Titans among the race ! "What a wealth 
 of learning have they bequeathed to mankind ! Classic Greece was 
 the great academy of science and song our storehouse of philosophy, 
 ethics, poetry, sculpture, aesthetics, and architecture, as well as civili 
 zation and refinement. She was the first of the nations of antiquity 
 to assert the supremacy of intellectual empire. It is not surprising, 
 therefore, that her very name should have become talismanic, and 
 that her sages, philosophers, and poets should still be regarded as our 
 models, and their wisdom deemed oracular. Poetry still recognizes 
 her great high priest in Homer, Philosophy her Socrates, History her 
 Thucydides, Eloquence her Demosthenes, Art her Phidias, Justice her 
 Aristides, and Heroism her Leonidas. While, therefore, we do hom 
 age to Attic models in art, poetry, ethics, and philosophy, shall wo 
 neglect the warning which her political errors and immoralities sug 
 gest? 
 
THL FALL OF ROME. 
 
 4 Alas I the lofty city 1 and alas I 
 The trebly hundred triumphs." 
 
 CHILDE HAROLD. 
 
 THE seven-hilled city of the Caesars once the capital of the 
 world, the most potent and the most opulent of the nations of 
 antiquity, with her august pageants, her gorgeous temples, her 
 triumphal arches, her Coliseum, her Forum, and all her colossal 
 achievements in arts and arms, is numbered with the past. All that 
 remains of her eminent glory, is a splendid ruin a mighty and 
 majestic shrine, attracting pilgrim feet from all parts of the earth. 
 Her towering greatness, with her almost superhuman virtues and 
 crimes, lives only on the scroll of history a sublime illustration of 
 human power and human weakness. Of all the voices of the past, 
 Rome s eventful story is the most marvellous, the most memorable, 
 and the most eloquent. 
 
 "Rome! thine imperial brow 
 . Never shall rise. 
 
 What hast thou left thee now ? 
 
 Thou hast thy skies ! 
 Thou hast the sunset s glow, 
 Rome ! for thy dower 
 Flashing, tall cypress bow, 
 Temple and tower !" 
 
 The history of Rome exhibits a strange compound of conflicting 
 elements, of human character. It abounds with instances of the 
 generous and the heroic, the cruel and the base, the patriotic and 
 tho perfidious. Hers were the extremes of wealth and poverty of 
 
54: A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 ignorance and learning. Rome was the scone of the direst calami 
 ties and the most brilliant triumphs. At one time devastated by a 
 fearful plague, Avhich continued for more than two years, destroying, 
 in a single day, some two thousand human beings ; at another, the 
 city was in great part consumed by fire, kindled by lightning, while 
 these calamities were followed by famine. The history of her gov 
 ernment is, for the most part, one of despotic cruelty, strategy, and 
 crime most of her rulers being corrupt and treacherous ; yet were 
 there among them men of heroic and noble virtue. 
 
 The topography of Rome may be thus briefly described : Situate 
 on the bank of the Tiber (about seventeen miles from the sea, and 
 near its junction with the Arno), the city was built on seven hills, or 
 insulated heights, divided by little valleys. These hills are the Capi- 
 toline, Palatine, Coelius, and Aventine. The others (Quirinal, Vimi- 
 nal, and Esquiline) are promontories, jutting out towards the Tiber. 
 The Capitoline being so precipitous that it formed a natural fortress, 
 it became the citadel of Rome. 
 
 A reference to the map of Italy will best exhibit its physical 
 geography. It will be seen that, like Greece. Italy is made up of 
 numerous valleys, pent up between high hills, each forming a countiy 
 and political community to itself. There is the Apennine range, 
 stretching from the southern extremity of the Alps across Italy, to 
 the edge of the Adriatic, thus separating Italy proper from Cisalpine 
 Gaul. Between them and the Alpine semicircle which forms the 
 northern boundary, is inclosed a wide plain, open onlv on the east to 
 the sea. One great river flows through its whole extent, being fed, 
 from the north and south, by numberless streams. Of course, this 
 well-watered plain was filled with flourishing cities, and often con 
 tended for by successive invaders. The geographical features of Italy 
 proper strikingly accord with its political divisions. " It is not one 
 simple ridge of mountains, leaving a broad belt of level country on 
 either side, but, as it were, a backbone, thickly set with diverging 
 spines of unequal length, running out from the main ridge, some 
 parallel to the backbone itself; in which latter case, the interval be- 
 
THE FALL OF ROME. 55 
 
 tween their base and the Mediterranean has been broken up by vol 
 canic agency ; e. g., Vesuvius, and the Alban Hills, ten miles from 
 Rome."* We thus perceive the force of the remark of Napoleon, 
 that Rome was the spot best suited to be the capital of its empire. 
 
 The early history of Rome, like that of Athens, is based upon 
 tradition, made up in part of poetic fiction. The line of demarcation 
 between what is mythical and purely historic truth, it is difficult to 
 determine. This is, however, less essential to our purpose, since we 
 have to do with the later times of the Republic. During the first 
 two centuries or more subsequent to its foundation, the city of Rome 
 was under the rule of governors, or kings, of limited power and pre 
 rogatives. Its constitution originally somewhat resembled that of 
 England about the times of the three first Edwards. The governing 
 body consisted of the three classes or tribes, divided into thirty curiae, 
 ten in each tribe. Their assembly was called Comitia Curiata. 
 Besides this general body of citizens, there was a select council, 
 called the Senate, originally comprised of one hundred chief men of 
 the Ramnes. After the union of the Sabines, one hundred of the 
 Titienses were admitted ; and though the Luceres always had votes 
 in the general Comitia, yet they had no representatives in the Senate 
 till the time of Tarquinius Priscus, who added a third hundred, called 
 Patres Minarum Gentium. The reign of this monarch is the Etruscan 
 period of Roman history. The buildings above and under ground, 
 the religion, the games then introduced, have all of them an Etruscan 
 stamp. The next king, the sixth, was Servius Tullius, who belonged 
 neither to a royal nor patrician family, and who promoted Latin 
 and Grecian customs. He revised the constitution, having brought 
 together, in some degree, the Populus and the Plebs, and made all of 
 them vote according to their property, in classes and centuries. The 
 last king ^Yas Tarquinius Superbus, who, with his family, was ban 
 ished ; and with him ended the monarchy, having lasted, according 
 to the legends, two hundred and twenty-five years. Then followed 
 the establishment of the Republic, at the head of which were two 
 
 * Arnold. 
 
56 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 consuls L. Jimius Brutus and Tarquinius Collatinus. The consular 
 government was annually elected. 
 
 The struggle for liberty, in which the new Republic was engaged 
 with the Etrusci and Latins, contributed to arouse that republican 
 spirit which subsequently became the main feature of Roman char 
 acter. The party which had deposed the ruling family, now took 
 wholly into their own hands the helm of state ; and the oppression of 
 these aristocrats became at length so galling, that, after the lapse of a 
 few years, it gave rise to a sedition of the Plebs, the consequence of 
 which was the establishment of annually elected Presidents of the 
 People (Tribuni Plebis). Just previous to this (temp. 508 B. C.), 
 took place the first commercial treaty with Carthage, in which Rome 
 appears as a free State, although not as yet sovereign of all Latium. 
 The political constitution of Rome received further development in 
 the contests which now arose between the popular presidents and the 
 hereditary nobility. The Tribunes, instead of confining themselves to 
 the defence of the people from the oppression of the nobles, soon 
 began to act as aggressors, which subsequently resulted in a com 
 plete equalization of rights. An illustration of this state of things 
 is afforded by the trial of Coriolanus. 
 
 The more equitable distribution of the lands obtained by conquest, 
 among the poorer classes, was suggested by the ambitious attempts of 
 Cassius. The well-known code of the " Twelve Tables" confirmed the 
 ancient institutions, and was in part completed by the adoption o! 
 the laws of the Greek Republics, especially those of Athens. Yet, as 
 the commissioners appointed to draw up the laws were exclusively 
 Patricians, an occasion was given for usurpation, which could be frus 
 trated only by a sedition of the people. By the laws of the "Twelve 
 Tables," the legal relations of the citizens were the same for all ; ye! 
 that code contained little or nothing in relation to any peculiar con 
 stitution of the State, while the government not only remained in th 
 hands of the aristocracy, who were in possession of all offices, but, 
 the prohibition of marriage, according to the new laws, of Patricians 
 and Plebeians, interposed an insurmountable barrier between the tw-.> 
 
THE FALL OF ROME. 57 
 
 classes. The consequence of this was, renewed attacks by the people 
 upon the privileged Patricians, especially as the power of the popular 
 leaders was now not only renewed, but even augmented the only 
 limit to their authority being their unanimity of decision. 
 
 New dissensions arose between the Patricians and Plebeians, one 
 of the causes of which was the exclusive participation of the former 
 .in the consulship, of which the Tribunes demanded the abolition. 
 This right of admission was not, however, extended to the Plebeians 
 till after a struggle annually renewed for eighty years. Meanwhile, 
 Rome was engaged in petty wars with the neighboring federate cities. 
 These contests continued almost uninterruptedly, and arose out of the 
 oppression, real or imaginary, which she practised upon them. The 
 cities sought every occasion for asserting their independence; and 
 the consequent struggles must have depopulated Rome, had not that 
 evil been diverted by the policy of increasing the complement of 
 citizens in admitting the freedmen, and not unfrequently even the 
 conquered, to the enjcTyment of civic privileges.* Little as these 
 feuds, abstractedly considered, deserve attention, they become of high 
 interest, inasmuch as they were not only the means by which the 
 nation was trained to war, but they also led to the foundation of 
 that senatorial power, whose important consequences will be exhibited 
 hereafter. 
 
 The last of these wars was that against Veii, the richest city in 
 Etruria. The siege of that place, which lasted nearly ten years 
 (404-395 B.C.), gave rise to the introduction, among the Roman 
 military, of winter campaigning, and of pay. Thus, on the one 
 hand, the prosecution of wars more distant and protracted became 
 possible ; while, on the other, the consequences were, increased taxa 
 tion. About this time, Rome was reduced to ashes by the Gauls, 
 who pressed out of Northern Italy through Etruria, and possessed 
 themselves of the city, the Capitol only excepted. One of the chief 
 heroes of this period was Carnillus, the deliverer of Rome, who laid 
 a double claim to the gratitude of his native city, by overruling, after 
 
 * Heereu, 
 
58 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 his victory, the proposal of a general migration to Veii. Scarcely 
 was Rome rebuilt, ere the former feuds revived, springing out of the 
 poverty of the people, induced by the oppressive military taxation. 
 Licinius, the Tribune, at this juncture having decreed that no indi 
 vidual should hold more than a certain amount of the national lands, 
 the people became eligible equally with the nobles to the office of 
 consul. The dictatorship, censorship, praetorship, and even the priest 
 hood, quickly followed, as a matter of course. Thus political equality 
 was conferred upon the Plebeians, with the Patricians ; and the differ 
 ences between them ceased, for a time, to form opposing political 
 parties. 
 
 We now approach the true heroic age of Rome. This was intro 
 duced by the Samnite war an engagement for more important than 
 any in which Rome had previously been involved. In former con 
 tests her object had been to sustain her supremacy over her immedi 
 ate neighbors ; but in these latter wars, which continued for half a 
 century, she opened a way for the subjugation of Italy, and laid the 
 foundation of her future greatness. In this period commenced the 
 practical illustration of the leading ideas of Rome upon the political 
 relations in which she placed the States and cities she subdued. 
 After the subjection of the Sammies, Rome, wishing to confirm her 
 dominion in lower Italy, became entangled in war with the Taren- 
 tines, who secured the alliance with Pyrrhus. In the first two battles 
 with this foreign prince, Rome was unsuccessful. In a subsequent 
 engagement at Beneventum, he was defeated, and compelled to evac 
 uate Italy, leaving a garrison at Tarentum. That city soon afterwards 
 fell into the hands of the Romans, whose dominion became thereby 
 extended to the extremity of lower Italy. 
 
 The early expedient of Roman colonization served the double pur 
 pose of relieving the capital of its pauper population, and of peopling 
 her captured cities, as well as forming garrisons. This colonial sys 
 tem took its rise in the Samnite war, and ultimately embraced the 
 whole of Italy. Connected with it was the construction of military 
 highways, of which the Via Appia, constructed B. C. 312, was one, 
 
THE FALL OF HOME. 59 
 
 and which, to this day, remains the lasting monument of Roman 
 greatness. These colonies were not invested with the privileges of 
 Roman citizenship ; they possessed their own civic government, but 
 had no share in either the Comitia or magistracies of Rome. They 
 were obliged, however, to furnish tribute and auxiliary troops, and 
 were in other respects amenable to the Roman prsefects or magis 
 trates. 
 
 The constitution of Rome was at first essentially democratic, in 
 asmuch as it conferred an equality of rights and immunities both for 
 the poor and the opulent. It was yet a democracy so modified by 
 ingeniously contrived expedients, that, even considering the warlike 
 character of the people, it seemed well defended against the evils of 
 military despotism on the one part, and popular discord on the other. 
 Without specifying in detail its various features, it may suffice to 
 state that it produced a senate, which at this epoch was the first 
 political body in the world. It is remarkable that the constitution 
 was in great part the result of experiment, no complete charter hav 
 ing ever been written. 
 
 The memorable war which took place between Rome and Carthage, 
 and which lasted twenty-three years (B. C. 264-241), although it cost 
 her much, was the first step in her splendid series of triumphs. Con 
 sidering its important consequences, with the great heroes enlisted on 
 both sides, as well as the vastness of the struggle, an interest attaches 
 to it, surpassing that of any other age. The occupation of Messina 
 by the Romans gave rise to this war ; it resulted in driving the Car 
 thaginians from Sicily. Thus the conquest of Carthage gave its 
 pre-eminence to Rome. No monument of Carthage the stupen 
 dous rival of the Romans now remains. to point out the ancient 
 splendor of that Republic. That city, originally founded by a Ty- 
 rian colony about eight centuries prior to the Christian era, became 
 the capital of a powerful Republic, which continued upwards of 
 seven centuries ; during which time it controlled the commerce of 
 the world. Her interval of peace, which lasted seventy years, was 
 the epoch of her glory she was then the most renowned of the inde- 
 
60 A VOICE TO AMEKICA. 
 
 pendent States of antiquity ; but the love of conquest" was the pro 
 curing cause of her ultimate overthrow. 
 
 When the Carthaginians resolved to have provinces instead of 
 factories, and garrisons instead of colonies, a large force became ne 
 cessary in order to keep possession of the conquered lands. From 
 the time that a nation of merchants becomes a nation of princes, and 
 exchanges commercial pursuits for territorial possessions, it abandons 
 its proper strength for alien weakness, and fixes the limits of its own 
 duration. The spirit of party and faction scarcely appeared in Car 
 thage, until after the Republic had yielded to the trial of conquest, 
 and the passion for territorial aggrandizement. The strength of Car 
 thage in the war with Eome depended merely on its mercenaries 
 and its money : it was founded on sand and gold-dust ; when the 
 tide of fortune turned, both were swept away. There were, how 
 ever, other elements of social demoralization among the Carthagi 
 nians, which tended in no small degree to their overthrow. Their 
 religion allowed the horrid rites of Moloch : they attempted to pro 
 pitiate their deities by human sacrifices. The immolation of infants 
 was carried to a fearful extent, even by their infatuated mothers. 
 To a flagrant and undisguised disregard of female honor has been 
 ascribed this frequency of infanticide.* 
 
 The conquest of Carthage inspired the Romans with arrogance, 
 and although, ostensibly, her constitution remained unchanged, 
 by it the power of the Senate acquired an undue preponderance. 
 An illustration of this was seen in her invasion of Sardinia, in the 
 midst of peace. Rome s maritime power was also extended in the 
 Adriatic, and at the same time she formed her first political relations 
 with the Grecian States. . In the mean time Carthage was endeavor 
 ing to atone for the loss of Sicily and Sardinia, by extending her 
 Spanish dominions. Rome at this time numbered, in all Italy, an 
 army of eight hundred thousand men. While Hannibal, who had 
 the command in Spain, was meditating a descent upon Rome, the 
 preparations she made for defence show that it was not believed 
 
 * Dr. Cooke Taylor. 
 
THE FALL OF ROME. 61 
 
 possible that be could execute his enterprise by the route which 
 he took. 
 
 The results of this war were, the destruction of the naval power 
 of the Carthaginians, and, notwithstanding* her immense loss, a 
 great increase of the territorial dominion of Rome. Rome now pre 
 sented the fearful spectacle of a great military Republic. Flushed 
 with the brilliancy of he,r achievements, she became a nation of 
 warriors, and to this cause may be ascribed her aspirations after 
 the dominion of the world. It demanded the most dexterous and 
 sagacious policy on the part of Rome to frustrate the powerful 
 alliances formed against her. The Roman Senate at this epoch 
 usurped almost unlimited control despotic and oligarchical and yet 
 it was the embodiment of ths highest political wisdom. Notwith 
 standing the remonstrance of the Tribunes, war was declared against 
 Philip of Macedon. The Roman arms were led to conquest in the 
 east, by T. Quintius Flaminius. He gained his victory more by 
 strategy than by feats of arms. As he had already gained over 
 the Acha3an league, this brought Greece into a state of dependence 
 upon Rome. A system of espionage was carried on by Rome, 
 not only in the West, but also in the East, over Greece. The fall 
 of Carthage and Macedonia sufficiently exemplifies the political 
 rapacity of Rome. 
 
 The ambassadors or Roman commissioners were skilful in diplo 
 macy and intrigue. By an artful policy, Rome procured the ban 
 ishment of her most formidable foe, Hannibal, from Carthage, and 
 thus prevented his projected league with Syria and Macedonia. A 
 contest then arose between Rome and Antiochus, who, at the bat 
 tle of Magnesia, was compelled to accept conditions of peace, and 
 which reduced him to a state of dependence. 
 
 Within ten years, Rome had laid the foundation of her sway in 
 the East, and she soon became sovereign arbitress of the world from 
 the Adriatic to the Euphrates. The internal condition of Rome had 
 now become grossly immoral, and her political system no less cor 
 rupt. Venality and perfidy obtained the mastery, and with reck- 
 
 4 
 
62 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 less disregard of honor, slie devastated all the States that opposed the 
 way to her universal dominion. 
 
 The civil broils under the Gracchi, to " the first use of power 
 which the emperors made," Mr. Merivale observes, " was to control 
 the fiscal tyranny of the proconsuls and publicani. The revolution 
 of Drusus and the Gracchi opened the spoils of the world to the 
 Italians ; but those of Julius and Octavius closed them again, and 
 restored them to their rightful owners. The luxuriance of Roman 
 oppression flourished but for a century and a half; but in that time 
 it created, perhaps, the most extensive and searching misery the- 
 world has ever seen. The establishment of imperial despotism 
 placed in the main an effective control over these petty tyrants ; and 
 notwithstanding all the crimes by which it won its way, and the 
 corruptions which were developed in its progress, it deserves to be 
 regarded, at least in this important particular, as one of the greatest 
 blessings vouchsafed to the human race." 
 
 Sallust forcibly remarks that the Roman manners were precipi 
 tated at once to the depth of corruption, after the manner of a 
 resistless torrent. The era from which the rapid degeneracy is to 
 be dated, was the destruction of Carthage ; yet, it cannot be doubt 
 ed that the atheistical tenets attributed to Epicurus, tended in no 
 small degree to accelerate the subversion of Roman virtue and Ro 
 man liberty. A firm belief in the Divine superintendence of aft airs 
 is the true guarantee of public and private virtue as .well as of lib 
 erty. It was Atheism that slew a million and a half of people dur- 
 inof the first French Revolution. It was not Voltaire alone who 
 
 O 
 
 blighted all France with the curse of infidelity ; France had pre 
 viously ignored the Sabbath, desecrated her temples, and banished 
 her priesthood. It is evident from the lessons of all history, that 
 the Supreme Governor of the world holds nations as well as individ 
 uals to a strict moral accountability. 
 
 The historical student, in comparing the Athenian Republic with 
 the Roman, will at once perceive the characteristic differences of the 
 races. The polished Greek preferred the polite arts of life, while the 
 
THE FALL OF KOME. 63 
 
 sturdy Roman yielded to the instinct of his nature in love of mar 
 tial exploits. "\Yith tlie former, genius and learning were the cyno 
 sure; with the latter, the ensanguined trophies of war. Except 
 during the age of the Republic, the records of Roman history boast 
 of few illustrious names in literature. It was then that public vir 
 tue was sustained by public education ; it was then that the heroic 
 fame of the Roman matrons passed into a proverb. No wonder that 
 rhetoric and poetry should then have attained such rare excellence ; 
 or that the populace even should have been fired with emulation of 
 literary distinction ; or that Sallust, and Caesar, Cicero, Lucretius, 
 Virgil, Horace, and Livy, became the master spirits of the age. It 
 will be also remembered that the laws of the " Twelve Tables" of the 
 Decemvirs or ten Commissioners, were the product of the Repub 
 lican intellect of R ome. 
 
 Though the temples of Rome are in ruins, these " Tables," which 
 Cicero declared, " contained more wisdom than the libraries of all 
 the Philosophers," are preserved intact, through the lapse of twenty 
 centuries, since they form the basis of the law and the jurispru 
 dence of the civilized world. 
 
 The fate of the Republic seemed now to depend upon the success 
 of her Liberator the elder Gracchus. In his effort to establish a 
 yeomanry the last expedient for reconciling the ceaseless discords 
 between the politicians and plebeians he became the victim of the 
 brutal fury of the former. "The election day for tribunes was in 
 mid-summer ; the few husbandmen, the only shadow of a Roman 
 yeomanry, were busy in the field, gathering their crops, and failed 
 to come to the support of their champion. He was left to rest his 
 defence on the rabble of the city, and though early in the, morning 
 great crowds of the people gathered together, and though, as Grac 
 chus appeared in the forum, a shout of joy rent the skies, which was 
 redoubled as he ascended the steps of the Capitol, yet when the pa 
 tricians, determined at every hazard to defeat the assembly, came 
 with the whole weight of their adherents in a mass, the timid flock, 
 yielding to the sentiment of awe rather than of cowardice, fled like 
 
64 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 sheep before wolves, and left their defender, the incomparable Tibe 
 rius, to be beaten to death by the clubs of senators. Three hundred 
 of his most faithful friends were left lifeless in the market-place. In 
 the fury of triumphant passion, the corpse of the tribune was dragged 
 through the streets, and thrown into the Tiber."* The deluded no 
 bles flattered themselves into a belief that they had accomplished a 
 victory ; that the senate had routed the people, but it was the aveng 
 ing spirit of their fearful wrongs, that had struck the first deadly 
 wound into the bosom of Rome. The blood of their victim, like that 
 of other martyrs, but cemented his party. A succession of fearful in 
 surrections ensued, and the soldiers of the Republic became the cap 
 tives of their bondsmen, whose numbers had prodigiously increased. 
 
 Such were the horrors of this civil war in Sicily and Italy, that it 
 is said a million of lives were sacrificed, and that Sicily suffered more 
 from its devastations than during the Carthaginian war. Two evils 
 seemed to have resulted, unbridled license among the wealthy, and 
 the most degrading servitude of the bondsmen. It was now that Ro 
 man citizens, by their own vote, consented to the degradation of be 
 coming paupers, their extreme poverty requiring that they should b(; 
 fed from the public table. Discarding the pursuits of agriculture and 
 the industrial arts, the public treasury had to be supplied by plunder 
 of foreign countries, and thus Roman virtue and Roman valor were 
 exchanged for piracy and pillage. At this crisis the demagogue 
 Marius became the chieftain of the oppressed poor. The streets of 
 Rome and the fields of Italy again became the scenes of massacre, 
 and the oppressed bondsmen witnessed the fearful destruction of their 
 oppressors. 
 
 They triumphed over Sylla, the leader of the opposite party, who, to 
 gain influence, conferred freedom upon ten thousand of their number. 
 The subsequent insurrection of Spartacus failed, however, of its pro 
 posed result, for, when in sight of the Alps, the immense emigration, 
 which had already defeated the armies of four Roman generals, fell a 
 snare to its lust of plunder, and was thus overthrown. The defeat of 
 
 * Bancroft s Miscellanies. 
 
THE FALL OF ROME. 65 
 
 Spartacus took place at a, moment when the Roman state was in jeo 
 pardy from foreign enemies, and from the fiercest domestic distrac 
 tions. It was then that the haughty tyranny of her nobles was at its 
 greatest height, and when the degradation of its industrial classes was 
 most insupportable. It was at this juncture, when the last glimmer 
 ing light of liberty had vanished, that the dark reign of despotism 
 began. 
 
 Thus we see that oriental luxury was the parent, first of civil, then 
 of political despotism, and the train of its vices appear to us through 
 the lapse of time, in all their monstrous deformity. The reign of Ro 
 man luxury was gigantic in crime, for it would sacrifice ten thousand 
 gladiators with as much unconcern as the Spaniards exhibit at a 
 bull-fight. 
 
 " Despotism now became the government of the Roman empire. 
 Yet there was such a validity even in the forms of liberty, that 
 they were still in some degree preserved. Two centuries passed 
 away, before the last vestiges of Republican simplicity disappeared, 
 and the Eastern diadem was introduced with the slavish customs of 
 the East. Up to the reign of Diocletian, a diadem had never been 
 endured in Europe. Hardly had this emblem of servility become 
 tolerated, when language also began to be corrupted ; and, within the 
 course of another century, the austere purity of the Greek and Roman 
 tongue, the languages of Demosthenes and of Gracchus, became for 
 the first time familiarized to the forms of oriental adulation. Your 
 imperial highness, your grace, your excellency, your immensity, your 
 honor, your majesty, then became first current in the European world ; 
 men grew ashamed of a plain name, and one person could not ad 
 dress another without following the customs of the Syrians, and call 
 ing him rabbi, master."* 
 
 Previously, Roman citizenship constituted by far the smallest por 
 tion of her inhabitants. Her dependencies and allies were treated, 
 with very slight exceptions, as aliens, who were denied the right of 
 voting, <fec. Herein consisted her safety, and her deviation from the 
 
 * Bancroft s Miscellanies. 
 
GG A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 rule is proved to have been fraught with ruin. The same cause will 
 ever insure like results. 
 
 " The universal record of history teaches that all republics which 
 have risen and fallen, owe their destruction to foreign influence un 
 seen at first, permitted till too strong for resistance, at last fatal."* 
 
 During the greatest successes of Caesar, just after his defeat of 
 Pompey at Pharsalia, the Senate was crowded with aliens and soldiers, 
 instead of Roman citizens. Michelet remarks, the victory of Caesar 
 bore all the character of an incursion of barbarians into Rome, and 
 into the Senate. In the commencement of the civil war, he had 
 given the right of the city to all the Gauls between the Alps and the 
 Po, and he raised to the rank of Senators a whole host of Gaulish 
 Centurions in his army, as well as soldiers. Thus the conquerors of 
 Pharsalia came to stammer out Latin by the side of Cicero. Thus 
 that body, once so august, was now under the control of the thrice- 
 elected Dictator. This Senate decreed a general celebration of his 
 various victories, during forty days. A bronze statue of him was to 
 be set up in the Capitol, inscribed " the demigod !" His triumphant 
 processions, one for Gaul, another for Egypt, a third for Syria, and a 
 fourth for Numidia, bore him four times, in the highest state which 
 mortal could sustain, up to the temple where his imago testified to 
 immortality, while to all classes of the people, revcllings, games, and 
 fastings, were continued with unsparing prodigality. His fifth and 
 last triumph was that obtained over the sons of Pompey, of Munda. 
 The Senate still continued to lavish upon him every kind of extrava 
 gant homage, even acknowledging him as the Julian Jupiter, and or 
 daining a temple and a priesthood to be consecrated to his worship. 
 So fell the liberty, and so trembled the religion of Rome. There was 
 now but one man for those " that talked of Rome," to praise as their 
 sovereign, and to confess their deity .f 
 
 Thus by their vices were the Roman people brought to servitude, 
 not as they were unwilling, but as if bondage had become more ac 
 ceptable to them than liberty. 
 
 * Gov. Gardner of Mass. t Elliot s Liberty of Rome. 
 
THE FALL OF ROME. G7 
 
 "But what more oft, in nations grown corrupt, 
 And by their vices brought to servitude, 
 Than to love bondage more than liberty?" 
 
 The almost superhuman influence "which. Caesar exerted as Emperor 
 was, however, destined to a swift annihilation. .His work of massacre 
 and spoliation had ceased, and now the retributions of Providence were 
 to follow. The story of his subsequent career to its end is already 
 familiar to the reader. With the accession of Octavius Caesar, who 
 assumed the title of Augustus and Emperor, may be said to have 
 ended the greatest commonwealth the world has ever seen, and the 
 commencement of the greatest monarchy. The empire of Rome was 
 extended over the whole globe ; in Europe, it comprised Italy, Gaul, 
 Spain, Lusitania, Greece, Illyricum, parts of Britain and Germany ; 
 in Asia, Armenia, Syria, India, Asia Minor, Mesopotamia, and Me 
 dia ; in Africa, Egypt, Numidia, Mauritania, and Libya. But it was 
 under the tyranny of her praetorian guards that the liberty of Rome 
 was sacrificed. There is a voice which yet speaks to us from Marius, 
 and Sylla, and Philippi. 
 
 The ruin of the free classes of Rome, and the consequent depopu 
 lation of the empire, appears to have been the specific malady of the 
 state, and under which it suffered dissolution.* Gibbon forcibly 
 portrays the skepticism and its usual accompaniments, which ob 
 tained among the higher ranks of Roman society. " It was indiffer 
 ent to them what shape the folly of the multitude might choose to as 
 sume, and they approached with the same inward contempt, and the 
 same external reverence, the altars of the Libyan, the Olympian, or 
 the Capitoline Jupiter." * 
 
 The Abbe Lamennais asserts, "that in such a frame of society, 
 the human mind had nothing to rest upon. Despoiled of its faith, 
 and even of its opinions, it was drifted upon an ocean of uncertainty and 
 doubt. There was no more of paganism no more of philosophy, un 
 less you call by that name those idle vagaries with which the Romans 
 amused their leisure in the gardens of their villas, or under the porti- 
 
 * Michelet. 
 
68 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 coes of their palaces, but from which proceeded no guide to the con 
 science, no fixed rule of conduct. They descanted upon their gods only 
 to doubt their existence on their duties, to elude them on death, to 
 determine how life could be enjoyed most ; and the whole was termi 
 nated by abandoning themselves, heedlessly, to the current which car 
 ried, pell-mell, the wrecks of social order, men, institutions, and the 
 empire itself." Montesquieu, and other reliable authorities, do not 
 essentially differ in their opinions. 
 
 Last, but greatest of all the causes that rendered the Roman peo 
 ple incapable of existing any longer as a Republic, that made their 
 subjugation to the rule of some military adventurer inevitable, was 
 the universal spread of irreligion and profligacy.* This is disguised, 
 or lightly passed over by some modern writers ; but no one can be 
 come familiar with the classics, without having it perpetually forced 
 upon his notice in a thousand different forms ; no mistaken delicacy 
 should prevent us from dwelling and reflecting on the facts. They 
 teach the great moral, that, to preserve freedom, piety and virtue must 
 not be suffered to decay. The Romans, whose foreign conquest and 
 domestic concord Polybius witnessed, believed firmly in a future state- 
 of rewards and punishment ; hence, as Polybius remarked, came the 
 probity that honorably distinguished their nation. The Romans of 
 Caesar s time had learned to look on such ideas as vain and ridiculous. 
 
 Among the Roman virtues, not the least conspicuous, was her sub 
 lime patriotism. It ^vas this that added such august dignity to the 
 Roman character; but, with the loss of her virtues, came the fall of 
 the great commonwealth. 
 
 No people has ever been destroyed unless internal division has 
 first prepared the way for an invader. Nationality is of too strong a 
 power to be seriously affected by external attacks : its foes are in 
 its own household, and cliques and feuds are its most dangerous 
 enemies. 
 
 The armies of Joshua found the Canaanites an easy prey, for that 
 ancient people were split up into numerous principalities and tribes, 
 
 * Mcrivalc. 
 
THE FALL OF ROME. 69 
 
 though of common origin, language, and customs. Their several 
 kings" or chieftains could resolve on no settled action against the in 
 vader ; internal jealousies prevented a united action, and the several 
 nations were annihilated in detail. 
 
 Carthage, the mistress of the world when Rome was yet in its in 
 fancy, flourished peacefully so long as concord and unity influenced 
 her citizens in the common good, but faction wrested victory from her 
 brow, persecuted and banished the immortal Hannibal, and left her 
 palaces in ruins at the feet of her conquerors. 
 
 Rome, eternal Rome herself, felt the terrible evils of division. 
 Against such treason to the Republic, Cicero thundered in fearful elo 
 quence, denouncing the Catiliues and anarchists of the age who sought 
 to divide a united people. It was by such divisions that Caesar and 
 Pompey destroyed the Republic, and left it the prey of emperors. 
 
 Feuds and civil war delivered Italy to the barbarians, and the rival 
 houses of the Arsini, Colonna, Medici, <fec., plunged her in mediaeval 
 darkness. Poland shone among the nations, and drove back the 
 Moslems from the walls of Vienna, for she was then moved by one 
 principle, and patriotism had an existence in her midst. But an evil 
 day came, and her nobles forgot their country, and thought but of 
 their own selfish interests. Then, what the mighty Turkish power 
 had failed to injure, trembled before a northern invader ; Poland was 
 still the same nation, the same heroic people ; but her soldiers were 
 slain, and her scythemen annihilated, because the bond of union, the 
 common action, was now no more. 
 
 History has graven on the granite columns of Time the incontro 
 vertible maxim, " Union is Strength." Ambition and Tyranny have 
 divined its import, and embraced the only course which could affect 
 it. That course is, Diviser pour regner : (Divide, in order to reign.) 
 It is only by such a policy that liberty can be attacked ; she is safe 
 against all foreign enemies; storms will pass harmlessly over her; but 
 dissension will induce rancor, and rancor, anarchy : thus the State is 
 quickly left to bemoan its loss of freedom, when it sees itself the prey 
 of ever-changing tyrants. 
 
 4* 
 
TO A VOICE TO AMEKICA. 
 
 The loss of a firm national character, or the degradation of a na 
 tion s honor, is the inevitable prelude to her destruction. Behold the 
 once proud fabric of a Roman empire, an empire Carrying its arts and 
 arms into every part of the eastern continent ; the monarchs of 
 mighty kingdoms, dragged at the wheels of her triumphal chariots ; 
 her eao-le wavino- over the ruins of desolated countries: where is her 
 
 O O 
 
 splendor, her wealth, her power, her glory 2 Extinguished forever. 
 Her mouldering temples, the mournful .vestiges of her former gran 
 deur, afford a shelter to her muttering monks. Where are her states 
 men, her sages, her philosophers, her orators, her generals ? Go to 
 their solitary tombs and inquire. She lost her national character, and 
 her destruction followed. The ramparts of her national pride were 
 broken down, and Vandalism desolated her classic fields.* 
 
 Thus has the mighty mother of nations fallen with all her pride 
 of beauty, her majestic power, her intellectual greatness, and her sub 
 lime patriotism ! 
 
 "All, eloquence, thou wast undone, 
 Wast from thy native country driven, 
 When tyranny eclipsed the sun, 
 And blotted out the stars of heaven!" 
 
 Yet the world ceases not to do homage to her lost virtues, as well as 
 her triumphant exploits in arts and philosophy ; and in all coming 
 time, will there be found admiring multitudes who will delight to 
 gaze up into those bright blue skies, which inspired the muse of Vir 
 gil, to linger amid the ruins of her Forum, so memorable for the stu 
 pendous eloquence of Cicero, and to bend before that Temple of Lib 
 erty, in which Rienzi vowed to her protection in her last asylum. 
 
 "Her ruined columns stand sublime, 
 
 Flinging their shadows from on high; 
 Like dials which the wizard Time 
 
 Had raised to count his age gone by." 
 
 Other great cities of past ages may attract us Thebes, Babylon, 
 * Maxcy. 
 
THE FALL OF ROME. 71 
 
 Persepolis, and Nineveh but Imperial Rome awes us with a solemn 
 sense of her mighty mind, as well as her magnificence. It is the 
 genius loci of the great capital that invests it with such deep and 
 absorbing interest. "It is because she was the lawgiver of the 
 nations; parent of institutions that give civility and development to 
 society ; inventress . of the arts that establish right through reason ; 
 source of that social wisdom which is civil power, that the all-impe 
 rial city sits throned in the ever-during reverence of the mind, girt 
 with a divinity invisible, perhaps, to the frivolous, but irresistible to 
 the thoughtful minded." 
 
ITALIAN LIBERTY IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 
 
 "The sea, that emblem of uncertainty, 
 Changed not so fast, for many and many an age, 
 As this small spot." 
 
 WHEN the irruption of the Teutonic tribes into the Roman Empire 
 had plunged Europe in barbarism, the first attempt at the establish 
 ment of order and government was the creation of the feudal system. 
 
 " The establishment of the feudal system had a powerful and 
 striking influence upon European civilization. It changed the distri 
 bution of the population. Hitherto, the lords of the territory, the 
 conquering population, had lived united in masses more or less 
 numerous, either settled in cities, or moving about the country in 
 bands ; but, by the operation of the feudal system, these men were 
 brought to live isolated, each in his own dwelling, at long distances 
 apart."* 
 
 No system has been so powerful in checking democratic liberty as 
 feudalism. Leaguing with the throne or the Church, as circumstances 
 rendered necessaiy, it consolidated power, and became, as it were, an 
 integral part of government. The people, ignored by it, were only 
 used to add vis inertias to the pretensions and encroachments of their 
 oppressors. 
 
 But one country refused its adoption. Whilst the rest of Europe 
 was developing feudality, Italy barred its progress beyond the Alps, 
 and created those asylums of individual liberty, the various Repub 
 lics, which it is now our intention to examine. 
 
 The Italian Republics of the Middle Ages demand the serious 
 attention of our citizens, suffering, as they did, from like attack with 
 ourselves, and succumbing eventually beneath those evils which 
 
 * Guizot. 
 
4 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 equally affect us, and which, if unchecked, will ultimately prove our 
 ruin. The Italian commonwealths are worthy the love and esteem of 
 our citizens ; for they preserved all that then remained of democracy, 
 and shielded liberty from destruction during the most critical period 
 of European affairs. We do not propose to give a history of all or any 
 of these States, but, glancing at, their origin and prosperity, to study 
 those causes which destroyed freedom, and thus, from the misfortunes 
 of Italy, to inculcate a warning to America. 
 
 The municipal government which Rome had established throughout 
 the empire, had taken deep root in Italy, and having flourished during 
 many centuries, offered a firm barrier to the progress of feudalism. 
 This system, had existed too long for Italy to unite as one nation. 
 Each large city had a government peculiar to itself; and the smaller 
 towns which sprung up around them, entering into alliance for mutual 
 defence, formed the nucleus of a republic. 
 
 Venice seems to have been one of the earliest States which devel 
 oped the republican form of government. The hordes of Lombards 
 which devastated Italy in the sixth and seventh centuries, succeeded 
 in establishing their power in the north and south, but failed on the 
 Lagunes, at the extremity of the Adriatic. As early as the time of 
 Attila, these marshes had been the refuge for the rich citizens of vari 
 ous towns, fleeing from the Huns and other barbarous tribes. 
 
 "A few in fear 
 
 Flying away from him, whose boast it was 
 That the grass grew not where his horse had tr.od, 
 Gave birth to Venice." 
 
 In course of time, a large population found a home on the various 
 islands, supporting themselves by the making of salt, fishing, and the 
 
 commerce of the various rivers whose mouths form the Lamines. 
 
 i^? 
 
 "Like the water-fowl, 
 They built their nests among the ocean-waves." 
 
 The barbarians, not possessing any vessels, left these refugees unmo 
 lested ; and they maintained th:-ir independence under the adminis- 
 
ITALIAN LIBERTY IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 75 
 
 tration of tribune^, named by the inhabitants of the various islands. 
 Each island formed a separate State, and thus jealousies and disputes 
 arose, until, at length, they united themselves into one republic, elect 
 ing an assembly and a chief, to whom they gave the name of Doge. 
 In 809, during a war with Pepin, they made choice of the island of 
 the Rialto as their capital, and, twenty years later, transported thither 
 the body of St. Mark, whom they chose as their patron saint. 
 
 In the south, the republics of Gaeta, Amain", and Naples had 
 successfully resisted the attacks of Lombards and Saracens, and cov 
 ered the Levant with ships of merchandise. To Amain* is due the 
 glory of the invention of the manner s compass, the establishment of 
 the order of the Knights Hospitalers of Jerusalem, and the preser 
 vation of the pandects of Justinian. Naples and Amalfi both suc 
 cumbed to the Normans, under Roger II., in the beginning of the 
 twelfth century. 
 
 " When, towards the end of the eleventh century, the Western 
 world took up the dispute with the Saracens for the sepulchre of 
 Jesus Christ, Venice, Pisa, and Genoa had already reached a high 
 point of commercial power. These three cities had more vessels on 
 the Mediterranean than the whole of Christendom besides. They 
 seconded the Crusaders with enthusiasm. They provisioned them 
 when arrived off the coast of Syria, and kept up their communica 
 tion with the West. The Venetians assert that they sent a fleet of 
 two hundred vessels, in the year 1099, to aid the first crusade. The 
 Pisans affirm that their archbishop, Daimbert who was afterwards 
 Patriarch of Jerusalem passed into the East with a hundred and 
 twenty vessels. The Genoese claim only twenty-eight galleys and 
 six vessels. But all concurred with equal zeal in the conquest of the 
 Holy Land ; and the three maritime republics obtained important 
 privileges, which they preserved as long as the kingdom of Jerusalem 
 lasted."* 
 
 Such was the prosperity of the Italian Republics when Frederic 
 Barbarossa determined to abolish their freedom, and render Italy an 
 
 *Sismondi. 
 
76 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 integral part of the German Empire. The small towns quickly per 
 ceived that their only safety was in joining some one of the great 
 cities, and making common cause against their oppressor. Thence 
 arose the Guelph and Ghibeline parties, which distracted the penin 
 sula with civil war during several centuries. 
 
 The two party-cries, which seem to us insufficient to account for 
 the sanguinary proceedings which desolated Italy, represented two 
 important principles. The Emperors of Germany were determined 
 to vanquish the democratic institutions of the Italians, and, by grant 
 ing certain immunities to different cities, obtained their assistance 
 against the Guelphs, who asserted their independence of the Emperors, 
 and found a willing ally in the Papacy, then in the height of the 
 struggle to rid itself of the temporal power. 
 
 Notwithstanding the civil commotion which threw the entire coun 
 try into one camp or the other, Italy presented a magnificent picture 
 at the close of the thirteenth century. The authority of the popes 
 and emperors having become suspended, numerous petty independent 
 republics had arisen : the country was filled with cultivated plains 
 and valleys, the proprietors advancing capital and sharing the har 
 vests ; immense canals were constructed for purposes of irrigation, of 
 which the Naviglio Grande of Milan still bears testimony to the sci 
 ence and perseverance of seventy-eight years. The cities began to 
 construct and perfect those wonderful works of art, which the lapse of 
 six centuries still sees drawing the steps of travellers to Florence, Ge 
 noa, and Venice : the towns were surrounded with fortifications, and 
 the streets paved with flag-stones. Magnificence and taste combined 
 to raise and beautify the palaces of Italian citizens, at a time when 
 the nobles and princes of the rest of Europe thought but of security 
 and defence. Sculpture, both of bronze and marble, flourished under 
 the chisels of the forerunners of Michael Angelo ; the " Gates of 
 Heaven" of the Baptistery at Florence were cast, whilst Cimabue and 
 Giotto revived painting, Casella, music, and Dante gave to the world 
 his glorious poem. Ilistory was studied, and written with elegance 
 and truth by Giovanni Villani and others, whose records bear testi- 
 
ITALIAN LIBERTY IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 77 
 
 mony to the flourishing state of their country, and its happiness under 
 the blessings of self-government. The manufactures of Italy, particu 
 larly in stuffs and arms, excited the astonishment and cupidity of the 
 northern nations ; the Tuscan and Lombard merchants trafficked in 
 the East and West, bartering their goods to the people, and lending 
 money to the nobles at large interest: the banking and monetary 
 system of Europe was established by them. The laboring classes 
 were in similar prosperity ; each gained largely, and spent but moder 
 ately, for manners were yet pure, and luxury had not as yet affected 
 virtue. 
 
 But this prosperity was doomed, and the dissensions of the various 
 republics soon surrendered liberty to the uncontrolled power of such 
 despots as the Visconti and the Medici. War broke out in 1282, be 
 tween Genoa and Pisa, which continued with various success until the 
 year 1284. 
 
 The history of Florence, " that land where the poet s lip and the 
 painter s hand are most divine," presents more objects of importance 
 than any other republic of the Middle Ages. Previous to her subjec 
 tion to the Medici, she was free, active, and independent, the protec 
 tress of Italian liberty, the nurse of art and science. There was an 
 immeasurably greater degree of democratic liberty in her midst than 
 elsewhere. Venice was an oligarchy, whilst a powerful aristocracy 
 predominated more or less in the other republics. 
 
 " Florence was the Athens of Italy. The genius displayed by*ome 
 of its citizens, the talent and intelligence in business to be found 
 even in the mass of the people, the generosity which seemed the 
 national character, whenever it was necessary to protect the oppressed 
 to defend the cause of liberty, raised this city above every other."* 
 
 Discord broke out, however, in 13 78 ; the lower orders demanding 
 a more complete equality with the higher classes. The constitution 
 became at this time entirely democratic ; the people were sovereign, 
 and the nobles were excluded from the government. The seeds of 
 anarchy and oppression were, however, in her midst, the citizens 
 
 * Sismondi. 
 
78 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 were divided into twenty-one different corporations of arts or 
 from seven of which, termed arti maggiori, the magistrates might 
 alone be chosen. From these sprung the Albizzi and Ricci, rival 
 houses, and eventually the Medici, who, from popular leaders, became 
 the absolute sovereigns of the republic. 
 
 The disputes between the higher and lower orders of the citizens 
 broke out with renewed intensity in 1378. The poorer classes of arti 
 sans flew to arms, and made themselves masters of the city. A 
 carder of woo], Michele Lando, marched at the head of the people, 
 carrying in his hand the gonfalon or national standard, when suddenly 
 the citizens proclaimed him gonfalonier. He restored peace and se 
 curity tq the State, and ordained that in future the chief magistracy 
 should consist of three members of the major arts, three of the minor, 
 and three of the ciompi or wool-carders. But this state of order and 
 freedom did not long exist: in 1381 the people were deprived of 
 power, and the family of Albizzi then directed the republic for fifty- 
 three years. This house governed the State prosperously ; Florence 
 attained an unexampled degree of prosperity, setting a limit to the 
 ambition of the powerful Gian Galeazza Visconti, Ladislaus, king of 
 Naples, and Filippo Maria, duke of Milan. 
 
 " No triumph of an aristocratic faction ever merited a more bril 
 liant place in history. The one in question maintained itself by the 
 ascendency of its talents and virtues, without ever interfering with the 
 rights of the other citizens, or abusing a preponderance which was 
 all in opinion."* 
 
 The family of the Medici having obtained the leadership of the 
 people by advocating popular doctrines, now intrigued to build up the 
 fortunes of their house, and Cosmo de Medici became the rival of the 
 Albizzi. Driven from the city in 1433, he was recalled the following 
 year, and the Albizzi expelled. 
 
 Had there been any patriotism in the Italian nation at this period 
 had any common course of action or policy existed, or union of the 
 different republics been effected Italy could have cleared the Penin- 
 
 * Sismondi. 
 
ITALIAN LIBERTY IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 79 
 
 sula of foreign armies, and driven the French, Germans, Spaniards, 
 and Swiss, with countless Condottieri, beyond the Alps. The great 
 republics of Milan, Venice, and Florence, could not, however, con 
 sent to this forgetfulness of rivalry, and the two latter refused to ad 
 mit Milan into such a union. Italy, therefore, soon became a prey, 
 not merely to foreigners, but to her own citizens, and the various re 
 publics fell into the hands of those rich families, whose only object 
 was self-aggrandizement. 
 
 Cosmo de Medici resolved to effect that, in which the family of the 
 Bentivogli had been successful in Bologna, the subjugation of the 
 State to his rule, and that of his descendants. In this he eventually 
 succeeded, and henceforward we can no longer regard Florence as a 
 republic, but as a duchy, glorious, magnificent, and powerful, it is 
 true, but a State in which democratic liberty did not exist, even in 
 name, where the pride of a dominant family was the first, the only 
 consideration. Florence had been the least selfish of all the Italian 
 republics : she had opposed the oppressive power of the German em 
 perors, assisted her weaker neighbors against their tyrants, and been 
 the guardian of liberty, generally, in Italy. But she fell, because in an 
 evil hour she followed a selfish policy, and forgot the good of the 
 whole in her private jealousies. 
 
 There was a gleam of hope, however, when, in 1494, Florence x- 
 pelled the Medici, after they had governed the city during sixty years. 
 Three parties aspired to power. The Piagnoni, headed by the famous 
 Savonarola, a monk, who demanded a democratic constitution ; the 
 Arabbiati, who aspired to hold the same aristocratic power as that 
 formerly held by the Medici ; and the Bigi, the partisans of the Medici, 
 who kept studiously in retirement. These three parties became so 
 evenly balanced in the balia or national council of 1494, that " Sa 
 vonarola took advantage of this state of affairs to urge that the people 
 had never delegated their power to a balia, which did not abuse their 
 trust. The people, he said, would do much better to reserve this 
 power to themselves, and exercise it by a council, into which all the 
 citizens should be admitted. His proposition was agreed to, and a 
 
80 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 general council was formed, and declared sovereign on the 1st of July, 
 1495 ; it was invested with the election of magistrates, hitherto chosen 
 by lot, and a general amnesty was proclaimed, to bury in oblivion all 
 the ancient dissension of the Florentine republic."* 
 
 But the popular voice proved inconstant, and Savonarola s influence 
 quickly gave way to that of the Arabbiati, wiio arrested him, and put 
 his partisans, the Piaguoni, to flight. Pope Alexander VI. dispatched 
 messages to Florence, ordering the monk to be put to death, with his 
 two disciples, Buonvicino and Marrufii, and they were accordingly 
 burned alive, after suffering those excruciating tortures which pre 
 ceded their execution. 
 
 With the aid of the Spaniards, in 1512, the exiled Medici returned 
 to Florence ; but they had lost every republican feeling, and all sym 
 pathy of the Florentines. Their only object was to raise money for 
 themselves, and for those Spaniards who had assisted them in regain 
 ing their tyrannical power. In 1569, Pope Pius V. granted the title 
 of Grand-Duke of Tuscany to Cosmo de Medici, a youth of nineteen : 
 seven grand-dukes of that family reigned in Florence, the last of whom, 
 Gian Gastone, died in 1737. Thereafter, Floience, once the first on 
 the scroll of liberty and fame, was scarcely mentioned in Europe. 
 
 The little republic of San Marino, which has existed as an inde 
 pendent State since the fifth century, contains, at the present day, but 
 four thousand inhabitants. Whilst her once powerful and magnificent 
 neighbors no longer exist, and, what is remarkable, under the very 
 eaves of the Vatican, she still preserves her laws and freedom. San 
 Marino has its nobles and plebeians, from whom the legislative coun 
 cil of sixty members is chosen by universal suffrage. There is also 
 an Upper Chamber, called the Council of Twelve, two-thirds of whom 
 are renewed every year ; and two capatini, who form the executive. 
 A supreme magistrate, who is invariably a stranger, administers jus 
 tice, and is elected for three years. The revenues are about $6,000, 
 and the armed force consists of forty men. The Republic pays great 
 attention to letters, and supports a college which contains some fifty 
 
 * Sismondi. 
 
ITALIAN LIBERTY IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 81 
 
 students. The Italian traveller, M. Valery, informs us the usual com 
 plaint is heard about the aristocracy, for it appears that a few rich 
 families have managed to keep all political power in their own hands. 
 Another complaint is of a still more serious character non-resident 
 strangers, unnaturalized, have become possessors, by purchase, of the 
 greater part of the little State. The republicans of San Marino must 
 obviate such a crying treason, or they will soon cease to exist as a 
 separate nation. 
 
 Florence, the brightest gem in Freedom s coronet, fell from her 
 high estate, because she kept not guard over liberty. It was an 
 easier struggle to vanquish the aristocratic Venice and Genoa, with 
 the many minor States, which followed their baneful examples ; but 
 all alike are now fallen, and the mailed hand of foreign despotism 
 holds Italy in chains. In looking back upon the glorious era of the 
 Italian republics, the mind is. almost lost in admiration of the power 
 exerted by these small commonwealths ; of their intense love of liberty, 
 when the rest of mankind were sunk in comparative slavery, and their 
 glorious monuments in literature and the arts, at a period when Eu 
 rope was in mediaeval barbarism. But a foe existed in their midst, 
 and the very principles which have worked the ruin of all other re 
 publics compassed their destruction. Shall not Italy be a warning 
 to other lands ? 
 
 Neither the military hordes of the German emperors, the fearful 
 thunders of the Vatican, the impetuous onset of the Gallic knights, 
 nor the ceaseless ravages of the marauding Condottieri, could have 
 prevailed against Freedom, had the Italians remained true to them 
 selves. But union did not exist union had almost become impossi 
 ble: the sacred name of Liberty was used as a mere party-cry, and 
 every man s hand was against his fellow. History declares with all 
 the majesty of divinity, for her voice is but the fulfilment of prophecy, 
 that conflicting principles and ceaseless agitation cannot exist in a 
 community without destroying its vitality. Nay, the language of 
 inspiration speaks in tones that man dare not gainsay "A house 
 divided against itself cannot stand." 
 
THE ANGLO-SAXON RACE AND FREEDOM. 
 
 41 If there be any thing in the supremacy of races, the experiment now in progress will develop 
 ;t." DAXIEL WEBSTER. 
 
 NEXT to the divine instinct of religion, and scarcely less holy, is 
 love of country and of the family to which we belong. Blood is the 
 first and closest bond of life, endearing us, not only to our brethren, 
 but to the generous soil which is our common heritance. We know 
 not how it attracts us in sympathy, feeling, and disposition ; but its 
 potency is none the less indisputable. It has been correctly remarked 
 that the family js the first state. Next to occupying the same land, 
 the best guarantee of fellowship is speaking the same tongue. Further 
 bonds of union are established when our brethren share the same be 
 lief with us, worship at the same altars, meet at the same time and 
 places to perform the ceremonies of religion and settle the graver 
 affairs that agitate the whole community, and, generally, when they 
 feel and act as the members of .one family or race can alone feel and 
 act if they would strengthen the circumstances of blood and com 
 mon language. A people that is a stranger to such emotions, occupies 
 no position in the world s history, but becomes merely an instrument 
 in the hands of other and more earnest nations. A distinct and 
 sacred nationality is essential to the development of patriotism, as 
 the latter is essential to the growth of virtue and freedom. 
 
 The American is a branch of the_ great Anglo-Saxon family. This 
 we hear every day. It is one of those trite definitions which trip 
 from the tongue on the smallest provocation. How many are there 
 who know any thing at all of the Anglo-Saxon family ? How many 
 
84 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 are there who appreciate to its full extent the truth and glory of the 
 assertion ? The number has been small, we believe, but it is swell 
 ing into magnificent proportions. The day is at hand when twenty 
 millions of free-torn sons of America shall rejoice in the boast thai 
 they are Anglo-Saxons; that day when the surging of turbulou.- 
 foreign races shall provoke dignified and decisive reprimand. 
 
 Where there are many conflicting elements of discord, it is not 
 easy to mention a subject of national importance without eliciting 
 ridicule and sarcasm. Anglo-Sax onism is particularly successful in 
 this respect. It is a theme which can scarcely be broached in general 
 society, without calling forth some silly sneer. Surrounded on every 
 side by a mixed population, the American almost loses his own iden 
 tity ; but it is for a moment only. The " time that tries men s souls " 
 leads him instinctively back to the great fountain-head of his being, 
 and he feels at once the race to which he belongs. We purpose in 
 this chapter to devote ourselves, firstly, to a consideration of the Anglo- 
 Saxon race en masse, and secondly, of that branch to which we be 
 long. We will preface our remarks with what a writer* of the 5th 
 century says of the Anglo-Saxons of his day : " They overcome all 
 who have the courage to oppose them ; they surprise all who are so 
 imprudent as not to be prepared for their attack. When they pursue, 
 they infallibly overtake ; and when they are pursued, their escape is 
 certain. They despise danger ; they are inured to shipwreck ; they 
 are eager to purchase booty with the peril of their lives. Tempests 
 which to others are dreadful, to them are subjects of joy. The storm 
 is their protection when they are pressed by the enemy, and a cover 
 for their operations Avhen they meditate an attack." It will be per 
 ceived how little the characteristics of the race have changed, and 
 how much we inherit in this present day from our early ancestors, 
 especially in the particulars of overcoming opposition, despising dan 
 ger, and laughing at the fierce threatenings of the ocean. 
 
 The Anglo-Saxon race is undoubtedly of Scythian or Gothic origin. 
 A portion of this great family invaded Britain early as 300 years 
 
 * Siclonius, Bishop of Clermont. 
 
THE AXGLO-SAXOX RACE AND FREEDOM. 85 
 
 before the Christian era, whilst it was in possession of the Cimmerians 
 or Celts. The Anglo-Saxons of that early day, who were called Bel- 
 gae, from Belgic Gaul, whence they came, did not assimilate with 
 other tribes more readily than they do now. The Celts had to aban 
 don their advantage, and at the time of Julius Caesar s invasion it 
 was the stern courage and inflexible bravery of the Gethae s descend 
 ants, not the Cimmerians, that opposed his imperial legions. Pink- 
 erton supposes that the interior of the island was still in the posses 
 sion of the Welch or Britons, as they were called. All memory of 
 the Celts or Cimmerians who preceded the Welch in their occupation 
 of Britain was unknown to the Roman and Saxon writers. 
 
 The genuine Anglo-Saxons, however, whence the present race is 
 descended, did not transport themselves to Britain until the fifth or 
 sixth century. They came from the Cirnbric peninsula (now Den 
 mark), and were branches of the great Saxon confederation which 
 had extended itself from the Elbe to the Rhine. The Anglo-Saxons, 
 Lowland Scotch, Normans, Danes, Norwegians, Swedes, Germans, 
 Dutch, Belgians, Lombards, and Franks, have all sprung from this 
 great Saxon confederation,* and may all be distinguished by the 
 terms Scythian, German, or jGothic. Their first appearance in the 
 world s history was in that cradle of nations Asia. Here they 
 multiplied and extended their area of operations for several centuries.f 
 Amongst themselves their general appellation was Scolati ; among 
 the Greeks, Scuthoi or Noniades. They are better known, however, 
 as Getse or Goths. The more advanced of the tribes were known to 
 the Romans as Germans. 
 
 We will here deviate for a moment to explain the meaning of 
 these various designations, and whence they are derived. Pliny 
 speaks of the Scythians as Sacassani, which was probably a corrup 
 tion of Sakai-suna, or Sons of the Sakai, afterwards abbreviated into 
 Saksun or Saxon.J The name is supposed to come from the same 
 root as the Anglo-Saxon word seax, a sword. ID the Persian book 
 of Kings the same people are called SsaJcalib, or SsaJclib sword- 
 * Pinkerton. t Herodotus, Strabo. J Miss Chandler. 
 
 5 
 
86 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 lips; the name being suggested in all probability by the Saxons 
 fondness for that weapon, a fondness which the Anglo-Saxons of the 
 present day do not fail to manifest whenever they have an opportu 
 nity of getting to close quarters with an enemy. That they were a 
 warlike people is beyond doubt ; for even the Roman name, German, 
 is derived from the old German yer, a spear, and mann, a man. 
 After leaving Asia the Saxons adopted a new name and abandoned 
 their Scythian one. They called themselves Teutons, from Teut, 
 Tuisto, Tuisco, or Thiusco, who is said to have been one of the found 
 ers of the race, and who was worshipped after his death as a god. 
 The modern name Deutsch is derived from this, having passed 
 through the modifications, Putsch, Dietsch, and Teutsch. 
 
 A Scandinavian branch of the family settled in Scotland about 
 the same period that the Belgre emigrated to Britain. The mem 
 bers of this section of the Saxon stock are known in history by the 
 name of Picts, or Caledonians. They are said to be the ancestors of 
 the Lowland Scotch and the Northern Irish races that are distin 
 guished from their Celtic countrymen by superiority of intelligence, 
 industry, and firmness of character. 
 
 We have thus briefly traced the origin of the Anglo-Saxon family, 
 and have shown whence it came. "We will now prove that from 
 earliest time to the present it lias been the consistent champion of 
 freedom, loyalty, and devotion. It cannot be disputed that the Anglo- 
 Saxons were from the first, and are to the present day, fond of what 
 is delicately termed "annexation." They were ever ready to pur 
 chase booty, as the learned Sidonius remarks, with the peril of their 
 lives. A brave people cannot resist the temptation of adventure, and 
 the peril which it involves is, perhaps, its greatest attraction. A 
 notable illustration may be found in Jonathan s love for Cuba. If 
 that island could be acquired quietly and as a matter of course, no 
 one would trouble himself about it. But it is otherwise ; and the 
 Anglo-Saxon principles of overcoming difficulties and vanquishing 
 opposition manifest themselves. Those writers who recommend Jon 
 athan to wait until Cuba, like a ripe pear, falls into the lap of her 
 
THE AXGLO-SAXOX 11ACE AND FKEEDOM. 87 
 
 American lover, display but little knowledge of the Anglo-Saxon 
 character. Independently of this restless force of character, how 
 ever, there is the moral element, which governs and controls its 
 action. 
 
 Tf the Anglo-Saxon "were a mere marauder, he would rest content 
 with acquisition and pillage. But he does not do so. The land he 
 has fought for, he cherishes. It is thereafter his land ; a part of 
 himself, and to be regarded from the elevation of his freedom-loving, 
 noble mind. He may have acquired it by the sword, but he retains 
 it by the law, and by a man-to-mau faith and affection. Wheresoever 
 the Anglo-Saxon pioneer goes, he fights first ; then builds his chapel, 
 his courthouse, his schools, and his stores. He does not labor to 
 forget civilization, but to exclude barbarism. All the Roman writers 
 expressed their astonishment at the moral sternness and rectitude of 
 the Teutonic character. The reverence with which they treated wo 
 man was even a matter of surprise. Tacitus says : " They think their 
 women possess something inherent and foreseeing." Is it not just 
 occasion of pride, that in our day this chivalric feeling still remains, 
 and forms a proverbial characteristic of the American character? 
 Wherever Freedom is found, there is woman emancipated. England 
 is the freest country ra Europe, and there the position of woman is 
 little inferior to what it is in our own land. Among the ancient 
 Britons (or Celts) marriage was unknown. Men and women lived 
 together promiscuously, like beasts of the field. The Anglo-Saxons, 
 on the contrary, viewed the custom with abhorrence, and were strict 
 in the observance of the marriage vow r . Some of their earliest laws, 
 at least the earliest of which any record is known to exist, relate 
 especially to the crime of adultery. It was looked upon as most 
 heinous, and received the severest punishment of the Anglo-Saxon 
 code. In religion, the same wide difference existed between the 
 two races. The Celts adhered to their Druidic worship, and aban 
 doned their souls to the charge of the priests. The Anglo-Saxons, 
 on the contrary, prayed to their mythological gods with individual 
 
88 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 fervor, and were content to manage their own conscience, and let 
 others do the same. For a while the Romish religion gained the 
 ascendency in Europe, and Celt and Saxon alike obeyed its tenets. 
 But later, ere the voice of Luther shouted sternly through the dark 
 ness of Popery, the Anglo-Saxon Wickliffe had proclaimed liberty 
 of conscience. The Celts, on the contrary, adhered to the old tra 
 ditions ; and even in this day of generally diffused theological know 
 ledge, the Celtic races are obedient to the blind dictates of the Holy 
 See. 
 
 Thus we perceive, that to the earliest Anglo-Saxons we are in 
 debted not only for the lasting characteristics of our race, but for that 
 inherent reverence for the gentler sex, and toleration of religious 
 opinion, which characterize the American people of the present 
 century. But this is not all. The Anglo-Saxons loved fair play, and 
 could understand no trial that was not based on general principles of 
 equity and justice. In the reign of Ethelred, the following law was 
 passed: "Let there be gemoto in every wapenlace; and let twelve 
 of the eldest thegres go out with the gercfa, and swear on the 
 relics which shall have been given into their hands, that they will 
 condemn no innocent man, nor screen any that is guilty."* In 
 other words : " Let there be courts in every district, and let the 
 sheriff summon twelve men to try all prisoners;" our own prized 
 trial by jury ! If we had inherited nothing but this boon from our 
 ancestors, it would be sufficient to endear the race to the present and 
 to all after generations. 
 
 If our space permitted, we could dwell on the memorable deeds 
 of famous Anglo-Saxons. But we have proved sufficient to satisfy 
 the skeptic, that Freedom is not a new word, but an old idea, derived 
 and retained from the earliest pages of their history. We will add 
 to these remarks the final sentence of King Alfred s will. It needs 
 no comment. " It is just that the English should forever remain as 
 free as their own thoughts." 
 
 Turning to our own history, we find that the Anglo-Saxon element 
 
 * Sh;iron Turner. 
 
THE ANGLO-SAXON RACE AND FREEDOM. 89 
 
 has ever been the potent one. Our present greatness and our future 
 progress alike depend on it. The singular purity of the Anglo- 
 Saxon stock, particularly in the Eastern States, has been a matter of 
 surprise with some writers ; a moment s reflection, however, explains 
 the circumstance. Oppression or intolerance of any kind was so in 
 imical to the character of the Anglo-Saxon, that it became unbear- 
 
 O / 
 
 able. Always preferring a certain to an uncertain remedy, he de 
 tached himself from the land of his birth, and sought, on the shores 
 of America, a home, free and filled with promise. Privation, suffer 
 ings, and hardships were, to his sturdy nature, mere items arrayed 
 against a grand total. The future nerved him for the present, and 
 he had unbounded confidence in his own inherent will. The New 
 England colonies were founded by such men ; stern almost to fierce 
 ness, but patient, brave, and elevated in their social and moral 
 thoughts. The counties in England whence they came w r ere chiefly 
 those whicli refused the domination of the Danes and Normans. 
 Additions were afterwards made from the north of Ireland and the 
 Scotch Lowlands ; but, as we have before intimated, these were either 
 Anglo-Saxon in their origin, or Pictish a kindred Gothic race. The 
 last fifty years have witnessed the influx of hordes of Celts and of 
 inferior German tribes. The effect has been trouble and annoyance. 
 "We must look to the pure American stock, and to the pure American 
 stock only, for the remedy of these evils. It is indisputably true, 
 however, that at this moment New England *is more Anglo-Saxon, if 
 possible, than Old England. " The names found in a few pages^f a 
 Boston Directory, or in the columas of advertisements in a news 
 paper, if compared with the same number of English names, taken 
 equally at random, will show the far greater proportion of Anglo- 
 Saxon names with us. - * According to an eminent historian,! the 
 old Puritan stock leavens the national character to the extent of two- 
 thirds of its aggregation. The other third could, we opine, be traced 
 to the same Anglo-Saxon fountain-head, if necessary. 
 
 The heading of this chapter intimates that the Anglo-Saxon is *ho 
 
 * Miss Chandler. f Bancroft. 
 
90 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 only race capable of sustaining freedom. We base that opinion on the 
 facts we have adduced, and on the additional one, that America is the 
 only country in the world that lias sustained institutions perfectly free. 
 
 The history of the Anglo-Saxon race affords abundant material 
 for the reflective mind. It exhibits in an unusual degree the fact 
 that the national characteristics of a race do not change. 
 
 It may be objected that scarcely any modern people has not been 
 modified or changed by amalgamation with foreign blood, whether 
 by conquest, immigration, or otherwise; and in confirmation of this 
 the English are sometimes cited. But the truth is, the Anglo-Saxons 
 never settled among the Celtre as the Franks among the Gauls 
 but drove them out, and, receiving continued accessions of their 
 countrymen from the shores of the Baltic and adjacent islands, 
 repeopled the conquered territory. The unhappy Britons (Celtre) in 
 their memorable appeal to JEtius, the Roman patrician, forcibly de 
 scribe the kind of settlement the Teutons were making. " The bar 
 barians," they say, " on the one hand, chase us into the sea ; the sea, 
 on the other, throws us back upon the barbarians ; and we have only 
 the hard choice left us of perishing by the sword, or by the waves."* 
 
 The Danes in the reign of Egbert and later, to the accession of 
 Canute, w 7 ere but tribes of the Angles or Saxons, differing only from 
 those already settled in England in the fact of being more civil i/ed. 
 To the same race also belonged the Normans ; but these latter never 
 intermixed with the conquered in the same manner as the Danes. 
 Introducing the feudal system into England they became a species of 
 caste, and kept themselves aloof from the mass of the vanquished. 
 Eventually the Norman stock became much thinned during the long 
 and bloody wars of the Roses. What remains of it in the English 
 aristocracy has become so softened in its characteristics by contact 
 with the people, that, except in the class distinctions of the feudal 
 system, it is no longer a separate element of the population. Even 
 this last fragment of Norman caste spirit is rapidly passing away. 
 
 History assists us in drawing certain conclusions from the ex- 
 
 * Bcdc. 
 
THE ANGLO-SAXON RACE AND FREEDOM. 91 
 
 perience of the world. In briefly recording the prominent events 
 attending the career of the race from which we are descended, it is 
 impossible to overlook the fact that the Anglo-Saxon race absorbs, 
 but does not assimilate with other races; borrows nothing from 
 their sentiment; derives nothing from their nationality. What it 
 was a thousand years ago it is to-day ; Civilization and Education 
 have not modified, but intensified its characteristic aspirations for 
 Freedom and ttie Institutions of Freedom. The same unconquerable 
 eneigy ; the same indomitable courage ; the same inflexible deter 
 mination to accomplish destiny, individualize the Anglo-Saxon people 
 of to-day, as on the advent of the race under the victorious banners 
 of Hengist and Horsa, The genius of the people has always been 
 manifest ; their susceptibility for the highest achievements of the 
 human body or intellect, undeniable. Wherever they have penetra 
 ted, Freedom, Religion, Arts, Sciences, and Literature have found a 
 home. Colonization, which has been a ruinous experiment with 
 every other nation, has prospered with the Anglo-Saxon, and for this 
 reason : The latter retain, no matter what the difficulty of doing so, 
 and cherish, their nationality. It is never laid aside or forgotten for 
 one moment, and always rises superior to the circumstances by which 
 it is surrounded. The colonization of other nations has failed for the 
 reason, that the colonists, lacking force of character, have been too 
 anxious to assimilate with the people amongst whom they settled. 
 The Spanish, French, Dutch (Hollanders), <fcc., have at various epochs 
 in the world s history made successful attempts at settling on distant 
 shores, but after the small end of the wedge has been inserted, the 
 leverage has been thrown away by a degenerate imitation of the 
 worst characteristics of the people amongst whom they settled. The 
 Anglo-Saxon stands alone in that repellent force which, concentred in 
 itself, throws off all inferior bodies, but ever widens with opportunity 
 to embrace what is most desirable and advantageous. In a word, it 
 looks forwaid, never backward; upward, but never downward. What 
 is beneath it, it passes by ; what is above it, it aspires to, strives for, 
 and achieves ! 
 
92 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 We have remarked that the Anglo-Saxon absorbs other races, and 
 this too, without suffering any apparent deterioration. Its character 
 istics have not changed, because the infusion of one race with another 
 of stronger and better defined characteristics results in a general as 
 similation of the infused with the people amongst whom they settle, 
 unless a spirit of caste prevail. Thus the Franks, after driving out 
 the Romans from Gaul, soon lost their national characteristics, and 
 became blended or lost in the immense majority of the Gack. Tims, 
 also, innumerable races may assimilate with the American, if, in their 
 earnestness for what is desirable, they imitate the characteristics of 
 the Anglo-Saxon. But if on the contrary they retain a spirit of 
 caste, establish clanships or race distinctions of any kind, as the Tar 
 tars in China, assimilation is impossible. The national spirit will 
 eventually drive them out. Before long the Tartars will ceaso to 
 exist in China. The present revolution numbers their days. 
 
 In all strongly individualized lines of descent, there is a persistency 
 of type which is not affected by an admixture of foreign blood. At 
 the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, thousands of French refugees 
 settled in England, but the controlling majority obliterated their 
 national peculiarities, and few traces now remain of their origin. 
 Races preserve their characteristics, but individuals assimilate. They 
 are absorbed into the dominant race particularly if it be Anglo- 
 Saxon. 
 
 The important consideration of race cannot be too vigorously im 
 pressed on the American mind. JSTo other country in the world is 
 so besieged with opposing elements of caste, sect, and foreign na 
 tionality. In the pulpit, in the senate, in the street, and in the homo 
 circle, we find representatives of other races than our own. In the 
 majority of cases these representatives have imbibed a certain amount, 
 of American sentiment, sufficient perhaps for an easy passage through 
 politics or society, and are consequently in process of absorption. But 
 too frequently W 7 e find them tenaciously adhering to Old World doc 
 trines of government, religion, and social life. It may not be easy to 
 abandon a life-long theory, but it should be no more difficult than 
 
T1IK ANGLO-SAXON HACK AND K.KKKDOM. 93 
 
 abandoning the land of one s birth. When the latter becomes im 
 perative, the former should be absolute. The American, by attaching 
 due importance to every circumstance of race, learns precisely whence 
 freedom sprang, and inversely to appreciate his own glorious birth 
 right, and to guard against encroachments from inimical sources. No 
 sentiment that is not thoroughly Anglo-Saxon can he entertain, for it 
 is his Anglo-Saxon principles that make him what he is. Montes 
 quieu remarks in his " Spirit of Laws " " The English (by which of 
 course is meant the Anglo-Saxon race) are the people who have best 
 known how to preserve in full vigor those three great things (prin 
 ciples), religion, commerce, and liberty." This important avowal 
 from such a philosopher should be studied word for word, and justi 
 fied from the pages of history; as indeed it is briefly vindicated in 
 this chapter. If we ask ourselves why it is so, we shall find that it 
 is because in religion the Anglo-Saxon is always sincere in obeying 
 his own conscience without extraneous dictation. Piety is an instinct 
 with him, not a sensual gratification, as in Southern lands ; or an 
 intellectual exercise, as in Northern ones. He has no dependence 
 on any one but God and himself; and needs no mediator but his 
 own conscience. It is for the simple reason that the Anglo-Saxon is 
 no hair-splitting doctrinarian that he has preserved his free religion. 
 Speak to him about his faith, and he may hesitate in its exact defini 
 tion ; but speak to him of his conscience, and he knows precisely what 
 you mean. If we would learn the secret of his success in preserving 
 and fostering commerce, we must turn to that other source of his 
 greatness his faith and confidence in the transactions of his fellow- 
 man. He does to others as they should do to him. He begins by 
 inviting confidence, and ends by securing it. The z\mericau people 
 is the most trusting on the face of the earth, and the most enter 
 prising for that reason. The low vice of trading nations meanness 
 is unknown to him. He is shrewd enough in securing a good bar 
 gain, but he forfeits nothing of his integrity in doing so. The ad 
 vantage he obtains is strictly a commercial one ; bought at no sacri 
 fice of independence or morality, but such an advantage as he would 
 
 5* 
 
94 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 appreciate in others, if they could gain it over him. The same 
 characteristics are the features of his political history. He is free, 
 loves freedom, appreciates it, and asks every one to come and share it 
 with him. A little less confidence in the miscellaneous guests he has 
 invited to his home might be desirable. It would be well if he 
 noticed the peculiar characteristics of races, and remembered that 
 they were inevitably the result of local circumstances, which, although 
 they may be changed or removed, are for the most part difficult to 
 eradicate. 
 
 But these things the American should never forget : 
 
 That the Anglo-Saxon race is the only one which has proved itself 
 capable of sustaining free political institutions ; 
 
 That the representation of the people, of the whole people, is of 
 Teutonic origin, and can be traced up to the earliest time of the race; 
 
 That the government of the Anglo-Saxons (and also of the Danes 
 and Northmen) was never monarchical ; the chieftainship was never 
 hereditary. A chief had power only in the field. The battle over, 
 he was but a simple warrior, claiming no immunity and no superior 
 portion of the booty taken in battle ; 
 
 That the chief was chosen by universal suffrage. Alfred the Great 
 came to the throne not in virtue of his birth though de facto king 
 of the Heptarchy, he was not so de jure. The Saxon constitution 
 never thought of divine or hereditary right: that absurd fiction was 
 the result of tyrannous combination and Rome ; 
 
 That the Representative system is purely Anglo-Saxon. It was 
 not instituted by Edward the First, but merely revived by him after 
 it had long lain in abeyance. The king was struggling against his 
 Norman barons, and in his necessity claimed the assistance of his 
 Saxon people ; they remembering former constitutional rights re- 
 demanded and once more obtained them. This national assemblage 
 of the representatives of the people was called in the legal Norman 
 French of the time, Parler le mcnt, signifying to speak one s mind. 
 Thus freedom of thought and speech was a recognized right among 
 the Saxons. The feudal system strove in vain to ignore it. No other 
 
THE ANGLO-SAXON RACE AND FEEEDOM. 95 
 
 race in history has had any thing similar to this right. The republics 
 of ancient times were merely the aristocracy governing the plebs. 
 The nearest approach to it, however, was found in the immunities 
 enjoyed by the citizens of the Free-towns of Europe in the middle 
 ages, as Antwerp, Bremen, Lubeck, &c. ; but even here the suffrage 
 was limited, and lay in the hands of a few. 
 
 And, lastly, an American should demand from every foreigner, a.- 
 an equivalent for the hospitality extended to him, a full recognition 
 of the supremacy of this same Anglo-Saxon race. There is nothing 
 degrading in the admission, for it is justified in the existence of the 
 very freedom he comes hither to enjoy ; and it is essential, because 
 until he does acknowledge it, he is scarcely likely to imitate its vir 
 tues, its heroism, and its veneration for the institutions of freedom. 
 Every man who comes to America with the intention of cherishing 
 his own nationality, is an enemy to the Constitution, and abuses a 
 hospitality which should be sacred. The existence of a population 
 thus disposed must be pernicious and dangerous. It is calculated to 
 lessen the love of the American for his own home, and to render the 
 nation less imposing and distinctive in the eyes of foreign powers. 
 
 There cannot be a doubt that Providence has selected the Anglo- 
 Saxon race to spread the blessings of liberal institutions throughout 
 the world. It is the only one, of modern times, which has been able 
 to colonize with success, and firmly establish its character, its lan 
 guage, and its customs upon the new territories. What the English 
 have gained by the rights of discovery, or the aggressions of war, 
 America seems destined to organize and perfect. It is therefore that 
 our country displays to the world a power and a success characteristic 
 of no other age or clime ; a liberty, of which the Grecian and Ro 
 man philosophers never dreamed, and which, next to Christianity in 
 effulgence, shines through the earth as the light of suffering humanit} . 
 But this freedom is the victory, the hard-earned conquest, of centuries 
 of struggles against oppression. Men of other races, individuals of 
 other peoples, have declared the great principles of freedom have, 
 in thousands of instances, died in their defence but the nations to 
 
96 A VOICE TO AMEiilCA. 
 
 which these men belonged have made no universal response, but left 
 them exceptions, and not characteristic examples. Not so with the 
 Anglo-Saxon ; the race has acted, and its heroes have embodied, only 
 what its heart cordially responded to what was the very instinct of 
 its nature. 
 
/ THE HEROES OF THE FOUNDERS OF LIBERTY, 
 
 "The present age is benefited by the experience of the past. We have in fruition what thousands 
 hoped for, and vainly suffered to possess." GOETHE. 
 
 THE wisdom of king Solomon will ever be perpetuated in the one 
 declaration, " There is nothing new under the jun." Homer remarks 
 that we always takeTBe liberty of thinking ourselves wiser than our 
 ancestors. Whatever we do, whatever idea illuminates our mind, 
 whatever progress we attempt, the conclusion always is, that we are 
 by so much abandoning the past and approaching a future more 
 radiant and ennobling than any preceding epoch of the world s his 
 tory. It is doubtful, however, whether civilization, like the emblem 
 of eternity, be not in the form of a circle ; whether we do not simply 
 diverge from a point, to converge to it afterwards. Modern philoso 
 phy embraces the idea that the earliest era of man s existence was 
 the most perfect ; and that what we lost then, is but now being slowly 
 recovered. 
 
 Be that as it may, there can be no reasonable doubt that the 
 modern idea of freedom is of very early inception. All freedom, 
 indeed, is the result of long agitated reform, based at first on an indi 
 vidual idea, permeating afterwards as a principle, and accomplished 
 finally as a necessity of the times. Reforms usually commence with 
 argument, and end with bloodshed. The comparative few who think, 
 appeal to those who feel, and the two constitute leaders and revolu 
 tionists. 
 
 There is no error more common than that which attributes to the 
 principles of the war of American independence an original character. 
 Many well-informed men entertain the belief that in the Declaration 
 
98 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 of Independence were conveyed startling and entirely new ideas of 
 liberty, and that the men who achieved it were indebted solely to 
 the inherent greatness of their natures for a civil and political tri 
 umph, whose equal has yet to be found in the world. Whoever has 
 studied the history of the world its constant yearnings for religious 
 and political freedom and observed the slow but certain progress of 
 reform, needs scarcely to be told that this is an error. The American 
 war of independence consummated a preconceived idea; gave vitality 
 to a principle which has from time immemorial occupied the atten 
 tion of thinkers. It was not a sudden, unexpected dispensation of 
 liberty ; it was not a patriotic suggestion of the moment, but the 
 accumulated result of centuries of effort. 
 
 Wherever reform begins, revolution must, sooner or later, follow. 
 It will be objected, that England is an exception to this rule. It 
 must be borne in mind, however, that the best revolutionary spirit of 
 England that is, the spirit most tenacious of prerogative left the 
 mother-country for America in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. 
 It was the strong, stubborn Saxon spirit that had risen in rebellion 
 against the idiotic misrule of James, which first scaled the rocks of 
 Plymouth Sound, and explored the inviting banks of James River. 
 Congenial natures followed, and England rapidly lost the foremost 
 men of her time, men who had been the centre of all reforms, and 
 who brought with them the most elevated opinions of the century. 
 In speaking of America as a new land, it should always be borne in 
 mind that, practically, it is as old, if not older, than any nation of 
 Europe. The mere consideration of centuries is of little importance. 
 Intelligence and civilization arc the characteristics which stamp man 
 hood on a nation s brow. The Chinese in their chronologies go back 
 far beyond the period when we are taught to believe the world was 
 created. It is said that in their school-books it is customary for I ho 
 teacher to insert a pencil-mark opposite the year in which the world 
 is popularly supposed to have been made. I>ut notwithstanding 
 their extensive line of progenitors, the Chinese are the youngest, the 
 least informed, most frivolous people on the face of the earth. 
 
THE HEROES OF THE FOUNDERS OF LIBERTY. 99 
 
 The progress of humanity may be likened, says an eloquent writer,* 
 to the successive necessities of repairing the ancient homestead of 
 our fathers. We are unwilling to disturb the old framework, and 
 yet the decay of parts imperatively calls for repairs. But every 
 attempt to add and beautify, by comparison, discovers defects, and 
 the skill of the mechanic and artist stands in permanent requisition. 
 The homestead of our American forefathers was found too seriously 
 dilapidated to admit of repairs. It was vacated, and a new one 
 erected on the Atlantic shores of wild America. Bui; the men who 
 erected that homestead were no untutored pioneers. They knew pre 
 cisely the defects of the old homestead, and avoided them falling, 
 however, for a time, on others equally great and pernicious. Their 
 new house was, in all important respects, put in order with the best 
 of all judgments that which had been tutored in bitter experience. 
 
 The perfection of earthly happiness is freedom, and that, as we 
 have before asserted, is the slow result of gradual reform. If we 
 penetrate the darkness of remote antiquity, we find minds of a supe 
 rior order striking initial blows at the root of tyranny and oppression. 
 In Dr. Abbot s Egyptian Museum (New York) there is a remarkably 
 curious illustration of this fact. A rude artist of the earliest Egyp 
 tian period (3000 years B. C.), caricatures the priesthood for their low, 
 fox-like cunning and rapacity. This exceedingly curious work of art 
 is executed on a tile, and was doubtless in its day a missile of some 
 weight. Thus we perceive that there were religious reformers even in 
 the days of the firstJHaaraoh. It is not unreasonable to suppose that 
 there were politicafi^Rrmers also. 
 
 The men who have made sacrifices in the holy cause of Freedom, 
 particularly those who come from the same stock as ourselves, 
 are assuredly worthy of our best remembrance. To them we are 
 indebted for the prosperous consummation of a free country. They 
 are not only our lineal ancestors, but the parents of our best and 
 most noble thoughts. Without their example and their spirit, we 
 should be, even now, a colony, cursed with Church, State, and 
 * History of Democracy, Vol. I. page 34. 
 
100 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 man-worship, and all the other imbroglio of monarchism. Unfortu 
 nately, the limits of our work prohibit any thing like a complete 
 sketch of the antecedent heroes of political liberty. Tha most we 
 can accomplish is to select a few names, and present them as flfcger- 
 
 marks along the track of history, for the admiration of the reader. 
 Our endeavor will be to make them, as far as possible, the repre 
 sentatives of their class and epoch, and briefly but explicitly to set 
 forth their claims to the consideration of the law-abiding people of 
 this country. 
 
 Our sketch is to illustrate the growth of those institutions which 
 we now enjoy in America, To do this with any thing like elabo 
 rateness, would compel us to epitomize the general history of the past. 
 Political heroes obtain their greatest attraction from the circum 
 stances in which they were placed ; and, indeed, would not be inter 
 esting to a general reader, in the absence of such connecting in 
 formation. Hence the necessity for dwelling with some detail on 
 events which were of vital importance to the early founders of Amer 
 ican freedom. The antecedent history of America begins, of course, 
 with the Saxons. In this chapter we have commenced with Alfred 
 the Great, for it is only subsequent to the reign of that monarch thai 
 Freedom began to be modernized. 
 T For the record of an able, patriotic, liberty-loving man, and the 
 
 people s beloved ruler, we cordially turn to the life of an early 
 hero. Instances of unselfish loyalty to constitutional liberty are so 
 scarce, that this model man may well be venerated. His merits were 
 not of a class order ; he was good not merely as a kino-, which 
 would scarcely concern us, but as a citizen. Th private as in public 
 life, he practised what he professed : " so happily were all his virtues 
 tempered together, so justly were they blended and so powerfully did 
 each prevent the other from exceeding its proper boundaries."* 
 
 ALFRED THE GREAT, youngest son of King Ethelwolf, was born in 
 Berkshire, England, in 819. At an early age he was taken by his 
 father to Rome, where he remained twelve months, but without ac- 
 
 * Hume. 
 
THE HEEOES OF THE FOUXDESS , 
 
 any kind of knowledge, save perhaps an insiglit into the 
 avariciousness of Romish priests, of which he afterwards made good 
 use. ^^ope Leo the Third, perceiving in the boy something of 
 promise more than was usually manifested, went through the playful 
 operation of giving him the royal unction. This consisted, so far as 
 we have been able to discover, in muttering a few prayers, accompa 
 nied with some theatrical ceremonies, in return for which the recipi 
 ent was expected to make liberal grants of money and land a 
 common sort of exchange in days of bigoted superstition. Ethel wolf, 
 Alfred s father, returned to England to find his kingdom torn to 
 fragments by the ravages of the Danes. The incursions of these 
 desperate marauders continued with unabated fury to the day of his 
 death. If you can imagine a noble steed pursued by a band of 
 remorseless wolves, sometitnes giving them battle with success, at 
 others fleeing from then/ with apprehension, you will have a good 
 idea of the condition o/ England in the year 800. Ethelwolf died, 
 and was succeeded rather summarily by his sons, Ethelbald, Ethel- 
 bert, and Ethelred. .jit was during the reign of the latter that Alfred 
 cjfcve the first indication of his patriotism. Ethelred had unjustly 
 deprived him of aJarge patrimony, and beside this, kept him from a 
 throne which had been bequeathed to him by the will of his father, 
 Ethelwolf. Eitltr of these reasons was sufficient, in those days, to 
 attract a band of eager warriors to his standard. The national dan 
 ger, however, was from the continued irruptions of the Danes. To 
 put a stop to these, Alfred eagerly seconded all the efforts of his 
 brother Ethelred. The nation s welfare, and not the individual s 
 right, was consulted for the first time in that rude age. 
 > Reading and writing in those days were accomplishments of a high 
 order, and were seldom essayed except by members of the priesthood. 
 It is said that Alfred s enthusiasm for learning was first aroused by 
 hearing the Saxon bards repeat their wild lyrics. Himself a poet, 
 as he afterwards abundantly proved, he at once estimated the incom 
 parable advantages of an education. He soon learnt to read, and 
 proceeded then to acquire a knowledge of the Latin language. The 
 
H>2? r l * " * : i , , UNVOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 Roman poets and philosophers fired him with noble emulation, and 
 contributed in no small degree to the formation of a character natu 
 rally heroic. In the midst of his studies, he was called to the throne. 
 His first enterprises, like those of his predecessors, were, of course, 
 directed against the common enemy the Danes. They were prose 
 cuted with varied success. At one time, Alfred had so hemmed them 
 in, that they were glad to come to terms with him. A treaty was 
 entered into, by which the Danes stipulated to depart from the coun 
 try ; but the Danes were not remarkable for keeping their treaties, 
 and in this and other instances behaved perfidiously. Fresh hordes 
 came over to the assistance of their brethren, and Alfred found him 
 self deserted, or surrounded by men who were too broken-spirited to 
 be available against a foe so savage and uncompromising. Under 
 such circumstances, he thought it best to retire for a while from the 
 contest, and await a more propitious moment to free his country 
 from the insatiate locusts who infested it. In the meanest disguise, 
 he sought refuge from the fury of his enemies. He concealed him 
 self under a peasant s! habit, and lived some time in the house of a 
 neat-herd who had been intrusted with the care of some of his 
 cows. 
 
 The Danes, discovering no traces of Alfred s whereabouts, concluded 
 that he had left the country,, or was dead. After a time, they gave 
 up the pursuit. It was then, that the fugitive king began to collect 
 some of his followers, and to hope seriously for an opportunity to free 
 his country. He ordered his subjects to liold themselves in readiness 
 against the enemy, gave them intelligence of his retreat, and suc 
 ceeded in gaining information of the strength and position of the 
 Danes. He was determined not to lose this final opportunity by* 
 any rashness or false estimate of the power he had to cope with. In 
 order more fully to inform himself of the latter, he entered the camp 
 of the chief Dane, disguised as a harper. He was an admirable 
 musician, and, it is said, possessed much native humor. By the 
 exercise of skill and wit, he succeeded in passing unmolested through 
 every quarter. Shortly afterwards, he led his troops against the 
 
THE HEROES OF THE FOUNDERS OF LIBERTY. 103 
 
 enemy, and was completely successful. The Danes begged for peace. 
 Those who were already in the country he allowed to remain, on con 
 dition that they and their king should embrace Christianity. Firmly 
 established on the throne which he filled for twenty-nine years he 
 devoted himself to the glory and honor of his country, the propaga 
 tion of religion, and the dissemination of knowledge. Centuries after 
 his death, he was known and spoken of as "England s darling." The 
 wonderfully balanced intellect of this great man, his holy imparti 
 ality in all matters submitted to his judgment, and the manifest love 
 of freedom evidenced in his whole career, entitle him to the fond 
 appellation. Speaking of Alfred, Gibbon says : "Amidst the deepest 
 gloom of barbarism, the virtue of Antoninus, the learning and valor 
 of Caesar, and the legislative genius of Lycurgus shone forth in that 
 patriot king." 
 
 Alfred was a pious, God-fearing man. He loved learning and 
 those who possessed it. Necessarily, the clergy or bishops were the 
 receptacles in which it lay. But, with singular clearness of vision, 
 Alfred hesitated to increase the power and influence- of the bishops. 
 During his reign, they enjoyed fewer privileges and far less political 
 power than they had possessed in other reigns. Alfred preferred 
 making concessions to the people, rather than to the priests. The 
 truth is, that Alfred, whilst he venerated religion and its ministers, 
 had none of that superstitious awe which usually accompanies infe 
 rior minds. The liberality of Alfred s views, and his constant distrust 
 of the temporal power of the Pope, lead us to agree with Dr. Paiili, 
 that he felt and thought more as a German than a Roman Catholic, 
 and that in his character were already to be traced the rudiments of 
 those opinions which afterwards showed themselves in the independ 
 ence of Protestantism. 
 
 During the reign of Alfred, and for the first time in England, the 
 work of practical and political reform was commenced. The admira 
 ble institution of trial by jury was put into execution on a thorough 
 basis. There were courts of appeal also established, at which twelve 
 freeholders swore to administer impartial justice. Lest corruption 
 
104: A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 should reach even the presiding magistrate, there was an annual meet- 
 ing appointed for the inspection of police, for the inquiry into crimes, 
 the correction of abuses in magistrates, and the obliging of every per 
 son to show the district in which he was registered. There was still 
 another appeal in default of justice in these courts, namely, to the king 
 himself. He was overwhelmed with petitions from all parts of Eng 
 land, for the people rightly estimated the privilege of appealing to a 
 man of such strict impartiality. He was indefatigable in the dispatch 
 of these causes, but finding that his time would be entirely consumed 
 by their adjudication, he conceived the happy idea of obviating the 
 difficulty by correcting the ignorance or corruption of the inferior ma 
 gistrates. He took care to have his nobility instructed in letters and 
 the laws ;~* he chose the earls and sheriffs from among the men most 
 celebrated for probity and knowledge ; he punished severely all mal 
 versation in office,f and he removed all the earls whom he found un 
 equal to the trust. The better to guide the magistrates in the ad 
 ministration of justice, he collected a body of laws for their study, 
 which long served for the basis of English jurisprudence, and was 
 the origin of what is now denominated the common law.J The re 
 sult of these admirable precautions was perfect security to the indivi 
 dual, and a greater amount of freedom than had ever before been en 
 joyed. So exact was the character of the inhabitants, and so unfail 
 ing the arm of justice, that it is said that Alfred, by way of bravado, 
 hung up golden bracelets by the wayside, confident that no man would 
 touch them.g Under his beneficent rule, learning and literature took 
 firm hold of the minds of the people. lie was himself an ardent stu 
 dent, and contributed in no small degree to the enlightenment of 
 the age in which he lived. That he might have time to attend to 
 his multifarious duties, he divided the dav into three equal portions: 
 one was employed in sleep, and the refection of his body by diet and 
 exercise ; another, in the dispatch of business ; a third, in study and 
 devotion.] Thus, although he often labored imdor great bodily in- 
 
 * Asser. f Lc Miroir de Justice. \ Hume. 
 
 William of Mill insbury. \ Hume. 
 
THE HEROES OF THE FOUXDERS OF LIBERTY. 105 
 
 firmity,* this martial hero, who fought in person fifty-six battles by 
 sea and land,f was able during a life of no extraordinary length to ac 
 quire more knowledge, and even to compose more books, than most 
 studious men. He died in the vigor of his age, and the full strength 
 of his faculties, A. D. 901 , after a reign of twenty -nine years and a half. 
 
 In presenting to our readers this . sketch of the life of one of the 
 most interesting heroes of history, we do so in the belief that it is ii 
 structi re and gratifying to trace to such a noble Saxon fountain-head, 
 the first indications of a- political liberty which has since culminated 
 so practicably and sublimely in the American descendants of this 
 same Anglo-Saxon stock. It is contrary to our intention to take the 
 history of England as our only key to political freedom. Other na 
 tions have furnished their quota to the general aggregate. But it 
 cannot be too often impressed, or too tenaciously remembered, that all 
 the solid practical fundamental principles of freedom which prevail 
 among us, have been transplanted from the mother country. What 
 ever may be the political jealousies which irritate the two nations 
 America and England and they are aggravated enough, there can 
 be no justification of national hatred. The English trace. all their 
 political freedom to the Germanic eleifient. We must do the same. 
 The life of Alfred furnishes us with an illustration of the necessity for 
 this justice. To that illustrious hero we are indebted for the restitu 
 tion of trial by jury, and the condensation of a legal practice, now 
 familiarized to us by the title of Common Law. 
 
 The necessity for reajgnable brevity prohibits our dwelling on the 
 successive acquisitions oPpolitical freedom by the people. Only the 
 prominent triumphs can be glanced at. 
 
 The Saxon rule in England terminated with the death of Harold 
 the last of the Saxon kings. Feudal or Norman rule succeeded. The 
 Normans, a tribe of Northern Germans, after they had subdued the 
 provinces of the Eoman Empire, established the feudal as the best 
 system of government. Great change of circumstances rendered it 
 necessary for them to deviate from many of the established customs 
 * Asser. t William of Malmsburv. 
 
106 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 of their native Germany, but they retained all those which were com 
 patible with their new situation. 
 
 The feudal government was simply a confederacy of independent 
 warriors. The chief or head of this confederacy was chosen from the 
 rest on account of his valor ; his glory and strength consisted in the 
 number of suffrages he could thus command. Under certain con 
 ditions of society the feudal system of government was undoubtedly 
 beneficial, especially when based, as was the Germanic, on theoretical 
 principles of liberty, which after all have only been more practically 
 applied in after generations. On the acquisition of fresh territory by 
 the chief, it was customary to apportion it out among the nobles who 
 had assisted in its conquest. The conditions imposed on the latter 
 were, that they should hold these grants in trust for the crown. If 
 military service were needed, they were required to repair to the field 
 with a certain number of retainers. The peculiarity of their tenure 
 rendered it necessary for the nobles to maintain a large retinue. In 
 process of time these military establishments became immensely pow 
 erful. The nobles erected fortresses, castles, and other improvements, 
 and thus in an indirect way acquired a kind of hereditary right to the 
 lands which they merely held in trust. At length this hereditary 
 claim became recognized, and all that was asked from the nobles was 
 occasional military assistance when it was needed, and at other times 
 the payment of some trifling dues. Thus the authority of the sov 
 ereign gradually decayed, and each noble, secure in his own territory, 
 became too powerful and too dangerous to be turned out by an or 
 der of the sovereign. The interests of the nobles being reciprocal, 
 there was no possibility of obtaining a combination against any one 
 of the body. But, on the other hand, there was a certainty of a strong- 
 combination against the sovereign if he sought in any way to en 
 croach on the privileges of the nobles. Such an instance occurred 
 in the reign of King John, and resulted in the humiliation of the 
 monarch and the triumph of the nobles. There is an old saying, 
 that when rogues fall out honest people get their rights. In the case 
 of the Magna Charta this was signally illustrated. 
 
THE HEROES OF THE FOUNDERS OF LIBERTY. 107 
 
 This important document, to which the Anglo-Saxon race owes so 
 much of its freedom, renders it necessary for us to introduce that con 
 temptibly weak prince, King John, to our readers as one of the heroes 
 of political liberty. He was the instrument wielded by the strong 
 arm of right, and although paltry and insignificant in himself, was 
 important -to the triumph of the moment. In dignifying King John 
 even with this importance, we feel some reluctance. But he was the 
 man who conceded, who had the power to concede the Great Charter. 
 The barons who extorted that great national boon from him, were in 
 no respect greater heroes than he. They were actuated by purely 
 personal motives, exactly as he was. The concession of the Great 
 Charter affords another illustration of the truth of the dogma, that 
 " out of evil cometh good." 
 
 King John, having disgusted his people with his cowardice and 
 duplicity, succeeded in offending the Pope, for which piece of pleas 
 antry he was excommunicated. In those days of superstition and 
 Pope-worship, an excommunication from Rome was a grave calamity. 
 For a while John tried fiercely to retaliate, but he was already so odious 
 with his people, that he could obtain but little sympathy. He was 
 compelled to bow submission to the Papal supremacy. With the 
 usual instincts of a coward, he was not content with submission. He 
 thought it necessaiy to conciliate. Amongst other monstrous things, 
 he assigned his kingdom to the Pope, and relinquished all claims to 
 ecclesiastical power. Having secured, as he imagined, the powerful 
 influence of the Pope, he determined to revenge himself on his barons, 
 imagining, with perfect justice, that they were not well disposed to 
 wards him. Contemptible natures always nourish some idea of re 
 venge, if at any future time they think they may have an opportunity 
 to gratify it. Petty persecutions and gross outrages were the wea 
 pons used by John. The barons rebelled. The king desired to know 
 what they wanted. They sent a schedule containing a list of their 
 principal demands. It was no sooner showed to the king than he 
 burst into a furious passion. He asked why they did not demand from 
 ^ un his kingdom, and swore that he would never grant them liber- 
 
108 A VOICE TO AMEEIGA. 
 
 ties, which, if granted, would make him a slave. Neither daunted 
 by the fury nor the oath of the king, the barons forthwith levied war 
 against him. The besieged him in his castle, and drove him to such 
 straits, that he was at length left with a poor retinue of seven 
 knights. He was compelled to submit at discretion. 
 
 Between Windsor and Staines, in England, is a green spot called 
 Runnymede : it has changed but little since the days of King John, 
 and the Englishman points to it with reverence as one of the shrines 
 of political liberty. It was there that King John met the Barons, and 
 signed and sealed the famous deed called the Great Charter. We 
 need scarcely refer to this document at length. It is sufficient to 
 say, that it restored many Saxon laws and usages (which had, under 
 the Norman rule, sunk into abeyance), and for the first time extended 
 equal rights to the vassals as to the lords. It is generally esteemed 
 the foundation of modern political liberty, and was so considered by 
 the early founders of our own republic, who made repeated reference 
 to it in time of trouble. At all events, it has remained for some 
 centuries the most quotable text of Liberty, and to the present day 
 serves as the basis of more comprehensive legislation. 
 
 Nations, like individuals, experience emotions of gratitude. Give 
 them something they can value, and they will prize it thankfully for 
 centuries. The Magna Charta was a great boon; unquestionably 
 radical in its day, sufficient in its operations, and liberal in its pro 
 visions. For several subsequent centuries nothing more was asked. 
 The people were content to enjoy what they had, and to prepare 
 themselves for more. It is in these periods of civil rest that con 
 summate ideas of political freedom dawn in the future of history. 
 Men have time to think. They arrive at certain fixed principles of 
 justice and liberty. When the time comes for enunciating these 
 principles, they have acquired all the weight and importance of priv 
 ileges, and must inevitably be conceded as such. Thus, after the 
 signing of the Magna Charta by John, we find a period of thoughtful 
 repose. The ideas promulgated in that instrument were fermenting 
 in men s minds. Many heroes lacking only the stamp of success 
 
THE HEROES OF THE FOUNDERS OF LIBERTY. 109 
 
 essayed with untimely zeal to extend tire area of popular freedom. 
 The lives of these men afford ample material for the biographer, and 
 instructive lessons for the world. Our limits prevent any special 
 reference to these worthies. Details must be sought in the contem 
 porary works of history. To the dispassionate republican, there will 
 always be an attraction in the lives of men who have striven for 
 liberty, even if the means they adopted were erroneous, and provoked 
 by hate and party zeal. William Wallace, Jack Cade, Monmouth, 
 Wat Tyler, and others, were men who raised a bold front against 
 oppression, and thus achieved a niche in the -many -colored Pantheon 
 of Liberty. 
 
 Notwithstanding the concession of the Great Charter, Liberty had 
 two fundamental difficulties to contend with for a long time. First, 
 the feudal despotism of the nobles ; and secondly, the gradual increase 
 of the Papal power. As an illustration of the former, we may refer 
 to the well-known incident of Lord Warren, who, when questioned 
 as to his title to certain lands, drew his sword, and said that was his 
 title, let who would dispute it. As an illustration of overspreading 
 Papal power, we have the exhibition of a great emperor,* clothed in 
 sackcloth and barefooted before the palace of the Pope, standing 
 there for three bitter winter days, suing for mercy. These incidents 
 furnish us with an insight into the real possession of power in those 
 days, and indicate quite clearly the shoals and quicksands on which 
 the frail bark Political Liberty was likely to strand. Against these 
 two evils then, Feudal and Papal power, the popular energies were 
 long directed. Men s thoughts invested them with a thousand hideous 
 shapes, and made them more horrible and momentous than they 
 really were. In process of time it became quite plain, that whatever 
 advanced the authority of either was, on the whole, unfavorable to 
 the interests of mankind. Any thing of a contrary tendency was 
 watched and examined with the greatest anxiety, for it gave the hope 
 of future improvement. 
 
 It is unnecessary to dwell on the evils of an aggravated feudal 
 
 * Henry IV. of Germany. 
 6 
 
110 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 system, or how they were slowly removed. It is sufficient for us to 
 mention the establishment of privileged or free cities, communities, 
 and corporations, which, in course of time, fostered a thriving com 
 merce, and benefited the poorer class of the people, by drawing them 
 off from the retinues of the nobles. As these towns and cities in 
 creased in importance, so did the inhabitants. They became mate 
 rially leagued with the Crown, and the power of the Barons was thus 
 assailed from without. In addition to this, the number of retainers 
 being diminished, their absolute power and political importance began 
 slowly to crumble.* In the war of the Holy Sepulchre, and after 
 wards in the wars of the Roses, the feudal Barons were decimated 
 and nearly exterminated. As they disappeared, the lower and mid 
 dle classes obtained more importance and consideration. As for the 
 Papal power, that melted slowly but surely away in the brightening 
 light of knowledge. 
 
 In the interval which we are now bridging, liberal ideas were be 
 ginning to be entertained with some earnestness. There was a con 
 stant struggle between prerogative and privilege, for the people be 
 gan to entertain a dim perception of their rights. Many concessions 
 were already made, and society settled down into well-defined limits, 
 to break beyond which would be dangerous. Burgesses were sum 
 moned by Leicester, at the close of the reign of Henry III. (12G5), to 
 attend a parliament in London. These burgesses were selected from 
 an order of men who, up to that time, had been always regarded as 
 too mean to enjoy a place in the national councils. It was Leicester s 
 policy to anticipate this concession, which the urgency of the people 
 had already made inevitable. In the reign of Edward the III., tho 
 knights of the shire and the burgesses emerged into a separate house, 
 and became what is now called the House of Commons. A vital prin 
 ciple began to animate the mass the principle of self-government. 
 Intelligence, spirit, and dignity inspired men with a knowledge of 
 their own importance. 
 
 In the reign of Elizabeth (and indeed in several earlier ones), we 
 Smith s Wealth of Nations, 3d Book. 
 
THE HEROES OF THE FOUNDERS OF LIBERTY. Ill 
 
 find the monarch jealous of the privileges of the Commons, and claim 
 ing a royal prerogative in matters which the latter had taken under 
 their especial charge. Whatever concerned the royal prerogative was 
 considered by Elizabeth as forbidden ground, and she included with 
 in this description every thing that related to religion, to her particu 
 lar courts, and to the succession to the crown ; she insisted, in her 
 own words, " that no bills touching matters of state or reformation in 
 concerns ecclesiastical should be exhibited."* Pretensions of this 
 character were not likely to pass current with men who already had 
 a clear perception of their own rights and their own power. It was 
 evident that a collision must sooner or later take place between the 
 queen and her " faithful commons," for notwithstanding Elizabeth s 
 remarkable popularity, there was a stern class of thinking men who 
 remained proof to her blandishments, and thought more of liberty to 
 the people than gallantry to the queen. 
 
 Such a man was Peter Went worth. In this uncompromising but 
 loyal old Puritan, we have a perfect type of the stock which peopled 
 the Eastern portions of our own country. Fearless, clear-headed, honest, 
 and loyal, he was not only capable of asserting the privileges of the 
 house, but of impressing others with the exactness of his definition of 
 them. The event which drew Wentworth out was a commission 
 issued by the queen, directing the speaker to stop a discussion in the 
 house, and giving orders that in future " no bills concerning religion 
 should be preferred or received into that house, unless the same should 
 be first considered and approved of by the clergy." This interference 
 on the part of the queen elicited a speech from Wentworth, in which he 
 maintained that the house was assembled to make or abrogate such 
 laws as were for the surety, safe-keeping, and enrichment of the no 
 ble realm of England. It was necessary for this purpose to preserve 
 such advantages by free speech : without this it were a scorn and 
 mockery to call the parliament a place of free speech. It was noth 
 ing but " a very school of flattery and dissimulation, and so a fit place 
 to serve the devil and his angels in, and to glorify God and benefit 
 
 * Cobbett, 
 
112 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 the commonwealth. Waxing still more bold, lie went on to say, 
 " that to avoid everlasting death and condemnation, with the high 
 and mighty God, we ought to proceed in every cause according to 
 the matter, and not according to the prince s mind." In a similar 
 strain of independent protest and argument, the patriot dwelt on the 
 message of the queen, giving the house and her majesty some sound 
 advice and admonition. It was not altogether acceptable to either, 
 for, before Wentworth had finished, the house stopped him. lie was 
 sequestered for said speech, and had to answer for it before a special 
 committee. All that passed is singularly noble. " I do promise you 
 all," said the intrepid patriot, " if God forsake me not, that I will 
 never during life hold my tongue if any message is sent wherein God 
 is dishonored, the prince perilled, or the liberties of the parliament 
 impeached." Wentworth. was committed to prison ; a fate which 
 did not surprise him. In his examination before a committee, he 
 observed : " I do assure your honors, that twenty times and more, 
 when I walked in my grounds, revolving this speech, to prepare 
 against this day, my own fearful conceit did say unto me that this 
 speech would carry me to the place whither I shall now go, and fear 
 would have moved me to put it out. Then I weighed whether in 
 good conscience, and the duty of a faithful subject, I might keep 
 myself out of prison, and not to warn my prince from walking in 
 a dangerous course. My conscience said unto me, that I could not 
 be a faithful subject if I did more respect to avoid my own danger 
 than my prince s danger : herewithal I was made bold, and went for 
 ward, as your honors heard ; yet when I uttered these words in the 
 house, that there was none without fault no ! not our noble queen : 
 I paused, and beheld all your countenances, and saw plainly that 
 those words did amaze you all. Then fear bade me put out the 
 words that followed, for your countenances did assure me that not 
 one of you would stay me of my journey. But I spake it, and I 
 praise God for it." 
 
 Wentworth was committed to the Tower, but Elizabeth was far 
 too politic to allow such a man to become a martyr to the cause of 
 
THE HEROES OF THE FOUNDERS OF LIBERTY. 113 
 
 popular freedom. After a month s incarceration she remitted the 
 sentence. The toadies of the house held forth hugely on the divine 
 leniency of the queen, with which Wentworth may or may not have 
 been impressed. Certain it is, that eleven years afterwards he was 
 so dissatisfied with further encroachments on the privileges of the 
 house, that he prepared in writing a series of tough queries, which 
 he handed to the speaker. One of these was couched in the follow 
 ing words : u Whether there be any council which can make, add 
 to, or diminish from the laws of this realm, but only this council of 
 parliament." It was reserved for another century, in which other 
 men of "Wentworth s calibre were the actors, to answer this vital 
 question. Much trial and tribulation were undergone before the 
 people s indignant negative was recorded in the bloody scrolls of 
 history. To that period we will now hasten. 
 
 The most momentous political occurrence of the sixteenth century 
 was that which provoked the document called the Petition of Rights. 
 This was the commencement of that memorable epoch, since denom 
 inated the English Revolution, and which, resulting in the execution 
 of Charles the First, and the Protectorate of Oliver Cromwell, effected 
 in a remarkable degree the early characteristics of this country. It 
 was in this epoch that the word Puritan was first used. It stood for 
 the appellation of three parties, all of them opposed to the intoler 
 ance of King Charles s reign. There were the political Puritans, 
 who maintained the highest principles of civil liberty ; the Puritans 
 in discipline, who were averse to the ceremonies and Episcopal gov 
 ernment of ^the Church ; and the doctrinal Puritans who rigidly de 
 fended the speculative system of the first reformers.* 
 
 During two preceding reigns, the English people, as we have seen, 
 had been gradually imbibing sentiments of enlarged political and 
 religious freedom. Elizabeth, with a tact for which she was remark 
 able, conceded what was necessary. But imbecile James lacked 
 the talent and the inclination to appreciate the wants of his people. 
 In the midst of difficulties, dissensions, and civil commotions, and at, a 
 
 * Humo. 
 
A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 time when practical common sense was especially demanded, lie 
 wrote and published an elaborate work on the divine right of kings. 
 The object of this ridiculous production was, to prove that kings 
 could do no wrong ; that their prerogative was from Heaven ; and 
 that any encroachment on it was flagrant heresy ! James s par 
 liament soon became refractory. Public disapprobation increased 
 with fearful rapidity. The king endeavored to get on without a 
 parliament, and succeeded for a while in raising funds for the State 
 exchequer. But there was great indignation, and the grievances of^ 
 the nation were all converging to a crisis. King James died on the 
 27th March, 1025. Under his weak rule, the spirit of liberty had 
 grown strong, and had become equal to a great contest. " 
 
 Charles I. succeeded to the throne. lie was unlike his father 
 in many respects ; but he was false, imperious, obstinate, narrow- 
 minded, ignorant of the temper of his people, unobservant of the 
 signs of the times, 1 } 1 and firm in the determination to protect what he 
 conceived to be the prerogatives of the Crown. The spirit of reform 
 had grown strong and muscular, but he thought he could strangle it 
 with his weak hands. Failing in this, he tried, as the next best thing, 
 to chastise it. Parliaments were assembled at the king s pleasure, 
 and dissolved the moment they were found to be intractable. In 
 consequence of the extreme difficulty with which the king raised 
 supplies, he determined to resort to the illegal process of imposing n, 
 forced loan on the kingdom, thus subverting the entire object and 
 usefulness of the House of Commons., Great numbers resisted this 
 unjustifiable imposition, for which they were immediately thrown into 
 prison. Foiled in his purpose, the king had once more to assemble 
 parliament, nud as a necessary consequence, one of the first discus 
 sions was on the late illegal proceedings of the Crown. The result 
 of their discussions was, the document called the Petition of Right, 
 so called because, although drawn up in the usual strain of a humble 
 petition, it had all the force of a law r on the king s endorsement of 
 his concurrence. This document, which is justly considered the 
 * Macanlay. t Ibid. 
 
THE HEROES OF TPIE FOUNDERS OF LIBERTY. 115 
 
 second Great Charter of English liberty, was drawn up by Sir Ed 
 ward Coke in the eighty-third year of his age. It was the last act 
 of a brilliant judicial career, and is a lasting monument to Coke s 
 patriotism and genius. It provided that no tax or loan might be 
 levied except with the concurrence of parliament; that no man 
 might be imprisoned but by legal process ; that soldiers might not 
 be quartered on people contrary to their will ; and that no commis 
 sions be granted for executing martial law.* A few days after the 
 receipt of the petition, the king returned an evasive answer. A dis 
 cussion immediately ensued in the House of Commons. Among the 
 eminent men who took part in it were Sir John Eliot, John Hamp- 
 den, and John Pym ; heroic names that adorn the brightest pages of 
 political history. 
 
 Sir John Eliot spoke with dignity and fervor. u His mind," says 
 Lord Nugent, " was deeply imbued with a love of philosophy and a 
 confidence in religion, which gave a lofty tone to his eloquence." 
 The effect of the debate was so seriously damaging to the king, ancr 
 particularly to his pampered minister, Buckingham, that he could no 
 longer withhold his consent to the Petition of Right. He gave it 
 with surly remorse, but with a mental reservation that he would be 
 avenged on the men who had extorted it from him. He again dis 
 solved parliament, and determined to rule in his own right, without 
 their aid or assistance. Two days later, he committed Sir John Eliot 
 and other members to the Tower, on a charge of high treason. 
 Servile courts sustained him in this flagrant breach of privilege and 
 violation of the Petition of Right. But he was inexorable, and Eliot 
 remained in prison doomed to die a martyr in the cause of political 
 liberty. After two years of wearisome confinement, his health began 
 to fail. He petitioned for the privilege of a temporary release, that 
 he might recuperate his sinking energies. But the king demanded 
 concessions from him which, as an honest, high-purposed man, he 
 could not make. Another year, passed in suffering and cruelty, ter 
 minated his life. He died in November, 1C32. The vengeance of 
 
 * Goodrich. 
 
116 A VOICE TO AMERICA, 
 
 the king continued even after his death. One of Sir John Eliot s 
 sons petitioned for the privilege of interring the body in a distant 
 county. The. king replied, " Let him be buried in the parish where 
 he died." Truly, Charles was one of those monarchs destined by 
 Divine Providence to hasten revolutions. 
 
 All the promises of the king were violated ; the Petition of Right 
 forgotten ; persecutions and exactions of the worst kind inflicted, 
 particularly with regard to the Puritans. The king, who was a zealot 
 for Church discipline, looked upon the Puritans with all the concen 
 trated bitterness and hatred of his treacherous nature. They were 
 forced to fly from the country. They were whipped, imprisoned, 
 scourged, and mutilated. " But the cruelty of the oppressor could 
 not tire out the fortitude of the victims. The mutilated defenders of 
 liberty again defied the vengeance of the Star Chamber, came back 
 with undiminished resolution to the place of their glorious infamy, 
 and manfully presented the stumps of their ears to be grubbed out, 
 by the hangman s knife."* 
 
 John Hampden was a member of the House of Commons, and, 
 like others before referred to, opposed the assessment of the forced 
 loan. That he did so from the highest patriotic motives, is beyond 
 question. The sum at which lie was assessed was a mere trifle, and 
 he was a man of wealth. For this contumacy he was imprisoned. 
 After the passing of the Petition of Right, he was released ; and we 
 do not find him taking an active part in public affairs, until the gov 
 ernment that is, the king again attempted an unwarrantable exac 
 tion. A Avrit was issued, commanding the city of London to man 
 and equip ships of war for his service. Similar writs were issued. 
 not only for the seaboard counties, but the inland ones. This exces 
 sive abuse of authority created the greatest excitement. No prece 
 dent could be found, in the legislation of any other kino-, for such an 
 oppressive system of taxation. 
 
 Buckinghamshire of which county Hampden was a native was 
 assessed for a ship of the value of four thousand five hundred pounds., 
 
 * Macaulav. 
 
THE HEROES OF THE FOUNDERS OF LIBERTY. 117 
 
 The individual portions of this assessment were necessarily small, but 
 every shilling subscribed towards the aggregate was the recognition 
 of a pernicious principle. Hampden at once refused to pay his por 
 tion, and determined at all hazards to bring the matter to a crisis. 
 Before this time, " he was rather of reputation in his own county, 
 than of public discourse or fame in the kingdom ; but then he grew 
 the argument of all tongues, every man inquiring who and what he 
 was that durst, at his own charge, support the liberty and prosperity 
 of the kingdom."* 
 
 Hampden, as the representative of the people, tried the question 
 of the illegal assessment, in the Exchequer Chamber, before all the 
 judges of England. The fear of court displeasure possessed the 
 bench ; only four of the judges had sufficient courage to declare in 
 Hampden s favor, although the law was clearly on his side. The 
 remaining eight were in favor of tho writ. Thus, so far as the law 
 was concerned, justice was denied to Hampden, and, through his per 
 son, to the people. The result of this decision was, to place at the 
 disposal of the Crown the whole property of the English nation.f A 
 defeated man receives but little consideration from a despot. Hamp 
 den was not long in discovering that his person was scarcely safe from 
 the fury of the king. Opposed to violence, and desiring, of all things, 
 to save his country from the miseries of civil war, he determined to 
 flee to a distant land, where, at least, he would be beyond the reach 
 of oppressors. Beyond the Atlantic ocean, a few persecuted Puritans 
 had founded a settlement, in Connecticut. Thither he determined 
 to flee. He secured passage in a sailing vessel, and completed his 
 arrangements for permanently vacating the land of his birth. Among 
 others who arrived at a similar determination, were Oliver Cromwell 
 and John Pym. This illustrious trio, so soon destined to convulse 
 society, were on the point of sailing, when an order from the king 
 intercepted the vessel. It seems that, although the king did not care 
 to crush Hampden whilst public feeling was in its present state, he 
 was yet unwilling to let him escape. He had sufficient penetration 
 
 * Clarendon. t Macaulay, 
 
 6* 
 
118 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 to know that the fearless nature of the man would soon display itself, 
 and he was content to wait. 
 
 In the next parliament, Hampden took his seat for his native shire, 
 and thenceforth devoted himself entirely to the aftairs of the nation. 
 He was now unquestionably the most popular man in England. The 
 king affected respect for him, but hated him bitterly. A message 
 was sent to the House for fresh supplies. It was couched in the 
 usual language of promise. Redress for grievances was the boon. 
 The Commons had experienced the king s treachery, and were de 
 termined, in this case, to get what redress they needed first. On the 
 next day, with an angry speech the king dissolved parliament. Such 
 an act indicated, with very impolitic clearness, that the king expected 
 the Commons to do precisely as lie wished, or he would not allow 
 them to sit at all. 
 
 The necessities of the king, after a most inglorious campaign in 
 Scotland, compelled him to assemble parliament once more. On the 
 3d of November, 1G40, the Commons met. It is a memorable day 
 in history, being the first of what is now universally known as the 
 Long Parliament a parliament which, as Macaulay forcibly ex 
 presses it, was destined to every extreme of fortune : to empire and 
 to servitude, to glory and to contempt ; at one time the sovereign 
 of its sovereign, at another time, the servant of its servants, and the 
 tool of its tools. The first session of this memorable parliament was 
 spent in actively redressing public grievances. All those who had 
 assisted in subverting the laws, including the judges who had offici 
 ated on Hampden s trial, were tried. The prime minister, Strafford, 
 was executed ; and other prominent characters, to escape a similar 
 fate, fled the country in alarm. 
 
 The conduct of Hampden during this crisis was moderate, manly, 
 and peaceful. He was opposed to extreme measures, apprehending 
 a reaction. He seemed disposed to soothe rather than excite the 
 public mind.* The king, humiliated and crest-fallen, had taken re 
 fuge from obloquy in Scotland. II?. tipclen was dispatched by the 
 
 "" 01 arc no <n. 
 
THE HEROES OF THE FOUNDERS OF LIBERTY. 119 
 
 parliament to visit him there. During his absence, measures of an 
 extreme character were enacted, and what Hampden had wisely 
 dreaded came to pass. A reactionary party sprung up, formed of 
 men who thought that enough had been done, and that possibly too 
 much might be attempted. Encouraged by these new manifesta 
 tions, Charles returned. All that was now necessary for the perma 
 nence of his crown was, that he should abstain from treachery, from 
 violence, from gross breaches of the law,* 
 
 This was expecting too much from a man so abject, cowardly, and 
 treacherous. With his usual volubility he promised every thing, 
 and with his customary duplicity, violated all his promises. Without 
 the slightest intimation of displeasure, he impeached several of the 
 leading members of the house. Hampden and Pym were of course 
 among the number. Such an instance of perfidious tyranny was 
 unparalleled. The House of Commons refused to surrender their 
 members, maintaining that the impeachment coming from the House 
 of Peers was unconstitutional. Xot to be defeated in his purpose, 
 the king, accompanied by two hundred soldiers of his guard, made a 
 descent on the house with the intention of seizing the contumacious 
 members by force. They had been previously warned of their dan 
 ger, and had fled to a populous district of London, where they were 
 sure of the sympathies of the citizens. A proclamation was issued 
 by the king, directing that no person should harbor the fugitives, 
 but it came too late. The spark had been ignited, and the explosion 
 followed with fearful rapidity. 
 
 The tramp of armed citizens was heard in every corner of the 
 great city. All the societies turned out in battle array. A careful 
 watch was kept on every approach leading to the neighborhood in 
 which Hampden and Pym lay. Every one, from the youngest ap 
 prentice to the oldest merchant, was on the alert to avenge the insult 
 offered to their liberty. After a short delay the members were in 
 vited, in defiance of the king s proclamation, to attend their seats ii 
 the House of Commons. The immense population of London turned 
 
 * Macaulay. 
 
120 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 out en masse to escort them in triumph past the windows of the 
 palace. "On the llth January," says Macaulay, " the Thames was 
 covered with boats, and its shores with a gazing multitude. Armed 
 vessels, decorated with streamers, were ranged in two lines from Lon 
 don Bridge to Westminster Hall. The members returned by water 
 in a ship, manned by sailors who had volunteered their services, 
 The .rain, bands of the city, under the command of the sheriffs, 
 inarched along the Strand, attended by a vast crowd of spectators, to 
 guard the avenues to the House of Commons, and thus with shouts, 
 and loud discharges of ordnance, the accused patriots were brought 
 back by the people whom thev had served, and for whom they had 
 suffered." On the day preceding this great demonstration, the king 
 fled. The excitement was not confined to London only. Through 
 out the provinces the people were agitated in a like manner. Buck 
 inghamshire dispatched a deputation of four thousand freeholders 
 to defend the person of their beloved representative, and other coun 
 ties did the same. The crisis had indeed come. 
 
 It was evident iluit the king could no longer be trusted. The 
 only way to prevent his doing injury to the liberal cause, was to de 
 prive him of the power. A fearful struggle was inevitable. The 
 king was already in the field with a numerous retinue* 
 
 ITampden was a man who loved peace, so long as peace could be 
 honorably maintained; but ho was not a man to be daunted by the 
 flashing of hostile swords. lie had been the consistent advocate of 
 moderation. Whilst the laws could be appealed to for redress, he 
 was content to depend on their efficacy. Finding them utterly use 
 less, he prepared to leave his country. Foiled in this endeavor, lie 
 boldly faced the evils of the day. Almost exacting a representative 
 privilege, he took on himself the grievances of his countrymen, and 
 battled for them with unflinching valor. Thus when recent events 
 had made civil war imperative, we find Ilampden stepping into the 
 foremost place with unconscious activity and bravery. He placed a 
 large portion of his fortune at the service of parliament; raised, 
 armed, and, at his own expense, equipped a regiment of Buckingham- 
 
THE HEROES OF THE FOUNDERS OF LIBERTY. 121 
 
 shire cavalry, and took his place at their head as colonel. Military 
 discipline usually so obnoxious to civilians fell on him like a gar 
 ment. He was ever on the alert, and never missed an opportunity 
 that might be improved by intrepidity and activity. It is not easy 
 to do full justice to the admirable rapidity of Hampden s movements. 
 He was constantly in the saddle, and reiilly seemed ubiquitous. A 
 lampoon aimed at him by a political opponent is immensely funny at 
 his incessant journeys between Windsor and the House of Commons. 
 He was constantly hurrying from the field to the house. 
 
 It would be an endless task to recapitulate these events of the 
 civil war in which-Hampden took a conspicuous part. It must suffice 
 that wherever there was an opportunity for displaying an unselfish 
 patriotism, there he was found. Unhappily his career of usefulness 
 was not destined to be of long duration. On the 18th of June, 1643, 
 Hampden gathered his men at Chalgrove for the purpose of cutting 
 off the retreat of a band of cavaliers who had been on a foraging 
 excursion. A fierce conflict ensued. In the charge, Hampden re 
 ceived his death-wound inflicted by two bullets in the shoulder. 
 With head drooping and hands leaning on his horse s neck, he rode 
 faintly from the field of battle. After several days of intense physical 
 suffering, the shadows of death thickened round his pillow. With 
 invincible fortitude he dispatched what public business most demanded 
 his attention. When his last national duties were discharged, he 
 calmly prepared himself to die. He asked for the consolation of the 
 Holy Sacrament, and it was administered to him. When the hand 
 of death lay coldly on him, he murmured short prayers for the cause 
 in which he perished. " Lord Jesus, receive my soul Lord, save 
 my country O Lord, be merciful to" . In that broken sentence 
 passed away a man whose every act was one of unselfish patriotism 
 and unconscious virtue ; a man whose life is of such refulgent bright 
 ness, that time will in vain seek to dim its lustre. 
 
 John Pym, who was intimately associated with Hampden in all 
 the important events of this epoch, was born of good parents in 
 Somersetshire, in the year 1584, He received his education at Ox- 
 
122 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 ford, and at an early age received an appointment in the office of the 
 Exchequer. He was distinguished for his eloquence, and knowledge 
 of the common law. He served in several parliaments during the 
 latter part of the reign of James L, as member for Tavistock, and in 
 all those held in the reign of Charles I. He distinguished himself 
 by his zeal in defending the rights of the people against the aggres 
 sions of royalty. In 1C2G he was one of the principal managers of 
 the impeachment against Buckingham. After the opening of the 
 Long Parliament, Pym took an active part in the vigorous legislation 
 of that tribunal.. He classed the grievances of the nation under three 
 heads : Privilege of Parliament, Religion, Liberty of the Subject. 
 The termination of this consideration resulted in the impeachment 
 and execution of Strafford. The latter was at one time attached to 
 the popular side, but became an apostate to the court. When he 
 had determined on acting thus treacherously, he sent for Pym, and 
 endeavored by specious arguments to win him to a similar line of 
 conduct. Pym listened to him impatiently for a while, then turning 
 on him furiously said, " You need not use all this art to tell me that 
 you are going to be undone : but remember, that though you leave 
 us now, I will never leave you while your head is upon your shoul 
 ders." He kept his word too. 
 
 To appreciate the services of Pym, it is necessary to realize the 
 peculiar characteristics of the age in which he lived. Government 
 was subverted by the treachery of the king, and the unscrupulous 
 co-operation of his minions. In the effort to restore the privileges 
 of parliament, and thereby the liberty of the subject, great personal 
 courage and invincible integrity were demanded. By intimidation 
 or by corruption, all the reformers were silenced, that were capable 
 of ignominious silence. Only those who entertained genuine senti 
 ments of patriotism, men who recognized danger as an element ef 
 their success, were able to withstand the alternate bullvino- ;>nd 
 
 i O 
 
 flattery of the court. A conspicuous member of the House of Com 
 mons, like Pym, excited peculiar hatred. His life was in constant 
 danger. Any one of the many high-handed outrages of the king 
 
THE HEROES OF THE FOUNDERS OF LIBERTY. 123 
 
 might have placed Pym s head upon the block. But he did not 
 swerve from the path of duty. Threats and bribes were alike unavail 
 ing. With fearless energy and burning eloquence, he denounced the 
 oppressors never once looked back, but with eyes sternly fixed on 
 the future, righted what was wrong. The impeachments of the Long 
 Parliament were conducted mainly by Pym ; and in consequence, 
 more than an ordinary share of danger attended his proceedings. 
 For these and other reasons, he is justly estimated one of England s 
 worthies, and one who in no slight degree contributed to the estab 
 lishment of political liberty. 
 
 The hostilities between the soldiers of the people and the soldiers 
 of the king, now assumed the grave form of a civil war. Charles, 
 as we have already stated, sought refuge in the camp of the Scots 
 a people thoroughly enamored of monarchical institutions, but influ 
 enced, at this crisis, by considerations of a religious character. Had 
 Charles possessed the tact to conciliate their Presbyterian spirit, or 
 even to abandon some of his own Episcopalian dogmas, he could 
 undoubtedly have depended on the valor and loyalty of his Scotch 
 adherents. As it was, they basely sold him to the parliament. 
 
 At this stage of civil discord, there appeared a man who must ever 
 absorb attention. Suddenly emerging from pursuits of a quiet agri 
 cultural character, Oliver Cromwell darts through the pages of history 
 like a fierce meteor. It is only of late years that his real character 
 has begun to be understood. The patient industry and impartiality 
 of Carlyle have been effectual to rescue the memory of this great 
 hero from the obloquy with w r hich it had so long been covered. 
 
 Oliver Cromwell was born at Huntingdon, England, in 1599. He 
 was descended of a well-born family. " I was by birth," said Crom 
 well, in one of his speeches to parliament, " neither living in any 
 considerable height, nor yet in obscurity." Oliver s education was 
 commenced at the grammar-school of his native town, and completed 
 at Sydney Sussex College, Cambridge. He appears to have been 
 wild and roystering during the youthful portion of his life. In 1620 
 he returned home, was married, and took, up his position as the re- 
 
A VOICE TO AMEKICA. 
 
 spectable head of a household. About this time he became oppressed 
 by convictions of conscience almost amounting to insanity. He sat 
 about retrieving some of his former errors ; made himself bankrupt 
 by paving back sums of money he had formerly won at play ; and 
 declared that he was ready to make restitution to any whom he had 
 wronged. The persecuted Puritans found a welcome refuge beneath 
 his roof. In the third parliament of Charles I., he sat as the repre 
 sentative of his native town ; and although not a prominent actor 
 in the events of that period, was a keen and anxious observer of what 
 transpired. 
 
 After the parliament had been dissolved, Cromwell returned to 
 St. Ives (a town in the vicinity of Huntingdon), and for five years 
 was a grazing farmer. His demeanor was characterized by religious 
 severity. There is now no reasonable doubt for supposing that it was 
 insincere. " He had certainly materials enough for reflection. Not 
 to speak of the inward conflicts of his own mind conflicts arising 
 from the views of truth he had been recently led to take deep, 
 earnest, heaven-born impulses society round him was raging like a 
 volcano. * "" * * The writs of ship-money had been issued, and 
 Hampden had stood resolute in its refusal. The thunder-storm was 
 rising."* 
 
 The moment for action arrived, and Cromwell, feeling himself in 
 spired for great actions, did not longer hesitate. When the attempt 
 to seize the five members was made by Charles, he rushed at once 
 to the rescue. His influence, his purse, his sword, were at the nation s 
 call. He was appointed captain, and, soon after, colonel of the 
 sixty-seventh troop of the parliamentary forces. But he was dissat 
 isfied with the troops. " They were," he complained, " old decayed 
 serving-men, and tapsters, and such kind of fellows." To organize a 
 different corps was with him a simultaneous thought and action. The 
 members of this corps were men who, stimulated by similar religious 
 zeal as Cromwell, were prepared to understand and appreciate his 
 acts. " I had rather have a plain russet-coated captain," he said, 
 
 * Trial 1. 
 
THE HEROES OF THE FOUNDERS OF LIBERTY. 125 
 
 " that knows what he fights for, and loves what lie knows, than that 
 which you call a gentleman, and is nothing else." The terrible 
 " Ironsides " was the corps thus raised. 
 
 It is impossible for us to follow Cromwell in his military expeditions 
 against the royalists and other enemies of his country. Wherever 
 he appeared, victory crowned the day. His activity and decision 
 were marvellous, and in every kind of military tactic, it is doubtful 
 if England has ever had his superior. Charles was decapitated, and 
 Cromwell appointed Protector. Under his administration, popular 
 freedom received much invigorating support. Indeed, it must be a 
 matter of surprise with all dispassionate thinkers, how he could have 
 accomplished so much, surrounded as he was by jealousies, hatreds, 
 and intimidations. He appointed for judges the most upright and 
 distinguished men, among others Sir Matthew Hale. He never in 
 terfered with the courts of justice. In religion, he was as tolerant 
 as any man living in that age, and belonging to the Puritan party, 
 could be. He promoted the arts and sciences, and helped, by deci 
 sive legislation, to lay the foundation of a great nation. Usurpers 
 must be tyrants, but whilst they tyrannize, they try to conciliate. If 
 Cromwell were " a scourge of God," Charles had prepared the nation 
 for its infliction ; and if Charles was a mild tyrant, Cromwell was 
 moderate as a despot.* Charles was beheaded to insure justice to 
 the people, and Cromwell would have met with a similar fate, but 
 for his superior justice, vigor, and forethought. The hypocrisy of 
 Cromwell has been a standing theme with historians. But there is 
 no reasonable ground for supposing that he acted otherwise than 
 from conscientious conviction. The publication of his most private 
 letters indicate clearly, that what he professed in public, he believed 
 in private. A charge of hypocrisy is a common way of assailing 
 the reputation of a Puritan, particularly by men who believe in the pos 
 sibility of wearing religion like a garment, for decency s sake. He 
 must be strangely constituted who, while reading Cromwell s letters, 
 and there viewing his private life, can discern nothing in him but 
 
 * History of Democracy. 
 
126 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 tinmingled dissimulation.* The present age is doing him justice, spite 
 of kings, queens, and houses of lords. His memory is cherished, and 
 he may yet be invoked when the country which gave him birth is 
 convulsed in the throes of civil war and revolution. 
 
 One of the sincerest republicans of Cromwell s epoch, was that 
 illustrious man who afterwards wrote the sublime poem of " Paradise 
 Lost." John Milton was Latin secretary to the new council of state, 
 and in every official act proved that he was the consistent advocate 
 of political liberty. To an extent he was a hero in the cause. That 
 sad calamity with which he was afflicted in the latter years of his life, 
 is said to have been produced by the severe devotion with which he 
 applied himself to the composition of a work entitled " Defensio pro 
 Populo Anglicano." Salmasius had written a defence of monarchy, 
 and particularly of Charles L, under the title of " Defensio Regis." 
 Milton s work was a reply to this, and exhibited so much learning 
 and fervid eloquence, that his opponent was completely overwhelmed. 
 Close application, midnight toil, and intense study were necessary for 
 the composition of this able defence of popular rights against monar 
 chical pretension. Milton was frequently told by his physicians that 
 it would result in blindness, but he was far too earnest to heed their 
 warning advice. Total loss of sight was the result. He was not 
 cast down even with this calamity. The moment he had recovered 
 from the first shock of its intensity, he set about writing another de 
 fence of the people of England. 
 
 On the death of Cromwell, Milton employed his pen with great 
 vigor to check the prevalent feeling in favor of the Restoration. Un 
 able to do so, lie sought refuge in the house of a friend. In the act 
 of indemnity which followed, his name found no exception. With 
 many others he was given into the custody of the sergeant-at-aims. 
 After a while he was released. In impoverished circumstances, he 
 sought the tranquil pleasures of poetic studies. To his withdrawal 
 from the political arena we are indebted for that lasting monument of 
 sublime genius, the " Paradise Lost." 
 
 * Triall. 
 
THE HEEOES OF THE FOUNDERS OF LIBERTY. 127 
 
 Before quitting this prolific period of effort and achievement, it may 
 be profitable to refer to an invaluable document obtained after much 
 trouble from the government of Charles II. We refer to the Habeas 
 Corpus Act : arbitrary imprisonment became impossible after its pas 
 sage. By this act it was prohibited to send any one to prison beyond 
 sea. No judge, under severe penalties, was permitted to refuse a 
 prisoner a writ of habeas corpus, on the issuing of which the jailor 
 was required to produce in court the body of the prisoner (whence 
 the name), and to certify the cause of his detention and imprison 
 ment. If the jail lie within twenty miles of the judge, the writ must 
 be obeyed in three days, and so for greater distances. Every prisoner 
 must be indicted the first term after his commitment, and brought to 
 trial in the subsequent term. And no man, after being discharged, can 
 be recommitted for the old offence.* The general freedom of the sub 
 ject is thus secured. No man could be incarcerated on mere suspicion 
 or caprice. Cause had to be shown why he was detained, and he had 
 an early opportunity of appealing to a jury for his discharge. The 
 Magna Charta, the Petition of Right, and the Habeas Corpus Act, com 
 pleted the English Constitution, and gave an impetus to popular liberty, 
 which has been gaining in momentum from that day to the present. 
 The Constitution of the United States is based on the principles of these 
 three great documents. The struggles which wrenched them from the 
 iron claw of prerogative, must always be interesting to the American, 
 forming as they do the antecedent history of his own country. 
 
 All that is necessary for the completion of this chapter is the addi 
 tion of one more great political triumph ; need we say the American 
 Revolution ? The student of history, if he seek to trace and connect 
 the great chain of Anglo-Saxon triumphs, lights on this naturally as 
 the last and greatest of them all. It is a necessary sequence ; a point 
 at which the mind rests, and expatiates with confidence and delight 
 In the Declaration of Independence is epitomized all those incontro 
 vertible truths, which are at once the wealth and the glory of the 
 Anglo-Saxon race. 
 
 *Hume. 
 
128 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 | 
 
 In dealing with the preceding topics, we have been compelled on 
 several occasions to refer to the peculiar religious characteristics of 
 the times, and in glancing hastily at our history, we are confronted 
 with the same difficulty. The Puritans, as the^y were called, were men 
 who stamped the age with a peculiar individuality. They were not 
 only men who thought, but men who felt with the keenness of 
 thought. The grievous oppressions of the Star Chamber were not se 
 cret wrongs with such men, but intolerable public calamities, which it 
 were well to flee from. Their consciences, as well as their bodies, 
 were endangered. The Puritans everywhere fled, preferring the dan 
 gers and vicissitudes of a home in the wilderness, to the emasculate 
 freedom of their own native homes. 
 
 Arrived in the new land, they were under no apprehensions con 
 cerning their individual liberty. "With no kingly foe to oppress them, 
 they were secure at all events for the present. Their danger lay in 
 the possibility of religious dissension. It was for their religion they 
 were obnoxious at home ; they had been persecuted for it, and if they 
 now strove with more firmness than liberality to preserve it, some ex 
 cuse can surely be made for them. The Puritans on board the May 
 flower, before landing, united upon a compact in which they solemnly 
 covenanted with each other to combine into a civil body politic, for 
 their better ordering and protection, and to enact, constitute, and frame 
 such just and equal laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions, and offices, 
 from time to time, as should be thought meet and convenient for the 
 general good of the colony. These just and equal laws would scarce 
 ly be considered so in the present day, but they had the advantage 
 of simplicity. The social compact thus entered into has generally 
 been looked upon as an extraordinary document. It marked with 
 boldness a circle of freedom, and recognized the great principles of 
 justice and equality. 
 
 The government of the colonists resembled a theocracy in its 
 form. Every thing was subservient to the Church. Deficiencies in 
 the legal code were avowedly to be remedied by " the Word of God, 
 and public questions were more often determined from the pulpit than 
 
THE HEROES OF THE FOUNDERS OF LIBERTY. 129 
 
 the benJa. _No thing approaching liberty of conscience was permit 
 ted. It was denounced as compaction with the devil. In 1648, 
 these acts of the Puritans appear to have been a little grievous. 
 Some of the colonists petitioned the session for their rights " as Eng 
 lish subjects," and the petitioners expressed their opinion that the 
 Puritan government was an ill-compacted vessel. In return for this 
 piece of criticism, the petitioners were fined, and told, bluntly, to 
 mind their own. business for the future. Political authority was 
 entirely absorbed by the Church, and was hurled from the pulpit 
 with fierce ardor. Every man who had the temerity to claim equal 
 political liberties, was persecuted in the courts, and denounced in the 
 churches. Indeed, the church-members generally appear to have 
 been pursued in a most remorseless manner. 
 
 The early settlers in Virginia were, at first, merely speculators, 
 and singularly unfortunate they were in their speculation. When, 
 however, the tide of emigration began to flow steadily towards their 
 shores, they were recuperated with some of the best blood of the old 
 country. It was a complaint in that colony that too many " gentle 
 men" were sent there. In the first vessels dispatched by the London 
 company, there were but twelve laborers, four carpenters, and a few 
 other mechanics. The remainder of the one hundred and five passen 
 gers were " gentlemen." The Virginians were Episcopalians, disposed 
 to be moderate and accommodating. But they too, like their breth 
 ren of Plymouth, thought a great deal of their consciences. The 
 first extant laws of Virginia relate more to the moral well-being of 
 the inhabitants, than their worldly prosperity. Virginia, together 
 with Maryland and the West India islands, adhered to the cause of 
 the king. Irritated by this, the government fitted out expeditions 
 against those places, and required from them an engagement to be 
 true and loyal to the commonwealth of England, as now constituted, 
 without king, and without House of Lords. In Massachusetts, after 
 the Restoration, a different difficulty was experienced. It took the 
 worthy Puritans of that State a period of twelve months to make up 
 their minds whether or not they should proclaim King Charles II. 
 
130 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 When they had concluded to do so, they published an ordination 
 prohibiting all unseemly or disorderly demonstrations of joy. 
 
 In a theological point of view, we find strange contrarieties in 
 the history of America, not the least being the palpable intolerance 
 which, for nearly a century, tyrannized over the hearts and minds of 
 its inhabitants. But, on the other hand, this same history is the most 
 consistent in the world, so far as unhesitating resistance to royal pre 
 rogative was concerned. The settlers looked on their, various charters 
 as the fundamental justification of all their acts. "They contented 
 themselves with the powers conferred upon them by their respective 
 charters, without looking beyond the seal of the royal parchment for 
 the measure of their rights and the rule of their duties."* They 
 would on no account consent to an appeal to England, not even 
 during the Commonwealth. All they would consent to, was to send 
 out commissioners to explain why they had not paid their debts. 
 They preferred settling every other difficulty amongst themselves, "on 
 consideration that if we should put ourselves under the protection 
 of parliament, we must then be subject to all such laws as they 
 should make ; in which course, though they should intend our good, 
 yet it might prove very prejudicial to us."f 
 
 N"o kind of political concession was ever made by the Puritans, 
 either to the king s commission, when headed by Laud, or, subse 
 quently, to the commissioners sent out by the Long Parliament. In 
 1672, when a custom-house was attempted to be established, the 
 Bostonians quietly evaded its exactions, and refused, in the most con 
 temptuous manner, to pay any kind of attention to Kandolph, or his 
 customs either. The ridiculous dilemma in which the latter found 
 himself, compelled him to return to England. He returned later, 
 armed with greater powers, and encountered the same resistance as, 
 in turn, did the colonial governors appointed by the home govern 
 ment. The Puritans were, from first to last, thoroughly intractable. 
 They denied the justice of English prerogative, and fought for every 
 inch of privilege in the sternest manner. They would not admit that 
 * John Quincy. t Winthrop. 
 
THE HEKOES OF THE FOUNDERS OF LIBERTY. 131 
 
 England had any thing at all to do with them, and distinctly asserted 
 that there was not the shadow of pretext for her interference in 
 American affairs. The same spirit, in the American Revolution, 
 inspired the courageous hearts of the citizens of all the colonies ; 
 and the result was the triumph of freedom in the ]J^ew World. 
 The sacrifices suffered, and the blood spilt by the HEROES OF THE 
 FOUNDERS OF LIBERTY had, at the appointed time, produced their 
 fruits. 
 
 
 

BOUNDARIES OF COMTRIES-HOW ESTABLISHED. 
 
 41 Westward the Star of Empire takes it way, 
 
 The four first acts already past, 
 
 ^ A fifth shall close the drama with the day ; 
 
 v Time s noblest offspring is the last." 
 
 BISHOP BERKELEY. 
 
 , 
 
 NATURE fixes her limits to all things. Her. laws are too deeply 
 engraven on the world, to.be transcended by any power less than her 
 own. Man may be impelled by ambition to compass certain ends, 
 b<J these impulsive sallies are harmoniously governed by the require 
 ment f Nature ; and what a $ie first promised only antagonism 
 and consequent confusion, is found in jjie end to be tranquilly obedi 
 ent to the most comprehensive and beautiful laws. . 
 
 To one who will sit dcftrn reflectingly, with the world s map before 
 hin*, it will be apparent that; Nature has from the beginning fixed 
 boundaries to avery coimtry ; and furthermore, that these boundaries 
 are unalterable* it is useless attempting to set aside her suggestions ; 
 thev are immutable, Wliate; r hJhl >". baa thrown out, carri - with 
 ft all the authority of a law. Her finger points to no great fact in 
 the formation of the world, that is not of itself, sufficient to give 
 shape to all human histories, and color to the events of a long pro 
 cession oi centuries. 
 
 The countries of Asia lie separated, either by long chains of towering 
 mountains, stretching away from point to point, until one is completely 
 walled in, and the rest walled out ; or by vast deserts, uninhabitable 
 by man, trackless, bare of vegetation, destitute of animal life, and 
 altogether desolate. Across these wastes, invading forces in any great 
 number would hardly come. Surrounded by them, a nation may 
 
 r 
 
134 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 repose in all the security of massive walls and armed forts. They 
 are as fixed boundaries for a country, as if the population had caused 
 them to be placed there. Large inland seas offer a like security, as, 
 for instance, the Persian Gulf, lying between Arabia and Persia ; the 
 Red Sea, between Arabia and Africa ; the Caspian, between Circassia 
 and Tartary ; or the Japan Sea, dividing the peoples of two mon 
 strously overgrown empires. 
 
 Asia, however, is thoroughly cut up into principalities and domin 
 ions by her lines of mountains the Great and Little Altai, separating 
 the colossal power of Russia from the vast Chinese Empire ; the 
 Himalaya, keeping the Chinese Empire in turn distinct from India ; 
 the Beloor mountains, lifting their shoulders between the same em 
 pire and Tartary the Independent ; and the Hindoo Koosh, drawing 
 the line between Tartary and Afghanistan. The whole face of that 
 quarter of the world has been thus accurately parcelled out to those 
 who dwell upon it. 
 
 In Africa the truth is no less plain. The Barbary States, can 
 extend no further south than to the great Desert of Sahara ; Soudan, 
 beginning with the southernmost limit of the desert, stop at the bar 
 rier interposed by the Mountains of the Moon ; the countries along 
 the western coast reach into the dim confines of Ethiopia, where all is 
 unknown in that land of the Sim. 
 
 Europe, peopled by a great variety of races, obeys minutely tlieso 
 physical laws. Her nations are so many, that smaller boundaries are 
 necessary, and become objects of grave political consideration. As 
 civilization advances from the East, it seems to grow correspondingly 
 jealous of its rights and privileges ; rivers, lakes, channels, and moun 
 tains are impressed into her service. Behold the Alps, lofty and 
 grand, walling in the independent little region called Switzerland, a 
 name that invariably summons the word Liberty to the tongue. 
 There are the Pyrenees, eternal bounds for both France and Spain ; 
 the Scandinavian chain, parting Norway and Sweden as naturally 
 as if that were the single purpose of their erection. There stretch 
 along the Carpathians, hemming in Austria from Prussia and Russia. 
 
BOUNDAKIES OF COUNTRIES. 135 
 
 We need but to glance at the course of the immcrtal Rhine, to 
 believe, with the great Napoleon, that nature intended it for the 
 eastern limit to France. The Danube, -with its numerous mouths, 
 forms a natural boundary to Turkey and her Principalities against 
 Russia and Austria. The Rhine again performs its part in dividing 
 one petty German kingdom from another ; and the Tornea completes 
 the work for Sweden, against Russia, which the Gulf of Bothnia seems 
 to have left unfinished. A narrow channel alone separates England 
 from France two nations whose boast it is that they combinedly 
 stand in the front of the world. Denmark is hemmed in by a couple 
 of channels, from both Norway and Sweden. Sweden, in turn, rests 
 secure against Russia, with the Baltic and the Gulf of Bothnia inter 
 posed between them. 
 
 In all these national divisions, the hand of Nature is but too 
 apparent. Her suggestions must everywhere be obeyed. Whoever 
 deliberately opposes them, thinking by the force of his own will to 
 change these natural limits, is surely throwing himself upon a stone 
 that will in the end grind him to powder. 
 
 Poor Poland ! she has no boundaries at all ! An open plain, she 
 became the prey of nations stronger than herself. She has no moun 
 tains to keep imperial Russia back ; none to hold in check the rulers 
 of Prussia ; none to shut out the cruel forces of the more cruel House 
 of Hapsburg. She encamped on a broad plain ; and there was she 
 stealthily surrounded and set upon by three robbers with crowns upon 
 their brows, and her nationality, bleeding and dying, torn limb from 
 limb. Yet let us hope that Poland has a future, and that the morn 
 ing of her resurrection is approaching. 
 
 " Plains are the proper territories of tyranny. There the arms of 
 a usurper may extend themselves with ease, leaving no corner unoc 
 cupied in which patriotism might shelter or treason hide. But moun 
 tains, glens, morasses, and lakes set bounds to conquest ; and amidst 
 these is the impregnable seat of Liberty." This is lamentably true 
 in the case of Poland. On the other hand, the freedom that has lived 
 through the storms of so many years, amidst the mountain-heights of 
 
136 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 Switzerland, proves the justice of the observation. And where have 
 men, single-handed, as it were, offered such bold, resolute, and defi 
 ant opposition to all the usurpations of tyranny, as in the moun 
 tains of Scotland ? The tales of her heroes make one s blood tingle 
 with admiration. The names of Wallace and Bruce, engraven on the 
 heart of every real lover of freedom, will live till the " last syllable 
 of recorded time." Their examples will never die, but the spirit of 
 Freedom which breathes through them, will move forward in silence, 
 but with power, till the whole globe is finally encircled in its blessed 
 embrace. 
 
 On this Western continent, nations have as yet hardly settled them 
 selves in their natural positions. As it is a comparatively new field 
 of operation, so must many things that are esteemed fixed in the 
 Old World, continue for a long time in a state of transition. Princi 
 ples may be established, yet, from their very nature, they may keep 
 all persons in a state of perpetual activity. Such are the principles 
 of popular liberty offering freedom to every man, opening grand 
 fields for the exercise of his various powers, and inciting him to con 
 tinued exertion. 
 
 The original thirteen States lay stretched along the Atlantic coast. 
 In their front was a vast ocean ; in their rear an almost impenetrable 
 wilderness. Little did the early settlers think that small beginning 
 was to result, least of all to result so speedily, in the subjugation of a 
 broad continent to the purposes of a high civilization. Their first 
 thought was for their own protection. They sought to command an 
 independent subsistence. In industry, in heroic resolve and action, in 
 energy and persistent endurance, no people ever lived who were their 
 superiors. In taking wise thought for themselves, they seem never to 
 have forgotten the great and distinctive principles on which, their polit 
 ical system was founded. It was self-preservation ; but that involved 
 something far more lofty than mere selfishness. Periling their lives 
 and fortunes in defence of their convictions, they did not forget, in 
 the flush of success, the cause on which their very lives depended. 
 To men actuated by such principles, ordinary natural boundaries 
 
BOUND AKIES OF COUNTRIES. 137 
 
 could offer but trifling- impediments in the work upon which they 
 were engaged. The spirit of their principles was expansive, perpetu 
 ally enlarging* its limits. Our fathers settled the whole of the im 
 mense tract extending from Maine to Georgia. Every imaginable tie 
 held together the people at the extremes of the Union, equally with 
 those who were neighbors. The purpose that pervaded all hearts 
 alike, and cemented the union which a common interest had been 
 instrumental in forming, was one that readily leaped the widest 
 streams, and found its way over the highest mountains. It was no 
 more to be controlled by the limits of natural bounds, than the silent 
 and mysterious passage of light could be checked by the impotent 
 ordering of man. 
 
 If now we direct our attention to the map of the United States, we 
 shall see that Nature had apparently set no limits to the growth of 
 this nation, save perhaps the Mississippi River, the Rocky Mountains, 
 or the Pacific Ocean. Our march was still westward, in obedience to 
 the inexorable law. Forests fell, as if by magic, before the ringing 
 axe of our sturdy pioneers. Broad fields lay extended in the sunlight, 
 where, but a short time before, wild beasts found their coverts and 
 hunted their prey. Acre after acre waved with the bending wheat 
 and rye, and gleamed with the yellow gold of ripening corn. Cabins 
 dotted the hillsides, and mill-wheels flashed in the running streams. 
 Hamlets grew and thickened. Villages everywhere gave a new life 
 and light to the landscape. Towns and cities sent up their busy 
 hum, and the air was alive with the sounds and voices of intelligent 
 and independent industry. 
 
 In an incredibly short time, State after State was added to the 
 confederacy, wheeling into the ranks with all the order and precision 
 of a military manoeuvre. Each remained an independent power, yet 
 materially contributed to the strength of the confederacy. The trou 
 bles that were so readily imagined for us, as a consequence of such 
 rapid and unexampled growth, all dissipated like dew before the 
 morning sun. Those who watched our course with critical eyes, 
 could not understand that the very spirit of our institutions begat 
 
138 VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 harmony, and not discord ; that it had no relation to conquest, 
 nor even to a selfish ambition, but that it exerted itself rather upon 
 the convictions and feelings of men, than upon either their will or 
 their power of resistance. It appealed only to men s volition, never 
 to their obstinacy. It sought only to win over, never to compel. 
 The first fruit of such a spirit could not fail to be peace. 
 
 We kept growing at the same unparalleled rate continually. We 
 reached the Mississippi and the Mexican Gulf. Here, said some of 
 our wisest statesmen, we will rest. " Thus far, and no farther." But 
 the great coil of events in our national history was only beginning to 
 run out. It would be a long time before we should come to the end. 
 The spirit of enterprise, the highest characteristic of the American 
 people, was nowise content to rest here. The great Mississippi poured 
 itself into the Gulf ; but why could it not wash States on both shores 
 as well as on one? Was that turbid current a sufficient limit for the 
 energies of free culture and free institutions ? The indomitable men 
 of the nation said No, and forward went the work of settling and 
 civilizing an entire continent. 
 
 Texas was with us, and became a part of as. We founded a great 
 and powerful State on the Pacific shore, as if to be a new inducement 
 to draw us over the mountains and deserts that lay between. Oregon 
 claimed a place by our side, her people and ours being one in sym 
 pathy, as they were in blood and education. And the great Western 
 and Northwestern Territories were finally partitioned out, receiving 
 their names and forms of government. The inquiry was next made, 
 Are not the Rocky Mountains a natural division for the country ? 
 But the question seems suddenly to have answered itself. Already 
 pre have crossed the Rocky Mountains. We have conquered them. 
 They are no longer impassable. We have friends, neighbors, sons, 
 brothers, who inhabit that far-off land. The very ideas of boundary, 
 jvhich they once so naturally excited in our minds, have fallen away 
 ipon a nearer acquaintance with them, and now hardly exist at all. 
 
 This age of steam and lightning, of discovery and perpetual appli 
 cation, is performing incredible things in bringing distant places and 
 
BOUNDARIES OF COUNTRIES. 139 
 
 people together. It seems almost to keep abreast with sympathy 
 itself in the race. The spirit that vitalizes it, tunnels mountains, 
 bridges our widest rivers, leaps deserts at a single bound, and stops 
 only with the vast ocean itself. Our brethren in California and 
 Oregon are not more distant from us to-day, than were the early 
 settlers of Ohio but thirty years ago. Nothing could have worked 
 such a revolution but a radical change, or progressiveness, in ideas. 
 Distance itself has not diminished, but its effects have been reduced 
 in estimation. We are put in closer communication this day with 
 our brethren on the far-off Pacific shore, than we formerly were with 
 the pioneers on our Western frontiers. Nothing has wrought this 
 great change but our own efforts. Our energy and enterprise have 
 accomplished all. And what yet remains undone, the coming years 
 will certainly behold completely realized. 
 
 Perhaps with different institutions, some such natural barrier as the 
 Rocky Mountains present, would fix a final limit to their progress. 
 Under forms of government that hold men as mere subjects, such an 
 obstacle might prevail ; but under ours, wherein each man is consi 
 dered a citizen, such a chain of mountains but creates an additional 
 spur to enterprise. Educated to the most liberal and comprehensive 
 habits of thought, our minds seem only to expand with the contem 
 plation of these things, and our ideas sympathize with the geographi 
 cal magnitude of our rivers, plains, and mountains. Freedom may 
 perch upon the summits of that rocky chain, and descend thence 
 into the broad valleys on either side ; but monarchy would be unable 
 to breathe so pure and bracing an atmosphere. They may stand as 
 landmarks, scarred, whitened, and time-honored ; but never need 
 they stand as limits either to civilization or the living spirit that 
 holds us together as a mighty people. On to the ocean ! There 
 can be no natural boundary but its shore. There this great Republic 
 rests ; there its ships anchor. We are ready to accept no confines, 
 save those vast oceans that wash with their never-sleeping waves our 
 eastern and western coasts ! 
 
 In time, greater things are destined to be accomplished. New 
 
140 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 Mexico is ours ; shall not the whole empire of Cortez be ours, not by 
 force, or conquest, or fraud, but in obedience to the same laws that 
 have extended our institutions across this continent? Will not that 
 enfeebled and enervate nation in time awake to the real blessings of 
 self-government, of industry, of enterprise, and of free institutions ? 
 Aud Central America, is there any hindrance to her many petty 
 powers throwing aside their differences, and coming peacefully and 
 hopefully under the influence of this large family of States ? Cuba 
 was plainly intended by nature as the key to the great valley of the 
 Mississippi, and will yet be knocking at our doors, for the day cannot 
 be far distant when she will be/ree. 
 
 On the north, we see no reason why the great lakes interpose any 
 boundary between ourselves and Canada. We see not why all will 
 not yet become UNITED AMERICA. We are not able to understand 
 why an imaginary parallel of latitude should keep the spirit of free 
 thought back, dooming it to a tract that has been bounded and sur 
 veyed by the dictum of a purely arbitrary power. The new recipro 
 city treaty is a long step in the direction desired. The Provinces on 
 the east are separated only by lines that may be easily wiped out, 
 but not at all by any such great and deep differences in sympathy as 
 divide nations. Their natural interests areMn common with our own, 
 Their modes of thinking continually assimilate to ours. Their pur 
 suit .: require the same perseverance and courage in order to attain 
 like results. And it can hardly be questioned that the logical course 
 of <: vents will in due time bring them also, peacefully and voluntarily, 
 ini<> this extended federal compact. Our boundaries are wide apart, 
 Mi:;! contain territory enough to sustain a countless population. Under 
 fioe institutions like ours, all may rise to the level of their true destiny; 
 ii/iividual selfishness and usurpation cease, and nothing but wishes 
 [ ;>, die common good be in the ascendant. Who can clearly predict 
 the condition of our country in the far-off future ? We are alive with 
 hope, a hope that blazes with a brighter and still brighter illumi 
 nation, lighting us along on the broad pathway of realization. 
 
ROMANISM AND FREEDOM. 
 
 " By the patriot s hallowed rest, 
 By the warrior s gory breast, 
 Never let our graves be prest 
 By a despot s throne." 
 
 FlERREPOXT. 
 
 THE advocates of Romanism claim that she is the patron of learning 
 and of freedom ! the encourager of free thought, free opinion, and 
 free expression ; and there are some favorite examples quoted to 
 maintain this monstrous proposition. The Magna Charta, the very 
 groundwork of freedom, is held up as the fruit of Catholic liberality, 
 and so continually announced in our Legislative Halls, from the 
 stump, and in flaming editorials. Unfolding the page of history, we 
 find that John, king of England, engaged in a controversy with the 
 Pope, which resulted in the king s yielding up his possessions to the 
 Holy See, and receiving them back as a vassal. The proud Barons, 
 who at the time possessed no defined rights, could not brook the in 
 sults and degradation which were heaped upon them through the 
 weakness of their king, and solemnly demanded, for their protection, 
 what is now known as the Magna Charta. In the straggle between 
 the lords and the crown, the Pope took part with John against the 
 Barons, and brought the whole of his temporal and spiritual power 
 to defeat their demands. Against them Pope Innocent, from the Coun 
 cil of Lateran, thundered his bulls of excommunication : " We will 
 have you to know, that in General Council we have excommunicated 
 and anathematized, in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the 
 Holy Ghost, in the name of the Apostles Peter and Paul, and in our 
 own name, the Barons of England, with their partisans and abettors. 
 
A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 for persecuting John, the illustrious King of England, who has taken 
 the cross, and is a vassal of the Roman Church, for striving to deprive 
 him of a kingdom, which is known to belong to the Roman Church." 
 
 The example of France, which has in modern times shaken off n 
 t^anuical monarchy, and made approaches towards republican insti 
 tutions, has been held up as a testimony that Romanism favors 
 liberty. The French people always resisted, more perseveringly than 
 those of any other Catholic country, the assumptions of Popery ; to 
 France, the world is indebted, not only for Catholics imbued with n 
 true spirit of Christianity, but also for some of the most powerful 
 writers against the assumptions of the Holy See. The Kings of 
 France ever contended for the right of appointing their own Bishops, 
 and it was only under monarchs most deeply imbued with Romanism 
 that France found her greatest tyrants. Of late years, as the light 
 of true liberty has made encroachments upon the domain of despot 
 ism, it has modified the illiberality of darker times, and one of the 
 first fruits of the late popular revolutions in that country was the 
 separation of Church and State, and protection to every religious 
 belief. But France, liberal as her people naturally are, is yet too 
 much under the influence of Roman supremacy to be quoted as an 
 example of religious toleration. 
 
 It seems but yesterday that Rome herself woke from her long 
 night of slavery, and declaring herself free, her spiritual and temporal 
 despot, the Pope, fled from her walls, and took refuge in Gacta. The 
 regenerated Romans offered to receive the Pope as their spiritual 
 head, but resolutely insisted on the abolition of his temporal power, 
 and that of his tyrannical cardinals. The overture was scorned, and 
 the work of their subjugation to despotism was assigned to Franco, 
 and, in spite of her Republicanism, the lingering slavery of priestcraft 
 was so wrought into the blood and bones of her rulers and her sol 
 diery, that she accepted the work, marched her armies on Rome, 
 bombarded and carried the city by assault, and crushed the new 
 Republic and the liberals of Italy in the dust. 
 
 Maryland, settled under the auspices of Cecil Calvert, a Catholic, 
 
ROMANISM AND FREEDOM. 143 
 
 and by its charter granting popular liberty and religious freedom, has 
 been held up as an example of Catholic toleration. The wily Bishop, 
 the innocent layman, and the designing politician, can never suffi 
 ciently eulogize the liberality that characterized that Colonial govern 
 ment, where, in times of universal intolerance, men could live unmo 
 lested in the enjoyment of the rights of conscience. If this were the 
 result of the direct interference of the Roman Church, had it been 
 voluntarily suggested by Lord Baltimore, then it certainly would 
 have been an illustrious example, and would have stood out a monu 
 ment of light from among the accumulated darkness. But history 
 shows, that neither the Church nor its adherents in any way favored 
 the cause of liberty, so far as the early settlement of Maryland was 
 concerned. 
 
 If Lord Baltimore had been a Protestant nobleman, a Protestant 
 prince would have granted him a charter for a Protestant province. 
 If the king had been a Catholic, a Catholic proprietary would have 
 procured a charter for a Catholic province. This course of action 
 characterizes the history of the period. The luminous and beautiful 
 exception of Maryland to the spirit of colonization of the seventeenth 
 century was owing to the happy coincidence of a wise and energetic 
 statesman receiving a charter from a Protestant monarch jealous of 
 his faith, and both statesman and monarch compelled to pay defer 
 ence to the progressive doctrines and political strength of the Inde 
 pendents of England, who were then preparing the way for successful 
 revolution, and the final triumph of universal liberty, in these Ameri 
 can States.* 
 
 The claim that Romanism is in favor of free thought, free expres 
 sion, and free opinion, is never urged by her votaries out of the United 
 States ; the policy of doing it in this country, however, sometimes 
 becomes insupportable, and the leading Catholic presses occasionally 
 break forth in the following natural language : 
 
 " No good government can exist without religion and there can 
 
 * See History of Democracy in the United States, Maryland, p. 199. 
 
A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 be no religion without an Inquisition, which is wisely designed for 
 the promotion and protection of the true faith."* 
 
 " For our own part, we take this opportunity to explain our hearty 
 delight at the suppression of the Protestant chapel in Rome. This 
 may be thought intolerant ; but when, we ask, Did we ever profess to 
 bo tolerant of Protestantism, or to favor the question that Protestant 
 ism ought to be tolerated ? On the contrary, we HATE Protestantism 
 we DETEST it with our whole heart and soul, and we pray our aversion 
 to it may never decrease."! 
 
 In the United States toleration is claimed as a Papal virtue, be 
 cause it is known to be harmonious with public sentiment. Upon 
 the Continent of Europe all is different, and Romanism becomes the 
 strong right arm of despotism, and the enemy of every thing that is 
 free. Not the supporter of tyranny by inference of its enthusiastic 
 devotees, but by the powerful precepts of its written laws, sanctioned 
 by all the solemnities of tradition, and all the massive machinery of 
 the Church. Of the doctrines of the Council of Trent it is decreed, 
 " If any one shall presume to teach, or to think differently from these 
 decrees, let him be accursed." As late as 1832, the Church, through 
 Gregory XVII., in its famous Encyclical letter, pronounces, " From 
 that polluted fountain of indifference flows the absurd and erroneous 
 doctrine, or rather raving, in favor and in defence of liberty of con 
 science, for which most pestilential error, the course opened by that 
 entire and wild liberty of opinion, which is everywhere attempting 
 the overthrow of civil and religious institutions, and which the un 
 blushing impudence of some has held forth as an advantage to re 
 ligion." " From hence arise those revolutions in the minds of men, 
 hence this aggravated corruption of youths, hence the contempt 
 among the people of sacred things, and of the most holy institutions 
 and laws ; hence, in one word, that pest of all others most to be 
 dreaded in a State, unbridled liberty of opinion." 
 
 The establishment of the Inquisition in the sixteenth century was 
 
 * Boston Pilot. t Pittsburg Catholic Visitor, 1848. 
 
ROMANISM AND FREEDOM. 145 
 
 for the avowed purpose of putting down free thought, free expression, 
 and free opinion. Under its sway, enormities were committed which 
 make humanity shudder. Under its administration John Louis Vivis, 
 a Spaniard of great learning and reputation, bewails the fate of mode 
 rate and charitable Catholics even in Spain ; what must have been 
 the fate of avowed Protestants who came under its condemnation? 
 Says Vivis, in a letter to Erasmus, dated May 18th, 1534, " "We live 
 in hard times, in which we can neither speak or be silent without 
 danger." In the forty-three years of the administrations of the first 
 four Inquisitors-General, which closed in the year 1524, they com 
 mitted eighteen thousand human beings to the flames, and inflicted 
 inferior punishments on two hundred thousand persons more, with 
 various degrees of severity. It was this work of the Inquisition in 
 Spain, with a knowledge that the Spanish and French monarchs 
 meditated the extension over all Christendom of the Inquisition, that 
 seated Elizabeth firmly on the throne of England, and secured that 
 political toleration that led to the brightest triumphs of the Ref 
 ormation. 
 
 Popish devotees are made to believe, and Protestants are constantly 
 told, that the Inquisition was not established by the Catholic Church, 
 and therefore the Church is not to be held accountable for any of its 
 acts; yet we find Saint Liguori, one of the most reverend of the 
 Fathers, says, 
 
 " Pope Paul III. established the General Inquisition at Rome, in 
 the year 1542, by his Bull 34, commencing with the words * Licet ab 
 initio. " (Ligor. de Prohib. Libro, p. 238.) "In the General Con 
 gregation," continues the Saint, " of the holy Roman and Universal 
 Inquisition, held in the Apostolical Quiriual Palace, before our MOST 
 HOLT LORD, Lord Benedict, by Divine Providence the fourteenth 
 Pope, and before the most eminent and most serene doctors, the Car 
 dinals of the Holy Roman Church, specially deputed by the holy 
 Apostolical See, General Inquisitors against heretical pravity." 
 (Ligor. de Rom. Pont., Dec. iii, p. 85.) 
 The fact that the Romish Church assumes to be infallible, of neces- 
 
146 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 sity makes her intolerant. Her arrogant claim of supremacy above 
 all governments of the earth in things spiritual, must also of necessity 
 make her an enemy to free thought and action. The truth of this 
 position is clearly set forth in the Rhemish Testament, which urges 
 that " the blood of heretics is not called the blood of saints, no more 
 than the blood of thieves, man-killers, and other malefactors, for the 
 shedding of which, by order of justice, no commonwealth shall suiter." 
 (Rhem. Test., Annot. upon Rev. xvii. 6.) 
 
 " Experience teaches," says Cardinal Bellarmine, " that there is no 
 other remedy for the evil but to put heretics to death ; for the Church 
 proceeded gradually, and tried every remedy. At first, she merely 
 excommunicated them ; afterward she added a fine ; then she ban 
 ished them ; and finally she was constrained to put them to death." 
 (Bellarm. de Laicis, lib. iii. c. 21.) 
 
 Finally, as an utter refutation of the claim Romanism makes to 
 free thought, free expression, and free opinion, we quote the language 
 of the General Council of Lateran, which says, " Let the secular 
 powers be compelled, if necessary, to exterminate to their utmost 
 power all heretics denoted by the Church." (Gen. Coun. Lett., A. D. 
 1215.) 
 
 Such are the assumptions of this mighty religio-political organi 
 zation, which, under the mild aegis of our Republican institutions, 
 sends forth both its deceived and its knowing disciples, to teach the 
 people of America, that it cherishes the fundamental principles of 
 Republicanism, denying for the time its most ancient doctrines, deny 
 ing its practice through centuries, and seemingly holding in contempt 
 the intelligence of the American people, by claiming attributes so 
 utterly opposed to its practices and precepts. That the Jesuitical 
 foreign priest who was born under the system, nursed in its iniquities, 
 who has no home, no ambition, no future, no glory that does not centre 
 in Rome, should be willing to load his conscience down with mental 
 reservations, or being so utterly corrupt, from his early education, to 
 know nothing as right but the building up of his Church; that 
 such a man should claim any thing and every thing for Papacy, that 
 
ROMANISM AND FREEDOM. 147 
 
 would palliate the opposition of the American mind to its despotic 
 and liberty-crushing requirements, is not strange ; but the terrible 
 influence of Papal power is more awfully illustrated than in any 
 other case, when it can make a free and independent native-born 
 citizen, educated and enlightened, and accustomed in his early life to 
 think and act for himself, suddenly cease to have a mind of his own, 
 suddenly deny the truths of history, suddenly discard the lessons of 
 his own experience, and the accumulated testimony of ages, and de 
 clare that in the Romish Church there is free thought and free ex 
 pression, and support it by sophisms upon history, that upon exami 
 nation by the light of truth are dissipated, and leave the advocate in 
 the condition of a person who willingly lends himself to deceptions 
 of the grossest kind, or who, if sincere, must be passed upon as in 
 capable, from ghostly influence, of announcing the truth. 
 
 No historical fact can be produced which will show that the Pope 
 of Rome has aided in any cause that might properly be termed one 
 of freedom, or that any of his official councils, or any acknowledged 
 councils of the Church, have ever done any thing to enlighten the 
 people, and encourage them in the principles of self-government. 
 The present Pontiff may be presumed to have as enlarged views as 
 any of his predecessors, yet he is as far removed from encouraging 
 republican ideas as the most bigoted prelate of the dark ages. He 
 represents, in this matter, not himself, but his Church ; and acts only 
 in accordance with the spirit and dictates of the great religio-political 
 institution of which he is the head. Pius IX. blessed the Czar of 
 Russia, and the newly made Emperor of Austria, because they aided 
 in restoring him to his throne, from which he had been driven by the 
 republicans of Italy. At the same time he cursed Piedmont and Bel 
 gium, because they asserted that the civil power was superior in civil 
 matters to the power of the priests, and attempted to escape from 
 some of the galling usurpations of Rome. Pius entered the hospitals, 
 filled with wounded republicans who had fallen in the attempt to give 
 liberty to the people, and poured out upon them his especial maledic 
 tions. To the wounded French those hireling troops who had been 
 
14:8 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 employed to stifle liberty he dispensed his blessing, and loaded them 
 with rosaries, medals, and crosses of honor. Such was his treatment 
 to the men who had cruelly shot down his own subjects his own 
 people ! The bones of the martyrs of liberty were left to decay 
 upon the surface of the ground ; and, in this nineteenth century, 
 travellers were disgusted in witnessing this savage cruelty, allowed 
 almost under the very walls of the Vatican. "We repeat, that Pius IX., 
 in these enormities, represents the principle of his Church ; and were 
 he to act more liberal more in accordance with the spirit of the 
 dge he would cease to be Pope ; for Romanism and freedom will 
 ever be at war. 
 
EFFECTS OF ROMANISM AND PROTESTANTISM 
 ON CIVILIZATION. 
 
 " The prosperity of a country is founded upon the intelligence of its inhabitants. This intelligence 
 is dependent upon an enlightened religious belief ; for the highest civilization is the result of the 
 purest Christianity." 
 
 THREE centuries ago, the people of the continent of Europe became 
 divided by the Reformation ; those of the North embraced Protestant 
 ism, those of the South remained Romanist. The great powers sided 
 with Rome ; the second-rate embraced the new faith. The former 
 held command over the most fruitful domains of the Old and New 
 "World, and swayed the sceptre of ocean. Literature, science, and 
 the arts were theirs. The latter, in comparison, had received but little 
 from Nature, and commerce and manufactures were scarcely known 
 amongst them. Such was the position of affairs in the sixteenth cen 
 tury. Let us now examine the transformation which these respective 
 countries have undergone. 
 
 At the period of the Reformation, Spain was the first among the 
 nations of Europe. By comparing its former with its present state, 
 we shall discover how much it has lost ; and this loss is owing, if 
 not entirely, at least in part, to its religious faith. Never was a nation 
 so completely under the influence of Romanism as Spain. She pre 
 sented a brilliant picture in the sixteenth century ; for the conquest 
 of Grenada had raised her to the pinnacle of wealth and prosperity. 
 While the nobility gave themselves up to the profession of arms, the 
 other classes enriched their country by assiduous labor. On all sides, 
 irrigation, canals, and reservoirs distributed water over the remotest 
 and most barren tracts. Agriculture was especially honored, whilst 
 
150 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 industry and commerce added to the general prosperity. The devel 
 opment of trade was equal to that of industry. A minister of Philip 
 the Second, asserted, in an assembly of the Cortes, that at the fair of 
 Medina del Campo, in 15G3, business was transacted to the amount 
 of one hundred and thirty-two millions five hundred thousand dollars. 
 A multitude of trading vessels set sail every year from various ports, 
 conveying to Italy, Asia Minor, Africa, and the East Indies, the pro 
 ducts of the national industry. Sculpture, architecture, painting, and 
 music were enshrined in her midst. The drama, epic and lyric poetry, 
 and history found worthy interpreters, names which will live forever. 
 The palaces of the Spanish ambassadors were in foreign countries the 
 resort of the most elegant society ; and France, Italy, England, and 
 Germany sent their youth to Madrid to acquire Castilian manners 
 and politeness. 
 
 Towards the close of the fifteenth century, Spain, victorious over 
 the Moors, became the discoverer and mistress of the New World. 
 What a magnificent present ! What a glorious future ! All peoples 
 looked to her as first amongst the nations, and sovereigns trembled at 
 her power. 
 
 What was the condition of England at the period of the Reforma 
 tion ? One-half of the land was the property of the clergy ; the 
 remainder belonged to the nobility. Sixty-five thousand priests and 
 monks supported immense establishments by the moneys levied on 
 the people. The land was cultivated to a comparatively small extent, 
 the gross agricultural product being under forty millions of dollars. 
 Her trade was small, compared to that of many nations on the conti 
 nent, and commerce was scarcely known in her ports. Manufactures 
 were obtained from other countries, and education of the people had 
 not yet commenced. Everywhere feudalism and priestcraft were tri 
 umphant, and divided the nation for their mutual benefit. 
 
 England, under the benign influences of the Reformation, from 
 a fourth-rate power, soon took her station at the head of the nations 
 of the earth ; and peoples once her superiors became dependent upon 
 her for protection and aid. Her ships whitened every sea, and her 
 
ROMANISM AND PROTESTANTISM. 151 
 
 drum-beat greeted the rising sun around the world. Her capitalists 
 have covered Europe with railroads, and she has made laws to mil 
 lions in Asia. She has her colonies in Africa, America, and a 
 rising empire in Australia. What the United States are effecting 
 in the Western Hemisphere, she is accomplishing in the Old World. 
 
 Within eleven years, Spain effects the subjugation of Grenada, 
 discovers and conquers America, and establishes THE INQUISITION ! 
 At the summit of prosperity in the fifteenth century, behold her in 
 the nineteenth ! See that spectacle of agony which cannot come to 
 an end ; that all-pervading confusion to which no term can be 
 assigned ; the certain and progressive ruin of a nation that, for a 
 whole century, dictated laws to Europe ; that inhabits the richest and 
 most fertile soil, perhaps, under heaven but a nation so disheartened 
 that it feels itself perish, and watches its own decline with the resig 
 nation of a fatalist ! 
 
 The clergy possess nearly one-third of the entire surface of Spain. 
 As a consequence, one-twelfth of the inhabitants earn a livelihood by 
 smuggling, robbing, and begging; and it has been estimated that 
 three million Spaniards wear no shirt from want of money to pur 
 chase one. There are forty classes of vagrants, each cla^s with a 
 specific, recognized name. There is an assassination for every four 
 thousand of the population. Education is scarcely known, and there 
 is but one pupil to every three hundred and fifty inhabitants. Internal 
 navigation, agriculture, and manufactures are at a stand-still. Such 
 is modern Spain, once the first, now the last of nations ! What is 
 the cause of this? what the origin of such utter misery and help 
 lessness ? Tyranny, answers the politician ; Romanism, says the Pro 
 testant ; the Inquisition, replies the historian. But these three are 
 one. Tyranny and the Inquisition! foul offspring of blighting 
 Romanism ! 
 
 During the past year, the Queen of Spain having presented to the 
 Pope a magnificent tiara of diamonds, the Pontiff returns an allocu 
 tion to the "Catholic Sovereign," and the gift of the body of St. Fe 
 lix ! Thus has it ever been. Spain parts with her wealth to Rome, 
 
152 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 and receives iu return bones, putrefaction, and rottenness ! But 
 Rome has borne sway there too long. The Spaniards are now rising 
 against this frightful spiritual and civil. tyranny; the dupes and tools 
 of the priesthood have fled the country like malefactors, and the sov 
 ereign herself obeys the dictates of her subjects. Rome is no longer 
 to hold Spain as her property, to farm and pillage it to benefit the 
 Papal treasury. She has fattened on it too long, and has left it, poor, 
 weak, uneducated, superstitious, low in civilization, the prey of count 
 less factions. But Spain is ridding herself of the cause of her misery- 
 may we not hope, forever ? 
 
 "We address to the reader s conscience this twofold question : First, 
 is it not true that Spain, favored with the finest climate, placed at the 
 head of Europe, enriched with a world, but remaining Romanist^ has 
 continued to decline and grow poorer, sinking at last into ignorance, 
 misery, and immorality? Secondly, is it not true that England, 
 with a sterile soil, a cloudy sky, and starting from the lowest rank 
 among European nations, but having embraced Protestantism, is 
 now prosperous, enlightened, moral, and at the head of the civilized 
 world ? 
 
 We find the relative influence of the two creeds fully developed in 
 the Republic of Switzerland. The Protestant cantons are more pop 
 ulous than the Romanist, and carry on a far greater trade. The 
 latter are obliged to keep many holidays besides Sundays, and thus 
 agriculture is much neglected. The Cantons of Zurich, Basle, Ge 
 neva, Claris, and Neufchatel, all Protestant, are distinguished above 
 the rest for their industry and manufactures. The people are not so 
 well educated in the Romish as in the other cantons. There are but 
 twenty-two presses in the former to eighty in the latter. Ten Protest 
 ant journals are printed to three Romanist. In the Papist cantons, 
 ignorance and misery go hand in hand, and distress the eyes of the 
 traveller. The taste for processions, pilgrimages, and other acts of 
 devotion introduced by the monks, has encouraged a spirit of idle 
 ness which is the bane of trade and agriculture, and augments the 
 
 O O 
 
 numbers of tho poor. Tn the cantons where the peasants bow the 
 
ROMANISM AND PROTESTANTISM. 153 
 
 neck to the yoke of the clergy, men have lost all their energy, all 
 elevation of mind. Servile and taciturn as slaves, they have forgotten 
 their lights, and know nothing beyond the performance of a mechan 
 ical and unreasoning obedience. The Canton du Valais is celebrated 
 throughout Europe for its filth, superstition, and wretchedness. u Mange 
 pas les puces et les Pretres" (eaten up by lice and priests), is the pro 
 verb applied to its inhabitants throughout Europe. The population 
 is behind the other cantons even in regard to agricultural operations 
 and the management of cattle. They are inferior in education, 
 knowledge, and science ; and are specially idle, negligent, and dirty. 
 In the villages, at every door are seen horrible cretins, sickly, wretched, 
 languishing, with an enormous head, lost in an immense goitre, their 
 faces swollen and livid, the eyes sunk under the thick and heavy lids ; 
 the flabby cheeks, the halt-opened lips, with the tongue hanging out, 
 and a filthy saliva round it. Some, scarcely covered with rags, lie 
 warming their limbs in the sun ; others, seated on the laps of half- 
 cretinized old women, resign their beards and heads to their inspec 
 tion, or moodily count their beads, muttering Aves and Pater Xosters. 
 Medical men are decided that the causes of this deformed idiocy, 
 cretinism, are moral as well as physical ; the neglect of education 
 leads to their imbecility.* Children are left to themselves, and exist 
 like beasts. They wallow in the mire, seizing and devouring all they 
 find there. In winter they pass whole days stretched in a room 
 warmed by a stove. Drunkenness is the prevailing vice, and the 
 population is universally superstitious, insensible to their own inter 
 ests, intractable and obstinate. 
 
 Romanism had a hard battle to fight in Germany at the time of 
 the Reformation. The Jforth, represented by Prussia, became Pro 
 testant ; the South, under the influence of Austria, remained Ro 
 manist. In the latter, two powers, the government and the clergy, 
 have united in working the nation to their mutual advantage. The 
 clergy, at first, strove to govern both the people and the nobles ; but 
 
 * Eaoul Eochette, Vol. III. p. 392. Lautier, Vol. II. p. 204. 
 
154 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 these resisted, and took the place coveted by the clergy. The civil 
 power is therefore master, only it reigns in the nation by the means 
 and tutoring of the Church. A compromise exists ; the Church is 
 the instrument, the Government is the hand ; but the instrument acts 
 according to its own aptitude, so that a harmonious concurrence 
 exists between the two powers. Rome has fashioned Austria, although 
 Rome obeys Austria, and the two forces have successfully enthralled 
 the nation, by depriving it of liberty and education. Freedom of 
 thought does not exist : there are twelve offices for the revision of 
 books, and as many censors, at Vienna, Prague, and Milan. The 
 advance of industry is stopped by an exaggerated prohibitive system ; 
 her commerce in nowise answers to the extent of her monarchy, and 
 her internal trade is scarcely half developed. 
 
 There is no individual liberty ; the subject is a simple tenant ; he 
 cannot be more. The lords judge between their own subjects ; they 
 may even judge in their own cause. Up to 1846, except in Hungary, 
 no peasant might emigrate, buy, sell, make a will, or marry, without 
 authorization; he was, in fact, a minor, kept under by perpetual 
 legislative guardianship. 
 
 Gallicia, a country possessing all the elements of wealth, has re 
 mained barren, and frightful indigence bears sway. In the wretched 
 and repulsive-looking villages, narrow huts, formed of branches of 
 trees rudely kept together with osier bands, and covered with straw 
 and clay, surround a church. The other provinces of the empire are 
 in similar condition ; religion and misery go hand in hand. There 
 is, as Ave before observed, no liberty of thought, no liberty of com 
 merce, no individual liberty ; but instead, drudgery for the peasants, 
 beating for the soldiers, humiliation for officials, and a villainous sys 
 tem of secret police. 
 
 The different professions are enrolled to serve as spies, as also are 
 the hackney-coachmen. Servants are called upon to tell what they 
 know of their masters and households ; door-keepers, tradesmen, and 
 clerks render the same service. One-half of the people are spies 
 upon the other half. 
 
ROMANISM AND PROTESTANTISM. 155 
 
 Thanks to this abominable tyranny and vile superstition, Austria is 
 falling daily in opinion ; the distrust and discontent which the govern 
 ment excites, germinate like fertile seeds, and will one day bear bitter 
 fruits. 
 
 Whilst Austria extinguishes the light of knowledge and forbids 
 liberty of thought, Prussia, on the contrary, governs by means of that 
 light and liberty. 
 
 Prussia is a state in which instruction is very generally diffused 
 and watched over with the greatest care : the number of schools in 
 creases annually. There is no country where science and learning 
 are more encouraged, or cultivated with greater success, and the in 
 habitants have reached a high degree of moral and intellectual at 
 tainment. The government pays the greatest attention to public 
 education, and the advancement of the arts and sciences. Freedom 
 is granted to all religious denominations. 
 
 The result of Luther s reformation in Germany was liberty of 
 thought and opinion. No distinction was made between theological 
 and philosophical truth, and public disputations were held on all 
 subjects without opposition. Nowhere has the human mind been 
 permitted to expand or express itself more freely than in Northern 
 Germany: Liberty of thought and Protestantism are there united 
 by strong ties, and German Philosophy is the daughter of the Ref 
 ormation. The language even has felt the benefit : Protestants were 
 the first to write it with intelligence, and this pure style is, in the 
 countries subject to Austria, called Lutheran German. 
 
 Agriculture is improving, manufactures increase, and trade flour 
 ishes. In fifteen years, Prussia has expended a capital of fifty-four 
 million dollars in roads and railways. Throughout the country, 
 beautiful villages spring up on every side ; the houses are well built, 
 and almost concealed by the thick covering of vine leaves. The 
 villagers universally wear bright, happy countenances, and their 
 courteous manners and picturesque costumes all bespeak the con 
 tentment and comfort which reign among them. 
 
 Such is Germany. In the South, Austria and her band of Romish 
 
156 A VOICE TO AMEKICA. 
 
 States career in the darkness of material despotism, without conscious 
 ness of the noble destiny of man. 
 
 In the North, Prussia, and her company of Protestant nations, 
 blessed with increasing liberty, bask in the bright light of knowledge, 
 in ceaseless speculations after God and immortality. 
 
 Romanist Belgium and Protestant Holland having been alternately 
 united and separated, cannot be so entirely different from one another 
 as the countries we have already compared. During the last half 
 century alone, Belgium has been successively under the rule of Infi 
 del France, of the Protestant Netherlands, and of its own Roman 
 ist government. These powers have each left an impression, and 
 thus have modified the contrast which strikes us so forcibly else 
 where. 
 
 In the eighteenth century, Belgium passed under the dominion of 
 the French, then much irritated against priestcraft ; Belgians must 
 in a measure have shaken off the same yoke, and lost some of their 
 prejudices. If this were not an advance in good, it was at least a 
 step out of evil. 
 
 But it was especially from 1815 to 1830, un^ler a Protestant gov 
 ernment, that Belgium received abundantly the treasures of freedom 
 and civilization. Agricultural colonies were established, and flourish 
 ed ; institutions for the poor were founded ; a general increase of 
 population and comfort ensued, and commerce received a great 
 development. 
 
 The advantages on the Romanist side, as regards soil and cli 
 mate, are very considerably in favor of Belgium in comparison witli 
 Holland. The former has a fertile soil, generously endowed by na 
 ture ; a ray of sunshine covers it with abundant crops ; it possesses 
 mines of lead, copper, iron, alum, sulphur and calamine, quarries of 
 marble, freestone, limestone, &c. 
 
 In Holland, instead of these natural riches, we find water ! water 
 everywhere. While Brussels, the capital of Belgium, rests upon a 
 rock, Amsterdam is built in the midst of the floods, on thirteen mil 
 lion stakes. Wh;ii have the IV Vi:;:! CViholk-a <i<.w with their fertile 
 
ROMAXISM AND PROTESTANTISM. 
 
 land in comparison with what the Dutch Protestants have made of 
 their marshes ? 
 
 Belgian agriculture is, at the present time, greatly below that of 
 Holland. Travellers are struck with the wisdom with which the 
 Dutch cherish every thing which tends to the improvement of that 
 science. Their laborers enjoy an amount of comfort which contrasts 
 strongly with the poverty of Flanders ; their dwellings are well kept, 
 their clothes are clean and substantial ; all things bespeak ease and 
 prosperity. There are scarcely any paupers amongst them, whilst in 
 Belgium they form a seventh of the population. 
 
 Since 1830, educational and scientific institutions have greatly 
 fallen off in the latter country. What the Priosihood could not con 
 trol, they willingly allowed to decay ; they direct, at least partially, 
 all primary instruction, not only as to religion and morals, but in 
 every branch of education. In Holland, they take not the slightest 
 part in public instruction ; they do not even visit the schools ; secta 
 rianism is not allowed to enter, but the master is charged to teach his 
 pupils the rules of morality and the truths of the Gospel. 
 
 The preponderance of the Romish clergy in Belgium is a bad 
 omen for the future ; all things coeverge towards a moral and intel 
 lectual subjugation : the Jesuit system of education is greatly dreaded, 
 for it aims at nothing less than the extinction of ajl free-will and 
 spontaneous action. Belgium has greatly retrograded since her dis 
 ruption with Holland, whilst the latter has steadily -fkrogressed in 
 freedom and civilization. 
 
 Romanists are fond of citing France as proof positive of the civil 
 izing influence of their faith : but France is not Papal ; if she be 
 any thing in ethics, she is Deist. We admit at the same time that 
 some provinces, like Brittany, for instance, are really under the 
 influence of the Popish clergy. We shall compare these districts 
 with those localities in which Protestantism has many adherents. 
 The Huguenots in France were in a similar position to that of the 
 Irish Romanists. Both were persecuted by their respective govern 
 ments. We know to what depths of misery the Irish Papists sank ; 
 
158 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 their neglect of agriculture, their idleness, their frightful poverty 
 Is the same sight offered to us by the equally persecuted Protest 
 ants? Gradually excluded from court employments, and from almost 
 all cJvil posts, they applied themselves to agriculture, trade, and man 
 ufactures. The vast plains they possessed in Beam, and the West 
 ern provinces, were covered with rich harvests. In Languedoc, 
 the cantons peopled by them became the best cultivated and the 
 most fertile, often in spite of the badness of the soil. In Guyenne, 
 they took possession of almost the whole wine trade. In the two 
 governments of Brouage and Oleron, a dozen Protestant families had 
 the monopoly of the trade in salt and wine. The wealth of Alenpon 
 passed through their hands; and the Protestants of Rouen carried on 
 an immense commerce, especially with the Dutch. Those of Caen 
 sold to the English and Dutch merchants the linen and woollen cloths 
 manufactured in Normandy. It is to the Protestants that France 
 owes her commerce at Bordeaux, La Rochelle, and the Norman ports. 
 In fine, nearly all the silk, cotton, linen, and paper manufactures were 
 supported by them, arid their tanneries in Touraine were renowned 
 throughout the whole of Europe. 
 
 This magnificent prosperity was annihilated by Romanism at the 
 Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. England, Holland, Germany, 
 and Denmark all received the flying Huguenots. The American 
 colonies were largely benefited by the refugees. The uncultivated 
 banks of tJ*e* James River were by them transformed into fields 
 covered with rich harvests. All Virginia admired the flourishing 
 state .of their model farms in the environs of Mannikin. In the 
 State of New York, the founders of New La Rochelle, recoiled from 
 no fatigue that might render productive the virgin land on the shores 
 of the East River. Men, women, and children unceasingly labored 
 until they converted a wilderness into a smiling landscape ; and in 
 South Carolina they reared magnificent plantations on the banks of 
 the Cooper. The agricultural colony on the banks of the Santee sur 
 passed all others in the same province, although the refugees were 
 unaccustomed to that kind of labor. 
 
ROMANISM AND PROTESTANTISM. 159 
 
 The Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, in 1685, had its reaction 
 in the fearful atrocities of the French Revolution of 1792. But a 
 great Protestant element exists still in France, and we can compare 
 their comparative prosperity with that of the Romanists. In Paris, 
 the average personal tax paid by all the inhabitants is six dollars and 
 twelve cents ; the average paid by the Protestants is seventeen dol 
 lars ; that is to say, the fortunes of the Paris Protestants are, at the 
 present time, nearly three times that of their Romanist country 
 men. Throughout the length and breadth of France, the Protest 
 ant departments are the most industrious, most wealthy, and pay the 
 highest taxes to the government. The six departments which sup 
 ply the primary schools with the largest amount of pupils, are those 
 containing the largest number of Protestants. The six departments 
 numbering the smallest number of pupils are precisely those which 
 are exclusively Romanist populations. 
 
 The Reformed Faith is making progress throughout France. At 
 the same time, we must not ignore the fact that in many parts of the 
 country Romanism is very powerful, especially with the court. Ser 
 vices rendered necessarily demand favors in return. Hence the decree 
 placing education in the hands of the priests. The occupation of 
 Rome is oftTtimes cited as a proof of Gallican support of the Holy 
 See, but there were far too grave political reasons to prompt such a 
 procedure for us to suppose that the French Government was, and is 
 guided by mere faith, or reverence for a system which the Napoleons 
 have always made subservient to their own purposes. As a nation, 
 France is simply Deist ; and to this state has she been reduced by 
 centuries of priestly domination and Romish superstition. 
 
 In no country do the effects of Romanism and Protestantism so 
 strike the observer as in Ireland. Here, as elsewhere, the fruitful 
 South has fallen to the lot of the former, and the Reformation dis 
 plays its power in the comparatively barren North. The effect upon 
 the Irish of the bad direction which the priest gives to their minds, 
 is a prostration of their moral force, annihilating all their intellectual 
 faculties, and blunting even the consciousness of misfortune and desire 
 
160 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 t 
 
 to put an end to it, Ireland is peopled with poor ; mendicity seems 
 almost the national characteristic. The Irish beggars are the Lazza- 
 I oui of England. 
 
 The Romish population of Ireland live in huts, the walls of which 
 are made of mud and flints, or of old and almost rotten planks ; the 
 roof is composed of a layer of clods, spread over the laths. Gen 
 erally, no windows are to be seen. Light enters only by means of the 
 door, or a hole made in the roof, which serves as a chimney. In this 
 same damp shed live, pell-mell, two, three, and sometimes four gen 
 erations of human beings. The sow seems a member of the family 
 lying in the corner, surrounded and petted by the children. In these 
 miserable abodes tho Irkh Romanists pass their lives, except when 
 engaged in agrarian outrage, or resistance 10 the laws of the land. For 
 centuries have they existed in this manner; and when patriotic indi 
 viduals attempt a reformation of so horrible a state of things, the plies s 
 denounce the philanthropists from the altar, and cause their deluded 
 congregations to lie in wait to assassinate them. Such is Papal Ireland ! 
 
 The Irish of the North, living under the same laws, "tyrannized (?) 
 over by the same government," show exactly a contrary picture. They 
 devote themselves to manufactures and trade, and their linens surpass 
 all others. The growth and manufacture of flax was commenced by 
 Protestants, and has been maintained by them ever since. Belfast is 
 a remarkable example of the prosperity of the Protestant towns of 
 the North. There are special hospitals for the blind, deaf and dumb, 
 fever patients, lunatics, the feeble ; with asylums for penitent girls, lib 
 erated convicts, domestics out of place, and women out of work. 
 There are sixteen Protestant chapels to two Romanist ; and the 
 inhabitants are almost all Protestants, and merchants. The houses 
 are well built, large, and convenient. Lovely villages are scattered 
 through the country, well-built cottages stand in the midst of gardens 
 profuse in flowers, the inhabitants are well dressed, and an air or con 
 tentment and happiness pervades every thing. 
 
 As it is in prosperity, so is it in education and morality. Three- 
 fourths of the criminals of Ireland are Romanists, and education is 
 
ROMANISM AND PROTESTANTISM. 161 , 
 
 scarcely known among them. In order to remedy such a frightful 
 state of crime and ignorance, the English Government has lately estab 
 lished schools and colleges, where religion as a study is rigorously 
 excluded ; thus endeavoring to supply the wants of a mixed popu 
 lation, and eventually end sectarianism. Rome anathematizes these 
 institutions, naming them the " Godless colleges," and denounces from 
 the altar those enlightened parents who permit their children to fre 
 quent them. 
 
 There is not an election in which we do not find instances of priests 
 threatening from the altar those who voted for a Protestant candidate. 
 The fearful riots which result from this interference are only quelled 
 by the intervention of an armed force. Everywhere the Romanists 
 are deficient in knowledge and wealth. They are the uneducated, 
 the miserable, the servants of their own land. In short, turn where 
 you will, the result is the same. The difference between Romanism 
 and Protestantism is known by the appearance of every parish, every 
 village, every house and cottage in the land. 
 
 Italy ! Italy ! Mistress of the World ! the glory of Europe ! She 
 had decked herself with the master-works of the human mind, like 
 a queen adorning her brow. Michael Angelo was her architect; 
 Raphael, Titian, and Da Vinci were her painters; Dante, Petrarch, and 
 Ariosto sang her praises. For her, Genoa and Venice unladed their 
 rich argosies ; emperors and kings were her willing vassals. Italy, 
 possessing in her bosom the Infallible Head of the Church ; Italy, 
 enjoying the pure influence of Romanism, and never suffering from 
 heresy, surely Italy must give high proofs of the blessed influence 
 of the Papacy; but the Eternal City! Imperial Rome ! is in ruins ! 
 Half her streets are deserted ; wretchedness and filth reign triumph 
 antly. The glory of the City of the Sea, Venice, is gone ; Genoa is 
 fallen ; Florence is in tears ! Italians are distracted and desolate, the 
 prey of ever-changing tyrants ! 
 
 It is to Popery alone we must attribute the shame of the actual 
 state of Italy. It is the work, the legitimate offspring, the exclusive 
 pupil of the Papal power. Whatever Popery is able to accomplish, 
 
162 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 has been accomplished in Italy. No opposition has been offered 
 there. On the contrary, Popery has been enthroned ; princes and 
 people have bowed before it, as an idol ; and the Head of Roman 
 ism, armed with a triple tiara, held as infallible. The Roman Cai- 
 phas, accepted as vice-God, has prepared and consummated this 
 tremendous ruin. 
 
 But there is a bright ray of hope for this glorious country of the 
 past. Sardinia is waking up to liberty, and manfully striding on in 
 the road to freedom. Rome is in agony ; her ministers fume, her 
 Pontiff threatens excommunication and interdict. But bravely do 
 Sardinia s king and people bear such Middle-Age threats ; and the 
 secularization of the property of the Church, the- appointment of 
 bishops by the government, the annihilation of the monasteries, all 
 go bravely on. Italy s salvation is in the North ; and we trust ere 
 long to see a magnificent empire rising up, embracing Sardinia, Lom- 
 bardy, and the lesser States, and setting free the city of Ricnzi 
 Eternal Rome herself. 
 
 But in order to appreciate the struggle between modern Romanism 
 and Protestantism, we must leave Europe. Here they are both em 
 barrassed in their movements by too many old established customs 
 and prejudices. Providence has given them a vast arena, where each, 
 being surrounded by its own deeds, will be judged by them alone. 
 The Church of Rome and the Reformation have each, in America, a 
 world in which to try their civilizing power, a duel which has hea 
 ven and earth for witnesses. America is a country of the future. She 
 is a virgin, fertile, and extensive land. She has not, by degrading 
 laws, closed the doors upon truth. Neither has she proscribed error ; 
 all forms, religions, governments, are admitted. Truth, eternal truth, 
 will alone prevail. 
 
 A magnificent armament, under the banners of imperial Spain, 
 arrives in South America. The strength and chivalry of Europe land 
 amidst wondering spectators. They march from victory to victory. 
 Untold treasures fill the coffers of the Church. Rome, in intoxica 
 tion, sings countless Te Deums. 
 
ROMANISM AXD PROTESTANTISM. 163 
 
 A. few men land, one by one, on the shores of North America ; 
 poor, humble, and unknown. They bring with them but one book 
 the Bible. They open it on the strand ; and begin forthwith to build 
 up the new city, on the plan of the book recovered by Luther. 
 
 Hearken to the sound of the axe. The emigrant fells the primeval 
 oak in the virgin forests ; the sweat inundates his brow. With toil 
 and trouble he builds an unknown hut, near a running stream. The 
 traveller scarce deigns to turn his head towards this humble dwelling, 
 where the noise of the axe and hammer mingles with the chant of a 
 psalm. But if, a few years later, he pass again by the same spot, he 
 sees, by a sort of social miracle, in the place of the hut, a mighty em 
 pire rising from the earth. The poor emigrant has conquered a world ! 
 
 In this immense arena the lists are opened between two religions. 
 The doctrines of the Council of Trent have received, for the display of 
 their strength, South America. -There the founders are not isolated 
 individuals, but on the contrary, according to Romanist principles, an 
 association already formed. A powerful empire, with all its resources, 
 comes to take possession of the soil. Rich valleys and fertile plains 
 seem to demand the living energy which would give birth to new 
 empires. In order that the trial may be more decisive, Romanism 
 alone is allowed to approach these shores. The civilization of the 
 natives, which might have embarrassed her actions, disappears. Noth 
 ing remains but mighty nature, who, in her solitude, invites man to 
 crown her with vast ideas, projects, innovations, kingdoms, gigantic 
 as herself. But man remains motionless, bound by an invisible force. 
 
 Throughout the entire continent of South America, it is impossible 
 to enforce the observance of the most simple law or police regulation. 
 The insolence of the inhabitants renders them hostile to every kind of 
 control. Morals are in a state that makes us blush for humanity; 
 manufactures are scarcely known ; commerce languishes, or is in the 
 hands of foreigners ; society is utterly demoralized, and anarchy reigns 
 supreme. From the Isthmus to the Horn, w_here.ver Rome has planted 
 her Faith, civilization,. flies. Revolution succeeds revolution, but no 
 good results from the change. South America is one vast moral 
 
164: A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 charnel-house. Mexico, even, which should receive some beneficial 
 influence from the neighboring states, is paralyzed by the priesthood^ 
 in alliance with despotism. Cuba, the brightest jewel in the bosom of 
 ocean, for which nature has done so much and* man so little, is ground 
 down and cursed by this overwhelming spiritual tyranny. Priestcraft 
 pillages her, and military despots put her to death. Rome, wherever 
 supreme, reduces society to chaos. 
 
 What a magnificent contrast in the Protestant North ! Forests 
 have given place to fruitful fields ; cities spring up on every side ; 
 railroads stretch to remotest points ; commerce brings to her the 
 wealth of the old world; Science bridges her rivers, works her roads 
 and canals ; the Arts enshrine themselves in her midst ; and Litera 
 ture carries her glory into far-distant climes. Her Faith and her 
 Progress are one and inseparable ; the dignity and independence of 
 man, his self-reliance, have wrought this. Protestantism settled her 
 finest States it breathes through and animates her constitution ; her 
 forefathers were the everlasting enemies of Rome and tyranny. In 
 stead of ignorance, we find education more diffused than in any other 
 part of the world ; a school is as necessary to a village as houses ; 
 and every succeeding year strives to surpass the last in improving in 
 struction. 
 
 The mind fails to grasp the FUTURE of such a people. When we 
 see the progress accomplished in so short a period ; plenty every 
 where and misery nowhere ; churches, schools, towns, manufactories, 
 rising on all sides, as if by enchantment ; forests cleared away almost 
 as soon as discovered ; a hardy population, active, persevering, eager 
 for knowledge, and ever advancing, we are almost tempted to give 
 history the lie, when we think how much has been done in so short a 
 time. 
 
 Romanism, opposed to all social and commercial progress, is de 
 fended by its subjects with the specious remark that the change proves 
 nothing against the Church, because man is not made for this world, 
 and, therefore, it makes but little difference whether he be free, hap 
 py, prosperous, or otherwise, so long as he is an acceptable mem- 
 
KOMAN ISM AXD PROTESTANTISM. 165 
 
 ber of the Papal communion. This is the favorite argument to make 
 tlio Irish people contented with the misery they suffer by the priest- 
 ridden degradation in their native land. Another class of the defenders 
 of the Papacy admit the commercial and social degradation of Papal 
 nations, but assert that their decline in temporal prosperity is due to the 
 change of the great routes of navigation. It is true that America and 
 England obtained access to the East Indies around the Cape of Good 
 Hope, but this route is, and was, open to Spain, Portugal, and all Ro 
 manist countries. No recent discoveries have altered the route to 
 South America ; nearly the whole of that trade was hers, for her col 
 onies, eleven times the area of the mother country, were equal to In 
 dia in fertility ; rivers were more numerous and mineral productions 
 far superior. England, and in fact the whole of Europe, could never 
 reach the South American Continent as quickly as Spain, for the north 
 east trade-winds were in her favor, and those nations would always be 
 compelled to take a southern course to reach the Gulf of Mexico. 
 Portugal and Spain obtained a vast continent, besides possessions in 
 the West Indies and North America. No change in navigation could 
 possibly affect the development of these immense acquisitions ; but, 
 as we have seen, ill government and superstition have left them a 
 wilderness, and the very name of Spain an execration. 
 
 But granting, for the sake of argument, that the carrying trade has 
 been transferred, surely the loss of commerce cannot have plunged 
 Spain, Portugal, and Italy into such moral debasement atid political 
 annihilation as they are now suffering. The asserters of so monstrous 
 a proposition would make us believe that no country can prosper with 
 out commerce, which is palpably ridiculous. But if their argument 
 be correct, why should Protestant Holland differ so materially from 
 the above-mentioned countries ? She has lost the greater part of her 
 commerce and colonies, yet we see no such moral debasement, no such 
 reducing of man to the level of the brute as we find with them. 
 
 Protestantism found the world in medieval barbarism ; feudalism 
 and tyranny triumphant ; mankind in slavery and ignorance. She 
 has disenthralled the people, blessed them with literature and science, 
 
166 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 raised thorn to the virtue and dignity of MEN. Under her benign 
 auspices they have learned the blessings of liberty, the charms of in 
 tellect, the triumphs of free government. She has given them a 
 world, and taught them how, from a primeval forest, to carve out the 
 glories of a rising empire, the terror of despotism, the star of hope to 
 all nations. She has burst the barriers of three thousand years, and 
 opened China to commerce and the West. She has forced Japan to 
 .obey her behests, and carried her faith into the polar zone. She has 
 invented railroads, telegraphs, steam-engines, and countless appliances 
 to benefit humanity. Her myriad presses carry heaven-born thought 
 into far-off climes; she commands the ocean, and commerce is obe 
 dient to her. Man, disenchained man, stands forth as sovereign of 
 the universe, a being after the image of God. 
 
THE RIGHTS OF CONSCIENCE 
 
 <l The small voice within 
 
 Heard through gain s silence, and o er glory s din : 
 Whatever creed be taught, or land be trod, 
 Man s conscience is the oracle of God." 
 
 THE American mind declares itself in favor of the right of every 
 man to worship God after the dictates of his own conscience. It 
 acts upon the constitutional dictation, that " no religious test shall 
 ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under 
 the United States." That in the first article of the Amendments of 
 the Constitution it is declared, " that Congress shall make no law 
 respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exer 
 cise thereof." Leaving ev^ry individual free to establish his own 
 standard of qualification, and to vote for or against those who hold 
 certain religious principles, or political views, as each one may see 
 right in his own eyes. The war the American mind wages is for the 
 freedom of religious opinion ; it only opposes the tyranny of priest 
 craft a tyranny which educates its slaves that the Church is infal 
 lible, superior in authority to the civil power, and that unquestioned 
 obedience is the highest duty of the layman. The American mind 
 demands that the people of this country, whether native or alien, be 
 brought to consider principalities and powers as entitled to consider 
 ation, only as they are creations of the Constitution and the laws. 
 That they be imbued with the spirit of independence, and regard the 
 principle of equality as an article of living political ftlth ; that they 
 obey no authority, recognize no titles, save those which emanate from 
 the civil power ; that they admit no right to command on the part 
 
168 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 of any Church, and no duty of obedience on the part of the laity ; 
 that they see no peculiar sanctity in priestly robes, unless accom 
 panied by the superior sanctity of those who wear them ; that all 
 deference to Church dignitaries is but the voluntary homage of the 
 heart to exalted virtue ; that there is no divinity hedging in a king, 
 and a mitred bishop, even of the See of Rome, is but a man, entitled 
 to respect only as a man, and to extraordinary consideration, only as 
 ^his Christian graces shine with a lustre superior to those of common 
 men. 
 
 The Pope of Rome claims to be the vicegerent of God, and infalli 
 ble ; that all power on earth, spiritual and temporal, is given him by 
 Divine appointment ; that all countries and governments belong to 
 him, and are either subject to his will and command, or in a state of 
 criminal rebellion ; that all authority in Church and State which 
 does not profess to be under him, and act in strict conformity to his 
 commands, is unlawful and wicked ; that all religious opinions differ 
 ent from the dogmas of the Romish Church are heretical, and that 
 those who profess them are heretics with whom no faith should be 
 kept, whether plighted by contract or by oath ; that it is the highest 
 duty of all Romanists to extirpate this heresy and these heretics by 
 sword, fire, and fagot ; and by the same means to bring the poli 
 tical authorities to submit to the Pope in all things, and every human 
 being to profess, and conform to the Romish faith ; and to these ends 
 they intend to devote their time, their labor, their energies and 
 powers, and even expend their lives, which would be glorious martyr 
 dom. It is because of the entertainment of such a belief that Ro 
 manism is opposed, and the influence of foreigners, who blindly and 
 passively consent to such doctrines, dreaded ; for all modern history 
 teaches us, that the fairest portions of the earth have been ravaged 
 with fire and sword to sustain these monstrous doctrines of a religio- 
 political institution. 
 
 It is true, tliat Romanism lias not attempted for many years, save 
 in its recent manifestoes against Sardinia, to assert its political and 
 temporal power outside of (lie Papnl dominions; but still, in its con- 
 
THE EIGHTS OF CONSCIENCE. 169 
 
 stitution and principles, it adheres to these and all its other assumed 
 powers. It has renounced none, nor will it do so. None of her 
 exemplary children repudiate any of them, and if they did, they would 
 be brought to recant by priestly visitation, or else have the spiritual 
 thunder of excommunication denounced against them. For no higher 
 offence than simply refusing to violate the most sacred enactments 
 regarding church property existing in the State of New York, the 
 trustees of the church of St. Louis, Buffalo, and its entire congrega 
 tion, were placed under ban. The Bishop of the diocese published 
 the pains of excommunication against them, and held their names up 
 to infamy and reproach. The marriage sacrament was refused, and 
 the priest forbidden to minister at the altars. 
 
 The assertion of the full extent of the assumed power by the Papal 
 Church only slumbers, because the condition of human affaire the 
 light, liberty, and moral power of the world, will not suffer it to be 
 put into execution. It is not the advance and elevation of principle, 
 of morals, and Christian charity in that Church, and among its priest 
 hood, which has purified it for the time being of these enormities. 
 Let the state of the world favor it, and other Gregorys and Innocents 
 would arise to enforce the powers of the Papacy in their utmost am 
 plitude, and their most inexorable spirit. She believes that she is to 
 be coeval with man, and ultimately to have his whole and perfect 
 obedience. She has seen the great flux and reflux of her authority 
 through many centuries, and she is looking forward patiently through 
 other centuries in confidence, when her strength in full tide is to come 
 to her again. Ever watchful, the priesthood, for whom mainly this 
 wonderful edifice has been constructed, and been progressing to per 
 fection in its way for fifty generations, will patiently bide their time ; 
 and when it comes, if come, it ever does, they will move with a policy, 
 a courage, and a perseverance to command success ; and the grandest 
 and most awe-inspiring scenes of the Papal drama will be again re- 
 enacted on the theatre of the world. 
 
 But whether it is the destiny of man to revolve back to Papal 
 supremacy in all his affairs or not, that is the consummation to which 
 
170 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 the whole priesthood devote themselves, their time, their energies, 
 and their lives. That is their one great object; compensating and 
 supplying the subjects of their affections, hopes, and ambitions ; 
 taking the place of wife, children, friends, and country ; wealth, so 
 cial position, station, honors, fame, and distinction in the arts, sciences, 
 politics, and war. This ascendency, now partially lost, is their glorious 
 tradition, and to regain it is the permanent, immutable, ever-present 
 policy of the Papacy in all its parts. That the Pope is a hierarch, 
 and they a portion of the hierarchy, is a part of the education, mind, 
 soul, and personal identity of every member of the priesthood ; and 
 not less so, that the business and ends of their lives and labors is to 
 expend themselves according to times and circumstances, for the 
 restoration of the authority and splendor of both ; and never to be 
 disheartened or discouraged, whether or not there be any perceivable 
 result. These are objects for which, in this country, the foreign 
 priests especially labor. They summon every Papist, upon his reach 
 ing our shores, to his fealty, and hold them united and faithful to 
 their religion, their priest, and their sovereign hierarch. They get 
 possession of all the children they can, by means of schools, and their 
 parents, where even but one of them is a Romanist, and they attend 
 and keep these children from the cradle to the grave. 
 
 The dying find it to the interest of their eternal welfare to give the 
 Church liberally of their worldly treasure ; and thus in every country 
 it absorbs within its coffers a large share of the wealth of its devoted 
 congregations. With signal flexibility and cunning it has addressed 
 itself to the ruling power, and paid it court adulation, or used other 
 means to win it ; and when won, it may do what it will, on condition 
 that it becomes subservient to the peculiar views of this priesthood 
 and its hierarchy. They know that in our country the main-spring 
 of political power is the ballot-box, and the object of their unceasing 
 efforts is there to collect and consolidate strength. The members of 
 all other sects divide in their politics and votes, but foreign Romanists 
 never, and the priest thus has in his hands their absolute will, and it 
 becomes a matter of calculation how this tremendous engine of power 
 
THE RIGHTS OF CONSCIENCE. 171 
 
 can best be used to build up, not the interests of America nor the 
 happiness of the people, but the ever-absorbing pretensions of the 
 Papal Church. 
 
 The possession of this voting power is denied, and so is eveiy 
 working principle of the Church denied, where a frank acknowledg 
 ment would operate against its interests ; but the fact that our most 
 unscrupulous office-seekers are constantly paying court to the priests, 
 and in every possible way endeavoring to build up the interests of 
 their Church, tells its own tale, for where the carcass is, there will be 
 the buzzards also, and where there are votes to be purchased, there 
 will be the demagogue and the trading politician. 
 
 But the organs of the Papacy printed among us, occasionally thrown 
 off their guard by some unexpected success, sometimes let us into 
 their plans and future aspirations. We occasionally have the boldest 
 avowals of the intention of usurping our government, of destroying 
 our liberties, and shaping every thing to the standard of priestly am 
 bition. Denying, as all true Americans do, the Divine right of any 
 human being to govern, the chief organ of Romanism therefore ridi 
 cules the permanency of our institutions, and breaks out in the fol 
 lowing rhapsody : 
 
 " Are your free institutions infallible ? Are they founded on Divine 
 right ? This you deny. Is not the proper question for you to discuss, 
 then, not whether Papacy be or be not compatible with Republican 
 government, but whether it be or be not founded in Divine right ? 
 If the Papacy be founded in Divine right, it is supreme over what 
 ever be founded only in human right, and then your institutions 
 should be made to harmonize with it, and not it with your institu 
 tions. The real question then is, not the compatibility or incompati 
 bility of the Catholic Church with democratic institutions, but is the 
 Catholic Church the Church of God ? Settle this question first. But 
 in point of fact, democracy is a mischievous dream, wherever the 
 Catholic Church does not predominate, to inspire the people with 
 reverence, and to teach and accustom them to obedience and au 
 thority. The first lesson for all to learn, the last that should be for- 
 
172 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 gotten, is to obey. You can have no government where there is 
 no obedience ; and obedience to law, as it is called, will not be long 
 enforced, where the fallibility of law is clearly seen and freely admit 
 ted. But is it the intention of the Pope to possess this country ? 
 Undoubtedly. In this intention he is aided by the Jesuits, and all 
 the Catholic prelates and priests. That the policy of the Church is 
 dreaded and opposed by all Protestants, infidels, demagogues, tyrants, 
 and oppressors, is also unquestionably true. Save then, in the dis 
 charge of our civil duties, and in the ordinary business of life, there is, 
 and can be no harmony between the Catholics and Protestants."* 
 
 ."The time has come when Catholics must begin to make their 
 principles tell upon the public sentiment of the country. Heretofore 
 we have taken our politics from one or another of the parties which 
 divide the country, and have suffered, the enemies of our religion to 
 impose their political doctrines upon us ; but it is time for us to begin 
 to teach the country itself those moral and political doctrines which 
 flow from the teachings of our own Church. We are at home here, 
 wherever we may have been born ; this is our country, and as it is 
 to become thoroughly Catholic, we have a deeper interest in public 
 affairs than any other of our citizens. The sects are only for a day ; 
 the Church forever. We care little how the elections go, for that is 
 -a small affair; but we can never, as Catholics, be indifferent to the 
 moral principles which enter into the laws and shape the public 
 policy of the country."* 
 
 These extracts, so characteristic of the arrogance of the Priest, 
 avow most distinctly all the ambitious designs imputed to the Roman 
 priesthood. The proposed discussion of the great practical political 
 questions is announced, that this country itself may be taught the 
 moral and political doctrines which flow from the teachings of the 
 Church, and may become thoroughly Roman all other sects being 
 for a day, and that Church forever ; and that our Republican institu 
 tions may be altered to conform to the Papacy, by its principles 
 
 * Brownson s Keview. 
 
THE RIGHTS OF CONSCIEXrK. 173 
 
 being made to enter into the laws and to shape the public policy of 
 this country all this is here boldly avowed ; and also that every 
 Jesuit, Prelate, and Priest, who is faithful to his religion, will aid the 
 Pope, their hierarch, to possess himself of this country. The means 
 by which they expect to achieve all this, is by the slow and cautious 
 movements, the profound dissimulation and arts, which have ever 
 characterized the operations of this priesthood, to get possession of 
 the political power by controlling the ballot-box. Whether they 
 ever succeed or not, that is their sleepless effort ; and so subtle are 
 they in their operations, that thousands are unconsciously made 
 their agents who would never knowingly submit themselves to 
 any such purposes of mischief. The priesthood are encouraged by 
 their own strong faith, that, if they do not succeed in this century, 
 their successors may in the next, for their system is, never to re 
 linquish a foothold gained. They do not build humble cabins or 
 perishable houses for their services ; their edifices, composed of granite 
 and iron, are planted deep in American soil, their names indicate 
 promised supremacy, and the States in which they are erected are 
 called, with arrogant assumption, " provinces of the Holy See." 
 
 Whatever may be the result of these great projects, the future can 
 alone reveal, but their prosecution is utterly opposed and hostile to 
 the design, spirit, and practical ends of our system and institutions. 
 
 In carrying out this vast plan of aggression, no respect is paid to 
 the laws of any country that interfere with the general plan. The 
 ends justify the means. Thus we see the Grand Council of Bishops 
 sitting in Baltimore in 1829, solemnly passing the following as a 
 fundamental rule of the Church : 
 
 " Whereas lay trustees have frequently abused the right granted to 
 them by the civil authority, to the great detriment of religion and 
 scandal of the faithful, we most earnestly desire that in future no 
 church be erected or consecrated, unless it be assigned by a written 
 instrument to the Bishop in whose diocese it may be erected for the 
 Divine worship and use of the faithful, wherever this can be done." 
 
 Now these Bishops, mostly foreigners, inflated with the idea of 
 
174 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 their infallibility, thus deliberately demanded, wherever it could be 
 done, the violation of the whole spirit of our constitution and laws, 
 and have acted upon this treason ever since, and would probably have 
 carried it on under the secrecy of their movements, had it not been 
 dragged to light by the appeal to the civil laws of some few inde 
 pendent trustees, who denied that their Bishops must rule them in 
 temporal matters. 
 
 So persevering, indeed, are these Bishops, that in the State of New 
 York, even before the special law confining church property to the 
 ownership of trustees had been fairly spread upon the statute books, 
 Bishop Hughes dedicated in Brooklyn, the church of " St. Mary, Star 
 of the Sea," and in his sermon announced to his congregation, that 
 that very church did not in its titles conform to the civil laws of the 
 land ! and that the Trustee system was " uncatholic and heretical ;" 
 and the inference in the minds of his congregation of course followed, 
 that no faith was necessarily to be kept with such laws.* 
 
 The American has no hostility to the Roman Church as a system 
 of religious faith, notwithstanding he conscientiously dissents from 
 its essential dogmas and doctrines. He makes no war against the 
 religion of any sect. It is only in its political phases, and its spi 
 ritual connection inseparably blended with them, that he opposes 
 the Church of Rome. To that extent, all true lovers of liberty 
 have the constitutional right to animadvert upon it. Its efforts to 
 connect itself with the politics of the country, not for the sake of 
 office, but for the purpose of controlling the officers to its own 
 will and advantage; to imbue them with the spirit and doctrines 
 of its peculiar faith, these are the things, so comprehensive in their 
 hostility to our system of civil and religious freedom, to which alone 
 the American expresses his determined hostility. The union of poli 
 tics and religion, of Church and State, have ever proved themselves 
 to be the direful curses of man ; and in every pulsation of the heart, 
 
 * Sec Tribune of Monday, April 30, 1855, and other New York daily papers, 
 for Eeport of Bishop Hughes Sermon upon the occasion of consecrating the 
 church known as " St. Mary, Star of ttie Son," Brooklyn, New York. 
 
THE RIGHTS OF CONSCIENCE. 175 
 
 in every ray of reason, in every emotion of the soul, the true and 
 patriotic American, will make war against every and any religious 
 association, which seeks to bring about an alliance so much to be 
 dreaded. 
 
 Our ancestors came to this New World to enjoy, themselves and 
 their posterity forever, perfect civil and religious freedom, and the 
 right of inquiry, thought, and the expression of opinion upon subjects, 
 short of invasion of the rights of others, unfettered as the winds of 
 heaven. The divorce of Church and State, of politics and religion, 
 of temporal and spiritual affairs, they have provided for in our con 
 stitutions, and it was intended to be absolute, complete, and forever. 
 In the scheme of the hierarch of Rome and his emissaries spread 
 and spreading over the face of this country, to revolutionize silently 
 and stealthily this order of things they now have at their command 
 an immense army of voters, perfectly trained to do their bidding. At 
 every election, local or general, this mighty force is made to act with 
 a view, present or remote, to the grand objects of those who control 
 it. The certain and promptest way to get large accessions acces 
 sions which, in another generation, may give them the mastery at 
 the polls is, to permit no restriction upon emigration, or upon the 
 faculty of the immigrant to vote and exercise a full share of political 
 sovereignty. All attempts to put upon them any restriction will 
 meet the inflexible opposition, the anathemas of every Roman priest, 
 and probably of almost every Romanist in America. 
 
 All this host of foreign Romans, now here and coming, are 
 brought up to the confessional, at least once a year, to make a full 
 avowal of their sins, by whispering them into the priest s ear, and 
 whoever omits it is to be excommunicated, and if he die, is not to 
 be allowed Christian burial. This is the function of the priesthood, 
 which brings up before it all the liegemen of the Papal empire, 
 and bows all in utter subjection and submission to it. When the 
 noviciate for the first time, with convulsive excitement, breathes into 
 the ear of the ghostly father the deep and criminal secrets of the 
 heart, the soul is enslaved forever ; a chain of adamant is thrown 
 
176 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 around it, and .tjiat chain- is held by tliis priest. Even then lie may 
 grant or withhold absolution and forgiveness. Such are the mighty 
 spells which Romanism brings over all her sons and daughters ; and 
 those who work them, control not only their acts and conduct, but 
 their thoughts and emotions. And how often is this puissance of the 
 priesthood exhibited strikingly in our country. Bands of rude and 
 stormy foreign Romanists, who have traditionary feuds, are loitering 
 in the same neighborhood. They meet in bloody affray. The civil 
 officer of the law interposes and is unheeded. He calls to his aid a 
 large constabulary force, which is laughed to scorn by the infuriated 
 mob. The military is summoned to uphold the civil authority, and 
 blank cartridges are fired among the combatants, but no more re 
 garded than the whistling of the winds. At length death-dealing 
 bullets begin their fatal office, and men fall, but the fight still rages. 
 Lo ! the priest makes his appearance, the contending mass of men 
 pause at once, and give attention. He speaks a few words, the tem 
 pest of excited passion ceases, and savage men are subdued as children 
 under the rebuke of an invisible power. These men all vote ; but is 
 it not the madness of folly to say, that their wills, when under such 
 control, are represented at the polls ? 
 
 There are numerous Romanists, natives of these States, who possess 
 every element pertaining to good citizens, men who are every way 
 able to assume the responsibility of self-government, and discharge 
 with honor every political privilege imposed upon them ; but these 
 men, educated in this country of light and liberty, of the Bible and 
 free schools, are not representatives of the Romanists of Europe. 
 The immigrant is radically imbued with the spirit of decayed dynas 
 ties ; he was never taught that he had rights and an individuality. 
 On the contrary, his whole history has been one of humiliation ; he 
 was made to feel that he formed an insignificant part of a great all- 
 grasping institution, claiming the whole earth s sceptre, spiritual and 
 temporal. The trembling worshipper at the foot of a hierarchy, and 
 the Pope a hierarch. Such arc the notions the Romanist immigrant 
 brings to our land, and, under the guidance of the priests that foster 
 
THE RIGHTS OF CONSCIENCE. 177 
 
 him, cherishes while here as his life s blood. It is the influence of 
 this false education (profanely called religious) against which the 
 true American declares eternal war.* 
 
 "Among lukewarm partisans and ardent antagonists, a small num 
 ber of believers exist, who, in defence of their faith, are ready to brave 
 all obstacles, and to scorn all dangers. They have done violence 
 to human weakness, in order to rise superior to public opinion. Ex 
 cited by the effort they have made, they scarcely know where to stop. 
 They look upon their contemporaries with dread, and recoil in alarm 
 from the liberty which their fellow-citizens enjoy. They are at war 
 with their age and country, and they look upon every opinion which 
 is put forth, as the necessary enemy of their faith."f 
 
 Such men, in demanding liberty of conscience for themselves, deny 
 it unto others ; and the step is rapid from intolerance to persecution. 
 But our Constitution, in guaranteeing perfect religious freedom to all, 
 will not justly be charged with abjuring its principles, if it compel 
 these bigots to award the same deference to the opinions of others, 
 which they enjoy for their own. 
 
 The determination on the part of any Church to force its faith 
 upon another the tendency to proselytize at all hazards is certain 
 to lead to a state of anarchy in which liberty cannot exist. When 
 such views are openly avowed and acted upon by any creed, it be 
 comes necessary, for the safety of others, either to prevent its resi 
 dence in our midst, or so to fence about and confine it within the 
 strict bounds of legality, as to render it incapable of mischief. Re 
 ligion is a question on which we cannot legislate; it is a matter 
 concerning the individual, not the mass. But if the creed of any 
 party attempt to control temporal affairs by means of a so-called 
 
 * At the last celebration of St. Patrick s day in New York city, the Irish 
 guests (intoxicated with zeal by an inflammatory speech of one of the several 
 priests present on the occasion) announced themselves as supporters of Ameri 
 can freedom and the hierarchy. It would be difficult to imagine one mind 
 supporting two things more directly antagonistic; yet the announcement was 
 perfectly consistent with the gentlemen s ideas of American liberty. 
 
 t De Tocqueville. * 
 
178 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 spiritual power, the Constitution of our country is only carrying out 
 its liigh and holy mission, by restraining their ambitious views with 
 wholesome and necessary coercion. The framing of laws to bring 
 about this coercion, however, would not only be difficult, but almost, 
 if net quite, impossible. It is, therefore, necessary that the citizen 
 should have correct opinions, and that the desired effect should be 
 produced by the force of public opinion, rather than by written laws, 
 
RELIGIOUS TOLERATION. 
 
 " True religion 
 
 Is always mild, propitious, and humane ; 
 Plays not the tyrant, plants no faith in blood ; 
 But stoops to polish, succor, and redress, 
 And builds her grandeur on the public good." 
 
 MlLLEK. 
 
 THE opposition which exists in the mind of every American against 
 oppression, causes a dislike to any and every institution, no matter 
 what may be its name, that is the support of the oppressor. In 
 looking over European countries, the larger portion of their inhabit 
 ants are found to be sunken into the lowest depths of ignorance and 
 semi-barbarism. They have no defined rights, and are the uncom 
 plaining servants of aristocratic rulers. Upon one subject alone they 
 seem thoroughly instructed, and that is, to render slavish obedience 
 to the priests, and the ceremonies of the Roman Church. Hearing a 
 service on the Sabbath-day conducted in a dead language, and studi 
 ously debarred from all the ordinary channels of information so 
 common in America, their minds are literally in the chains of igno 
 rance, and to keep them there confined is brought to bear the whole 
 machinery of the Roman Church. One of the most vital principles 
 of our government is religious toleration ; the American, whatever 
 may be his creed, shrinks from any imposition upon the conscience, 
 and hence it is that the grossest abuses may creep into our body 
 politic, if profanely sanctioned by the garb of religion, and for that 
 reason it is difficult and delicate to discuss the causes of this European 
 degradation, because it is at once urged by the Jesuit and the dema 
 gogue, that any determination of the citizens of this country to make 
 a distinction between the political and religious character of the 
 
180 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 Roman Church, is an attack -upon the rights of the conscience, and 
 at once the cry of persecution is raised. Whatever may l;e the ex 
 citement, the work has to be done ; it is the duty of the true Romanist 
 as well as the true Protestant to examine this subject dispassionately 
 and come to a perfect understanding, for upon it rests at this mo- . 
 ment, more than upon any other thing, the perpetuity of our free 
 institutions, 
 
 The enthusiastic lover of liberty has heretofore argued, that mulei 
 the bright rays of religious toleration, the minds of our most ignorant 
 naturalized citizens would insensibly be enlightened, and that the 
 most bigoted would gradually become converted to charity, and that 
 the beauty of our political system would thoroughly absorb their 
 affections, to the exclusion of any fondness for anti-republican semi- 
 ments and oppressive political institutions. But, so far from thi:- 
 being the case, the experience of the last few years develops the 
 melancholy fact, that men born in this country, and deservedly 
 honored for their general intelligence, can sometimes, under the 
 severe discipline of Romish institutions, be brought to support them 
 with all the enthusiasm and Jesuitical casuistry that characterizes the 
 uneducated European or the designing ecclesiastic. It is but recently 
 that a gentleman of national reputation, in making a defence of the 
 Pope and his authority upon the floor of Congress a gentleman v>ho 
 is possessed of great knowledge and a keen sense of truth when 
 treating of civil or general matters boldly announced that the Pope 
 had no political power, that he never meddled himself with govern 
 ments, but confined his authority to religious matters alone. But 
 even while the echoes of his voice were vibrating in our national 
 Capitol, the news from the Italian States announced, that the Pope, 
 finding he could not arrest the progress of liberal opinions in Sardinia, 
 had issued a " Bull," releasing all Romanists of that kingdom from 
 allegiance to their civil rulers I 
 
 We find also that gentlemen in our various Legislatures, who 
 ordinarily love the truth and respect the lessons of history, proclaim 
 ing that the Roman Church is the friend and eucourager of free 
 
RELIGIOUS TOLERATION. 181 
 
 institutions, while they know, and often from personal observation 
 too, that the people of the Papal States are the most degraded, and 
 the farthest removed from freemen, of any other government of the 
 world ; and that ia all Papal countries, oppression and decay are 
 paramount, just in proportion as they acknowledge the influence of 
 the Romish power. 
 
 To the ingenuous American mind, these strange misrepresenta 
 tions of history for the purpose of defending the Roman Church are 
 hard to understand, and they can only be accounted for on the prin 
 ciple, that that Church seizes upon the imagination and the will of 
 its adherents, and blinds them to the plainest truths, and makes them 
 unresisting instruments for the propagation of the most pernicious 
 errors. 
 
 In no Romanist country is there any real religious toleration ; seven- 
 eighths of our emigrants are brought up and educated to believe 
 that such toleration is an unpardonable sin. Sunke x in poverty, 
 and suffering from the severest oppression, thevJeave their native 
 countries and seek a home on American sptff but, do they leave 
 behind them the errors of their early e^^atiou ? Are they forever 
 freed from the presence and baleful in^oence of their political priests ? 
 Certainly not. So far from this^ing the case, we find the Jesuit 
 follows in their footsteps, an^taking advantage of the freedom of 
 Protestant institutions, manages to exert a power over the minds and 
 consciences of our immigrant population, as perfect as if they lived 
 under monarchical governments. The American, perceiving this 
 evil, and noticing its political character, denounces it from the stump, 
 through the press, and attempts to counteract it at the polls; in 
 stantly the eiy is raised by the wily Jesuit and the office-seeking 
 demagogue, of religious intolerance, and people, who never breathed 
 one breath of Christian charity, who, as an act of religious faith, de 
 nounce all who differ from them as heretics and heathen people 
 who are prepared, at any moment they can grasp the power of the 
 State, to punish freedom of thought with imprisonment and death, 
 go forth in the highways and byways denouncing American citizens, 
 
 9 
 
182 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 who desire to protect the purity of their institutions from the evils of 
 this foreign influence. 
 
 In America alone is enjoyed in the fullest sense the right to wor 
 ship God according to the dictates of the conscience. Americans 
 conceived and put in practice such toleration ; but while it is freely 
 enjoyed here by the Romanists, and demanded as a right, still it is 
 not accorded to Americans in Romanist countries, and this illiberal 
 spirit finds advocates and meets with justification in the organs of 
 Romanism, and the gross inconsistency seems to be unnoticed. 
 
 The Island of Cuba is the resort of hundreds and thousands of our 
 citizens, either as mariners, merchants, or invalids ; among the latter 
 are many who visit the island to die, and yet to this day there is no 
 Protestant chapel, nor clergymen -to give spiritual instruction. Any 
 attempt to hold Protestant service calls forth the interference of the 
 police; and it was only recently that an English Bishop, visiting 
 Havana, was denied the privilege of celebrating religious service in 
 the house of the British Consul. 
 
 There is no American Protestant chapel in Mexico, and it would 
 be impossible to establish one. 
 
 In Italy, the central counivy o f Romanism, with the exception of 
 the Pope-denounced kingdom ot Sardinia, no religious service could 
 be held by an American Protestant minister, unless it were in the 
 house of the American Consul, and nude* the American flao-. 
 
 In Romanist Spain and Austria, the war upon Protestants amounts 
 to a total exclusion under all circumstances. 
 
 In Portugal, the penal code, promulgated as recently as 1852, 
 punishes with imprisonment and fine all who engage in acts of 
 worship not of the Romanist religion. 
 
 American Protestants are exposed to insult and maltreatment in 
 Mexico, Central America, all South America, Cuba, Porto Rico, Spain, 
 Portugal, Austria, and nearly all of Italy, if they do not kneel when 
 they meet a procession bearing " the Host," although they may con 
 scientiously deem the act idolatrous, and contrary to the word of 
 God. The records of every year are filled with details of outrages 
 
RELIGIOUS TOLERATION. 183 
 
 perpetrated, for the reason above given, upon Americans travelling 
 abroad. 
 
 The right, in many Romanist countries, of quietly depositing in the 
 mother earth the remains of the dead, is denied to American Pro 
 testants, and the living have had to carry the deceased many hundred 
 miles, to find a resting-place under the ajgis of less bigoted govern 
 ments. Where the privilege is granted, it is attended, as in some 
 parts of Italy, with the degrading condition that the burial shall take 
 place at unseasonable hours and American Protestants have been 
 unceremoniously thrust into the earth as if they were brute beasts, 
 to avoid exhumation and insult from the imbruted populace, who 
 were thus inflamed against the religion of the deceased by the 
 bigoted priests. 
 
 A few years ago, a highly respectable American merchant had the 
 misfortune to lose a beloved wife, whom he had taken to the Island 
 of Cuba for the restoration of her health. Abandoned by all the 
 people who surrounded him, he was compelled in an obscure spot to 
 dig a grave with his own hands, and with difficulty succeeded in 
 procuring the help of two negroes, to assist him in the melancholy 
 task of consigning all that was once so cherished to its mother earth ; 
 and yet these Africans, pagan-born and besotted in ignorance, had 
 been taught to fear for their lives, if it were known to the authorities 
 they had assisted in the " burial of a heretic !" 
 
 Mr. Wise, late U. S. minister to Brazil, states, that Mr. Tudor, our 
 Charge to that government, the successful negotiator of a treaty 
 of amity and commerce, and the representative of the greatest Re 
 public in the world, was indebted to the British legation for a 
 sanctuary for his corpse, and but for this charity, the Romanist govern 
 ment of Brazil would probably have spurned the body of Mr. Tudor 
 from its dominions, the hatred of heretics extending even into the 
 grave. Mr. Wise establishes himself in his new residence, he has 
 his family around him, he has been accustomed to advocate and to 
 grant religious toleration. He is the minister plenipotentiary of a 
 great nation, and should command respect ; but the Sabbath comes, 
 
184: A VOTCK TO AMERICA. 
 
 he hears the bells chiming for church, dismay seizes upon him and 
 his household, and he exclaims, in the true sense of his deprivation, 
 " Where am I and my family and American friends to attend Divine, 
 worship ? There is no ground here consecrated for us ! We are re 
 minded on this Lord s day of our homes in our own blessed, happy 
 land of universal tolerance in religion, but here, by treaty in a land 
 of commercial friends, we have no religious allies, and are indeed 
 strangers in a strange land! If their God is our God, their country 
 is not ours to worship in !" 
 
 In all Protestant countries, Romanists enjoy the liberty of religious 
 worship. Everywhere they may fill not only magisterial, but even 
 political offices. O Connell, the champion of that Church, was a 
 member of the British Parliament! Examples of the same liberality 
 can be found in the governments of Prussia, Holland, Sweden, Den 
 mark, and the United States. Toleration is the fundamental spirit 
 of the organic law. Not an example can be quoted where the reli 
 gious worship of the Romanist Church is impeded in a Protestant 
 country, as that of the Protestant is, in Rome, Naples, Florence, 
 Milan, Madrid and Lisbon, and the South American States. 
 
 The mass of the people of France are tolerant, but the Roman 
 clergy are restless under their loss of power, and watch with unceas 
 ing energy to restore their fortunes by giving their influence to the 
 usurper of the nation s liberties. Napoleon III. found the priests his 
 most willing tools, and the first to forgive his falsehoods and his 
 perjuries.* Their political influence was bought at the price of the 
 imperial recognition of their religion; the effect is already felt. 
 Without any repeal of fundamental laws, Protestantism is discou 
 raged, its schools under various pretexts successively suppressed, and 
 its publications prohibited. 
 
 In Austria, all Protestant meetings require the sanction of the 
 police; the government thus prevents them, without appearing to 
 
 * " May he (Louis Napoleon) be blessed, this man of God, this great man, fur 
 it is God who has raised him up for the happiness of our country." Bishop <f 
 Chalons 1 Address to Ills Clergy, Scjttember, 1854. 
 
RELIGIOUS TOLERATION. 185 
 
 prohibit ; and those persons who have presumed to publish or propa 
 gate the Bible, have been banished at the instigation of the Romish 
 clergy. 
 
 In Spain but one religion is professed, and none other is permitted 
 in any shape. To be a Spaniard implies necessarily to be a Romanist. 
 He who dares to forsake that faith is by law banished, lest the poison 
 of his heresy should spread contagion, while those who have tempted 
 him from his early faith are liable to imprisonment. Hitherto the 
 traveller was looked upon as an exception ; but as Spain decays in 
 political power, as she sinks into contempt among the family of 
 nations, Papacy grasps her soul more firmly, and her priest-ridden 
 government decrees, that even the " traveller" is no longer permitted 
 " to profess any but the Romanist religion ;" and the American Pro 
 testant, while residing in Spain, must hide his religious sentiments, 
 and, when dead, must be cast as some foul thing into an obscure, 
 and, by the Spanish people, what is considered a dishonored grave. 
 
 Tuscany is notorious, and Naples infamous for its intolerance. 
 The Madiai persecution, which roused the sympathy of the Protestant 
 world, and yet found defenders among the foreign Papists of this 
 country, is but a single instance of many, that, in spite of the secrecy 
 of Jesuit police, and the depths of Italian dungeons, find their way 
 before the judgment-seat of enlightened Christendom. Naples, where 
 nature appears in its most glorious forms, and where man alone is 
 base, Naples, which in days of yore coped with the haughty Pontiffs 
 of Rome, the decrees of the Council of Trent, and trampled upon 
 Papal Bulls, now lies prostrate in the dust. Violent, bigoted, and 
 profligate, her people violate every precept of morality, yet observe 
 every ceremonial of religion. They are the degraded vassals of in 
 tolerance, without alleviation, and without hope. 
 
 At last we penetrate into the " imperial city," and reach Rome 
 itself. If other countries have admitted unjustifiable Papal claims, 
 if other countries have harbored the Inquisition, it was here the 
 haughty thunders were launched. Here intolerance reigns supreme. 
 Here it had its birth, here it has made its throne. Here it was that 
 
186 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 Gregory XIII. rejoiced over the slaughter of the Huguenots, and 
 ordered a Te Dcum to be sung, with illuminations for the people, 
 and, for the benefit of posterity, a medal in brass commemorative of 
 the glorious event ! Here it is, in our own day, where the Pope, in 
 a studied allocution, congratulates Christendom because Spain re 
 lapses into the intolerance of bygone centuries. When New Grenada, 
 not a year ago, by decrees established a free press, free education, and 
 tolerance in religion, from Rome comes another allocution, condemn 
 ing such fearful approaches to " hated liberty," which are denounced 
 " as horrible and sacrilegious war against the Romish Church ;" and 
 her citizens are stimulated to open rebellion against their rulers by 
 the Pope s annunciation, that he " declares utterly null and void all 
 the aforesaid decrees, which have been enacted by the civil power." 
 The Pope knows, " That wherever religious liberty exists, it will, first 
 or last, bring in an established political party ; wherever it is sup 
 pressed, the Church Establishment will, first or last, become the en 
 gine of despotism, and overthrow, unless it be itself overthrown, every 
 vestige of political liberty."* 
 
 The cause of this intolerance is fundamental with the Roman 
 Church; it cannot alter its character without losing its individu 
 ality. Styling itself " Infallible," its claims cannot be set aside. Its 
 intolerance, its ministers say, arises from authority ; it is therefore 
 legitimate, and to yield would be sacrificing to licentiousness. Nor 
 do the advocates of Romanism claim the virtues of liberality so much 
 admired by the true-hearted American. They are willing to enjoy 
 the advantages of liberty, and shelter their institutions under the 
 broad folds of our tolerant flag. The Jesuits themselves, a proscribed 
 class of political priests even among most of the countries devoted to 
 Romanism, find here a foothold, and, from the unsuspicious character 
 of our people, scarcely call forth an observation to their ulterior de 
 signs, of sapping our liberties and changing the character of our in 
 stitutions. Yet all this toleration on our part meets with no response 
 
 * Justice Story. 
 
RELIGIOUS TOLERATION. 187 
 
 from the Romanist hierarchy or people. The hierarchy hate and fear 
 it ; the lay members, if they cherish any admiration, dare not express 
 it. Hence we find that no minister at Washington representing a 
 Romanist country acknowledges the superior Christian liberality 
 of our government, nor has it ever been officially reciprocated or 
 commended. The Romanist journals published in America never 
 advocate religious toleration ; on the contrary, they threaten, if their 
 cherished doctrines gain the ascendency, that toleration will cease ; 
 and special care is taken by the priests, who are with few exceptions 
 foreigners, to cultivate and encourage among our immigrant Romanist 
 population, the same bitter hostility to the " heretic" that characterized 
 their chief education in their native land. The American, in consider 
 ation of these facts, finds no difficulty in distinguishing between the 
 abuse of the name of religion, and religion itself. He strips the 
 matter of its complications, and, giving to the conscience full liberty, 
 opposes political tendencies and practices calculated to destroy our 
 Republican institutions*, he opposes a political system despotic in its 
 organization, anti-republican in its tendencies, and at utter war with 
 the simplicity of our whole government. 
 
 It is only as a hierarchy, as a religio-political institution, having 
 vast political projects, and organized for political action, and because 
 its principles, purposes, and operations are utterly inimical to popular 
 and American constitutional liberty, to all civil and religious freedom, 
 that the true American stands up in opposition to it. Until Ameri 
 can Romanists call their general councils, and purge their system 
 of its interior and harsh ecclesiastical despotism ; until they join 
 together as a body, and demand the same toleration for American 
 Protestants abroad, that Romanists everywhere receive in America; 
 until they announce to the Pope and the world that his supremacy 
 is only spiritual, and out of his Papal dominions in Italy, he, nor his 
 priests, have right to interfere in politics or temporal affairs; that 
 they owe him or his "hierarchy no duty or obedience incompatible 
 with their full and perfect allegiance to the United States, or any of 
 the States, or that is hostile to any of the principles of their govern- 
 
188 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 ments ; that they are opposed to, and will ever resist the mnion of 
 Church and State, and any mixing of their affairs ; until they bid 7 
 and will compel their priesthood to cease their meddling with the 
 government and politics of the country, with a view to shape its laws 
 and policy for their ulterior purposes, and to desist from their efforts 
 to control the entire Romanist vote of America ; Until these things- 
 are done, no native American, no true friend of liberty, wherever 
 born or whatever be his religion, can conscientiously cease his op 
 position to this great religio-political institution ; for the very spirit 
 of self-preservation requires, that war be waged as much upon an 
 aggressive religious power, as upon an aggressive civil power, for 
 both are equally hostile to our Republican institutions. 
 
 Religion is a question between man s conscience and his God. No- 
 government can interfere with it, except to guarantee perfect freedom 
 to all, in the exercise of that faith which each has seen fit to embrace ; 
 or to prevent a persecuting system of proselytism, which history shows 
 us has been the characteristic of every religious sect in all ages. A 
 government guaranteeing toleration to every Church, has the right to 
 compel them to tolerate each other. 
 
 Religion is perfectly distinct from, and cannot possibly be any part 
 of, political government. The former regards not the present world, 
 but looks to a future state. The latter regulates the affairs of time, 
 but leaves untouched those of eternity. There is an impassable gulf 
 between them one that mankind can never bridge. When the 
 attempt has been made, it has invariably met with a calamitous issue, 
 
 " In Europe, Christianity has been intimately united to the powers 
 of the earth. Those powers are now in decay, and it is, as it were, 
 buried under their ruins. The living body of religion has beer. 
 bound down to the dead corpse of superannuated polity. Cut the 
 bonds which restrain it, and that which is alive will rise once more."* 
 
 Shall such be the result in our country? This is the question 
 which Americans have to answer, and to answer ere it be too late. 
 Let them arise and tell the priestly hierarchies that when they 
 
 * De Tocqueville. 
 
RELIGIOUS TOLEEATION. 
 
 attempt to subjugate the temporal to the spiritual power, and, by 
 means of uncontrolled influence over the minds of their followers, 
 peril the peace of the community, hinder the operation of the laws, 
 and, by their acts, proclaim the Constitution a dead letter, toleration 
 becomes impossible ; for toleration would then be treason to the 
 country. 
 
 9* 
 
THE BIBLE THE CHARTER OF LIBERTY. 
 
 " Out from the heart of nature rolled 
 The burthens of the Bible old, 
 The Litanies of nations came 
 Like the volcano s tongue of flame ; 
 Up from the burning core below 
 The Canticles of Love and Woe." 
 
 EMERSON. 
 
 THE BIBLE is the charter of human liberty, and in the teachings 
 of that sacred volume are to be found the glad tidings that all men 
 are free and equal, not only before each other, but in the sight of 
 God. So long as the Scriptures were confined to the few, so long 
 as its pages were closed to the multitude, so long the world rested in 
 darkness, and oppression existed throughout all lands. From the 
 time of the invention of printing, and tie consequent circulation of 
 the Bible, do we date the commencement of those struggles against 
 despotism which finally resulted in the establishment of our free 
 government. 
 
 It cannot be controverted, that the Bible was the cause of the 
 early revolutions that startled kings from their thrones, and shook 
 the foundations of the Vatican. It taught men the rights of the 
 citizen, and these led them to examine the claims of rulers. It ques 
 tioned traditions and authorities, and rejected them if not in accord 
 ance with the humble but sublime teachings of Christ. Finding 
 that the Creator looked upon all men with equal favor, all laws not 
 in conformity with this principle were pronounced unauthorized and 
 unjust. The inculcation of the direct confession of sins to the Throne of 
 Grace, swept away at a blow the assumptions of priestcraft, and made* 
 man responsible for his actions to his own conscience and his God. 
 Multitudes, who before the reading of the Scriptures were debased, 
 
192 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 made self-reliance the prevailing feature of the age. The light that 
 poured into the civilized world, overwhelmed society with new views 
 and aspirations. Every page of the sacred volume strengthened the 
 minds of the reformers, and shed a lustre over the memories of the 
 martyrs who had through all time died in defence of liberty. The 
 very foundations of society rocked to the centre ; the divine right of 
 kings, and the profane assumptions of priests, were scoffed at. 
 
 In England, and on the Continent, the standard of rebellion was 
 raised, and thousands, filled with new-born zeal, fearlessly asserted 
 the glorious promises of man s regeneration. The triumphs of hu 
 manity, of civilization, and of Christianity, which are the boasts of 
 the nineteenth century, would have been unknown, and the pall 
 of the dark ages would still be upon us, were it not for the free 
 circulation of the Bible. This great truth has always been acknow 
 ledged with, the greatest solemnity by our Revolutionary fathers. 
 Washington and his compatriots entered upon no serious duties, with 
 out the reading o the Scriptures, and an humble acknowledgment 
 of dependence upon Divine Wisdom for instruction in council, and 
 strength in the hour of battle. In all hours of suffering, in the 
 darkest days that tried men s s^uls, it was the encouragement held 
 forth in the sacred volume that ke]^t our sires from despondency, 
 and strengthened their arms in the noble thought, that their cause 
 was sanctioned by the God of battles. The original demands of the 
 men, whose sufferings and martyrdom form so large a page in the 
 early struggles for human freedom, was, that the Bible might be 
 made free, and that its teachings might illume the hearts and con 
 sciences of all men. 
 
 The question, then, comes home seriously to every conscience, Can 
 our present form of government exist if the Bible be excluded from 
 the public eye ? Are those persons who fear its influence, and do all 
 in their power to suppress its circulation, friends to liberty? Are 
 those of our citizens who consent to be deprived of the Bible* and 
 avoid its pages as if they were possessed of contagion, capable of 
 self-government ? We can imagine individuals who may be good 
 
THE BIBLE THE CHARTER OF LIBERTY. 193 
 
 citizens without the enlightenment of the precepts of the Holy Book, 
 but we cannot conceive of a nation prospering without sensibly feel 
 ing and acknowledging their influence. Man is a religious being, 
 and upon that immortal principle rests the security of all human 
 rights ; he must therefore either have his morals cultivated by his 
 own intelligent pursuit of good from the fountain of truth, or he 
 must consent to put himself in ecclesiastical servitude, and have his 
 conscience controlled by others. 
 
 The American is distinguished from all other people, because he 
 thinks for himself, and thus displays the possession of the very 
 essence of self-government. He reads the Bible, learns from its 
 precepts the distinctions between right and wrong, that all men are 
 equal in the sight of Heaven, that he must love his neighbor as him 
 self, and that he alone is responsible to God for his acts. This high 
 state of intellectual and moral culture never was obtained in perfec 
 tion except under American institutions, and the accomplishment of 
 it was heralded as the greatest triumph of humanity from the bondage 
 and oppression of ages. 
 
 Any doctrine, therefore, that teaches the suppression of the Bible, 
 must be inimical to liberty must be treason to the preservation of 
 the Republican character ; and whether it is advocated by the avowed 
 skeptic, or more dangerously urged under the guise of religion, in 
 both cases the pernicious tendency is the same. Infidelity would 
 strike at the foundations of all liberty, by destroying the authority 
 which sanctifies its existence : religion, falsely so called, would accom 
 plish the same object, on the ground that the individual is not in 
 matters of conscience capable of deciding for himself. 
 
 The country has been agitated about the reading of the Scriptures 
 in our public schools. The Romish priests have protested against 
 such an enormity, and the usefulness of the noblest institution of 
 our country has been impaired and imperiled, in the effort to drive 
 the book from the teacher s desk. In many cases our American 
 populations have yielded to the assumption, that certain American 
 children could be injured by hearing its Divine precepts, instead of 
 
194: A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 taking the position, that children reared in such bigotry were in the 
 hands of those who neither sympathized with nor understood our 
 institutions ; for it is certain beyond contradiction, that those who 
 persist in such strange exclusiveness have still lingering in their 
 minds a reverence for absolutism not in accordance with universal 
 liberty. 
 
 Charles Carroll of Carrollton, a Romanist, and one of the signer of 
 the Declaration of Independence, is constantly quoted as an evidence 
 of the liberty-loving spirit of his. Church. That he was a patriot and 
 loved his country there cannot be a doubt ; but when he associated 
 himself with Washington, Franklin, Jefferson, and other fathers of 
 the Revolution, he surrendered, at the very commencement of his 
 political career, the identity of Romanism on the altar of universal 
 toleration, else he could not have participated in the stirring and 
 glorious scenes enacted around him. Had he retained the spirit, if 
 he ever possessed it, that would banish the Bible from the public 
 eye, he would have solemnly protested against the reading of the 
 Scriptures at the openings of the convention that adopted the Declar 
 ation of Independence, and if it had been persisted in, he would have 
 thrown up his seat and his solemn duties, and retired in indignation, 
 announcing to the astonished patriots about him, that he was afraid 
 to hear that book read in his presence that in so doing he would be 
 disobeying the orders of his ghostly father ; it was because Charles 
 Carroll did not thus act, because he repudiated such control of his 
 conscience, that he did sign the immortal Declaration of our Inde 
 pendence, and engraved his name upon a monument that will cause 
 it to be remembered with honor as long as virtue is cherished among 
 mankind. 
 
 The Council of Trent decrees, " That no Bible shall be held or read 
 except by priests that no Bible shall be sold without a license, ex 
 cept upon the pains and penalties of that mortal sin that is neither 
 to be forgiven in this world or the next."* By the priests of the 
 
 * See Father Paul Sarpis 1 History of the Council of Trent. 
 
THE BIBLE THE CHARTER OF LIBERTY. 195 
 
 Romish Church it is, therefore, denied to their congregations, and 
 innumerable instances have occurred of the Bible being seized and 
 publicly burned in this country when found in the possession of 
 Romanists. In Europe, in Piedmont and Tuscany, imprisonment and 
 persecution are even now meted out for such a crime. 
 
 Some years ago a society termed the Christian Alliance was formed 
 in the city of New York, the object of which was to circulate the 
 Bible without note or comment, in the prevailing language in differ 
 ent Papal countries. The labors of this society produced the 
 greatest consternation at Rome, and in 1844, Gregory, the then 
 reigning Pope, fulminated a bull against this association, of which 
 we give a single extract : 
 
 " Moreover, venerable brothers, we recommend the utmost watch 
 fulness over- the insidious measures and attempts of the Christian 
 Alliance, to those who, raised to the dignity of your order, are called 
 to govern the Italian churches, or the countries which Italians fre 
 quent most commonly, especially the frontiers, and parts whence 
 travellers enter Italy. As these are the points on which the secta 
 rians have fixed to commence the realization of their projects, it is 
 highly necessary that the bishops of those places should mutually 
 assist each other zealously and faithfully, in order, with the aid of 
 God, to discover and prevent their machinations. 
 
 " Let us not doubt but your exertions, added to our own, will be 
 seconded by the civil authorities, and especially by most influential 
 sovereigns of Italy, no less by reason of their favorable regard for 
 the Papal religion, than that they plainly perceive how much it 
 concerns them to prostrate these sectarian combinations. Indeed, it 
 is most evident from past experience, that there are no means more 
 certain of rendering the people disobedient to their princes than ren 
 dering them indifferent to religion, under the mask of religious 
 liberty. The members of the Christian Alliance do not conceal this 
 fact from themselves, although they declare that they are far from 
 wishing to excite disorder ; but they notwithstanding avow that, once 
 liberty of interpretation attained, and with it what they term liberty 
 
196 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 of conscience among Italians, these last will naturally soon acquire 
 political liberty." 
 
 Here is palpably revealed the natural connection and alliance be 
 tween the political despotism of the Papal See, and the oppressors of 
 the people of Europe. The only object of the Christian Alliance was 
 to give the Holy Scriptures to the people of Italy. How quick it 
 excited the fears of the Pope, how conscious was the prevailing 
 power at Rome, that wherever the light and power of that volume 
 was admitted, that religious liberty, and rebellion against the assump 
 tions of crafty priests, would follow, that the civil and religious 
 despots were the natural enemies of the Bible, and hence was invoked 
 the aid of those hated enemies of mankind, the ruling sovereigns, to 
 aid in the work of suppressing the sacred volume. 
 
 The last official act known to the world of Gregory XVI. was 
 dated May 8th, 1844, in which for the second time he expresses his 
 dread of the circulation of the Scriptures. With more elaboration 
 than is usual in such documents, the Pope points out all the dreaded 
 evils, and renews his orders to his subordinates, to assist each other 
 in zealously carrying out his decrees. Among other things his Holi 
 ness says, 
 
 " Subsequently, when heretics still persisted in their frauds, it be 
 came necessary for Benedict XIV. to superadd the injunction that no 
 versions whatever (of the Bible) should be suffered to be read but 
 those which should be approved of by the Holy See, accompanied by 
 notes derived from the writings of the Holy Fathers, or other learned 
 Catholic authors." 
 
 " As for yourselves, my venerable brethren, called as you are to 
 divide our solicitude, we recommend you earnestly in the Lord, to 
 announce and proclaim, in convenient time and place, to the people 
 confided to your care, these apostolical orders, and to labor carefully to 
 separate the faithful sheep from contagion of the Christian Alliance, 
 from those who have become its auxiliaries, no less than those who 
 belong to other Bible societies, and from all who have any communi 
 cation with them. You are consequently enjoinod to remove from 
 
THE BIBLE THE CHARTER OF LIBERTY. 197 
 
 the hands of the faithful alike the Bibles in the vulgar tongue which 
 may have been printed contraiy to the decrees above mentioned of 
 the sovereign Pontiffs, and every book proscribed and condemned, 
 and see that they learn, through your admonition and authority, what 
 passages are salutary, and what pernicious and mortal. Watch 
 . attentively over those who are appointed to expound the Holy Scrip 
 tures, to see that they acquit themselves faithfully according to the 
 capacity of their hearers, and that they dare not, under any pretext 
 whatever, interpret or explain the holy pages contrary to the tradition 
 of the Holy Fathers, and to the service of the Catholic Church." 
 
 " Let me know, then, the enormity of the sin against God and his 
 Church which they are guilty of who dare associate themselves with 
 any of these societies, or abet them in any way. Moreover, we con 
 firm and renew the decrees recited above, delivered in former times by 
 apostolic authority, against the publication, distribution, reading, and 
 possession of books of the Holy Scriptures translated into the vulgar 
 tongue." 
 
 Without commenting upon the spectacle here exhibited, of the 
 assumed infallible head of the true Church denying the Holy Scrip 
 tures to the mass of mankind, or attempting iu any way to dispute 
 the authority for so doing, every true American, whatever may be his 
 creed, must ask the question, " Could our peculiar institutions flourish 
 under such a system ? and are those persons, in this country or Eu 
 rope, proper citizens for a republic, who will submit to such dicta 
 tion ?" It cannot be disguised, that liberal principles, and the behests 
 of the Pope, here meet in eternal opposition. One or the other power 
 must give way. On the continent of Europe, wherever Romanism 
 has undisputed sway, the Bible is indeed a proscribed book. In 
 many Italian states, and almost under the very shadow of the dome 
 ot St. Peter s, families are imprisoned for being found with the sacred 
 volume in their possession ; delicate women are incarcerated in dun 
 geons, and their husbands and brothers consigned to the lingering 
 death of the galleys. 
 
 A few examples of Bible burning have been afforded even in our 
 
198 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 glorious country, and "the faithful" have quietly yielded up the 
 volume, to be consigned by the Jesuit to the flames. Thanks to our 
 institutions no civil punishment has followed, but what have been the 
 more terrible denunciations of the Priest upon the guilty the world 
 will never know. This is the spirit that the American wars against 
 he cannot find it sanctioned by any commendable toleration, because 
 it is sanctioning wrong. lie cannot believe it to be in accordance 
 with any religious sentiment, for the conscience enlightened by reason 
 revolts at such tyranny the question then again recurs, Are indi 
 viduals capable of self-government who will yield up unresistingly, 
 and from any plea, or by the dictation of any power, this most sacred 
 right of reading, not only the Holy Scriptures, but any book of morals 
 that has made its impress upon the world. 
 
 The Sacred Scriptures are not only the Divine revelation of a 
 life to come, and the Guide for the life present, but also the great 
 Conservator of morals, and the basis of all true social virtue and 
 happiness. In the quaint words of Jeremy Taylor, the Bible is " the 
 ligature of souls, and the great instrument of the conservation of 
 bodies politic." Montesquieu justly observes, that " the principles of 
 Christianity deeply engraven in the heart, would be infinitely more 
 powerful than the false honor of monarchies, the human virtues of 
 republics, or the servile fears of despotic states." We know, and, 
 what is better, we feel inwardly that religion is the basis of civil 
 society, and the source of all good and of all comfort.* All history 
 conclusively proves, that wherever the Bible w r as possessed by the 
 people, virtue and civilization advanced; wherever it was not, the 
 converse was no less true. A spurious civilization may exist without 
 the faith of Christianity, but it is a civilization that opposes no check 
 to idolatrous superstition and cruelty, and the most flagrant immoral 
 ities and crimes. 
 
 The moral effects of the Bible are illustrated in the history of the 
 Jewish race ; since their superiority over the heathen nations is mainly 
 
 * Burke. 
 
THE BIBLE THE CHARTER OF LIBERTY. 199 
 
 to be ascribed to their possession of the Divine Oracles. Since the 
 introduction of Christianity, the influence of its Divine precepts on 
 society is still more marked, in mitigating the honors of war, in sup 
 pressing the iniquitous and sanguinary rites of heathenism, and the 
 gladiatorial combats, which, according to Lipsius, sometimes cost 
 Europe from twenty thousand to thirty thousand lives in a month. 
 
 But the influence of the Bible is to be sought for, not so much in 
 the councils of princes, as in the debates or resolutions of popular 
 assemblies, in the conduct of governments towards their subjects, or 
 of states and sovereigns towards one another, of conquerors at the 
 head of their armies, or of parties intriguing for power at home 
 (topics which almost alone occupy the attention, and fill the pages 
 of history), as in the silent course of private and domestic life, and 
 in the yet more private regulations of the heart.* Here have ever 
 been its great triumphs. The fact of its inculcating self-government 
 renders the Bible the great essential in a state where the people are 
 invested with the sovereign power. 
 
 The presence of the Divine Oracles sanctified the councils of our 
 patriot fathers alike in times of war and peace. It was to the Bible that 
 they made their appeal in all emergencies, in the tented field and in 
 the legislative hall. It was to this fact that we may ascribe the noble 
 testimony of history, which asserts that our Revolutionary struggle 
 was unstained by a single crime. It was to the same source that we 
 trace the pure patriotism, and self-sacrificing heroism and faith of the 
 revered founders of our free institutions ; and it is in a like jealous 
 regard and cherishing love for the Bible, as our national text-book of 
 civil and religious liberty, as well as of Christian faith, that AVC con 
 fidently rest all our hope for the prosperity and perpetuity of our 
 great Republic. Shall we lightly esteem so precious a boon ? Shall 
 we ever forget that it comes to us with the sacred insignia of Divinity, 
 baptized with the blood of ancient saints and worthies, and all fragrant 
 with celestial Truth ? Shall we forget that it has passed through the 
 
 * Paley s Evidences. 
 
200 VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 fires of persecution all unscathed, and that its soul-entrancing truths 
 sustained confessors and martyrs who suffered to the death to transmit 
 to us, their descendants, the inestimable treasure ? Can we be free, 
 we would again ask, if we suffer ourselves to be deprived of the 
 Scriptures ? and are those friends of liberty and free institutions who 
 would proscribe their circulation among the people ? 
 
THE PRINCIPLES AND PERILS OF OUR COMMON 
 EDUCATION. 
 
 Education is the cheap defence of nations." EDMCXD BURKE. * 
 
 THE wisest must govern. This truth has been the basis of all the 
 governments in the world, from the Patriarchs to the Presidents. It 
 is a text upon which a whole circle of sermons has been preached. 
 It has supplied the arguments of the absurd monarchist, Filmer ; the 
 aristocratical aspirations of Thomas Carlyle ; of the ravings and rev 
 eries of all the red republicans in the world. In the rude times, 
 when men were gathered into tribes, the old men, as wisest, ruled the 
 band ; not very stringently, but with all the authority of the tribe. 
 This primitive mode of governing has descended down, among sav 
 ages, to the Wittenagemote (" witty men s meet," " wise men s meet 
 ing") of the Saxons, and to our Indian contemporaries. 
 
 Monarchs, whether autocratic or constitutional, usurping or heredi 
 tary, have asserted the same principle. Great rulers, such as Julius 
 Caesar, Oliver Cromwell, and Napoleon Bonaparte, who grasped su 
 preme power because they knew they could use it ; and petty tyrants, 
 who abused it because the people were supine and ignorant, have 
 asserted the same claim the right of the wisest to govern. 
 
 The feudal governments of Europe are set on a like foundation. 
 The wealthy and (so-called) noble aristocracy whose power, and 
 whose intention to keep it, are alike and almost equally represented 
 by Alexander the Autocrat, and Victoria the constitutional Queen 
 make appeal to this principle in their very name. An "Aristocracy" 
 is, literally, a Best Government a Government by the Wisest. 
 
202 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 "Not that these rulers have always deliberately claimed that they, 
 individually, were wisest among men ; but they have done it for them 
 selves as officers, in their formal documents. They say, " In our wis 
 dom ;" and, " Of our free grace and mere motion," and such things. 
 These forms at least defer to the common consent of mankind that 
 the \visest ought to govern, by taking the name of wisdom ; just as 
 vice acknowledges the supremacy of virtue, by pretending to be virtue. 
 Republics Greek, Italian, Swiss, German, French, American have 
 alike proclaimed the same universal maxim, with so loud a voice that 
 we need not stop to repeat their words. 
 
 The only difference amongst all these different rulers has been in 
 their answers to the question, Who are the wisest ? The king, the 
 emperor, the holy czar say the monarchists. The king and his 
 nobles say the feudalists. The nobles, said the oligarchic Venetians. 
 The people said, and still say The people. So say we. But pre 
 cisely at this point is a common and enormous omission. "The 
 people ought to govern," is the loud cry of all our politicians. But 
 there can be no reason why they ought to govern, unless that they 
 are wisest because they are wise enough to govern. It is with the 
 nation as it is with the individual. When a man is old enough, 
 knows enough, to take care of himself, then he may take care of 
 himself. Until that time, he is under more or less restraint. And a 
 nation not wise enough to govern itself, will as surely work out its 
 own destruction, as an inexperienced boy in the sole charge of a 
 great estate w r ould unwisely waste and lose it. 
 
 Our politicians happen in fact to be right. But that is only because 
 our people have been wise enough to govern. The presumption has 
 always been, that each voter has been intelligent enough and upright 
 enough to be intrusted with the power. The exceptions have been 
 so few as to serve only to prove the rule. But of late years, tlu- 
 exceptions have increased so rapidly, especially by immigration ol 
 ignorant and immoral foreigners, that this presumption of intelli 
 gence can hardly any longer be said to exist. The politicians con 
 tinue to cry, " Let the people govern !" But the trouble is not now 
 
PRINCIPLES OF OUR COMMON EDUCATION. 203 
 
 lest the people shall govern. That they will always do. They will 
 never, in this country, suffer the sceptre to pass out of their hands. 
 But the trouble now is, to keep them wise enough to govern ivell. 
 They are not in the case of the boy who is not old enough to manage 
 his estate ; but they are in the case of the man who is in danger of 
 ruining his estate by falling into evil courses. 
 
 The American Kepublican theory is not merely that the people 
 should govern ; it is, first, that the people are the ivisest ; and second, 
 and only by virtue of this wisdom, comes the other truth which we 
 hear so often, The people must govern. 
 
 For abundant proof of our position, let us look to the practice and 
 precepts of those founders of the Union and fathers of American lib 
 erty the first settlers of the thirteen colonies. In the early times of 
 the various colonial commonwealths, only members of churches were 
 admitted, in some of them, to the exercise of the electoral franchise, 
 for the declared reason that the body of the people ought to consist 
 of honest and good men. Decent and refutable conduct as members 
 of society was also a recognized requisite of those admitted to vote. 
 The written constitutions, and the whole spirit of the frame of gov 
 ernment of all the early colonies, is conclusively in point. The 
 strong, clear-minded men who established them, saw plainly the abso 
 lute necessity of admitting none to the freeman s privilege of govern 
 ing the State, except such as were duly qualified in intellect and 
 morals for that high responsibility. They set their standard of quali 
 fication higher than would now be endured. They required, until 
 public sentiment compelled a change, both the ownership of prop 
 erty, that the voter might the more sensibly feel the effects of his 
 own governing, and church-membership, that he might be approved 
 a man of pure heart and life, and as one not about to endanger their 
 peculiar semi-theocratic institutions. That their application of the 
 principle was extreme and mistaken, may be allowed ; but the demon 
 stration is not less conclusive, but rather more so, of the strength and 
 clearness of their conviction that only safe men well-qualified men 
 should conduct the affairs of the State. 
 
204 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 X\ Since this is our theory, and has been our practice, as it ought to 
 be, is in some measure, and as we hope it will be again, evidently it 
 is the very profoundest and most absolute necessity of the State, if it 
 desires to be a righteous, prosperous, and happy State, to foresee its 
 future, and to secure to itself the means of a prosperous and .progres 
 sive life, by raising up well-trained citizens for the next generation. 
 The nation, during one generation v must prepare the next; just as a 
 provident man of business during one season is making arrange 
 ments for his investments and enterprises during the next ; or as a 
 farmer, while cultivating one crop, makes that crop help prepare for 
 the next, and thus preserves and improves the value and productive 
 power of his land. 
 
 The children of the present age are the nation of the future, and 
 properly educating them for wise and right action as men, is not only 
 the very greatest responsibility of our adult generation, but it i.s also 
 a necessity as plain and indispensable as that a man should preserve 
 his life now, in order to be alive next year. The training of the 
 children is the whole basis of our republic ; the one thing needful, 
 without which all our other pains and trouble for perpetuating our 
 Union must come to naught; the primary source and condition of 
 all that is desirable in our peculiar national life, if any such we 
 have. 
 
 The American common -school education is the essential condition 
 of all that is valuable in our American citizenship and polity. It 
 is consistent with them ; a part of the same machine as one par 
 ticular wheel is of its own engine, and of no other. It dilK.-rs from 
 other common-school educations, precisely as our people differ from 
 other people, and our institutions from other institutions. Ameri 
 can school education, as fostered and enforced by our government, i? 
 intended to train citizens fit to uphold our State ; men wise enough 
 to govern. They must be intelligent; possessed of minds free, active, 
 stored with the fundamentals of knowledge, and with as much as 
 possible of the superstructure. Yet they must be so trained, morally 
 -ind religiously, as to keep their intellects and their passions subject 
 
PRINCIPLES OF OUK COMMON EDUCATION. 205 
 
 to their regard for right, Christianity, and the law.* They need the 
 widest freedom, that they may manage and discuss their political 
 business with the confident courage which distinguished the founders 
 of the republic. They need the utmost wisdom, that they may make 
 few mistakes themselves, and may profit by the examples of others. 
 They need the most thorough and deeply-founded conviction of the 
 supremacy of God and the sanctity of His great laws, and of the 
 moral and human laws based thereon, in order that they may not 
 pass from freedom to riot ; that their own stability as law-abiding, 
 honest, and upright citizens may be sufficient to guard and guide 
 them in the wide freedom of our constitution, and to bring them to 
 the strenuous support of that constitution when attacked or violated 
 by the ignorant or the wicked. 
 
 That such is the true relation of our common-school training to the 
 State, seems proved by the mere statement of the case. That such 
 was in fact its scope and purpose, and that they have ever been so 
 regarded by our wisest men, needs little proof. The histories of the 
 early settlements, and the documentary evidence of their records, are 
 alike conclusive of the question. The fact is notorious, that the edu 
 cation of the young engaged a very large share of the solicitude of 
 the first Americans. The Virginians established, in 1621, the first free 
 school in America. The first in Boston was set up in 1635. 
 
 It is repeatedly declared in the records of the colonies, that it is the 
 legal duty of all parents and guardians to give religious and other 
 instruction to the children under their care, and to train them up in 
 some learned profession or other employment profitable for themselves 
 and the commonwealth. In 1642, it was declared, by solemn enact 
 ment, that all children must be educated, and that it was " barbarism" 
 not to have a knowledge of the principal laws of the State. 
 
 Indeed, recognition of the absolute and fundamental importance 
 of education, enforced and paid for by the State, raising the scholar 
 to that standard of moral and intellectual ability and acquirement 
 
 * For relation of Christianity to the State, see Girard will case. Also, Web 
 ster s Works, Vol. VI. p. 133, &c. 
 
 10 
 
206 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 which prepare him for safe and reliable citizenship, are conclusively 
 evident in the earliest legislative records of the New England States. 
 The same solemn recognition is embodied, in one form or another, 
 in all the State constitutions, from Maine to California, at this day. 
 A monument of the same belief also remains, in the power which 
 has from the beginning been granted to the selectmen, of appren 
 ticing, for labor and education, all children neglected by their parents 
 or guardians. This regulation has, most unfortunately, fallen into 
 very general disuse ; but its importance and meaning are none the 
 less evident, 
 
 Such is our American idea of common education : a careful and 
 thorough training for all purposes of government and self-govern 
 ment, A comparison with it of the character of European education, 
 and of its results upon the population subjected to it, will serve to 
 exhibit contrasts seldom considered, but extremely important. 
 
 The greatest difference between the two systems arises from the 
 difference in their objects. Americans are free, and the freedom of 
 our American law must be made up for by a corresponding increase 
 in the exercise of self-control by the individual. Therefore, it is a 
 principal and direct object of our education, to train our youth to 
 independent and careful thought. They think on public business, 
 and manage public business an employment which demands the 
 widest intelligence. They are trained to feel it not only a privilege, 
 but a duty, to take a direct and active interest in the government of 
 their country. 
 
 But it is an equally direct object of the European educational 
 systems more especially of the Continental, but measurably also of 
 the English system to prevent the people from examining the gov 
 ernment or its measures, or from concerning themselves at all with 
 them. The Prussian school-system the most liberal on the Conti 
 nent has of late years been found too liberal for the purposes of the 
 Government, and has been gradually shorn of its best features, until 
 now it is, like all the rest, merely an adjunct of despotic power ; a 
 great machine, from which are turned out ready-made subjects not 
 
PRINCIPLES OF OUR COMMON EDUCATION. 207 
 
 ready-made men. The reading-books of the schools of the Austrian 
 dominions are arranged to teach submission to tyranny. In them 
 the children read, in so many words, that subjects must behave 
 towards their sovereign like faithful slaves towards their master, be 
 cause their sovereign is their master, and has power over their prop 
 erty as well as over their lives. Intelligent consideration of political 
 matters, or any consideration of them, would shake the seats of the 
 kings ; and for self-preservation s sake, therefore, they carefully keep 
 such matter of investigation as much as possible out of the peo 
 ple s hands. More than that : lest they acquire too free a habit of 
 thought elsewhere, they not only prohibit a direct training for the 
 duty and habit of governing, but they prevent the study in a free 
 manner of any thing else. Lest scholars should learn the intelligent 
 study of politics, they are prevented from the intelligent study of any 
 thing. They are not taught to think for themselves for their own 
 good, but only to believe what is taught them, in order to subserve 
 the bad purposes of others. Intellectual debasement always brings 
 moral and social debasement along with it. The victims of this edu 
 cation for ignorance are not only miserably besotted in mind, but 
 brutishly savage and heathenish in manners. Their whole character 
 is the natural consequence of such training in youth. Mutual confi 
 dence and helpfulness, the reliance of our citizens upon the kindness 
 and honesty of others, the social friendship and good fellowship which 
 are the very texture of so much of our daily life, are things unknown 
 in Europe, and strange and incomprehensible to Europeans travelling 
 ere. 
 
 Europe, everybody distrusts everybody. It was a principal 
 reason for the transitory insecurity of the many constitutional govern 
 ments established in Germany and elsewhere, in the years 1848-50, 
 that, of the numerous little cliques of politicians and theorists who 
 were at work, none trusted any other ; nor did any man trust his 
 fellow. There is none of that feeling which causes our minorities 
 to submit peacefully to the measures of the majority, and even to 
 assist, in good faith, their support and full accomplishment. A Eu- 
 
208 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 ropean nation would almost necessarily pass from the excitement of 
 our Presidential elections, into an armed revolution. The eagerness 
 with which the Irish and Germans gather into exclusively national 
 armed bands in this country, their promptness in rising into mo us, 
 their brutal fights among themselves, are plain indications of the pas 
 sions which boil in their minds, very near to overflowing. 
 Thus far it has been shown : 
 
 1. How our peculiar American education is the basis of our pecu 
 liar American nationality and freedom. 
 
 2. How the aims of American education and European education 
 are diametrically opposite. 
 
 It remains to consider : 
 
 1. What the actual influence of foreign population is upon 0111 
 schools; and, 
 
 2. What measures are needed to secure our schools in their propel 
 condition. 
 
 1. The actual influence of foreign population upon our schools. 
 
 Considering the character of most European training, and its influ 
 ence upon the minds of its victims ; considering also their besotted 
 subservience to their Romish priests, or else the rampant infidelity and 
 lawless, riotous, and licentious tendencies of those not so subservient, 
 it is easy to see how little community of thought and feeling can sub 
 sist between the two classes of people, European and American. The 
 Europeans are studiously kept ignorant and servile, and are deformed 
 with the vices which accompany servile ignorance. They are bigoted, 
 false, selfish, cunning, and revengeful. They are governed by fear ; 
 and, like passionate children, they seize every occasion to violate la\\> 
 which are only kept over them by force, and to indulge the passion- 
 which are only subdued by terror. How can such men coalesce will; 
 our law-making, law-abiding, and self-controlling men ? Our laws arc 
 so free that only such men as ours can properly use or safely eudur< 
 their freedom. Our thoughtful people see that their own self-con 
 trol must make up for the absence of stringent laws, a standing army. 
 and the heavy pressure from above of despotism and an armed am! 
 
PRINCIPLES OF OUR COMMON EDUCATION. 209 
 
 disciplined aristocracy. Liberal laws, and a correspondingly careful 
 self-government by the individual, are the distinguishing dignity and 
 prerogative of our freemen. But the very freedom which we use to 
 increase our moral power of governing ourselves, the foreigner seizes 
 as an opportunity to indulge his ingrained antipathy to law, his fero 
 city, and his appetites. Our population is so intelligent as to recognize 
 the necessity of a universal Christian and democratic education, with 
 out regard to sects. The foreigner, under the control of Romish 
 priests, regards it even as his duty, to insist upon the exclusive propa 
 gation, in all schools where he can secure it, of his special sectarian 
 ism, or his own atheism, if he has renounced the Romish Church. 
 
 The character of the actual educational operations of our foreign 
 population has, in fact, been precisely such as we have shown that it 
 must be. In Detroit, in Cincinnati, in New York city wherever they 
 could muster strength enough to hope for success they have begged, 
 bargained, and bullied to get their hands upon the money of the 
 State, for the propagation of their religious dogmas. Failing in that, 
 they have, by the like means, attempted to destroy in our national 
 schools their national significance and value, by driving out from 
 them all religious instruction or influence. The demands of the athe 
 istical Germans have been of a similar character. More than one 
 meeting of these people has formally resolved that the legal enforce 
 ment of the observance of the Christian Sabbath, and the giving of 
 any religious instruction in schools, ought to cease ; and with besotted 
 blindness, while making these absurd demands, they have also called 
 upon the Government to provide everybody with property and labor. 
 This is a like treachery with that of those villains who ask a night s 
 lodging, and then .set fire to the house, for the sake of plunder. 
 
 The liberal grants by the British government to the College of 
 Maynooth, while they have had no effect in mollifying the Irish 
 priests opposition to popular education in Ireland, have acted as a 
 stimulus to the preparation of Jesuit priests for this country, who, 
 headed by Bishop Hughes and his confederates, are, as we all know, 
 constantly interfering with the operation of our school-system, and 
 
210 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 endeavoring, under the plea of religious scruples, to secularize then: 
 and destroy their usefulness. We also suffer from the outside influ 
 ence of Austria, where, in 1829, was instituted " the Leopold Founda 
 tion," the direct object of which was to supply money for the suppor 
 of foreign teachers for American children. From this propagandis: 
 society have been received the immense sums of money that hav< 
 been paid for Romanist teachers, and for schoolhouses, in communities 
 entirely Protestant; and to Austria we must look for the solution o 
 the oft-repeated question among our Protestant rural populations. 
 "How do the Romanists manage to get funds to pay for their build 
 ings and- support their priests ?" 
 
 What the result of the success of this speckled army of disorgan- 
 izers and bigots would be, it requires no prophet to foretell. Ever 1 
 professedly religious body, would grasp at the State funds with th *. 
 intensely bitter, selfish, and spiteful rivalry of sectarian quarreled . 
 The strongest would snatch the most, and would try to secure al . 
 American free common-school education that invaluable institution 
 which has been, and is, the life-blood of the Union, the nucleus and 
 source of all our liberty and all our happiness would be bandied 
 about, like a bone in a pack of snarling curs. The keystone of tho 
 State would be knocked out of the arch; and the solid architecture 
 of the iron men who founded our commonwealth would be demol 
 ished, to make room for the crude fancies and foggy dreams of infi 
 del German metaphysicians the most visionary. and unpractical i f 
 men or for the cunning machineries of a subtle priesthood, striving 
 to rear the Inquisition and convents of the Romish Church on tl: : 
 ruins of our State. At the very best, our young men and voting \v< - 
 men would have passed the forming years of their lives in a disci 
 pline calculated to develop intellect, but to smother morals and i< - 
 gion together. All the strength of our republic would be sapp< . 
 Like the image in Nebuchadnezzar s dream, whose feet were part "f 
 iron and part of clay, we should totter upon a failing and incongruous 
 basis. The first stone thrown at us, would prostrate our country ; i 
 irremediable ruin. 
 
PRINCIPLES OF OUR COMMON EDUCATION. 211 
 
 2. What measures are needed in order to preserve our schools in 
 (heir proper condition ? 
 
 Only the religious belief underlying and interweaving all the 
 thoughts and habits of our people, co-operating with intellectual ele 
 vation and habits politically discreet, have held us together hitherto. 
 The elements of disunion are to-day fermenting more deeply and dan 
 gerously than. ever. Questions of policy, and of sectional prejudice, 
 have agitated the nation quite enough for its health. If these ques 
 tions are to be determined without anv other judges than cunninsc 
 
 s J O O 
 
 intellect and unbridled passion, the death of our Union is at hand. 
 If they are to be determined by men believing and seeking to prac 
 tice right and justice, the Union may yet endure. But if they are 
 to be so determined, it can be in no other way than by the graduates 
 of our common schools, brought up under an education based upon 
 Christianity, and teaching freedom of body, heart, and mind, democ 
 racy, and, above all, Christianity, without sectarianism. 
 
 There is no doubt what is necessary for the security of our edu 
 cation and of our country. It is high time that the distinctive 
 Christianity of our State polity, and the Christian and political char 
 acter of our public-school education, were re-established and restored 
 to their former footing, there to be maintained. Trial by jurv is an 
 excellent custom. Taxation according to representation is a very true 
 principle. Popular election and the ballot-box are the best possible 
 mode of choosing rulers. But neither custom, principle, nor ma 
 chinery will help a rotten nation. Unless we are able to handle our 
 instruments, we shall turn out but a bungling piece of work. These 
 good thing-s are only good by virtue of skill in the hands of the user. 
 Unless we know how to use our blessings well, we shall turn them 
 h>to curses. Our common schools are the only medium of the requi 
 site education. These must be kept American in spirit, American in 
 practice, American thoroughly, everywhere and always. The fanat 
 ics or the fools who would destroy our liberties by ousting from our 
 schools the sources and preservatives of those liberties, with a wisdom 
 like that of a man who should burn his own home over his head to 
 
212 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 warm his fingers, must be rebuked and silenced. Our schools inusi 
 remain public, free, democratic, unsectarian, and Christian. There is 
 room for no hesitation about the matter; the case is urgent, As 
 surely as we trifle with this blind giant, Ignorance, he will repay us 
 with such a destruction as Sampson brought upon the Philistines. 
 He is even now feeling about to grip the pillars of our State. Hav 
 ing them once in his grasp, he will overthrow our national edifice, 
 and crush us among the falling fragments. 
 
 Perhaps the most significant, comprehensive, and useful measure 
 which could be taken in order to the accomplishment of the purposes 
 set forth in this chapter, would be an educational qualification for 
 voting, the requirement that every voter should read intelligibly, in 
 English, our State and National Constitutions. This single require 
 ment, of reading, is probably the best, although, of course, very im 
 perfect, as all such tests must be. Any such test must be capable 
 of quick and easy application, and must also determine the possession 
 of an essential requisite. Reading is a ready mode of estimating a 
 man s literary acquirements. A more elaborate inquiry would be so 
 tedious in the application, as to be practically inconvenient. Ability 
 to read can be proved in a moment. And one who can read, is able 
 to use the most extensive and important source of information in the 
 world, namely, printed matter. 
 
 The enforcement of such a rule would be attended with many 
 advantages. It would shut out from the polls the most degraded 
 and dangerous class of voters, native or foreign. The men who arc 
 most easily bought or fooled would not then be worth buying. Im 
 migrants would be under a strong temptation to learn English, and 
 to learn to read ; of which two attainments the first would be of great 
 value in assimilating them to our own people, and the second as ;; 
 main step forward in their progress towards intelligent freedom. A 
 most important benefit, also, to be derived from the operation of this 
 educational test, would be its effect upon our schools. The children 
 of foreigners, now the most ignorant and inaccessible of our youthful 
 population, would at least learn to read. Their fathers would also 
 
PKINCIPLES OF OUR COMMON EDUCATION. 213 
 
 learn, in order to vote ; and as much as they learned themselves, so 
 much it is safe to conclude that their children would be greatly 
 benefited. Education, moreover, would thus once more be definitely 
 recognized and significantly honored by the State ; and the posses 
 sion and exercise of political power would once more be publicly 
 declared conditional upon the possession of the ability to use such 
 power. The declaration would not be very perfect ; the test proposed 
 is not. But probably it is the best that circumstances will admit of. 
 Its adoption would, at least, make a renewed and important public 
 assertion of our hereditary State policy, namely, the restriction of the 
 governing power to those fit to use it. 
 
 The principle of demanding that religion, though free from secta 
 rianism, should be carefully excluded from our common-schools, is 
 not of American origin. " Education, without religion," savs a great 
 authority, " merely transforms an ignorant brute into a clever fiend." 
 True religious feeling is the basis of all useful education. It is the 
 wholesome check upon that power which man acquires through the 
 acquisition of knowledge. " Knowledge is power, but it is neither 
 wisdom nor virtue ;"* and these two qualities, so necessary to the very 
 existence of society, can only be implanted by religious faith. The 
 prevalence of the Epicurean philosophy did much to destroy the 
 Roman Empire ; and, in later years, the teachings of Voltaire and 
 Rousseau removed the only check which restrained the French nation 
 from those frightful excesses which form so dark a picture in the his 
 tory of mankind. The " Goddess of Reason" has ever been insuffi 
 cient to direct either individuals or multitudes; and the first step 
 towards the restoration of order in France, was the recognition of the 
 Divine power in the government of the world. 
 
 As the cherished sentiments of thousands of our naturalized and 
 alien citizens become known to the American people, it is discovered 
 that we not only have the Romish priest, industriously at work to 
 suppress the Scriptures, but that we have organized societies of 
 avowed infidels and atheists, who openly proclaim that there is no 
 
 * Alison. 
 
214 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 liberty where even moral, much less religious, restraints prevail, and 
 that the perfection of society is accomplished, when the unregenerated 
 passions of the heart alone control human action/" 
 
 The experience of other nations presents warnings to the American, 
 of the necessity of constantly insisting upon the moral training of our 
 youth. We want no dogmas, no " isms," but we want the Scriptures 
 free. That they might be so, our forefathers made a home in the 
 wilderness, and left tTic heritage to the present generation. Shall we, 
 in the prosecution of our school-system, allow it to be emasculated oi 
 its chief strength, because of the demands of the priests of a cor 
 rupted religion, or because we are required to do so by foreigner? 
 who openly declare war upon religion itself? It is for the American? 
 who truly love their country to decide. 
 
 * See published statements of the principles of various German Societies 
 throughout the Union. 
 
THE POLITICAL POWER OF THE POPE. 
 
 "The Romish Church has always ranged herself on the side of Despotism." GUIZOT 
 
 IT has lately become the fashion for party men and journalists to 
 assert that the influence of the Papal See on political affairs no longer 
 exists; that history proves her power to have been on the wane 
 during many past years ; that the march of intellect and spread of 
 education have forced her to relinquish coercive power ; and that the 
 resumption of her former influence is impossible. "We are constantly 
 told by prelates, priests, and politicians, that the supremacy of the 
 Pope in temporal affairs " is not an established doctrine of the Roman 
 Church ; it is simply a sententia in ecclesiaan unadjudicated ques 
 tion, without positive authority, and incumbent upon no one s faith ; 
 that a Romanist may believe what he pleases on the subject, and 
 be a good Churchman still." Those, on the contrary, who, relying 
 on the authority of the Fathers of that Church, receiving the declara 
 tions of the priesthood themselves, and accepting the explanation of 
 the Roman press, maintain a different opinion, are accused of bigotry 
 and intolerance, or stigmatized as enemies to liberty. It becomes us, 
 therefore, to examine these pretensions, and, having seen their import 
 in other ages, to inquire if they have been relinquished, or, as is 
 strenuously urged, become obsolete. 
 
 In order to a full appreciation of this momentous question, a glance 
 at the origin and progress of Papal assumption is necessary, so that 
 a full idea of the arrogance of Rome may be realized. 
 
 Systems which are longest in their growth, are most lasting in 
 their effects. This is peculiarly the case with that politico-religious 
 organization Romanism : commencing in the first centuries of the 
 
216 A VOICE TO AMEKICA. 
 
 Christian era ;i period when the whole known world was in a state 
 of transition it has steadily progressed from infancy io robust man 
 hood : accurately observing cause and effect, it quickly learnt to con 
 trol events, and mould men and monarchies to its will. "What was 
 originally conferred as a favor, it quickly arrogated as a right ; and, 
 when princes remonstrated, or jurists denied its claims, forgery was 
 resorted to in defence of its usurpations, and absolution and prefer 
 ment were the rewards of assassins who removed its opponents. 
 
 In the struggle between*the Eastern and Western Empires, the 
 See of Rome early rejected the Byzantine yoke, thus asserting a right 
 to resist governments. In becoming temporal princes, the Popes de 
 clared that a union could exist between the temporal and spiritual ; 
 and, at the election of Pepin to the throne of France, arrogated the 
 power of umpires in political disputes. Thus, gradually establishing 
 authority by precedent, the Papacy matured its policy, until Ililde- 
 brand placed a climax on the growth of six centuries.* 
 
 This famous Pontiff is regarded by all historians as the master 
 mind of his age, and the architect of the Romish Church. Ills great 
 antagonist, Ilenry IV., Emperor of Germany, found the armies of the 
 empire powerless against the Eternal City, and was compelled to 
 listen to the Pope as he fulminated interdicts against his kingdom, 
 and excommunication against himself. Nor did the Papal emissaries 
 confine their operations merely to Germany. In England, they im 
 posed and collected taxes without the consent of the authorities, and 
 frequently raised insurrections by their extortions. So extravagant 
 became their demands in France, that the civil power was forced to 
 interfere, and St. Louis decreed the "Pragmatic Sanction," curbing 
 the power of the Papacy in his kingdom. In fact, monarchy was in 
 rebellion, and what could not be acquired by force, Rome resolved 
 to gain by wiles. 
 
 The thirteenth century saw r the struggle commence between the 
 people and Feudalism. But the Papacy early understood that Lib 
 erty would be death to its pretensions, and therefore allied itself with 
 
 * Gregory VII., A. D. 1073. 
 
POLITICAL POWER OF THE POPE. 217 
 
 Tyranny. The Barons, who had extorted MAGNA CIIARTA from 
 John, were excommunicated by the Pope, and a war of extermina 
 tion commenced against the Albigenses. This people, in the enjoy 
 ment of political and religious freedom, were under the protection of 
 the Count of Toulouse, who, on his refusal to abet the designs of 
 the Papacy, was excommunicated, and his destruction resolved 
 upon. 
 
 Every expedient was resorted to in order to detach their protectors 
 from this unfortunate people ; and the Pope showed the policy of 
 Rome towards her opponents, in the following memorable words : 
 
 " We advise you, according to the precepts of the Apostle Paul, 
 to use cunning in your dealings with the Count, which, in the pres 
 ent case, should rather be deemed prudence. It is expedient to at 
 tack those separately who have broken the unity of the Church ; to 
 spare the Count of Thoulouse for a season, treating him with wise 
 dissimulation, in order that the other heretics may be more easily 
 destroyed, and that we may crush him at our leisure when he stands 
 alone."* 
 
 But treachery was not the only weapon which Romanism found 
 useful to adopt. Henry VII., Emperor of Germany, was assassinated 
 by order of Pope Clement V., poison being administered to him in 
 the Eucharist, from the hands of his Dominican confessor. But 
 crimes become virtues in a creed which asserts the maxim " The 
 end justifies the means." 
 
 Religion has always given place to policy when Romanism has 
 been forced to an alternative. The Duke of Guise was assassinated 
 by order of his sovereign ; yet, notwithstanding his opposition to the 
 Huguenots of France, and his being the leader of the Romanist party, 
 the Pope justified the assassination on the ground of political expe 
 diency. But the most memorable instance of Papal duplicity is 
 shown in the treatment of Philip II. of Spain, one of the greatest sup 
 porters of the Romish See that history can produce. Rome, how 
 ever, feared his power, and secretly sought the alliance of Elizabeth 
 
 * Pope Innocent III. to the Abbot of Citeaux. 
 
218 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 of England, advising her to assist the insurgents against Philip s 
 authority in the Netherlands. When this sovereign had resolved on 
 war with England, the Pope sent information to Elizabeth of the plan 
 forming for her destruction, together with copies of letters he had 
 received from the king relative to the Armada. The whole history 
 of the Papacy is full of such instances as these ; and neither suc 
 ceeding centuries nor the progress of civilization have produced a 
 change. 
 
 The history of Westphalia, in 1649, was the triumph of Protest 
 antism and free opinions. The Papacy then ceased to have any 
 direct political influence in the affairs of Europe ; henceforward it 
 was no longer to maintain authority by the aid of arms and the civil 
 power ; but to struggle for present existence and prospective influence 
 by craft and cunning. It may be said of this system 
 
 " It was not for an age, but for all time." 
 
 Romanism has weapons suited to every cycle. It adapts itself to 
 every people; it conforms to and supports every government; but in 
 despotism, monarchy, and republicanism, its aim is still unchanged. 
 Tyrannizing in barbarism, fawning in the sixteenth century, intriguing 
 in the nineteenth. Tolerant where forced, it persecutes where possi 
 ble. Liberal in England and America, autocratic in Spain and Aus~ 
 tria. Truly, " tout chemin mene a Rome."* 
 
 The- weapons which the Papal hierarchy now wields in free coun 
 tries, are admirably suited to the organization of its ministers. Celi 
 bacy of the priesthood gave power to the Papacy, and maintains its 
 influence. Family and country have no ties on the Romish cleror, 
 and the Popes have always been convinced that celibacy is the great 
 bond which unites all portions of the Papal dominions. Rome there 
 fore enjoys exclusive possession of every feeling which can render her 
 ministers good subjects or good citizens. Pius IV. comprehended the 
 immense value of an unmarried clergy. Though he violently con 
 demned the administration of the eucharist in both kinds, he relaxed 
 * " Every road leads to Home." 
 
POLITICAL POWER OF THE POPE. 219 
 
 the prohibition, at the instance of the Emperor Maximilian, and per 
 mitted the cup- to be given to the laity in Germany. But on the 
 point of celibacy he was inflexible ; for he was justly convinced that 
 it was the great bond by which all the portions of Papal domination 
 were united, and that, if it should be relaxed, the entire edifice would 
 fall in sunder. 
 
 A very necessary element of success, is the command of funds ; 
 and here the Romish Church is aided by the celibacy of her priest 
 hood. " The clergy is a family which can never perish ; its wealth 
 therefore remains with it forever ; and, as it is not a family to increase, 
 government should restrict its power of acquiring additional wealth." 
 (Montesquieu.) Rome shows her appreciation of such restrictions, 
 by treating them as sacrilege ; and governments, in asserting their 
 independence of Papal tyranny, have found it necessary to first curb 
 its financiering proclivities. A government which neglects legislative 
 enactments on so momentous a subject, will eventually find the Romish 
 Church capable of any resistance, and bidding defiance to the laws. 
 
 We are at a loss to understand how men, otherwise far-seeing, can 
 speak of Rome as powerless for evil. Are any of her means of action 
 restrained ? Is she less wealthy? Are her followers materially dimin 
 ished, or less devoted ? Is her alliance with governments perilled ? 
 Or has she become meek and lowly, and forgotten her former arro 
 gance ? In eveiy country we see her bishops and priests leading a 
 strong party, whose alliance is sought, and opinions pandered to, by 
 party-men of different shades of opinion. In England, the Popish 
 Parliamentary league is feared and hated by every ministry. In 
 France, their alliance is gained by the government, in return for 
 almost supreme ecclesiastical power. In Germany, Rome educates 
 in the schools, and Jesuits be^r sway in the cabinet. She attempts 
 to arrest the march of freedom in Sardinia, and strives to stifle its 
 rise in Spain. Is it egotism which induces Americans to deny her 
 influence in this republic, and are they blind to passing events in 
 their own country ? What, then, is the explanation of demagogues 
 flattering the Papal hierarchy ; what the meaning of the riots of our 
 
220 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 foreign population ; and for what purpose is so inucli property In the 
 hands of the priesthood, and in their hands alone ? The tact is obvi 
 ous, that the means Home formerly possessed, she has not parted with. 
 She is as powerful for evil as in the days of Innocent III.; and, when 
 the situation warrants it, sift will know where to find another Hilde- 
 brand. 
 
 We are not alone in this conviction. The historian, Macaulav, 
 holds the same opinion, in the following language : 
 
 "The Papacy remains not in decay, not a mere antique, but full 
 of life and youthful vigor. The Catholic Church is still sending forth 
 to the furtherest ends of the world, missionaries as zealous as those 
 who landed in Kent with Augustin ; and still confronting hostile 
 kings with the same spirit with which she confronted Attila." 
 
 There is a fundamental mistake made by -would-be philosophers of 
 the present day, which may lead to very disastrous consequences. 
 Viewing the want of education in Romanist countries, and the unin- 
 tellectual character of their inhabitants, they imagine the Papal 
 priests to be participators in this ignorance, whereas the contrary is 
 the case. The Romisli priests, as a body, are educated, scientific, and 
 refined. They number men among them eminent in every branch 
 of literature, and especially in political philosophy. This fact is one 
 which should cause them to be regarded with greater fear, since they 
 are prepared beforehand for every emergency. Their education is 
 instilled into them with, and becomes a part of, one great controlling 
 aim the supremacy of their order. 
 
 Rome formerly worked by what may be termed physical means. 
 She was a species of equipoise a political umpire between contend 
 ing governments. But this influence has departed, and Rome adapts 
 herself to the age. She educates her ministers to meet the times; 
 and her followers are trained to make every action of their live*, 
 every phase of their existence, subservient to a fixed policy. Seated 
 in the midst of the civilized world, accurately marking every change 
 of the political horizon, Rome awaits her moment, and, when llm 
 success of one or other political party is wavering in the balance. 
 
POLITICAL POWER OF THE POPE. 221 
 
 she throws in the immense weight of her followers, and bears down 
 all opposition. Politicians laugh at our tears, and deride our asser 
 tions ; yet these same men are courting that party whose influence 
 they deny. Why is it that public men are so courteous to, and 
 apologistic of, the Romish Church ? It is because they know it to be 
 an undivided power, no two policies there, no factions, no North 
 and South, but a party one and indivisible. Whigs and Democrats 
 may contend, " isms" may come in contact, and a " National party" 
 be rent by fanatics, but Rome is unchangeable. There are no divisions 
 there ; she commands, and countless thousands obey. No wonder, 
 then, our public men are so deferential to such a power, though at 
 the same time denying its existence to the country. W T ill America 
 thus be treated by her representatives ? 
 
 The oft-repeated assertion of the Papal See not claiming temporal 
 supremacy, is one calculated to bring about the most disastrous results. 
 Legislators in this, as in other countries, are unceasing in the propa 
 gation of this error ; and even Romanists themselves assert a doctrine 
 which is entirely opposed to the spirit and affirmation of their hie 
 rarchy. From the ninth century to the nineteenth from Gregory VII. 
 to Pius IX. the doctrine of that Church has been, the elevation of 
 the spiritual over the secular. This right is not asserted as a conse 
 quence of the spiritual power, but as of divine origin. Thus Hilde- 
 brand, in excommunicating Henry IV., uses the language, "Ex parte 
 omnipotentis Dei" The same Pontiff asserts that "kings and princes 
 are bound to kiss the feet of God s vicegerent. He has a right to 
 depose emperors. His sentence can be annulled by none, but he 
 can annul the decrees of all." Successive Pontiffs were unceasing in 
 maintaining this doctrine, and constantly asserted that governments 
 held their authority from the Romish See. Pope Boniface VIII. 
 addresses Philip le Bel of France in the same arrogant language : 
 " We would have thee to know that in things spiritual and temporal, 
 thou art subject to us." In fact, throughout the whole range of the 
 Papacy, from Hildebrand downwards, such has been the declaration 
 of the so-called successors of St. Peter. 
 
222 A VOICK TO AMERICA. 
 
 In A.D. 1414, tlic Council of Constance declares : The laity ha\M 
 no jurisdiction and power over the clergy. And the Council of 
 Trent, in 1545, asserts: "The exemption of clerical persons has been 
 instituted by the ordination of God, and by canonical institutions. 1 
 (Sess. 25, chap. 20.) 
 
 It was in the early ages of the Papacy that Rome found her me-; 
 critical moments; and such decrees as the above were necessary, no; 
 merely to acquire additional power, but to retain what she ahead" 
 possessed. Many national Churches were almost independent of 
 Rome, particularly that of France. Under the leadership of sue] . 
 men as Bossuet and Fenelon, backed by the enormous pow. 
 Louis XIV., France successfully resisted the encroachments of tli . 
 Romish See, and even gave a name to all such opposition, namely, 
 Gallicanism. But this independence of Rome is now only history ; 
 the Papal hierarchy of the present day is ultramontanist ihioughoui. 
 find the Church recognizes the Pope as infallible and supreme in al 
 matters. Even France herself owns to the annihilation of her nations 
 Church. The Count of Montalembert thus speaks, in 1852 : 
 
 " Let us all labor, according to the measure of our meekness, U 
 maintain her (the Romish See) in this dignity, in this sovereign inde 
 pendence. We are entering upon the age of the regeneration % 
 Catholicism, which will console us for all the outrages, all the defec 
 tions, it has had to endure since the revival of paganism, four hundred 
 years ago." 
 
 The ultramontane doctrine, as enunciated by Bellannine, and 
 defended by the Jesuits, is now, in fact, the faith of the entire 
 Romish clergy and Church. Bellannine thus illustrates his posi 
 tion : 
 
 "The Pope, as Pope, although he has not any merely temporal 
 power, hath, nevertheless, in order to a spiritual c;ood. the supreme 
 power of disposing of the temporal concerns of all Christians." (JJd- 
 larmine, chap, vi.) 
 
 Again : 
 
 "The clergy cannot be punished by political judges, neither be in 
 
POLITICAL POWER OF THE POPE. 223 
 
 any way brought before the judicial chair of the secular magistrate. . . 
 The Pope has redeemed the clergy from the obedience due to princes ; 
 therefore kings are no more the superiors of the clergy." (Bellar- 
 mine, chap. 28.) 
 
 Another of the Fathers of the Romish Church is even more explicit. 
 Baronius, in speaking of the supremacy of the Papal power, ob 
 serves : 
 
 " All those who take from the Church of Rome, and from the See 
 of St. Peter, one of the two swords, and allow only the spiritual, are 
 branded for heretics." (Baronius, Ann. 1053, 14.) 
 
 Political partisans and unscrupulous demagogues may assert that 
 the march of civilization has caused Rome to relinquish these claims, 
 but there never was a time when her pretensions have found more 
 numerous or abler champions than at present. The doctrine is tri 
 umphant throughout the entire Papacy, and in Protestant countries 
 it is pertinaciously asserted. 
 
 To be convinced that this ultramontane power of the Popes is 
 truly the belief of every faithful Romanist, we need only look to the 
 writings of Brownson, in our own country. The opinions of his 
 Review are endorsed by the Romish hierarchy throughout the States, 
 and he therefore speaks the creed of his Church. 
 
 " There is, in our judgment, but one valid defence of the Popes, in 
 their exercise of temporal authority in the middle ages over sove 
 reigns, and that is, that they possess it by divine right, or that the 
 Pope holds that authority by virtue of his commission from Jesus 
 Christ, as the successor of Peter, the Prince of the Apostles, and visi 
 ble head of the Church." "As the denial of the spiritual au 
 thority soon leads to a denial of the temporal, so the denial of the 
 temporal soon leads to the denial of the spiritual. "When we found 
 democracy even by nominal Catholics embraced in that sense in which 
 it denies all law, and asserts the right of the people, or rather of the 
 mob, to do whatever they please, and making it criminal in us to 
 dispute their infallibility, we felt that we must bring out the truth 
 against them, and if scandal resulted, we. were not its cause. The re 
 
224: A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 sponsibility rests on those Avhose obsequiousness to the multitude matta 
 our opposition necessary." 
 
 " The Pope has the right to pronounce sentence of deposition against 
 any sovereign, when required by the good of the spiritual order." 
 (Brownson s Review, vol. i., p. 48.) 
 
 " The power of the Church exercised over sovereigns in the middle 
 ages was not a usurpation, was not derived from the concession ol 
 princes, or the consent of all people, but ivas, and is, held l>y divine 
 right, and whoso resists it, rebels against the King of kings and Lord 
 of lords." (Ibid., p. 47.) 
 
 " She (the Church) bears by divine right both swords, but she ex 
 ercises the temporal sword by the hand of the princes or magistrates. 
 The temporal sovereign holds it subject to her order, to be exercised 
 in her service, under her direction." (Ibid., p. GO.) 
 
 " The spiritual is not only superior to the temporal, but is its sove 
 reign, and punishes its law." (Ibid.) 
 
 "We consider this the most open-mouthed, bare-faced assertion oi 
 the temporal supremacy of the Popes over free governments and uni 
 versal suffrage of which it is possible to conceive, and this asserted 
 too in a country which has separated Church and State, fearing the 
 encroachments of the spiritual power. Has this man sworn to main 
 tain the Constitution of the United States ? Can Jesuitry reconcile 
 his words with such an oath ? 
 
 But this doctrine is developed in its utmost elaboration in the Eternal 
 City. The Civilta Cattolica is a journal published at Rome under 
 the auspices of the Pontiff, and its views and opinions are received 1 >y 
 the Romanists throughout the world as the effusions of the Holy See. 
 In the course of a late article, this paper thus speaks : 
 
 " What are the limits of the power of coercion ? There are but 
 two, which, in fact, comprehend all others, namely, means and aim. . . . 
 "What then are the limits of the Church s means ? There are none 
 except the limits of human power, and of the divine assistance by 
 which the Church is comforted. As the Church commands the 
 spiritual part of man directly, she therefore commands the whole 
 
POLITICAL POWER OF THE POPE. 225 
 
 man, and all that depends on man From the darkness of the 
 
 Catacombs she (the Church) dictated laws to the subjects of the em 
 perors, abrogating decrees, whether plebeian, senatorial, or imperial, 
 when in conflict with Catholic ordinances Did. the Christian em 
 perors become insolent ? The Church armed against them their veiy 
 electors. To every rampant heresy the Church knew how to oppose 
 the power either of the peoples or of their princes ; and when these 
 supports seemed at last to have been snatched from her by a univer 
 sal rationalism, behold ! there is a sudden turning back of both ; 
 of the nations, fearing an unbridled royal power, and proclaiming the 
 necessity of a supreme spiritual power ; of the princes, beginning to 
 understand, at the light of a bloody communism, that the princi 
 ples of the Church are a firmer foundation for their thrones than 
 bayonets, which must always be intrusted to a part of the people. . . . 
 The conclusion is, therefore, that there are no limits to the exercise 
 of the coercive power of the Church, either in view of her means or 
 of her aim." (Civilta Cattolica, No. cxi., 2d Series, vol. viii., 
 Nov., 1854, pp. 273-282.) 
 
 This, we take it, is proof positive of the assumptions of Rome in 
 regard to the civil power, but lest our readers should suppose these 
 would not be enforced, we will give a further extract from the same 
 article : 
 
 " Petty politicians may conclude that the Church has lost her 
 power, because she does not enlist artillery, cavalry, and infemtry ; 
 but the truth is, that the artillery, cavalry, and infantry of the Catho 
 lics are in the hands of the Church, inasmuch as in her hands are 
 the mind, the reason, and the power of every true Catholic." (Civ. 
 Cat., ibid.) 
 
 Such is the arrogance, such the declarations of the See of Rome in 
 the nineteenth century ; nor is it probable that she will surrender pre 
 tensions which have been successfully asserted through ten centuries. 
 It was by this authority, Paschal II., in 1099, deposed Henry IV. of 
 Germany; Innocent III., in 1210, deposed Otho IV.; Gregory IX., 
 in 1239, excommunicated Frederick II., and absolved his subjects 
 
226 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 from tlieir allegiance ; Innocent IV., in 1245, pronounced sentence 
 of deprivation against the same Frederick; Boniface Y1IL, in 1302, 
 thundered forth against Philip le Bel of France the famous bull 
 Unam Sanctam, containing the most extravagant assertions of the 
 power of the Holy See; Paul III., in 1530 and in 1538, deposed and 
 damned Henry VIII. of England, and absolved his subjects from their 
 allegiance ; Pius V., in 1570, uttered a bull against Queen Elizabeth, 
 in which, u out of the fulness of apostolic power," he deprived her of 
 " her pretended title to the kingdom," and released her subjects from 
 " all manner of duty, dominion, allegiance, and obedience." In virtue 
 of this same power, Spain is now impeded in her progress of reform, 
 and Sardinia is expecting shortly to be excommunicated. 
 
 A bull of the Pope was the death-blow to the revolution of Poland 
 in 1830; like interference caused mischief to the Republics of Flo 
 rence, Genoa, Venice, and was the origin of the wars of the Sonder- 
 bund in Switzerland in 1847. No struggle has ever taken place in 
 favor of popular liberty, in any Romish country, but it has invariably 
 met with opposition from the priesthood. 
 
 We are at an utter loss to understand how Americans can be mis 
 led by assertions in their own country relative to Rome, when events 
 of such magnitude are passing in Europe. Spain is struggling to 
 throw off the overwhelming influence of the Church, yet Rome abates 
 not one of her pretensions. Sardinia, too, is entering upon her own 
 regeneration and that of Italy, but the Eternal City is straining every 
 nerve in opposition, and the country is daily fearing to be laid under 
 interdict. It is the duty of Americans to keep pace with these events, 
 and the favorers of the Papacy would then meet with small considera 
 tion at the hands of our citizens. 
 
 The Sardinian government, having become enlightened by the 
 spread of education and free opinion, entered upon a course of benefi 
 cent reform under the auspices of the late king, Carlo Alberto. His 
 benevolent designs were frustrated by Austria and Rome, and him 
 self compelled to abdicate. His son, Victor Emanuel, has steadily 
 pursued the policy of his father ; but, as is invariably the case, the 
 
POLITICAL POWER OF THE POPE. 227 
 
 Rornish Church places itself in opposition to the movement, and Sar 
 dinia is all but racked with civil war. The property of the clergy 
 amounts to eighty millions of dollars a year, but is so unequally dis 
 tributed, that the government has been obliged to pay two hundred 
 thousand annually for the support of the lower orders of the clergy. 
 Between eight and ten thousand monks and nuns, inhabiting more 
 than six hundred monastic establishments, enjoy an annual revenue of 
 nearly half a million of dollars. Such enormous ecclesiastical wealth 
 is felt to be a drain on the prosperity of the countiy, and the govern 
 ment finding it in the way of reform, has lately legislated upon it. 
 This calls forth the fierce opposition of the clergy, and the Pope thus 
 speaks of the decrees of the Sardinian government : 
 
 " We reject and condemn not only all and each of the decrees of 
 that government, hurtful to the rights and authority of religion, of 
 the Church, and of the Holy See, but likewise the law lately proposed. 
 We declare all these acts to be absolutely null and void." (Allocu 
 tion of Pope Pius IX., in Jan., 1854.) 
 
 At the close of the Revolution, the Established Church of England 
 still held ecclesiastical sway over the Episcopalians of America, and 
 John Wesley had direction over the rapidly increasing denomination 
 of Methodists. But the members of these Churches being Protest 
 ants, at once followed the example of the government, in separating 
 from " foreign influences/ and the spiritual power of foreign ecclesi 
 astics. This was done without injuring the cause of true religion, 
 and was in strict accordance with the spirit of our institutions. The 
 communicants of the Romish Church have alone persevered in their 
 foreign allegiance, an obedience at war with good citizenship, and, 
 although denominated spiritual, is for all practical purposes a politi 
 cal despotism. 
 
 We appeal to our readers. Is it patriotic, is it right to abstain from 
 binding this enormous, this ever-increasing power, simply from fear 
 of being accused of religious persecution ? When we find the sceptre 
 and the crosier so bound together, that we cannot tell where one begins 
 and the other ends, is it not the duty of every true American to crush 
 
228 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 such a fearful hierarchy, such au overwhelming influence? We aie 
 surrounded by countless thousands of foreign Romanists, who, in the r 
 superstition, believe the priest to be a demigod ; the priests, in the r 
 turn, have no volition apart from their diocesan ; and the bishops rc^ - 
 erence the Pope as God s vicegerent, in temporal as in spiritual ma > 
 ters. The mind fails to conceive a system more suitable to attain 
 power, and yet we are told that we should not fear the Pope. 
 
 While we are thus unconscious of danger, Rome is ever working ; 
 her clergy throughout the different States are amassing untold wealil ; 
 they are allying themselves with various parties, and rendering assi.^t- 
 ance to demagogues ; they are studying the weak points in our poll: i- 
 cal fabric, and the defects in our constitution ; and when they a -e 
 strongest and we weakest, they will strike with a force, telling us b it 
 too strongly, that while we slept, Rome was ever watchful. 
 
 NOTE. See Appendix, "Eolations of the Pope to tlio Civil rower" n Letter 
 from 0. A. Brownson, the chosen champion of Romanism in America. 
 
EVILS OF MILITARY ORGANIZATIONS EXCLUSIVELY 
 OF FOREIGNERS. 
 
 "An army, to be efficient, should have but one purpose, encourage but cue object. This makes 
 the mass invincible the individuals, heroes." AXTHOXY WAYXE. 
 
 OF the many evils arising from the want of a proper appreciation 
 of the peculiarities of our institutions, one of the most pernicious is 
 the formation of foreign and unnaturalized citizens into military com 
 panies savoring of the nationality of the countries from which they 
 have emigrated. Although the tendencies of our government are 
 eminently republican, giving free liberty of action and of conscience, 
 still there are certain obligations, tending to its maintenance untram 
 melled by a foreign proclivity, which are due to the people at large, 
 and to the laws under which this liberty is guaranteed. The mould 
 ing of the minds of our citizens on an American basis, through Amer 
 ican surroundings, and by American examples, should be the aim of 
 every one who desires to retain the material which shall insure the 
 perpetuity of our institutions. That material is founded in veneration 
 for habits and customs of a purely American bias, irrespective of the 
 individualities of any other country, and without regard to the senti 
 ments of any other nationality. 
 
 The organization of foreigners into separate regiments, and even 
 companies, is entirely subversive of the fundamental principles on 
 which this republic is established. It was in order to annihilate all 
 foreign influence and tyranny, that our country asserted its independ 
 ence, and took its rank among the governments of the world, not 
 merely as an assemblage of free and independent States, but as one 
 indissolubly united people, bound to each other by the same hostility 
 
 11 
 
230 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 to tyranny and love of liberty ; and actuated by the same principles 
 and motives. It is only in this union, that our republic can hope to 
 exist ; and every thing that does not tend to preserve this unity, is 
 disastrous in its nature, and should be resolutely discountenanced. 
 Can it be said that organized bands of armed men unacquainted 
 with our language, will produce the desired result 2 regiments having 
 foreigners for their component parts, their officers drilling them in 
 a foreign language ? 
 
 The object for which the militia is formed is, to protect the country 
 from foreign invasion, and from internal riots. Is it likely that in 
 time of war these regiments of foreigners would be of the same ser 
 vice as when all speak the same language ? Would they be likely to 
 take up arms against the country of their birth, in the event of our 
 becoming involved in a war with that country ? It is well known 
 that numbers of the German population of Williamsburg, New York 
 city, and elsewhere, have threatened to arm themselves, in order to 
 prevent the enforcement of a law which was distasteful to their feel 
 ings and opposed to their supposed interests. Would the German 
 companies of those localities obey the summons, if they were ordered 
 to put down this armed resistance to our laws? It is possible that, 
 the very men who have made this threat, are those who belong to 
 some military organization, and depend upon the muskets which our 
 authorities have placed in their hands as citizen-soldiers, to enable 
 them to carry their threat into execution. 
 
 Thus it will be seen that, if a foreign military organization l>u 
 inimical in a national point of view, it is positively destructive on 
 social grounds. The peace and order of our country, so long as they 
 exist, are ever at stake; nor can it be otherwise, in the nature of things. 
 The interminable hordes of emigrants who seek our large cities, con 
 stantly frequent the same localities, which renders them exclusive ; so 
 that an American entering certain neighborhoods, would fancy him 
 self in Germany or Ireland. The denizens have little communication 
 with the outside world, have their own papers, clubs, and gather 
 ings, and are practically a distinct people. Laws may be enacted, 
 
MILITARY ORGANIZATION OF FOREIGNERS. 231 
 
 affecting, as they believe, their rights ; these laws they refuse to obey. 
 The municipal authorities order force to compel obedience ; but force 
 can be met by force, since military companies exist, composed of the 
 rioters themselves. Thus bloodshed may ensue. We have had pain 
 ful examples of this fact in late years. It was only on the last anni 
 versary of St. Patrick s Day in New York, that such a probability was 
 freely discussed in the papers, and looked for with forebodings by our 
 peaceable citizens. Is not this sufficient to open the eyes of our 
 legislators to the crying evils of such organizations, and to induce 
 the authorities to constitute them illegal ? 
 
 Let us, for a moment, strip the subject of its dangerous results, and 
 view it as a matter of taste. The plea of emigration to this country 
 is, tyranny. The tools of power, whether through compulsion or 
 choice, are the soldiers, who are pleasing to the rulers by their 
 pliant subserviency and hateful to the people by their uniforms, their 
 badge of office. Accustomed to view the soldier, and his constant 
 presence, with a feeling of dread, uncertain at what moment his 
 power might be exercised on him, the foreigner has little of ease or 
 security associated in his reminiscences of their tinselled trappings. 
 In the hovel, the dwelling, or the palatial residence, they are always 
 present ; in village, town, or city, they are ever tramping. Their acts 
 are servile, and their impulse tyrannical. Associated in the minds of 
 the people with cruelty and oppression, bearing on their persons the 
 livery of tyranny, and enforcing its mandates with an undisguised 
 zest, the foreigner is happy to flee their presence, and escape their 
 power. And yet, in spite of these associations, and the dread inspired 
 by them, they form themselves into volunteer companies, on their 
 arrival here, and adopt the very uniforms which have oppressed them 
 with fear, thus wilfully assuming the badge of tyrants. The folly (we 
 might use a stronger expression) of this taste must be apparent to all 
 who think about the matter, and is one of such peculiar import, that 
 we seek in vain a reasonable excuse for its adoption. It is so much 
 at variance with all our conceived notions of the impulses which 
 govern the human breast, and is so glaring in its inconsistency, that 
 
232 A VOICE TO AMERICA 
 
 we are forced to reflect upon it with some degree of apprehension, 
 and look with a feeling of dread at its ultimate operation. 
 
 These foreign-accoutred regiments are found in every large city 
 throughout the Union. There is not a single petty nationality in 
 Germany but has its military representatives amongst our citizeu- 
 soldiers German in blood, feelings, language, and dress; German 
 in their officers and organization. France has given us fac-similes of 
 those troops who perpetrated the atrocities of the sanguinary dema 
 gogues of her first revolution troops who, in 1848, stormed Koine 
 and annihilated the Italian republic. Austria presents us with the 
 counterparts of those ruffians who, under the butcher Ilaynau, whip 
 ped delicate women to death, and waded knee-deep in blood through 
 the plains of Italy and Hungary. Even contemptible little Hesse 
 whose hireling soldiery became so odious to our forefathers in the 
 Revolution, and were the laughing-stock of their English comrades 
 even Hesse has her representatives among our military. But, worst 
 of all, Americans, forgetting the glorious traditions of their country, 
 and relinquishing every claim to self-respect,, adopt the livery of a 
 foreign prince that same uniform which their forefathers used so 
 badly at Saratoga, Trenton, and Yorktown. 
 
 We are at a loss to understand how Americans can suffer such 
 outrages of all decency, such contempt for the historical associations 
 of the Revolution. Where is the Executive, that such atrocities arc 
 permitted? If these foreigners must become soldiers, why are they 
 not compelled to wear the uniform of the United States that dark 
 gray and blue, which military men tell us is most suitable lor .such 
 purposes ? But no ! our feelings must be outraged to meet the views 
 of political hacks, who pander to the prejudices of these foreign co 
 horts, for vile party ends. Is the Eagle thus to be insulted in her own 
 eyrie ? 
 
 There is a motive, an intention in foreigners banding themselves 
 together in military companies. Accustomed in their own country 
 to see the soldiery paramount to the civil power, they hasten to clothe 
 themselves in the same garb of power here, under the impression that 
 
MILITARY ORGANIZATION OF FOREIGNERS. 233 
 
 they thus elevate themselves above the citizen, perfectly unconscious 
 of the great principle of our government that the civil power is para 
 mount to all other. Should any question be mooted in coming time, 
 in which their jealousies and prejudices are enlisted against the patri 
 otism of this country, we shall bitterly rue our shortsightedness in 
 placing arms in the hands of men, who cannot appreciate our institu 
 tions, and are ever ready to follow demagogues in their insidious at 
 tacks on the country and the Constitution. We have, in fact, re 
 moved a great incentive to virtue, by giving them the power to com 
 mit wrong. 
 
 We cannot look upon the armed confederacy of foreigners, clothed 
 in a uniform fashioned upon a foreign model, without, to say the least, 
 a thought of its impropriety, and the entirely anti- American phase 
 which it presents. It is certainly due to the feelings of citizens of this 
 country who guarantee to foreigners the liberties they enjoy under 
 our laws, that some degree of respect should be paid to their senti 
 ments, in the adoption of a uniform (if foreign companies must be 
 formed), which will not insult their vision, nor interfere with their 
 desire of having a citizen-soldiery, entirely American in appearance 
 and feeling, although its individuals may be of foreign birth. 
 
 There is a reason of great moment, which characterizes these pecu 
 liarly constituted companies as dangerous. By their means priest 
 craft is enabled to maintain a strong hold upon the mind and im 
 pulse of our foreign population, and even to effect results which are 
 contrary to the Constitution and aim of our government. The found 
 ers of this Republic wisely ordained that religion and politics should 
 not be associated together. Although no one religion is recognized 
 by our laws as paramount to another, yet no one will deny that this 
 country is essentially Protestant Protestant in its foundation, in its 
 principles, in its impulse and education, and opposed to all con 
 nection of Church and State. Were no other proof of its Protest 
 antism required, it could be found in its liberality towards the religi 
 ous sentiments of the people, in allowing them freedom of thought 
 and opinion in the matter of sect or tenet. Were it a Roman Catho- 
 
234: A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 lie country, all other denominations, years ago, would Lave been, by 
 the thunders of the Vatican, " crushed out," and driven from its face, 
 even though it required the aid of an Inquisition or an auto da fe. 
 What then shall we say to the priesthood using the military for church 
 display, arid making the Flag of our Union bow in obsequious rev 
 erence to the Host? We are at a loss to understand by what author 
 ity a mitred priest could command the attendance of regiments at the 
 consecration of the Cathedral of St. Louis in 1834, when, amidst the 
 thunder of American artillery, the Stars and Stripes were lowered in 
 idolatrous veneration. Such scenes as these, not meeting with the 
 merited rebuke from the people that their gravity demanded, are con 
 sequently persisted in, and we find a parallel atrocity repeated in the 
 city of Brooklyn, on the festival of Coitus Christi. 
 
 " The ceremonies took place at the German Romanist Church, lo 
 cated in Montrose Avenue, Brooklyn, in that section of the late city 
 of Williamsburg known as Dutch Town. The neighborhood being 
 almost exclusively German, the characteristics of Fatherland arc visi 
 ble in many respects, of which this is one most prominent. The day 
 wore the appearance of the Sabbath. Labor was at a stand ; the 
 holiday-suit was donned, and the principal portion of the people 
 flocked to the church to participate in the services. A military com 
 pany of the locality, under command of one Captain Maerz, thorough 
 ly armed and equipped, with a full band, was on the ground. At 10 
 o clock the church was filled to attend mass, and hear the discourse 
 for the occasion. During mass, and at certain intervals, while the 
 organ was playing, and the choir and congregation chanting, the 
 military company, DRAWN UP IN LINE IN FRONT OF THE ALTAR, pre 
 sented arms, and then followed in quick succession the roll of the 
 drums, the sound of trumpets inside of the church, and loud discharges 
 of fire-arms outside of the church. This was repeated several times 
 during the services. The church was decorated with evergreens, and 
 the altar with flowers. The edifice was filled to its utmost capacity 
 by the congregation. At the close of the semi-military services, the 
 military were marched into the street, and formed in front of the 
 
MILITARY ORGANIZATION OF FOREIGNERS. 235 
 
 church. Some further ceremonies, including a discharge of fire-arms 
 at the side of the church, closed the services of the morning. The 
 band of music playing the military proceeded to their quarters, fol 
 lowed by an immense throng of spectators."* 
 
 These are not exceptional instances, but proofs among many others 
 of the determination of the Roman hierarchy to obtain power, and 
 hold influence over the minds of its bigoted followers, by any and 
 every means within its complicated machinery. 
 
 The Romish Church is far-seeing it sows to-day, knowing that a 
 future generation will reap the bitter fruit. Gradually accustoming the 
 public to the spectacle of the military in alliance with ecclesiasticism, 
 they will ultimately claim this innovation as a right, and our soldiers 
 will be looked upon, as part of the religious power, and the natural 
 defenders and supporters of the priesthood. This is Rome s aim, and 
 yet our legislators, yea, we ourselves neither complain nor resist. 
 Who are the commanders of these regiments and companies ? can it 
 be that they willingly accord their permission to such conduct, and 
 consent to the arms and accoutrements of the State being employed 
 for such purposes ? What would be thought of the Episcopalians, 
 Baptists, or Methodists, calling out the military to assist in their reli 
 gious services, and proclaiming " peace and good- will towards men" 
 at the point of the bayonet ? The idea, even, is ridiculous ; and yet 
 we permit the Romanists to persist in an abuse which we would 
 immediately and deeply resent in any Protestant denomination. 
 
 We contend that such proceedings are not merely in defiance of 
 the feelings of a large majority of the people of the country, but are in 
 direct opposition to the fundamental principles and spirit of our gov 
 ernment. The Executive is the only authority vested with power to 
 call out the military, yet here we see a professedly religious body 
 asserting equal power, and forming an imperium in imperio. How 
 is it possible to make such regiments lose their national charac 
 teristics, surrounded as they are with a foreign, and to them kindred 
 population, and controlled by a foreign priesthood ? They have 
 
 * See the New York Tribune, June 9th, 1855. 
 
236 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 brought the bigotries of Papal Germany with them, and Protestant 
 America, instead of passing laws for the restriction of these militarv 
 abuses, by her guilty silence tacitly consents to the arrangement. 
 
 The wish of all men who have been oppressed, it would be sup 
 posed, would be to forget the uniforms and machinery of the land of 
 their oppression, especially its political ones, and to banish from their 
 sight all that can remind them of a former tyrant, most especially 
 when they are the recipients of the blessings of Republican institution*. 
 As long as these foreign organizations exist, the public mind will ho 
 kept in a ferment, and we shall be constantly startled by the announce 
 ments of disagreements between these foreign troops, and American 
 officers, commanding divisions. Ere we are aware of it, discord will 
 ensue, and blood will bo shed. the fearful consequence of which 
 cannot be comprehended. The evils existing which are complained 
 of, and the terrible catastrophes wiiich loom up in the future, could 
 all be avoided, if every State would pass laws requiring the citizen- 
 soldiery to wear uniforms sanctified 1y American associations loved, 
 because they have only been worn in defence of freedom, and never 
 disgraced as the livery of foreign potentates or mercenary slaves. 
 
DEMORALIZING INFLUENCE OF DEHAGOGIS1L 
 
 li For his thoughts were low, 
 To vice industrious, but to nobler deeds 
 .Tim rous and slothful ; yet Tie pleased the ear." 
 
 MILTOX. 
 
 ONE of the most pernicious characters brought forth by the abuse 
 of free institutions is the Demagogue. His business is to obtain 
 office and honors by corrupting the people. This degradation of can 
 didates for office, acts upon the voters. The good and true men are 
 not appealed to ; the scramble is to secure the suffrages of the igno 
 rant and licentious, which are always for sale. A controlling minority 
 of the " sovereigns," in this country, acquire a love for adulation, 
 quite equal to that possessed by the rulers of the Old World, and in 
 stead of bestowing their favors with judgment and regard to the 
 good of the community, they are to be solicited by gross flattery, 
 or purchased with a given price. The true standard of merit, pri 
 vate worth, and acknowledged capacity, is lost in personal consider 
 ations ; and the Demagogue rides into office, not because he has 
 shown attention to any useful business, but because he has blown 
 his own trumpet, degraded himself among his constituency, and won 
 the character, among the thoughtless, of being the best fellow in the 
 State. The slime of his contact can be traced among the members 
 of the bar, on the bench, in the pulpit, in our legislative assemblies. 
 The Demagogue is the professed worshipper of the sovereign people. 
 He is a fawning sycophant at the foot of power, ever grovelling 
 on his knees in the dust, ready to do any act, however debased, per 
 form any service, however wrong, if he can but win the patron 
 age and smiles of his deity. Change the relations of the Demagogue 
 
 11* 
 
238 A VOICE TO AMEKICA. 
 
 from a republican to monarchical government, and lie would still bo 
 the same, rnd, true to his ruling passion, worship the fountain of 
 power. It is the Demagogue who labors to retard the improvement 
 f society, who endeavors to break down the self-imposed restraints 
 so necessary to make a good citizen ; who tells the vicious that they 
 are good the ignorant that they are wise ; who, in short, demoralizes 
 society, by always appealing to the passions instead of the reason of 
 the people, who represent the sovereign power. 
 
 The lust of office which generally seems to bo the strongest in 
 the minds of persons least capable of filling them with honor, gives 
 rise to demagogism ; and the people, occupied by the various avoca 
 tions of life, are apt, as far as the government is concerned, to al 
 low assumed (self-elected) leaders to do their thinking. The sub 
 lime privilege granted to freemen, of choosing their public servants 
 is thus trifled with, and hence arise most of the glaring evils in the 
 working of our free institutions. We often witness in members of 
 our legislative bodies, an appalling recklessness with regard to their 
 pledges made before election, and also in their private life. We 
 find at Washington, as well as in our State capitals, an infinitely 
 lower standard of morals among public men, than is demanded of 
 the same individuals in the communities in which they reside. 
 
 The regime of the Demagogue is secured through different causes, 
 all, however, subversive of the strength of our free institutions. 
 The neglect of intelligent voters to attend the polls, and a general 
 indifference to the machinery which brings candidates before tho 
 people, are perhaps among the most pernicious. Americans who 
 thus trifle with the sacred privileges of their birthright, excuse 
 themselves upon the ground, that the business of politics is distaste 
 ful, and the associations around the ballot-box and the unworthiness 
 of candidates cause them to stay at home. The consequences of 
 this criminal apathy are becoming every day more apparent in tho 
 acknowledged utter incapacity of a largo majority of our public men, 
 and in the disgraceful scenes that attend the carnivals of every legis 
 lative body. 
 
DEMORALIZING INFLUENCE OF DEMAGOGISM. 239 
 
 The chief source of demagogism, however, is the constant in 
 gress into our country of ignorant foreigners, not always destitute 
 of literary cultivation, but entirely without any practical knowledge 
 of our institutions. The Demagogues proclaim, through the pen and 
 from the stump, that our republican form of government can only 
 exist by virtue of intelligence and morality among the governed, 
 and in the next breath they tell the undisciplined and ignorant im 
 migrant, that he has the capacity and the right, from the day he 
 lands upon our shores, to sit in judgment upon the claims of our 
 candidates for office, and to participate in all the privileges enjoyed 
 by Americans, who add to their birthright and descent the disci 
 pline acquired from law-abiding habits, and a life-long practice in the 
 science of self-government. The foreigner may have democratic 
 opinions, but the American has a democratic character as well as 
 democratic opinions ; and bath these qualities are essential to make 
 a person fit to perform, intelligently, the duties of American citizen 
 ship. 
 
 The Demagogue, finding that the priest has an uncontrolled power 
 over the immigrants, seeks to secure his influence, tha-t he may ob 
 tain the support of his priestly authority at the polls. The proposi 
 tion is, " Secure me office, and I will secure you the interests of your 
 church." The effect is seen in the action of our legislative bodies, 
 who grant exclusive privileges and enormous donations to the Rom 
 ish Church, while they rudely deny the same privileges and dona 
 tions to Protestant denominations. And why ? Because no Pro 
 testant clergyman can control the votes of his parishioners. Xo 
 freeman accustomed to judge for himself will submit even to advice, 
 unasked, much less dictated to, in a matter purely political. Innu 
 merable instances might be given of the invidious special legislation 
 referred to, either accomplished or attempted. Our readers will 
 remember the struggle made by this spirit of demagogism, direct 
 ed by priestcraft, to break up the unity of the public school sys 
 tem of the State of New York, and to throw a large part of the 
 money advanced by tax-payers, and appropriated for the education 
 
240 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 of all the children of the State, into the hands of foreign ecclesiastics, 
 to be used by them for sectarian and proselyting- purposes. The 
 Romish priests obtained a few years ago, from the Common Council 
 of New York city, a grant of thirty-two lots of land without any con 
 sideration whatever ! while at the same time, a Protestant Benevolent 
 Association, for much less valuable property in the immediate vicin 
 ity, was made to pay thirty-eight thousand dollars. AVlien Bishop 
 Hughes opened his Cemetery at Xewtown, he obtained a special 
 ordinance, exempting those who used it from the necessity of ob 
 taining " permits" from the City Inspector, such as are demanded 
 from individuals of all other denominations when they bury the 
 dead. This special legislation in favor of Romish priests will bo 
 found to have taken place in almost every State. It is the substan 
 tial reward which that cunning hierarchy seek, in exchange for their 
 political influence ; and they will be able to traffic it oil at high 
 prices, as long as the people are too supine to eject the Demagogues 
 from the public service, and to find, and employ in it, only the honest 
 and capable. 
 
 But the Demagogue does not confine himself to this quiet tam 
 pering with the priests, who hold the reins over so many of the im 
 migrating population. They aspire also to win the "most sweet 
 voices" of the strangers, by appealing immediately to their vanity and 
 their passions. Our immigrant population having never felt in 
 their native land, any other relation towards the established laws, 
 than that of the oppressed to the oppressor, and having been habit 
 ually compelled to a blind, yet unwilling obedience, understand 
 therefore by liberty, only the power to set the restraints of the law 
 at defiance, and to violate its commands with impunity. Arriving 
 in the United States, they are at once seized upon by the Dema 
 gogue. He flatters them with the wildest delusions as to their value 
 in this country, and as to the motives of their coming, which lie 
 impudently perverts, even in defiance of their own knowledge. He 
 informs them, that to them the country is indebted, not only for 
 its freedom, but for its wealth. He ascribes to them and their pre- 
 
DEMORALIZING INFLUENCE OF DEMAGOGISM. 241 
 
 decessors in their westward journey, the vast internal improvements 
 of our land ; as if, forsooth, Irishmen had dug and built our thou 
 sands of miles of canals, and our tens of thousands of miles of rail 
 roads, had tunnelled our mountains, and bridged our rivers, out of 
 pure benevolence and kindness, to assist our helpless nation ! He 
 informs them that their coming here is a voluntary tribute to our 
 republican institutions ; that, instead of being accidentally related to 
 our form of government, as, according to the Demagogue, the natives 
 are, they, the immigrants, occupy the superior position of those who 
 select with great care the form of government under which they 
 choose to live. 
 
 Readily swallowing such pleasant flatteries, the gullible foreigner 
 loses all respect for the men or the institutions of his adopted coun 
 try. Every necessary prescription of the law is resented ; its power, 
 although the legitimate will of .the majority, is as odious as if ema 
 nating from his European rulers, and never having learned any self- 
 restraints, he neither can nor will make nor appreciate the sacrifices 
 which freemen are daily called upon to make for the sake of the 
 public weal. 
 
 Amongst the natives of his own country, our Demagogue does 
 not find so fertile a field for the exercise of his snaky gifts. Yet, 
 even there, as there are always many less wise than the wisest, the 
 Demagogue, although he may not be able to cram his patients with 
 such gross concoctions as he serves up to the degraded foreigner, 
 contrives to accomplish much evil by dexterously gilding the pill he 
 administers. Whatever may be the weakness of his audience, what 
 ever their error ; whether they are right or wrong, he preaches their 
 doctrine. Vox populi, vox Dei, he cries the people s voice is God a 
 voice : he demonstrates to them that they must be right, and mod 
 estly intimates that his complete conviction of that fact makes him 
 the only fit man to accomplish their will. They may safely trust in 
 him, and in his servile obedience, until there shall appear something 
 or somebody offering a higher bribe. 
 
 The American Demagogue is a shameless monster, without par- 
 
242 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 allel, without compeer. He stands alone in the infamy of his con 
 duct, solitary in the sublime prostitution of his intellect, in the utter 
 corruption of his heart. His is the double guilt of the sinner, who 
 sins against clear light. Born in a nation peculiarly founded, and 
 maintained by disinterested patriotism, he considers the love of coun 
 try only narrow-mindedness, and almost thinks it treason to be proud 
 of being born a citizen of the Republic. In a commonwealth, of 
 which integrity and disinterested public spirit are the very life, he 
 lives without principle or patriotism, whiffling about at every wind 
 of political doctrine, and outwardly bowing with supple knees to the 
 popular idol of the hour, while all the time, careless either of the 
 nation or of right, the secret devotion of all his little selfish heart is 
 expended in the idolatrous worship of his own purposes. Believing 
 nothing, he puts on by turns the semblance of belief in every thing. 
 He manufactures facts, statistics, history, philosophy, religion, to or 
 der, to suit his customers. He has passions always at command. 
 Tears or smiles are squeezed out, to suit the occasion, and the doc 
 trine of t*he day " commands his hearty support and consistent ad 
 vocacy," as did the doctrine of yesterday, and as also will the doc 
 trine of to-morrow. 
 
 At the magnetic touch of interest he flies, like a telegraphic 
 dispatch, back and forth from one end to the other of the longest 
 and most divergent lines of belief. Is a law popular ? it is pre 
 cisely what he always knew was needed. Does it become unpop 
 ular? he had always considered it oppressive, unconstitutional, 
 and unnecessary. He would sacrifice the well-being of the nation 
 for an office; the prosperity of the whole commonwealth, and his 
 own conscience into the bargain no great addition, to be sure 
 for a better salary or a fat job. He would defame his native land 
 to secure an election ; he would spit on the graves of his forefathers 
 to gain a vote. For the base support of foreign priests, the vo(;>s 
 of besotted immigrants, he will falsify history, and belie the fame of 
 a thousand heroes. To gain such an object, lie can find but one 
 American who was distinguished in our Revolutionary struggle, 
 
DEMORALIZING INFLUENCE OF DEMAGOGISM. 243 
 
 and he would name as that one, Benedict Arnold ! He would 
 announce that the brunt of that fearful strife was borne by foreign 
 ers, and that our Revolutionary battles were won for us by the 
 personal prowess of Lafayette, of Montgomery, of De Kalb. 
 
 Do our naturalized citizens murmur at any restraints upon their 
 actions, at any laws and legal prohibitions, unusual to them the 
 Demagogue seizes the occasion, and eagerly strives to ride into 
 office. He inflames the brutal rage of the mob ; he goads angry 
 men to murder and sedition ; he shrinks not from awaking all 
 the horrors of licentiousness and anarchy, from stirring up whirl 
 winds of baleful passions, if only his own dear objects may be 
 attained by the crime. It is always easier to persuade to evil 
 than to persuade to good. Poor human nature needs very little 
 impulse in the path of w T rong. Our laws and constitutions are 
 not made as iron fetters and shackles are made, to grip and chain 
 the ferocious violence of stubborn felons or murdering maniacs 
 they are made to guide the wise and congenial conduct of men 
 seeking to do right. The Demagogue takes advantage of this to 
 pervert the privilege of goodness into an occasion of crime ; to 
 the downward tendency of all the lower and viler parts of men s 
 nature ; to the exaggerated passions and blind brutality, the foolish 
 prejudices and dogged obstinacy, of all the dregs of the community, 
 of the untaught, the vicious, and the lawless ; to the fearful mo 
 mentum of this mass of dangerous and explosive elements, the Dem 
 agogue lends all the energies of his being. He throws all his 
 weight to sink the fortunes of his country ; he drags downward 
 with all his might, towards the destruction of his native land. With 
 the recklessness of the madman, but with more method in his mad 
 ness, and therefore more dangerous effect, he " casts firebrands, arrows, 
 and death." He cares not if he witness the conflao-ration of the 
 
 O 
 
 whole Republic ; for he intends to fill his own pockets by the thefts 
 which he hopes to commit with impunity during the confusion. 
 
 God has not left any evil without providing a remedy, although 
 he often leaves men to use it. The dark portrait which we have 
 
2M A VOICE TO AMEEICA. 
 
 drawn, is not that of a necessary incubus upon our body politic. 
 The Demagogue, the scourge of republics, only exists by suffer 
 ance. When the good and true men of the nation arise and 
 act, this villain is crowded off the stage. It is now as it was in 
 the homely but inspired parable of the Scriptures : " While the 
 husbandman sleeps, the enemy sows tares." It is only when the 
 right men neglect their duty, and leave their posts vacant, that 
 the Demagogue can occupy the scene of action ; can perform his 
 fantastic tricks, and concoct his unprincipled schemes ; can mar 
 shal his foolish regiments, and accomplish his vile undertakings. 
 He lives by sufferance, and although his guilt is his own, yet hon 
 est men must remember that upon them rests the responsibility of 
 permitting his sin to succeed. Upon their heads, after all, will lie 
 the fearful responsibility of having, by criminal supineness, permit 
 ted the enactment of all the wickedness which Demagogues perpe 
 trate. 
 
WHAT CONSTITUTES THE RIGHT TO VOTE? 
 
 " The preservation of the sacred fire of liberty, and the destiny of the republican model of gov 
 ernment, are justly considered as deeply, perhaps as finally, staked on the experiment intrusted to 
 the hands of the American people." WASHIXGIOX. 
 
 ALL human rights are either natural or acquired. They must 
 either reside in the individual, co-equal with his life and the varied 
 faculties of his nature, or become delegated to him by concession, by 
 compromise, or by some specific compact to which he is a legitimate 
 party. 
 
 Natural rights are absolute and inalienable : they rely on no pre 
 sumptions of an arbitrary character, but are fully prescribed and or 
 dained with the existence of man. Whether exercised or not, a man 
 cannot, by any enactment, be divested of their proper and positive 
 possession. They may be yielded to the unlawful encroachments of 
 other men, but the concession is merely temporary, and cannot be 
 considered to invalidate the individual s privilege of resuming their 
 exercise at such time as he may think proper. 
 
 All men, says the Declaration of Independence, are born free and 
 equal ; they possess certain inalienable rights, such as life, liberty, and 
 the pursuit of happiness. These are their natural endowments, and 
 by no lawful process can they be taken from them. The Bill of 
 Rights, which was adopted by the Colonial Deputies at Philadelphia, 
 previous to the Declaration, declared that the people were entitled to 
 life, liberty, and property ; and that they had never ceded to any 
 sovereign power whatever a right to dispose of either, without their 
 consent. 
 
 These inheritances, therefore, belong to us by nature. One man 
 possesses them as largely as another. Factitious circumstances can- 
 
246 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 not enlarge their limits, nor can oppression and usurpation contrac; 
 them. Wherever a human being is to be found, there these right; 
 of necessity exist. They owe nothing of their strength to conven 
 tional usages and laws, nor are they sustained in any fuller force be 
 cause they may happen to commend themselves to the approbation 
 of enlightened men. They are rooted in the individual, and canno 
 by any violence be wrested from his nature: they are among the 
 necessary conditions of his being. 
 
 Acquired rights exist by a different tenure. They hold their tiile 
 either by concession, by compromise, or by compact. Their prero u 
 ative is more nicely defined. Certain limits bound them, beyond, 
 which their progress is forbidden. They are described with accuracy , 
 and secured by due processes of legal enactment. Of such are the 
 privileges of the subject, or the citizen. The former holds his by vir 
 tue of a kingly concession or compromise ; in either case admitting th.-. 
 subject to rights and prerogatives which he does not naturally posses-. 
 The latter enjoys his by virtue of his compact with the general au 
 thority of which he is a component part. 
 
 It is only of the rights of the citizen that we propose to speak ii 
 this place all others being foreign to the subject under consideratioi 
 and not of the natural, but of the acquired, rights of the citizen. 
 
 As the human race is constituted, its entire history illustrates th< 
 imperative necessity of some method of social organization. Lei! t< 
 themselves, all things would immediately relapse into a condition o: 
 misrule and barbarism. Certain powers must be vested in certain in 
 dividuals, from whom, by a reverse process, all acts of authority arc 
 to emanate. Influences which one individual would not permit any 
 indifferent person to exercise over himself and his interest s by a eon 
 sent, either expressed or implied, he freely allows some other person 
 to exert without protest or opposition. 
 
 Hence arise forms of government that give character to the deed 
 of men, and shape the destiny of nations. Hence en^ue (!( 
 edicts, proclamation: -, and laws. These evidences of authority testifv 
 everywhere to the admitted necessity of some ruling and guidiiu- 
 
WHAT CONSTITUTES THE RIGHT TO VOTE? 247 
 
 power. They are an expression of the opinion of all men, that a con 
 trolling authority of some character is demanded by every considera 
 tion of human welfare. 
 
 There can exist but two general forms of government, let the spe 
 cific titles of the various kinds of authority be what they may. Every 
 government must be either arbitrary or constitutional. Every thing 
 that tends to usurpation, or that operates to defraud individuals of the 
 enjoyment of their natural rights, no matter in what cause or name 
 professed, belongs to absolutism and arbitrariness. Some govern- 
 .ments style themselves constitutional, whose very constitutions arc 
 arbitrary in themselves, and do not receive their vitality from any co 
 operation of the popular will. Their practices give the lie to their 
 professions, proving them what they wish to avoid seeming to be. 
 Principles strike their root much deeper than professions, and by their 
 natural fruits their true character is understood. 
 
 Constitutional or voluntary forms of government derive their au 
 thority from the immediate consent of the governed ; that is the only 
 source of their power. They are but the emphatic expression of the 
 popular will, and, as that will changes its direction, must they alter 
 the direction of their authority. 
 
 The American Government is of the strictly constitutional form. 
 No powers reside in it but those delegated by the people, who are its 
 founders. It derives no authority from usurpation, but the whole of 
 it from voluntary cession. Its existence and its strength alike depend 
 upon the spirit and intelligence of those who give it vitality and sup 
 port. Its powers are every one carefully described and defined. Its 
 prerogatives have a fixed and unalterable limit. The natural rights 
 of man are not invaded by any of its usurpations, but are retained in 
 violate by the individual, and guarded from aggression with a jealous 
 watchfulness. 
 
 Indeed, *he question is seriously agitated under this auspicious form 
 of 2, overnment How much is it profitable for a man to be gov 
 erned ? How far is it best for him to yield up his own rights in the 
 name of the welfare of the whole ? Where shall the dividing line be 
 
MS A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 drawn that is to separate the control of one s self from the control >f 
 a voluntarily constructed authority? From the discussion of such a 
 question various conclusions have, at different times, been arrived a ; 
 and, among others, that "that is the best government which governs 
 men the least." This seems almost to have become an nphorisn ; 
 and the spirit of the idea is by no means inoperative in the gener il 
 workings of our political system. 
 
 Under our government no man is a subject all men are citizens ; 
 because it is never acknowledged that the government, deriving i s 
 existence primarily from the individual, is superior in itself to its oii- 
 gin. In the nature of things, it could not be. A citizen is in i o 
 manner a subject, nor can a subject be a citizen. However specious 
 may be the reasoning that seeks to make the two characters seem 
 compatible with one another, their differences are too wide to be re !- 
 oncilable. The subject makes concessions that the citizen won 1 
 not admit. The subject lacks inherent power, not because lie h,"s 
 delegated it to another, but because he never yet was allowed its po ; - 
 session or exercise. By the citizen it has been vested in other ham s 
 for the very purpose of its more safe and careful administration; re 
 verting to him after stated intervals, to be again trusted to other d< - 
 positaries for the same general purpose of a healthful and constitu 
 tional exercise. 
 
 Citizenship, therefore, implies no ordinary privileges. Its possessi< i 
 argues from the individual directly to the government. It connect 
 the man with all the operations of the laws and the whole scope < f 
 public institutions, and associates him in close relations with whatever 
 belongs to the common welfare. It removes the many tendencies 1 > 
 selfishness and egotism in his permitted pursuits, and makes him larir. , 
 comprehensive, and generous in his conduct and views. It wide; s 
 the sphere of individual sentiment and action, so that a man may at 
 the same time be true to his own interest, and not forgetful of tl:-; 
 vast and complicated interests of the whole. 
 
 In fine, citizenship can be enjoyed only where men are free. ! i 
 any other condition, the character of the possession at once is change 1, 
 
WHAT CONSTITUTES THE RIGHT TO VOTE? 24$) 
 
 being held on terms that impliedly declare the government to be ar 
 bitrary, and the people to be subjects. It belongs only to institutions 
 that are democratic in their nature, and to states of society in which 
 men are the arbiters of their own rights and fortunes. 
 
 For the possession of such prerogatives there certainly should be some 
 rigid and absolute qualifications. To put one s self in direct relation 
 ship with the moral and social interests of a* great nation, it should be 
 insisted that there exist certain preliminary conditions. Such a rela 
 tionship should not be rashly entered upon, nor without serious thought 
 of the mutual result to both the individual and the mass. The gov 
 ernment, relying on the intelligence and understanding of each one 
 of the vast number that contribute to its character, it must be seen 
 that no single violation of the conditions of such a connection can 
 pass without its proper share of wrong to the whole. If the individ 
 ual forgets his duty as a party to the general compact, the rest are 
 defrauded of that moral and political security for which they had a 
 perfect right to hold him responsible. If he neglect the obligations 
 of his oath and pledge, the rest are so far losers by his act of repudi 
 ation. If he be a tool in the designing hands of those who intrigue 
 for the overthrow of political freedom, the entire nation is to that de 
 gree involved in the web of fear and insecurity. 
 
 The origin of all government is property ; the manner in which 
 that property is held determines its form. If the lands of a commu 
 nity have but one possessor, it is an autocracy ; if partitioned by a few, 
 an aristocracy ; if the inherent right of the whole people, this forms 
 a democracy. Res-republica, common-wealth, represent, not merely 
 the form, but the basis of government. 
 
 Man is entitled to sustenance and protection from that society in 
 which nature places him at birth. There are, however, certain causes 
 which may compel him to forsake one community for another. What 
 relation do his acquired privileges bear to the rights of the new so 
 ciety ? 
 
 A stranger can only acquire property in a foreign community by 
 permission of the owners that is, the state. But in acquiring this, 
 
250 A VOICE TO AMEKICA. 
 
 is ho necessarily entitled to all the privileges of the natives ? Becau& 
 lie has forsaken the land of his birth, is the land of his adoption com 
 pelled by any law, human or divine, to place him on a perfect equaliu 
 with her own children ? By the political constitution of the ne\v so 
 ciety he may enjoy all their privileges, but, in the nature of things 
 he has not, and never can have, such a rig] it to them as the sons o 
 the soil. That which isjpanted as a favor, can never be asserted a; 
 a right. 
 
 In a republic the power is in the hands of the whole people, for tlu 
 entire land is theirs. For convenience in legislation they appoint 11101 
 to represent their interests, hence the representative is the servant o 
 the represented. This is obvious: no man can represent the interest 
 of others unless delegated so to do ; this power conferred necessarih 
 subjects him to the will of those who bestow the office. Hence no inai 
 has a right to office, which it may be in the power of others to refuse 
 
 Representatives having to be chosen, there arises a monienfou.- 
 question What gives the right to vote? We have shown tha 
 where the right to property belongs to all, power is universal ; there 
 fore, suffrage must be universal. But we must define this, in regard 
 to men who have not a lorn-right in the country, but simply one of 
 tolerance or permission. 
 
 Government takes cognizance of the entire property of the country, 
 that is to say, the land and its products belonging to the sous of tlu 
 soil the entire community decide (by representation or otherwise) 
 in the general interest. Strangers arriving in their midst receive as ii 
 gift a certain portion of that which is the right only of the native- 
 born. Is it logical to assert that this gift carries with it the right to 
 vote, or, in other words, to legislate for those who have just grantee 
 what it was in their power to refuse ? Such an argument is mon 
 strous, yet it is one which we hear constantly asserted. 
 
 Escape from the then existing systems of European government, a.- 
 well as from its religious hierarchies, prompted our forefathers to set 
 tie what were termed the American colonies. In process of tiiiK 
 they achieved a separate nationality in regard to other countries, L, 
 
WHAT CONSTITUTES THE RIGHT TO VOTE? 251 
 
 federation of states to themselves, in which each state was independ 
 ent of the others. 
 
 " The character of our people was admirably calculated for setting 
 the great example of popular government. They were accustomed 
 to representative bodies and the forms of free government ; they un 
 derstood the doctrine of the division of power among different 
 branches, and the necessity of checks on each. The character of our 
 countrymen, moreover, was sober, moral, and religious."* 
 
 This portraiture forms an obvious opinion on claims set up by dem 
 agogues and others in favor of the so-called rights of our foreign pop 
 ulation. The entire body of emigrants to this country for many years 
 past, with but few exceptions, never exerted the slightest control over 
 any government whatsoever : are we then to be told that such men can 
 appreciate and properly wield the electoral power in a country, the 
 political constitution of which is so difficult to understand ? Besides, 
 is the* moral character of these emigrants calculated to remove any 
 fears we may entertain relative to the uses to which they will put 
 this novel power ? "We take it experience is very much inclined to a 
 negative. 
 
 There is no principle in the American Constitution which guaran 
 tees land or political power, by vote or otherwise, to foreign citizens. 
 These men do not leave Europe as did the first settlers of this conti 
 nent ; they are, in fact, dissimilar in every respect. Europe disgorges 
 a surplus population people she can best afford to lose : they arrive 
 in forma pauperis, and our authorities permit them to reside. In 
 process of time they begin to have a stake in the country, and maybe 
 lose their ancient prejudices; they are permitted to vote at elections. 
 But they have not, and never can have, the same right, either to one or 
 the other, which a native-born citizen possesses. 
 
 At various periods in our history laws relative to naturalization have 
 been passed, exacting, in some instances, but two years of residence in 
 the country. Circumstances might then have justified so short a pro 
 bation, but, at the present time, not merely has the clas? of emigrants 
 
 * Webster. 
 
LJ52 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 changed, but the country itself has been radically modified : it has, ii 
 fact, assumed a nationality that it did not formerly possess. Dem 
 agogues enunciate a monstrous proposition in asserting this republic 
 to be one of composite races. It is not. The Republic of the Uiiitet 
 States is Anglo-Saxon in all its bearings : other peoples may arrive 
 but they must be gradually absorbed, and, in process of time, becoim 
 amalgamated with, and lost among, the predominant race. Etlmolog} 
 and history both assert this fact, and the senseless opponents of it an 
 merely perpetuating the evils of caste, in pandering to the prejudice; 
 of various nationalities. It is the province and duty of the patriot t< 
 discountenance such endeavors. 
 
 The objection is frequently advanced that in thus debarring i, 
 whole class, men are kept out, whose aim in adopting American citi 
 zenship is to enjoy a political freedom, which experience tells then 
 can only be found here. But it would be scarcely possible to enu 
 merate all these exceptional instances ; suffice it to say, the legislature 
 might be permitted to admit such cases to citizenship, especially 
 where services have been rendered to the country, or additions to it:- 
 glory. This is fully consonant with the democratic principle ; but, iu 
 any case, it is much better for the country to lose the advantage of 
 such instances, than to receive with them the immense masses who are 
 fast making universal suffrage a mockery and delusion. 
 
 The hordes of emigrants who yearly crowd our shores, seek us, not 
 to obtain a voice in government, but a certainty of life, food, and per 
 sonal freedom, which they never before enjoyed. If, like the adder 
 warmed into life by the peasant, they get prosperous, and turn upon 
 their benefactor ; or, listening to the voice of vile demagogues and 
 designing politicians, they raise tumult and civil discord in the land, 
 then surely native-born citizens have a natural and a constitutional 
 right to curb such disorder, and to legislate so as, in future, to pre 
 vent any doubt as to whether an American have a nationality or not. 
 
 In America, no man becomes a citizen through the influence of 
 either money or titles. It was a wise act of our forefathers, when 
 they abolished titles, except such only as might be the expression ot 
 
WHAT CONSTITUTES THE RIGHT TO VOTE? 253 
 
 simple respect ; and it has conduced more effectually to the complete 
 political equality of all classes of citizens than many measures about 
 which vastly more has been said. It taught the people the truth, 
 that there was in America nothing greater than citizenship itself; and 
 weaned them rapidly from the foolish inclination, that is no part of a 
 high and self-reliant manhood, to bestow honor upon the emptiest of 
 human pretensions. 
 
 Citizenship, if it involves the serious responsibilities that exist along 
 with its possession, presumes or, at least, should presume certain 
 fixed qualifications. If the elector be ignorant of those responsibili 
 ties, assuredly he cannot be supposed to assume them; and if he fails 
 to assume them, it is proper that he be refused the use of the elec 
 toral franchise until such time as his ignorance has yielded to a more 
 profound understanding of his obligations. Nothing can be plainer 
 than this. And yet there are Americans, who should know better 
 what is the priceless worth of our institutions, who seek to throw 
 open every means of access to a privilege that should be guarded 
 with so watchful a care, and affect indifference to qualifications of 
 such momentous importance, men seemingly careless of the true 
 character of the liberty which we profess, and ignorant of the certain 
 consequences of licentiousness and misrule that are to follow close 
 upon any laxity of electoral obligations. Such men need to study 
 more thoughtfully the meaning of our government, and the true 
 spirit and character of its institutions. 
 
 Any native-born citizen, on attaining the age of twenty-one years, 
 and having taken the oath of allegiance to the Constitution and fidel 
 ity to the laws, is admitted to all the privileges of the electoral fran 
 chise. He has the right to vote on all questions affecting the common 
 interest, and by the deposit of his ballot throws his individual influ 
 ence into the scale of political affairs. He is licensed to assist in the 
 regulation of the highest and the lowest interests that pertain to the 
 welfare of the nation. He may make the power of his influence felt 
 throughout all the affairs of state. Law and order are intrusted to 
 his hands for preservation. The general intelligence will either 
 
 12 
 
254: A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 advance or retrograde, according to the power of his vote and exam 
 ple. The public peace and prosperity depend upon the manner in 
 which his privilege as an elector is exercised. The national character 
 is elevated or depressed, as his own character is made to impress itself 
 upon its existence. 
 
 Gaining so exalted a right on such easy terms, unless some steps 
 be taken to secure the elector s intelligent appreciation of his privi 
 leges and responsibilities, his individual gain must, of necessity be the 
 country s loss. An ignorant and degraded citizen can be only a bad 
 citizen ; and a bad citizen, assuredly, is worse than none. We had 
 better all remain peaceful subjects, than become irresponsible and 
 licentious citizens. 
 
 What, then, should those qualifications be for possessing and enjoy 
 ing the electoral privilege ? This is the important question that so 
 immediately concerns all the free citizens of America. It presents 
 itself to us at this day, demanding a thoughtful but speedy answer. 
 That there should be certain fundamental qualifications, of a general 
 and disciplinary nature, attached to the privilege of voting, we do not 
 see how any intelligent American can doubt. The more extended the 
 responsibilities, the greater should be the precautions to make them 
 appreciated and understood. The more valuable the character of the 
 possession, the more positive the need of its being impressed on the 
 mind of every one who is admitted to it as a participator. 
 
 In the first place, it seems necessary to insist on some degree of 
 familiarity with the principles and working of our constitutional form 
 of government. The native-born citizen acquires this in the course 
 of his education from his youth up. Even if not much given to 
 reflection, and to the habit of tracing results back to their original 
 causes, he nevertheless is placed and kept within the circle of those 
 ever-recurring events which mark the movements of our political sys 
 tem ; and even imperceptibly, and unconsciously to himself, he is 
 taught by them lessons of the highest importance to the better un 
 derstanding of the institutions that surround him. The very atmo 
 sphere that he breathes is conducive to his progress in the right 
 
WHAT CONSTITUTES THE RIGHT TO VOTE? 255 
 
 direction. All his associations are pregnant with the instruction of 
 which he has so much need. 
 
 The alien knows nothing of these things. What acquaintance he 
 obtains with the principles of constitutional freedom, must be had 
 only through the instrumentality of his own studious and persistent 
 efforts. Nothing comes to him by mere force of education, or 
 through the facile medium of early associations. In a strange land, 
 he is himself an utter stranger. He may understand that here his 
 physical condition is susceptible of the largest possible improvement, 
 and yet he may remain in the grossest ignorance of the vital truths 
 and principles by whose agency alone that improvement is so firmly 
 secured. Such strange things present themselves to our observation 
 daily. 
 
 Unless the elector has a clear apprehension as well of the character 
 as of the workings of the institutions under which he lives, it can 
 hardly be supposed of him that he is truly capable of exercising the 
 electoral franchise. The possession of that privilege should of neces 
 sity presuppose a certain degree of intelligent capacity both to employ 
 and enjoy it. Unless that capacity is present, there remains so much 
 more of ignorance to be overcome by the superior intelligence of the 
 rest, and they are losers to the extent of that ignorance over the popu 
 lar mind. 
 
 In the second place, no man should be an elector, possessing its 
 various powers and privileges, who has not already asserted and 
 proven his decided preference for free institutions over all others, and 
 is not willing to live perpetually under the active operation of the 
 principles in which they are rooted. It may be replied, we admit, 
 that the elector s oath, taken at the time of becoming a participator 
 in the privilege of the electoral franchise, is prima facie evidence of 
 such a preference and willingness ; yet, as the details of our political 
 affairs ha ve from time to time exhibited themselves on the surface, it 
 is by no means so well established, that behind that solemn assevera 
 tion there luiks NO DANGEROUS RESERVATION. We have had abundant 
 proof in our own day, that the oath of the freeman is too often for- 
 
256 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 gotten, vitiated by the force of secret compacts, nay, scouted, 
 denied, and derided, by men to whom in safety its administration 
 should have been refused. We have had not a few most melancholy 
 reminders of the insecurity that attends the too free and unguarded 
 gift of its power, to those who had no proper estimate of its use or 
 value. These warnings appeal directly to the cause of liberty and a 
 free government, and have no connection with considerations of mere 
 personal safety or personal prejudice. 
 
 It seems to be the most natural and reasonable of all demands 
 conceivable, that he who is about to have a part in the operations of 
 government, should in his heart be firmly attached to that govern 
 ment. Less than this condition, is an abrogation of all conditions. 
 If a man be ready to bind himself, it is presumable that his attach 
 ment is beyond question for the object with which he desires to make 
 the engagement. And to attach one s self to a cause, instead of a 
 mere interest, a cause the most holy and lofty of all that absorb 
 the thoughts or exercise the emotions of the human race, because it is 
 co-ordinate and co-equal with the great truths of Christianity itself, 
 is properly indicative of enthusiasm. It is an open confession that 
 the generous impulses outrun the slower movements of calculative 
 reflection, and that the man has grown energetic in behalf of that 
 cause, rather through the quickening warmth of his irresistible con 
 victions, than through the calmer and steadier influence of reasonings 
 which he cannot put aside. 
 
 In the next place, all voters should possess at least a fair share of 
 general intelligence enough, certainly, to enable them to distinguish 
 the difference between the American and other forms of government, 
 and to know the uses and meaning of law, the general rights of indi 
 viduals, the sacredness of life and property, and the ordinary object 
 and scope of free institutions. Such men are not naturally to be 
 looked for among the masses of those who are not yet able to read 
 and write, nor do they abound in quarters where the controlling in 
 fluences are anti-American, Jesuitical, and dangerous to liberty. The 
 very object of freedom, we know, is to elevate the character of the 
 
WHAT CONSTITUTES THE RIGHT TO VOTE* 257 
 
 masses ; yet the necessity is absolute that there should be some de 
 gree of elevation with which to begin the experiment. 
 
 If it be admitted that intelligence and ignorance alike are to be in 
 corporated into the system of our institutions, it requires no prophet s 
 eye to see that those institutions must, in a fearfully brief space of 
 time, become changed in their character. They are capable of ele 
 vating men from the degradations of ignorance, if allowed the influ 
 ence that was inherent in them at their establishment ; but, in an 
 altered condition, they may become the most powerful engines of 
 licentiousness and misrule, by which ignorant and vicious men permit 
 themselves to be moved. 
 
 A certain standard of general intelligence ought to be demanded by 
 the popular voice for those who aspire to the privileges and power of 
 electorship. The danger of laxity here is plain to the most superficial 
 observer. It is only tearing away the ordinary safeguards of freedom, 
 opening a road for the aggressions of depravity, paying premiums for 
 the perpetual presence of anxiety and fear, and suffering the general 
 interests and welfare to relapse into the unfathomable depths of deg 
 radation. There can be no laxity, with safety, in a state of actual 
 freedom. Vigilance is the corner-stone of the whole fabric. 
 
 And, lastly, the participator in a free government, like that of Amer 
 ica, ought to have some definite understanding of the true aims, and 
 the extended influence of the system under which he lives. It is in 
 cumbent on him, as a valuable citizen, that he know, not simply the 
 theory of that system, but something, also, of its lofty purposes, its 
 far-reaching influences, and its marvellous power in the great work 
 of regenerating and exalting the human race. If, in such a knowl 
 edge as this he has no deficiency, he is secretly conscious that he has 
 risen by progressive steps, from being a mere observer of disconnected 
 facts, to the higher conditions of a true philosopher. 
 
 A familiar understanding of these purposes is what every American 
 should possess. He ought to know that a free government exists for 
 some other end than simply what is to be found centering in itself; 
 that its proper aims can never be selfish, and never limit themselves 
 
258 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 to the elevation of a few over the many ; that it iias for its scope the 
 welfare of every citizen, however degraded and however humble, with 
 in its territorial boundaries ; that its object is purely the elevation of 
 the masses, who, in turn, must reflect their character and its varied 
 influences upon its name and institutions ; that the perpetuation of 
 truth, and not of falsehood, is the natural result of its manifold op 
 erations; and that its works will not cease from their living and 
 spreading influence, till that influence shall have made the peaceful 
 circuit of the world. 
 
 These are grand objects to attain, and must excite both the admira 
 tion and enthusiasm of all who possess the capacity to comprehend 
 them. And if they belong, of such a plain necessity, to the govern 
 ment that has true freedom for its permanent foundation, what a 
 weighty responsibility attaches to every individual who is permitted 
 a share in the transactions of that government ! How earnest ought 
 all to appear in hastening forward purposes which are fraught with 
 such beatific consequences to the whole human race ! What a neces 
 sity rests on all citizens alike, to see that these grand aims are not 
 perverted by either the ignorance or wilfulness of any, who seek to 
 be admitted to the same free privileges with themselves! 
 
 That the true worth of the electoral franchise too often suffers from 
 degrading uses, it is impossible to deny. Proof of it is offered us on 
 every side. It is bestowed where it should have been withheld : it 
 courts the acceptance of the incompetent, instead of demanding that 
 they first qualify themselves for being invested with its inestimable 
 gifts: it is losing its character for dignity, by being literally thrust 
 upon men in no wise fitted for the performance of any of its func 
 tions. 
 
 The high characteristics of citizenship must manifestly relax their 
 claims to general respect, when ignorant foreign immigrants are 
 made voters before they can so much as understand their relations to 
 the laws or to the people at large. AVe are undeniably going back 
 wards, when we admit men to be electors, who cannot distinguish be 
 tween a blind and sullen obedience to statutes, and an active and 
 
WHAT CONSTITUTES THE RIGHT TO VOTE* 259 
 
 intelligent co-operation with the principles on which proper restrictive 
 enactments are founded. -It is a dangerous policy to make voters of 
 men who think that freedom from European servility should be 
 marked by an irresponsible delirium of license here. It degrades the 
 general standard to which the condition of electorship should aspire 
 to hold itself fixed. Such men grow suddenly exhilarated in the free 
 atmosphere into which they have come, and contract exaggerated 
 ideas of liberty, that are never borne out by the reality of their sub 
 sequent experience. Demagogues flatter these naturalized voters, 
 and they are delighted ; if, afterwards, honest men should tell them 
 the truth, they could neither endure them, nor the institutions in whose 
 name they profess to speak. 
 
 In itself considered, and setting aside these multiplied abuses to 
 which so priceless a gift as the electoral franchise is subjected, Amer 
 ican Citizenship is invested with a dignity that transcends in intrinsic 
 importance, any and all the titles that foreign courts have it in their 
 power to bestow ; there is, in reality, no condition that may success 
 fully claim to be its equal. 
 
 From the citizen, in his individual character, emanate influences 
 that reach alike the government and the world. By his power, is 
 circumscribed the welfare of associated masses and multitudes. He 
 feels the glory and the shame of his country, for that country has the 
 sources of its existence in him ; he stands the immediate representative 
 of the government acd the citizen, and happily illustrates the nicely 
 adjusted relationship of each to the other. 
 
 By the very name Citizen is fairly implied both honor and hon 
 esty, purity and morality. He should fear only what is wronsf, and 
 aspire to nothing but what is right. He must be impressed with the 
 number and magnitude of his responsibilities, feeling the weight of 
 the trusts he has received, both from his country and from God. He 
 cannot fail to see that his own free system of government, that de 
 grades none, but seeks to exalt all alike, is the light and illumination 
 of the world ; that it most truly represents the cause of freedom and 
 equal rights ; that it abnegates selfishness, and has within the reach 
 
260 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 of its influence the welfare of the entire human race. He must be 
 deeply impressed with the greatness of his mission, knowing it to be the 
 mission of the government in which he is an active participant. His 
 reflections can be in no manner allied to levity, for they must tell him 
 perpetually of a work, whose mighty results are to be carried steadily 
 forward to the end of coming time. 
 
FALLACY OF SUPPOSING THAT AMERICAN INSTITU 
 TIONS NEED NO SAFEGUARDS. 
 
 Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty." 
 
 IT appears to be an almost universal truth, that those -who are in 
 possession of the full desire of their hearts, betray extreme careless 
 ness in securing for that possession an adequate protection. A severe 
 experience seems needed to discipline men into habits of prudence, 
 self-control, and precautionary foresight. Any advantage, if not ac 
 quired by personal sacrifice, generally fails to carry with it those im 
 pressive lessons of discreetness which are the surest securities against 
 either its invasion or decay. 
 
 Americans of the present generation have been peculiarly liberal in 
 relation to their political privileges. Holding them in a measure 
 cheap, because so easily attained, they have hitherto failed to see the 
 need of dispensing them to others with a prudent hand, or of hedging 
 them about with such restrictions as would place them out of reach 
 of questionable influences. Liberty has a tendency to make men s 
 heart s large and generous, and to give the utmost latitude to thought. 
 With a practical knowledge of the manifold blessings of freedom in 
 grained in their very natures, it is hardly possible for them to desire 
 less ample endowments for those whom they find deprived of them 
 altogether. 
 
 The actual aim of our free institutions is universal brotherhood. 
 Whether acknowledged or not as the purpose of our political organi 
 zation, this, nevertheless, is the vital spirit that imparts all power and 
 energy. And yet it is not to be argued as a consequent of this 
 
 12* 
 
262 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 truth, that so grand an attainment will be readied any the sooner, or 
 that its blessings will be secured in any greater degree, by laxity in 
 the Ciue of these institutions, and a mistaken generosity in extending 
 the power of directing their operation. By indifference of this sort, 
 their character must suffer degradation; and when that result is 
 reached, the true end of their existence is perverted, if not entirely 
 destroyed. Free gifts are assuredly evidences of large possessions ; 
 and multiplied acts of generosity are proofs of deep sympathy with 
 those who arc so unfortunate as to be destitute. But there are 
 always limits to such deeds, beyond which they cease to be bene 
 ficial, and become means of injury or mischief. 
 
 If absolutism feels the necessity of protecting itself against the 
 inroads of men who deny the lawfulness of its claims, how much 
 more sensibly must that necessity be felt by the friends and supporters 
 of constitutional freedom. The former fears conspiracies, machina 
 tions, and the outbursts of rebellion. The latter have to guard con 
 tinually against indifference to privileges, an indifference which 
 soon is followed by licentiousness and riot, eventually leading to a 
 tyranny far more fearful than that of any one-man power. Libeity 
 is apt to be careless, from its very inclination to generosity. Unspar 
 ing in favors to all, it dreams not of ingratitude from its recipients. 
 Tiie law seems to be entirely in its own favor, removing all thoso 
 sources of anxiety in which absolutism is so prolific; and yet other 
 causes of fear are known to spring up plentifully under a certain 
 complication of circumstances, which nothing but the utmost pru 
 dence and firmness can hope to remove. 
 
 There is nothing that Americans should guard wii.li so watchful an 
 eye as their country s liberty. They cannot be too jealous in its erne. 
 They cannot hope to enjoy freedom and slothful ness together. Lib 
 erty has its own unchangeable price, which is vigilance unceasing. 
 It is good to dilate on the blessings of freedom, but the reflections 
 are idle and the words are empty harangues, when freedom has no 
 sentinels on its farthest outposts, and careless defenders in its citadel. 
 If they who hold priceless possessions are indifferent to their preser- 
 
NECESSITY OF INSTITUTIONAL SAFEGUARDS. 263 
 
 ration, where shall men be found to volunteer protection for that upon 
 which they set, as yet, no value ? If the free are not watchful, how 
 can we hope to find a guardian for liberty among the oppressed ? 
 
 None ought to be so capable of understanding what freedom is 
 worth, as those to whom its riches have fallen by inheritance. A 
 proper estimate of its value is not to be expected from others. To 
 them it is still an unreal speculation a dim and far-off vision. They 
 have heard, perhaps, of its reality, and come to settle their calm con 
 victions upon its truth. Still, it is practically unknown to them, and 
 from it they have never been able to derive any personal advantage. 
 But Americans have no excuse to plead for their ignorance. Under 
 the protection of free and constitutional laws they are secured in the 
 possession of both life and liberty. Themselves the original power 
 in the State, they impart character and direction to all the operations 
 of government. Holding certain inalienable rights, they are free to 
 attain happiness after their own desires. All pursuits, of a proper 
 character, lie wide open to their ambition in every direction ; and 
 they may boast that theirs is the noblest country and the freest 
 nation on the face of the earth. 
 
 There are, therefore, no reasons why such large privileges should 
 ever suffer from diminution. If they unfortunately do, the fault lies 
 at the door of those who should have been their most ardent cham 
 pions. They must rehearse their misfortunes to none but their own 
 ears, and brood in silence over the loss that might have been turned 
 to their immeasurable gain. 
 
 Facts are imposing authorities in the disposition of theories and 
 suppositions. Nothing is better calculated to open the efes of the 
 blind, or to unstop the ears of the deaf, than these most stubborn and 
 irresistible things. Upon them, all reasoning is based ; and from 
 them logical conclusions are unerringly deduced. From them alone 
 we are able to understand the real position, both of our free institutions 
 and the dangers by which these are surrounded. They will tell us the 
 plainest truths of our national welfare, and enable us, better than all 
 else, to comprehend the chart by which our national course is guided. 
 
264: A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 In dealing with this subject, \ve do not propose to enter very 
 deeply into statistics, yet it may be well to illustrate the points to 
 which we wish to call general attention. We desire to establish 
 three distinct statements ; and from their tenor may be inferred the 
 particular dangers to which our free institutions are at this day most 
 threateningly exposed : 
 
 I. The foreign voters, who are proved to be ignorant and in every 
 way incompetent, are admitted to the enjoyment of the electoral 
 franchise. 
 
 We, who never knew what a blind and ^passive obedience to law 
 is, can form no adequate idea of the recklessness and delirium which 
 seize hold of so many foreign immigrants the moment they put foot 
 upon our shores. We admit that some of them are men of intel 
 lectual culture, while it will not be denied that too many are persons 
 of the most degraded character, and destitute even of the most meager 
 attainments. The ignorance, however, from which Americans experi 
 ence the greatest cause for distrust, is that which relates to the nature 
 and spirit of republican institutions. These they do not seem either 
 able or inclined to comprehend. They scout all ideas of obedience, 
 because they claim that here they are free. Liberty and lawlessness 
 are with them one and the same thing. Hitherto, they have never 
 borne any intelligent relation to the existence or ^execution of law, 
 but have occupied the places of unreflecting persons, accustomed, in 
 passive silence, to bear the burdens with which tlaey were weighed 
 down. Coming to a country like America, and hearing the most 
 exaggerated and extravagant stories of its ample freedom for all men, 
 without a thought of their responsibility to the nation sustaining the 
 fabric of this glorious freedom, they conclude that here the field of 
 license lies open, and that any sort of restraint is powerless and ille 
 gal against unbounded indulgence. 
 
 Heretofore, all their feelings have been marshalled against govern 
 ment ; for it was established upon their oppression, and never exercised 
 its functions for their interests or welfare. They have lost that high 
 and self-reliant sense of manhood, under its operation, which gives to 
 
NECESSITY OF INSTITUTIONAL SAFEGUARDS. 265 
 
 men the clearest ideas of true freedom, and enables them to under 
 stand their relation to freedom. The result naturally follows, that 
 these same feelings of antagonism to government and law are brought 
 with them to the land which they have chosen, as their future home. 
 They breathe the same spirit of hostility as before, to whatever has a 
 tendency to impose upon their careless action a healthy restraint. 
 Not comprehending the meaning of self-government, they know 
 nothing of the spirit of conservatism by which our free system is 
 upheld, and are ready to enter with recklessness upon any changes 
 Svhich demagogues hold out as beneficial. 
 
 Lacking religious sentiment of any description, they become the 
 easiest dupes, as they are the most dangerous fanatics. They are ever 
 ready for change, nay, for revolution, rather than continue in peaceful 
 quiet, obedient to law, and evenly pursuing their own highest inter 
 ests. As are their sympathies in the lands of their birth, so are they 
 here : as are their hatreds there, so do they betray themselves here. 
 All ideas of law are confounded with mere physical force, and they 
 have no definite conception whatever of the true aim of legal enact 
 ments. 
 
 Such are the people flocking to our shores by tens of thousands, 
 and admitted, even welcomed, to the privileges of citizenship. The. 
 direct tendency of such an addition to our roll of voters, is the unmis 
 takable degradation of the electoral franchise. Such gross ignorance 
 could produce no other result. We have a large proportion of .such 
 voters in the country, answerable for the operation of our political in 
 stitutions, and directly concerned in the character of their influence, 
 both at home and abroad. 
 
 In 1832, at the time of the Presidential election, there were sup 
 posed to be fifteen thousand foreign voters in America ; in 1840, they 
 were computed at fifty-four thousand, comprising one forty- sixth of 
 the whole number of electors; while in 1852, the foreign vote was 
 known with accuracy to be one hundred and eighty-eight thousand, 
 or had risen to one-seventeenth of the electoral body. In other words, 
 the foreign vote had nearly multiplied itself by twelve, since 1840, 
 
266 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 while the aggregate vote of the country has not multiplied itself by 
 three! The moral lies in the figures. 
 
 & 
 
 During the past five years, it is calculated there has been a steady 
 immigration at the rate of three hundred thousand persons a year, or 
 about one thousand per day ! Out of each thousand, it is safe to con 
 sider at least one hundred and fifty to be voters. The great mass of 
 these men is composed of all the ignorance, poverty, lawlessness, and 
 general degradation, that could be induced to emigrate to America. 
 They come to the ballot-boxes side by side with those who have been 
 bred from their youth to a perfect familiarity with and respect for free 
 institutions, and are too often found ready to become the servile tools 
 of demagogues, even more reckless and unprincipled than themselves. 
 These are the men we permit to help fashion our laws, give tone 
 to general society, infuse energy into the spirit of our political organ 
 izations, and protect us and all our dearest interests from destruction 
 or decay. With no knowledge of our Constitution, they never inter 
 est themselves to understand its meaning. They do not comprehend 
 what is the scope of law, nor are they conscious of the existence of 
 any check or responsibility that may hold them to its observance. 
 
 It is time this threatening danger be averted. The evil increases 
 by continuance, and daily becomes more and more difficult of rem 
 edy. Unless efficient and timely safeguards are interposed by the 
 vigilant watchmen of freedom, it will have acquired an imposing mag 
 nitude, capable of overawing the most energetic efforts for its subju 
 gation. 
 
 II. Our institutions are alarmingly menaced, by the aggressions of 
 the Romish priesthood. 
 
 We are well aware that much has been said on this subject ; but will) 
 the practices and professions of that priesthood before our eyes, we in 
 sist that it is impossible to warn the people of America too frequently 
 against the arts by which their liberties arc sought to be subverted. 
 It is not for Americans to raise the rallying cry of persecution. Every 
 religious body should be left free to the enjoyment of its own worship, 
 and the publication of its own creeds. Uncharitableness belongs not 
 
NECESSITY OF INSTITUTIONAL SAFEGUARDS. 267 
 
 to the spirit of our system. Interference with the convictions of con 
 science, is sternly forbidden by the whole history and tenor of our 
 political customs. 
 
 But when religion forgets the holy cause of its mission, and, in the 
 name of designing men, is inoculated with selfishness and ambition, 
 and a spirit of arbitrariness in direct conflict with freedom, both of 
 conduct and conscience when it lays off the nnsoiled robes of peace 
 in which it has been clad, and girds on the sword in order to wage 
 worldly conflicts it seems then as if, with its own pure character, it 
 had divested itself of its former claims to our reverence, and entered 
 the field wkh all the greedy desires, deceits, artifices, and hot passions, 
 that disfigure the character of man. 
 
 If the devotees of the religk>n of Christ once give over the single 
 ness of their calling for the sake of compassing ends which are purely 
 ambitious and worldly, they deserve to be met with the prompt re 
 buke that such conduct so richly merits. No reproofs can be too 
 severe for their hypocritical practices. No opposition can be too un 
 bending for their attempted usurpations. They are to be checked at 
 the outset in -a career that promises nothing but danger to the free 
 government that affords them its indulgent protection. 
 
 That there are truly and devotedly pious members of the Romish 
 priesthood in America, we shall not take it upon ourselves to deny ; 
 still their zeal burns only for the Church, whose faithful servants they 
 are, while the tenets and practices of that Church are undeviatingly 
 hostile to freedom. These facts are well supported. The professions 
 of the temporal head of that Church are openly at war with free in 
 stitutions. His words are swift witnesses of his hostility to any polit 
 ical system that secures liberty of conscience to the worshipper. He 
 insists that the Church, and the Romish Church alone, is the source 
 of all temporal as well as spiritual authority, and that to its tyranni 
 cal behests and decrees the State should bow in silent submission. In 
 America, the people form the State ; and hence the people must be 
 brought beneath a yoke that takes away every thing like individual 
 freedom, and offers in return nothing but the most degrading servility. 
 
268 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 On such conditions, no free State could ever hope to stand. Its 
 history would pass out of the light, into a darkness that "would en 
 shroud it from the eyes of the world, forever. The rock on which it 
 stranded would always be marked, but, in the wide waste of the 
 seas , no fragments of the noble structure would afterwards be found. 
 It would be ingulfed in a vast whirlpool, that never gives back to 
 the eye any tokens of the ruins with which its voracious appetite is 
 gorged. 
 
 It would be easy to extend beyond the limits of our work, exam 
 ples of this hostility of the Romish Church to liberty; volumes oi 
 confessions might be collected from the lips and pens of both priests 
 and press, all going to establish beyond question their undying hatred 
 to the freedom of the individual. The great writer and defender oi 
 Romish doctrines in this country, in his Review, frankly confesses a i - 
 follows : 
 
 " I never think of publishing any thing in regard to the Church, 
 without submitting my articles to the Bishop for inspection, approval, 
 and endorsement." And after this important admission, he declares 
 (with the Bishop s authority, of course,) that "Protestantism of every 
 form has not, and never can have, any rights where Catholicity is tri 
 umphant."* 
 
 Daniel O Connell, in one of his speeches in parliament, gives like 
 testimony : " I declare my most unequivocal submission to the head 
 of the Church, and to the hierarchy in its different orders. If the 
 Bishops make a declaration on this bill, I never would be heard speak 
 ing against it, but would submit at once, unequivocally, to that deci 
 sion. They have only to decide, and they also close my mouth ; they 
 have only to determine, and I obey. I wish it to be understood that 
 such is the duty of the Catholics"^ 
 
 * Brownson s Review. 
 
 t Spotskniskay, recently a Eomisli priest, officiating in. Paterson, was de 
 nounced as a heretic, and excommunicated by Bishop Hughes, of New York 
 city, because he went to hear a Protestant minister lecture on Popery, a thing 
 the priest declares he could do in Poland without censure, "but could not do 
 it in this land of liberty without expulsion from his Church." 
 
NECESSITY OF INSTITUTIONAL SAFEGUARDS. 269 
 
 By this kind of evidence of the proscription of all kinds of indi 
 vidual liberty in the individual, the spirit of animosity to American 
 institutions, that directs the action of Romish priests, is laid open to 
 public inspection. It is bitter and deadly in its operation, to the last 
 conceivable limit. It affects to be quiet, when quiet is for its interest, 
 yet never hesitates to trample ruthlessly on all law, and all liberty, 
 when its increased power permits it so to do w r ith impunity. By a 
 process of astonishing accretion, it builds up a power within the State, 
 the ostensible purposes of which are to overshadow every combina 
 tion of opposing influence, and to subvert and defy all the forces of 
 the civil government. It demands of its votaries a pledge totally 
 vitiating their solemn oaths as freemen, and offers their united politi 
 cal influence to that party which shall show itself most supple to its 
 insinuating address. 
 
 Against such a power there is great need that Americans should 
 secure proper protection. Whether it seek to effect its objects by 
 fraud or force, by stratagem or violence, it should be resisted in sea 
 son, and resisted energetically to the^end. The existence of such a 
 power, aiming to reach political advantage under the professions of 
 devotion to religion, is both alarming in its tendencies, and incompat 
 ible with the spirit and character of free institutions. 
 
 III. "We stand in great danger of losing our liberties, from a growing 
 indifference to the exercise of our own rights as voters at the polls. 
 
 In itself considered, this point is not strictly to be regarded as of 
 an aggressive nature ; but when viewed in connection with the other 
 two, it assumes a magnitude and importance calculated to arrest the 
 attention of the most careless and unreflecting. It implies a state of 
 things within, in perfect co-operation with the dangerous designs from 
 without ; a previous preparation, that promises more certain success 
 to the destructive plans by which republican liberty is besieged. 
 
 It is not necessary to our present purpose, to speculate on the 
 causes of such supreme indifference, on the part of freemen, to the 
 safety of their high privileges ; enough that a truth so melancholy is 
 forced on our attention. The fact is palpably plain. The results 
 
270 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 betray themselves on all sides in an inferior grade of public func 
 tionaries ; in the impudent presumptions of demagogism ; in the 
 greater abundance of examples of intrigue ; and in the general dete 
 rioration of that healthy influence which properly belongs to a nation 
 of intelligent freemen. 
 
 Many of the best men of America refuse to go to the polls, while 
 the worst never fail to avail themselves of their privilege. It is im 
 possible that this should long remain so, without a gradual change, 
 for the worse, in the character of our government. What is most 
 needed at the polls, is the constant expression of the opinion and will 
 of the discreet and temperate portion of the community. It is only 
 upon the sentiments of the more intelligent and sober citizens, that a 
 republic like ours can hope to build a reputation for extended useful 
 ness; or a renown that will bear its name, like a blessing, to every 
 quarter of the habitable globe. Their common country has a right 
 to demand their most zealous services in her behalf. She appeals to 
 them in the name of that ample protection which her laws afford ; 
 she warns them by considerations of fear, of comfort, of happiness, 
 and of obedience to their sincerest convictions of duty. If they give 
 over their efforts on her behalf, what will all other efforts be worth ? 
 If they are careless of the safety of her noble institutions, to whom 
 can she look with the hope of ever finding for them either advocates 
 or defenders ? 
 
 We do not claim that the complete vote of our more intelligent 
 citizens would be capable of paralyzing the force of that ignorance 
 which has of late years been making such astounding progress at the 
 ballot-box. We would not venture, as yet, to hope as much ; but the 
 influence of that vote would give an impulse to the cause of enlight 
 ened freedom, such as has not been felt since the days of the heroic 
 founders of the Republic. It would awaken loftier resolves in tho 
 breasts of many who now but help to confirm the secret decrees of 
 demagogism. It would inspire the masses with more noble senti 
 ments respecting liberty, with the wand of whose living spirit they 
 have hardly yet been touched. It would shake off drowsiness and 
 
NECESSITY OF INSTITUTIONAL SAFEGUARDS. 271 
 
 indifference to matters of the highest concern. It would put the 
 plotting enemies of freedom to rout, and her guilty and silent betray 
 ers to shame. It would work a mighty miracle of renovation in all 
 branches of government in its character, in its policy, in its influ 
 ence, and in its world-wide reputation. 
 
 Unless the better class of citizens do step forward with alacrity, to 
 preserve our institutions from the fearful evils to which their supine- 
 ness may expose them, there "can remain but little hope for us in the 
 future as a nation of intelligent freemen. Unless they interest them 
 selves individually in all the elections, from those of the highest 
 importance down .to those of the lowest, it may not be long before 
 their interference may come very sadly too late. They should see 
 for themselves, what are the fearful penalties of supineness in the 
 ,cause of their own liberties. They should understand what a crime 
 they are guilty of, when, in disgust with the low party tactics of the 
 day, they relinquish their right to trample the obnoxious system 
 under foot. They must be made to feel that safety was never yet 
 known to be found in inaction ; that it is intelligence and virtue alone 
 that can preserve the State ; that the ballot-box so powerful both 
 for good and for harm carries within itself the most effectual rem 
 edy for all evils ; and that if they cease to wage perpetual warfare 
 against tyranny, ignorance, and usurpation, there will remain to them 
 but a share in that general misfortune, of which they have been the 
 equally guilty authors, and in which they must abide as silent and 
 uncomplaining sufferers. 
 
 It behooves the American people to make seasonable provision 
 against their external dangers and internal fears. Every human 
 heart beating quick at the name of Freedom, calls on us to guard 
 with sleepless vigilance the high trust that is committed to our 
 hands. Untold generations, in the far-off future, implore us to relax 
 no effort, and to forego no exertion, in order to secure its priceless 
 blessings to the people of all coming time. 
 
THE NATURALIZATION LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 " Then the chief captain came and said unto him, Tell me, art thou a Roman ? He said, Yea. 
 And the chief captain answered, With a great sum obtained I this freedom ; and Paul said, BUT I 
 
 WAS FREE BORN. "Si. PAUL. 
 
 IT is clearly necessary, in order to the preservation of the laws and 
 institutions of every country, that its own citizens, who love and obey 
 those laws, should reserve to theraselres the exclusive power of modify 
 ing them. If, however, they choose, they may of course admit to the 
 participation in that privilege, any persons born and educated in for 
 eign lands. The obvious condition of such admission is the possession 
 of such qualifications for citizenship as are required of the natives ; 
 namely, a good moral character, a certain amount of habituation 
 to the laws of the land, and such a love and respect for those laws as 
 will make the new-comer a citizen not in form only, but in heart and 
 soul ; not merely a receiver of favors from the country of his adop 
 tion, but a true and faithful adopted son. 
 
 In monarchies, where the mass of the people have no influence upon 
 the conduct of the home or foreign affairs of the nation, there is often 
 no mode of admitting aliens to full citizenship ; and wherever there is 
 such a mode, it is tedious and formal. Even in England, the freest 
 of European governments, an alien can only be naturalized by a 
 special act of Parliament in his favor. 
 
 The United States of America, on the contrary, as if with a benev 
 olent, generous trust in the good-will of the human race, has ever 
 extended the right hand of fellowship to all the world, and has opened 
 the doors of her temple of freedom to all comers, with a liberality 
 wholly without precedent or parallel. The only delay necessary, before 
 admission to the enjoyment of all the privileges of our intelligent and 
 
274 A VOICE TO AMEKICA. 
 
 educated native freemen, is that of a five years residence ; the only 
 forms are the reasonable declaration of intentions of naturalization, 
 the obviously indispensable one of abjuring all foreign allegiance, and 
 swearing to be a faithful citizen of this country. 
 
 We proceed to give a careful analysis of the Naturalization Laws 
 of the United States, and also of the several States. There is no 
 Constitutional guarantee to aliens of any light to naturalization, al 
 though such an impression extensively prevails. The Constitution 
 only says, that Congress may establish a uniform rule of naturaliza 
 tion. It is, therefore, of course, entirely practicable to refuse, if we 
 please, the privilege of citizenship to aliens on any terms, and thus 
 to confine their political capacities within the United States to the 
 exercise of such rights of State citizenship as the several States may 
 choose to give them. But, as has been before remarked, a contrary 
 and very expansively liberal policy has uniformly prevailed in this 
 respect. 
 
 The first Naturalization Act for the United States was approved in 
 1790 ; and was so liberal in character, as to show the desire then pre 
 vailing to attract population to our unsettled territories. It demanded 
 for admission to citizenship, proof before any court of record (that is, 
 any court having a clerk and official seal), of good character, and of 
 residence in the United States during two years preceding the appli 
 cation, and residence in the State where it w r as made during one year 
 so preceding. In 1795, however, a more stringent law was passed, 
 requiring, " the usual oaths," proof of good character, a declaration 
 of intentions three years in advance of admission, five years resi 
 dence in the country, and one year in the State, and also, that the 
 applicant is " attached to the principles of the Constitution of the 
 United States, and well disposed to the good order and happiness of 
 the same." In 1798, the terms of residence were again lengthened to 
 fourteen years in the country, and five years in the State, and the 
 intention of naturalization was required five years in advance; be 
 sides that, the forms of record of admission were made more expan 
 sive and full, various registrations required, and naturalization was 
 
THE XATTKALIZATIOX LAWS. 275 
 
 refused to citizens and natives of nations at war with the United 
 States. 
 
 In 1802, an act establishing rules for naturalization was passed, 
 which has been so little modified that the law, as substantially in 
 force from that time to this, may be stated together, as in force at 
 present. The alien, then, who now desires to become a citizen of the 
 United States, must appear before a State common law court of record, 
 or a circuit or district court of the United States, or the clerk of one 
 of those courts, at least two years (since 1824, from 1802 to 182 4, 
 three years) before admission to citizenship. There he must swear or 
 affirm, that he honestly intends to become a citizen of the United 
 States, and to renounce all allegiance to any other sovereignty. 
 
 This preliminary having been performed, the applicant must, at the 
 end of the two years, take the oath or affirmation so promised ; and these 
 proceedings are entered by the clerk upon the records of the court. 
 The applicant must also prove, before his naturalization, to the satis 
 faction of the court, that lie has resided in the United States at least 
 five years, and in the State where the court is held at least one year ; 
 and that during that time he has behaved like a man of good moral 
 character, attached to the principles of the Constitution of the United 
 States, and well disposed to the good order and happiness of the 
 same. Residence must be proved by the oaths or affirmations of 
 two citizens of the United States ; the oatli of the applicant being 
 inadmissible. He must, if he has borne any title or belonged to any 
 order of nobility, renounce it, and the renunciation is to be recorded. 
 No applicants from any country at war with the United States are 
 admissible. Minor aliens, residing here three years next before their 
 coming of age, and continuing to reside here after that time, are ad 
 missible without the previous declaration of intention, on compliance 
 with the other provisions of the law. Aliens resident here before 
 1812, and sufficiently proving that fact, and also continued subse 
 quent residence up to application, are also admissible without declara 
 tion of intentions. Widows and children of persons having made 
 declaration of intentions, and having died before naturalization, are 
 
276 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 considered citizens upon taking the oaths prescribed by law ; as also 
 are minor children of naturalized persons, if dwelling within the 
 United States ; persons born without the limits of the United States, 
 whose fathers were citizens at the time of their birth ; and women 
 legally capable of naturalization, married to citizens of the United 
 States. 
 
 In only two of the States, Indiana and Wisconsin, does there ap 
 pear to be any express and separate provision for the admission ol 
 aliens to State citizenship. In these States, aliens twenty-one years 
 old, having declared their intention of becoming citizens of the United 
 States, and having, in Indiana, a residence of one year in the country, 
 and six months in the State, may become voters. In the remainder 
 of the States, it is merely provided that those seeking to become 
 voters shall, besides occasional property and other qualifications, have 
 been citizens of the United States, or of the State where the applica 
 tion is made, for terms varying from the instant of their arrival, as in 
 Utah and Wisconsin, and ten days in New York, to two years. Very 
 generally, it may be said that in five years from entering the country, 
 any foreigner may be a voting citizen of the United States. 
 
 Naturalization, as we already have stated by implication, is not a 
 right vested in foreigners. Xo man coming to our shores from abroad, 
 has any natural indefeasible title to the exercise of the voting power, 
 any more than he has to draw a thousand dollars out of one of our 
 banks to get a start in business. It is a privilege conferred, not a 
 right conceded. Accordingly, the Constitution, giving Congress, if it 
 chooses, the power to establish naturalization laws, says nothing of 
 aliens, except what is restrictive. It forbids aliens from being Pres 
 ident or Vice-President. It requires a long citizenship for members 
 of Congress. 
 
 The danger to be apprehended from carelessness in this partic 
 ular, has been foreseen by our best men. The following extract from 
 the writings of Thomas Jefferson, one of the wisest and most far- 
 seeing of the great men who have influenced the politics of our coun- 
 trv, fullv sustains the views here taken of the essential significance of 
 
THE NATURALIZATION LAWS. 277 
 
 naturalization laws, and of the dangers to our country, from laxity in 
 making or administering them. He says: "But are there no incon 
 veniences to be thrown into the scale against the advantages expected 
 from a multiplication of numbers by the importation of foreigners ? 
 It is for the happiness of those united in society to harmonize as much 
 as possible in matters, which they must of necessity transact together. 
 Civil government being the sole object of forming societies, its admin 
 istration must be conducted by common consent Every species of 
 government has its specific principles. Ours, perhaps, are more pecu 
 liar than those of any other in the universe. It is a composition of 
 the freest principles in the English Constitution, with others derived 
 from natural reason. To these nothing can be more opposed than 
 the maxims of absolute monarchies. Yet from such we are to expect 
 the greatest number of emigrants. They will bring with them the 
 principles of the governments they leave, imbibed in their early youth; 
 or, if able to throw them off, it will be in exchange for an unbounded 
 licentiousness, passing, as is usual, from one extreme to the other. It 
 would be a miracle were they to stop precisely at the point of tem 
 perate liberty. These principles, with their language, they will trans 
 mit to their children. In proportion to their numbers, they Avill share 
 with us the legislation. They will infuse into it their spirit, warp and 
 bias its directions, and render it a heterogeneous, incoherent, distracted 
 mass," 
 
 Have not these predictions been fulfilled ? Have we not already 
 amongst us an Irish nationality, a German nationality, a French na 
 tionality, a Dutch nationality, an Italian nationality ? Has not our 
 legislation already been " warped and biased" by their influence ? 
 Have they not already, to a great extent, "infused their spirit" into 
 it, and are they not trying to make the infusion stronger ? 
 
 The right and duty of government, enjoyed by the free citizens 
 of the United States, and by them now granted to aliens at the 
 rate of nearly one hundred thousand a year, is one of the most 
 weighty responsibilities imposed upon man. This grave and lofty 
 power, the citizens of the United States have usually shown thern- 
 
 13 
 
278 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 selves well able to appreciate and to use. But whether they have 
 done wisely in granting to aliens such free admission to their birth 
 right privilege, may well be doubted. The citizenship of this coun 
 try should only be conferred upon those who will become useful and 
 reputable citizens. Such was in fact the design of those who enacted 
 our naturalization laws. It was not intended to permit our glorious 
 and free institutions, to be altered at the ignorant pleasure of men 
 brought up under monarchies, and drilled out of self-control. It was 
 intended to admit only those who would make good citizens, and no 
 others; and to admit them on proof of their fitness: five years resi 
 dence has hitherto been deemed sufficient, and ceitain testimony to 
 good behavior and attachment to Republican principles. 
 
 1. The defects of our present naturalization laws. 
 
 The term of five years, with honorable exceptions, is not sufficient 
 to prepare a foreigner to assist in governing this country. The mass 
 of emigrants are from the lower classes of the European populations. 
 To the limited natural powers and low grade of moral and mental 
 nature, which are the results of the depressed physical and social con 
 dition of their ancestors for so many generations, they add the un 
 happy results of a political education, expressly contrived to unfit 
 them for the exercise of such rights as those of our citizens. They 
 are kept from thinking, discussing, or acting. The attempt to do 
 either of these things is punished as sedition rebellion treason. 
 So, what is here a right and a duty, is there a crime. Moreover, they 
 learn to hate a law which always forces them from without, and 
 rejoice in the only liberty they can conceive of, which is not and 
 licentiousness. Coming here, then, not only with the need of learning 
 to be wise freemen, but of unlearning early education, and that most 
 often at an age past the easily moulded character of childhood 
 when the strength and fixity of adult age has hardened their preju 
 dices and increased their obstinacy ; coining here under such a 
 double and triple disqualification, is it to be supposed that in five 
 years of the life which they lead here, they can understand our insti 
 tutions sufficient to make their political intelligence and trustworth- 
 
THE XATIUJAL1ZATION LAWS. 279 
 
 iness equal to that of Americans born and educated ? If the plain 
 statement of such a case as this is not proof enough, no arguments 
 could avail. Without inquiring what term of years is sufficient for 
 the purpose of training aliens to American freedom, it is at least per 
 fectly clear that a longer term should be required than the present 
 one. 
 
 The present naturalization law confides to clerks of courts insig 
 nificant assistant officers ; men unknown and irresponsible the 
 important duty of judging upon the fitness of candidates for citizen 
 ship. As the law now reads, all the forms of admission may be 
 complied with, either before one of the proper courts, or before the 
 clerk of one of them. It is not well that such vitally important trusts 
 should be confided to such subordinate officials. They are too much 
 tempted to dispatch the business for the sake of the fee, and to admit 
 the voter, for the same purpose, without sufficient scrutiny of him or 
 his qualifications. 
 
 2. Loose modes of administering the laiv. 
 
 The merest apparent formal compliance with the statutory require 
 ments has, for a long time, been quite sufficient to secure citizen 
 ship to the applicant. Few persons need to be reminded how rife 
 are cases of fraudulent admission, in violation even of the residence 
 clause of the law. Impudence and false swearing by the claimant, 
 and frequently a guilty complicity, or at least a guilty sufferance on 
 the part of the admitting authority, have availed to admit thousands 
 on thousands of aliens to the full exercise of the lights of citi 
 zenship within a year nay, of a month after their arrival on our 
 shores. However satisfactory the usual proof of residence and char 
 acter may be to clerks of courts, who are intent upon their fees, or 
 securing votes for a coming election, it is perfectly certain that, in 
 very many cases, this proof is such as would be entirely unsatisfac 
 tory to a judge, if offered in court, in regular course of law. Nor 
 is the inquiry usually conducted with the care and seriousness which 
 its importance demands. If there be ever any value in forms, it 
 is when they are used to impress upon weak or ignorant minds, 
 
280 A VOICE TO AMEKICA. 
 
 the weight of a great truth, or the importance of a solemn duty. 
 The hasty and careless performance of a ceremony, whose hurried 
 administration commonly turns it into mere rigmarole, is not a safe 
 or decent mode of creating citizens for a great republican empire. 
 It degrades and cheapens our national privileges in our own eyes, 
 as well as in those of the recipient. No ignorant man is likely to 
 consider that responsibility very dignified, which he undertakes at 
 the mere solicitation of a politician, by the payment of a few shil 
 lings or of nothing at all, and by the swearing of a few indistinct 
 oaths, administered by a careless understrapper, in a side-room or 
 dirty office. 
 
 There can, of course, be no reasonable objection to the admission 
 of aliens to the full enjoyment of our citizenship, provided only they 
 be fit for the trust. It would be a sad departure from the lofty 
 ground of benevolent and impartial justice and freedom, upon which 
 our government is founded, to proclaim, that hereafter the accident 
 of birth alone shall determine the political power of all inhabitants 
 of the United States, and that none coming from without their limits, 
 good or bad, shall ever acquire the rights within them which our 
 nation has ever held to* be fundamental rights of man. That would 
 be an unworthy political bigotry. But it is time that our naturaliza 
 tion laws, and the administration of them, were put upon a safer 
 footing. 
 
 Foreigners should be required to show, that they have, at least, 
 been here a sufficient time to permit them to learn the duties of an 
 American citizen. They should be required, not only, as now T , to 
 prove the vague generalities of the statute that they " have behaved 
 as men of good moral character, attached to the principles of the 
 Constitution of the United States, and well disposed to the good order 
 and happiness of the same" but to give, as in the case of residence, 
 some tangible proof, aside from an oath, that they are capable of 
 intelligent attachment to our institutions. They should be required to 
 show, in the presence of the authority admitting them, that they can 
 speak and read reasonably well, the language in which was originally 
 
THE NATUBALIZATION LAWS. 281 
 
 written the Constitution of the United States. And, lastly, the duty 
 of admission, and the attendant examinations, should be confided only 
 to men whose weight and dignity of character, and high official trust, 
 prove them capable of appreciating the importance of the duty, and 
 of performing it honestly. No official of lower grade than the judge 
 of a State court of record, should be allowed to determine upon the 
 qualifications or admissibility of aliens, applying for t]*6 important 
 trust of citizenship of the United States. 
 
UNITED STATES AND IMMIGRATION, 
 
 " In proportion to their numbers, they will share with us the legislation. They will infuse into it 
 their spirit, warp and bias its directions, and render it a heterogeneous, incoherent, distracted mass." 
 
 JEFFERSON. 
 
 FOR three-quarters of a century, a great, steady, and increasing 
 stream of Europeans has flowed westward, across the Atlantic Ocean, 
 into the United States. Commencing at the rate of one or two thou 
 sand a year, it now averages four hundred thousand annually. 
 
 The causes of this great modern exodus are easily understood. 
 They have always been moderate circumstances, poverty, misfortune, 
 crime, or political offences in Europe ; and the hopes of better days, 
 more wealth, peace, ease, freedom, and happiness here. 
 
 Of late, special causes have given a great stimulus to the move 
 ment. The barbarous evictions of poor cotters in Ireland ; political 
 reactions, and consequent oppressive government measures, on the 
 Continent; the unsettled horizon of the European future, which is 
 cloudy with the shadows of continued wars ; the organized operations 
 of governments and private individuals to send hither the paupers 
 and criminals who accumulate in their alrnshouses and jails, have, 
 for the last few years, powerfully co-operated with the universal 
 instinctive desire after profit, peace, and freedom. 
 
 Of European emigrants to the United States, the great majority are 
 from what are there termed " the humbler classes." They are usu 
 ally agricultural laborers or mechanics, and include only a very small 
 proportion of persons educated, or of easy fortune. There is also 
 among them an entirely disproportionate excess of absolute paupers, 
 hospital patients, and criminals a fact due to th organized expatri 
 ation of such persons, above alluded to. 
 
284 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 The statements which follow will furnish a competent general view 
 of the number, character, source, distribution, and moral and educa 
 tional condition of the foreign immigration into our Union. 
 
 There are now in this country about three millions of persons born 
 without the territories of the United States ; and of foreigners arid 
 their descendants born within the United States, about four millions, 
 Of these three millions, more than four-fifths have come since 1830, 
 and considerably more than half since 1840. The annual addition 
 to the number which was, in 1790, about two thousand was, in 
 1820, nearly five thousand, and after that time rapidly increased, until 
 it ranged at twenty-seven thousand in 1830, eighty-four thousand in 
 1840, one hundred and forty thousand in 1845, two hundred and 
 eighty thousand in 1850, and rose to its greatest number thus far, 
 during the year 1854 about four hundred and sixty thousand 
 without any indications having as yet appeared that the maximum 
 has been reached. 
 
 Of the four millions of foreigners and their descendants, Ireland 
 has usually sent a larger portion than any other one country, and 
 Germany the next greatest. For the last year or two, however, the 
 German contingent has been fast increasing, and, in 1854, w r as more 
 than double the Irish, and nearly half of the whole. 
 
 These four millions belong, by birth or immediate descent, to the 
 undermentioned countries, in the following round numbers, which are, 
 however, nearly correct : To Ireland, about one million ; to England, 
 Scotland, and Wales, more than half a million (making a total from 
 the British islands of about one million five hundred and seventy 
 thousand) ; to Germany, nine hundred thousand ; to the remainder of 
 North America namely, Mexico, West Indies, and Canadas about 
 two hundred thousand ; to France (including Belgium), seventy-five 
 thousand ; to Switzerland, twenty-five thousand ; to Scandinavia (Swe 
 den, Norway, and Denmark), twenty-four thousand ; to Asia, Africa, 
 and East Indies (about three-fourths of all being Chinese), twenty 
 thousand ; to the south of Europe (Spain, Portugal, Italy, Sardinia, 
 Greece, and Tin-key) twelve thousand ; to South America, fifteen linn- 
 
UNITED STATES AND IMMIGRATION. 285 
 
 dred ; to Russia and the Sclavonic races, fourteen hundred. Probably 
 seventy-five thousand have entered the country besides, whose birth 
 places are not recorded. 
 
 Of the immigration during 1854 the largest for any one year 
 thus far we furnish the following analysis, on the same principle of 
 classification with that just given. It will be observed that, of some 
 nationalities the Chinese, Scandinavian, and Swiss particularly a 
 very large proportion has arrived during the year. From Ireland, 
 one hundred thousand ; England, Scotland, and Wales, fifty-four 
 thousand (British islands, therefore, one hundred and fifty-four thou 
 sand) ; Germany, two hundred thousand ; remaining parts of North 
 America, and West Indies, nine thousand ; France and Belgium, thir 
 teen thousand five hundred ; Switzerland, eight thousand ; Scandina 
 via, four thousand ; thirteen thousand Chjnamen ; south of Europe, 
 two thousand eight hundred. 
 
 The port of New York receives about two-thirds of the entire 
 number of immigrants ; New Orleans and Boston half of the re 
 mainder ; and Philadelphia, Baltimore, and other Atlantic ports, 
 and, for the last few years, California, the rest. Landing in large 
 cities, a great proportion of the whole remain there, to fill almshouses 
 and hospitals to beg, sicken, and die. Of the immigration in 1850, 
 there remained in our forty largest towns, forty in the hundred of the 
 whole number of Irish, and thirty-six in the hundred of the immi 
 grant Germans. The remainder distributed themselves throughout 
 the country, the Irish especially gathering along the lines of the 
 newer internal improvements, for work, and living a vagrant, rowdy 
 life, which keeps their children from being educated, and themselves 
 from being civilized ; while the Germans, and in particular the Hol 
 landers and Scandinavians, devote themselves to trade or farming. 
 The foreign population gather principally into the northern range of 
 States the Eastern, Middle, and Northwestern; there being about 
 thirteen foreigners in every hundred inhabitants in the first and last 
 sections : while in the Middle States where the vast congregation 
 in and about New York, however, is the principal cause of the 
 
 13* 
 
286 A VOICE TO AMEEICA. 
 
 high average there are twenty foreigners to the hundred inhabit 
 ants. 
 
 What amount of property the foreign incomers bring to the United 
 States, it is impossible to estimate. The average of their wealth, as 
 well, as of their morals, has declined for many years ; indeed, nearly 
 as their numbers have increased. There are individuals, and occa 
 sionally companies, who bring with them capital enough to establish 
 them in business ; but this is an exception and not a rule, and an ex 
 ception more unfrequent now, when so many actual paupers are sent 
 over, who arrive with no money, no clothing, and hardly any rags, 
 and who forthwith fall a dead weight upon the public and private 
 charities of the land. If, however, we suppose that there has been an 
 average of ten dollars of capital added to that already in the country, 
 by each immigrant, the whole addition of wealth would amount to 
 thirty millions of dollars. But there will be no balance left upon 
 deducting from this, or from twice as much, the expenses, public and 
 private, of supporting and imprisoning the paupers and criminals of 
 the number, and the amounts withdrawn from circulation here, and 
 sent to Europe to help out the poverty at home. What these amounts 
 are it is as difficult to state, as to tell the entire property of the im 
 migrants ; a few items, however, will suffice to show that their aggre 
 gates must be enormous. In four years, from 1848 to 1851 inclu 
 sive, the English Commissioners of Immigration alone, made a return 
 of sums sent back from America, within their knowledge, amounting 
 to a total of fourteen millions of dollars, which up to this time is un 
 doubtedly swelled to at least thirty millions. Considering then what 
 must have been remitted since 1790, not to England only, but to Ire 
 land, Germany, France, and other parts of Europe, it is not difficult 
 to see that even to make this amount good, it would have been ne 
 cessary for immigrants to bring with them twenty dollars per head, 
 besides earning or paying for their living from the day of arrival. 
 Suppose them to have brought, all told, even a hundred millions of 
 dollars, remittances at the rate of thirty millions to England alone in 
 eight years would soon exhaust that. But besides this, there must be 
 
UNITED STATES AND IMMIGRATION. 28 T 
 
 considered the expense of pauperism and ciime items also incapable 
 of satisfactory investigation. Some idea of their extent may perhaps 
 be gathered from the fact, that aside from all public and private char 
 ities, the expenditure for public support of paupers of foreign birth, 
 within the United States, during the single year ending June 1st, 
 1850, even by the imperfect returns gathered, was over one million 
 four hundred thousand dollars. 
 
 The paupers so relieved were sixty-eight thousand five hundred in 
 number, while the number of paupers of American birth relieved in 
 the same way was sixty-six thousand four hundred ; namely, one sev 
 enth as many in proportion to the entire number. 
 
 Of the expenses incurred in repressing or punishing the crimes of 
 immigrants, only an extensive and laborious search could supply any 
 account. But criminal proceedings are expensive, and many crimi 
 nal prosecutions are brought against foreigners. Of the whole num 
 ber of criminals convicted during the year ending June 1st, 1850, 
 twelve thousand eight hundred were natives, and thirteen thousand 
 seven hundred foreigners ; about, as before, seven times as many in 
 the hundred as those of our own population. 
 
 That these items of public expenditure, together with the draw 
 backs already stated, would exhaust more than any amount which 
 immigrants may have brought into the country, is very certain. 
 
 Lastly, a few numbers showing the educational comparison between 
 the foreigners and natives, are indispensable" in order to a due com 
 prehension of their tendencies and capacities, when domesticated 
 with us. Of the whole number of native whites in the United States, 
 then, one in five is attending school; of the foreign population, only 
 one-third as many one in fifteen. Of natives, of school age, viz., be 
 tween five and fifteen, eight in ten are at school; of foreigners of same 
 age, only five in ten. Of the whole number of native whites, about four 
 and a half out of every hundred cannot read or write ; of foreigners, 
 nine out of the same number twice as many. Of natives over twenty 
 years of age, eight and a quarter in the hundred cannot read or 
 write ; of foreigners, fourteen and a half in the hundred. 
 
288 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 The prospect of future immigration, however, demands some con 
 sideration. There seems to be no reason why the exodus from 
 Europe to America should not yet grow and continue. Even if the 
 remainder of the Irish population should stay at home, there are mil 
 lions and millions on the Continent who will complete the yearly 
 number of immigrants. So far as material interests are concerned, 
 greater and greater inducements are offered by the increasing wealth, 
 enlarged capacity, and demand for labor within our own country. We 
 have abundance of room and of riches. Such inducements have 
 already operated upon so many of the over-crowded and poverty- 
 stricken European nations, that it is quite certain that they will con 
 tinue to operate. And on the other side of the Atlantic there are not 
 wanting impulses to co-operate with the attractions here. The future 
 of the European nations is stormy ami dark. Revolutionary princi 
 ples are seething under the apparently smooth surface of her political 
 aspect, and before long, despotism, anarchy, and liberty will be strug 
 gling together; wars and rebellions exert their disorganizing and 
 unhappy influence, and increasing crowds will flee from the home 
 misery to the foreign peace upon our territory. Europe then, crowded 
 with people, oppressed with poverty, containing much sterile land, 
 and doomed to the horrors of complicated and obstinate wars, will 
 long send vast and vaster yearly bands to share our free peace, our 
 rich and boundless lands, and our quiet wealth. We shall, apparent 
 ly, also continue to receive the refuse of almshouses, and the felon gar 
 bage of prisons, shipped hither wholesale by European governments 
 and societies. 
 
 During the periods often years, from 1810 to 1850, the successive 
 totals of immigration have arisen from one hundred and fourteen 
 thousand to two hundred and four thousand seven hundred and eighty 
 thousand, and lastly, one million four hundred and forty thousand. 
 Within the ten years now passing, viz., from 1850 to 1800, all the 
 facts and probabilities indicate that we shall receive four millions of 
 European immigrants of the poorest, and most worthless class of the 
 population. What the increase will be beyond that time, we have 
 
UNITED STATES AND IMMIGRATION. 289 
 
 no means of estimating. But this number is sufficient to show the 
 vast and increasing importance of the movement, and the certainty of 
 the speedy operation of such a mass of humanity upon our own peo 
 ple in some way, either for good or evil. 
 
 We have not here the time nor the space to consider fully the sig 
 nificance of this great movement of the European population. But 
 none can fail to see that an annual irruption into this country of half 
 a million people, who are shown by the merest arithmetical compu 
 tation to be twice as ignorant as we are, and (perhaps in consequence) 
 seven times as lawless, and seven times as helpless and sick, is a move 
 ment of great power. Whether its results are or will be good or evil, 
 of what modifications they are susceptible, what means. should be 
 used to modify them, are questions which we discuss in another place. 
 
 There is, however, one single phenomenon of such vast importance, 
 and so closely connected with our subject, that it may properly bo 
 alluded to in this place. This is the suicidal political action of nat 
 uralized immigrants. Whatever may be the object of foreigners en 
 tering our country, and our nation whether they come for peace, for 
 freedom, or for wealth it is beneath the protection of our national 
 ity, our Constitution, and our laws, that they seek that object. The 
 whole fabric of that Constitution and those laws was erected, and has 
 been and is maintained by free political action, by the intelligent 
 voice of our people, appointing what they thought good. The laws 
 so established and sustained have raised us to a position of such 
 strength and wealth, that we are able to offer an asylum to the op 
 pressed of all nations. This has been freely accepted, and accepted 
 in the majority of cases, until lately, with thankful hearts, and a pro 
 per acquiescence in the established institutions of the laud. 
 
 But, within a few years, an ominous change in the demeanor of 
 our foreign beneficiaries has appeared. They seem to be steadily 
 seeking to overthrow our own institutions, whenever those institutions 
 happen to conflict with the prejudices or hatreds engendered in their 
 own minds in the darkness of their native despotisms. The wise 
 Sabbath laws which are so general in our commonwealths, are a 
 
290 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 living evidence of the intimate connection of Christianity with their 
 fundamental policy. That connection is the very basis of their 
 strength and durability. But a band of atheistical Germans, think 
 ing that in this country there is no need, even outwardly, either to 
 fear God or to regard man, get together and call upon, the govern 
 ment to abrogate all laws enforcing the observance of the Christian 
 jSabbath. 
 
 Our established, wise, and unsectarian mode of distributing State 
 money to public schools, without regard to any religious denomina 
 tion, is a great obstacle to the Jesuitical views of foreign priests, who 
 desire to control the education of native youth, and unsuspectedly to 
 prepare the way for the complete supremacy of the Romish Church 
 over our free State. All the open and secret arts of the most in 
 triguing class of men in the world are set in motion to secure the 
 discontinuance of this practice, and to effect the distribution of pub 
 lic money to schools distinctly Romanist, for uses wholly sectarian, 
 anti-republican, and anti-American. 
 
 This is not the place to enter into any extended exposition of the 
 necessary tendencies and results of such conduct. But the broad 
 fact stands plainly out, that the masses of our foreign population are 
 determined to move steadily forward in a line of their own, without 
 regard to the laws or feelings of the people who have sheltered them. 
 Armed rebellion or secret plot bribery or bullying all modes of 
 action or coercion, however wicked, or unconstitutional, are to be 
 unscrupulously seized and remorselessly wielded, to complete their 
 foolish and disorganizing purposes. This suicidal and unaccounta 
 ble course of conduct, if allowed to be carried through, will sink the 
 vessel that carries themselves and their fortunes. It is the sense 
 less fury of the maniac who attacks his best friend with the same 
 tiger-like ferocity which he displays to his worst enemy. It would 
 necessarily terminate our present glorious and happy era of consti 
 tutional law. It would substitute for it one of two things either 
 an utter anarchy, such as they have striven to create at home, or a 
 centralized despotism, which they have escaped by fleeing hither. 
 
THE CITIZEN OF A REPUBLIC. 
 
 The elements 
 
 So mix d in him, that Nature might stand up 
 And say to all the world, "This was a man." 
 
 SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 REPUBLICANISM, the noblest form of earthly government, demands 
 the exertion of the highest moral" and intellectual faculties of man. 
 
 The establishment of a Republic is a work of comparatively easy 
 accomplishment, its maintenance is a struggle of immense magnitude : 
 the former requires but the hand of a warrior or legislator ; the latter 
 necessitates the heart and arm of the entire people. Autocracy may 
 flourish with a nation sunk in ignorance and slavery ; Monarchy 
 fearlessl^surrenders the destinies of an empire to the guidance of a 
 few ; but Democracy is the vox populi, vox Dei, and only acts when 
 every citizen has spoken. 
 
 As FEAR is the controlling principle of Despotism HONOR of a 
 Monarchy, so VIRTUE is the mainspring, the life-blood of a Republic. 
 This vital principle of democracy is the individual influence of each 
 citizen upon public affairs : it is not the mere exercise of political 
 power, but the every-day walk and conversation of one whose ex 
 ample causes others to do well ; for, " No deed of a good citizen is 
 useless ; for even by his attention, his appearance, his nod, his silence, 
 or his step, he may avail something." 
 
 This political virtue, so necessary to a good citizen, and without 
 which no republic can long exist, includes patriotism, integrity, and 
 self-denial. In proportion as these principles influence a democracy, 
 the commonwealth is prosperous ; but when they are forgotten, the 
 
292 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 State becomes a prey to selfish passions, party feuds, and civil com 
 motion, and is fast travelling the road to anarchy and despotism. 
 
 Patriotism is not the mere love of country, nor its object the tinsel 
 of present glory. Far nobler are its aims, for its visions are prospec 
 tive, and its aspirations invoke the future. The patriot lives not for 
 himself, but for posterity; he works not to aggrandize, but to establish; 
 he sacrifices the chances of success, if trammelled by the possibility 
 of failure. He gives " his hand and his heart" to the defence of the 
 republic, without regard to ties of blood or kindred, and never lends 
 his countenance to any, who, through ignorance or passion, propose 
 measures at variance with freedom, or inimical to the peace of the 
 country. He is the uncompromising foe of demagogues. 
 
 " An honest man s the noblest work of God." Where shall we 
 find a better illustration of this maxim, than in the citizen of a Re 
 public ? Clothing himself in integrity, he cares not if rulers threaten 
 or the masses rage ; emulating the virtue of an Aristides or a Cato, 
 neither the eulogies of the multitude, the charms of popularity, 
 the threats of enemies, nor the entreaties of friends can move his 
 decision. His first, his only thought, is for his country : personal 
 motives cannot sway him ; patriotism has told him how to act, no 
 consideration can induce the contrary. He refuses the emoluments 
 of office as an inducement to venality ; titles and honors he scorns, 
 for he looks not to outward applause, but to inward satisfaction. His 
 aim is, his country : his motto Incorruptible. 
 
 " Luxury is the death of a Republic.""* This vice is utterly op 
 posed to the spirit of democracy, for it is the deification of self, and 
 forgetfulness of the general good. The Carthaginians, unconquered 
 by the Romans, fell before the luxuries of Capua. Athens flourished 
 when wealth increased and manners remained virtuous ; but the 
 Republic of Solon, Aristides, and Plato, fell, when her citizens 
 sought their individual pleasures, and forgot their duty to the 
 State. Not the immortal eloquence of a Demosthenes, nor the 
 terrors of Philip at her gates, could relight the flame of patriot- 
 
 * Montesquieu. 
 
THE CITIZEN OF A REPUBLIC. 
 
 ism, which had shone so triumphantly at Salamis and Marathon. 
 Athens, the beautiful, the glorious, the mother of the arts and 
 literature, the soul of that Greece whose fame will flourish through 
 admiring ages ; even Athens, adjudged the penalty of death to those 
 of her citizens who proposed devoting the moneys of the theatres 
 to the defence of the Republic. Rome, the republic of Brutus and 
 Cato that empire which has given the world the brightest examples 
 of patriotism, integrity, and self-denial fell through luxury. As 
 Demosthenes in Greece, so Cicero in Rome, found his eloquence 
 powerless against the ambition, the selfish passions of the aristocracy. 
 The empire of the Csesars inaugurated luxury, and the masculine 
 vigor of her Horatii, her Codes, and her Cincinnatus forever de 
 parted. Well might Tacitus depict the energy, the sobriety, the 
 manliness of the Germans, and describe the certain fall of his country, 
 unless she returned to the ancient virtues of the Republic. Luxury 
 had destroyed every bond of sympathy between provinces and indi 
 viduals, and Goths, Visigoths, Vandals, and Franks only completed 
 what the Romans themselves had begun. 
 
 What then shall we say to those of our countrymen, who, in spite 
 of the warnings of history, the testimony of philosophers, the antece 
 dents of their country, nay, of their allegiance to the Republic, are 
 seeking to introduce the luxury of an aristocracy in our midst? 
 What means this aping of the exclusiveness of courts, this creation of 
 a factitious, privileged class ? Does mere wealth confer social supre 
 macy ? is the falsity of caste consonant with the truth of democracy ? 
 The abhorred relics of feudalism, leading America t^ck to the medi- 
 seval ages, should meet with the undying hate of the true citizen, and 
 their partisans should be consigned to universal obloquy and reproach. 
 Perish forever such arch-treason to the Republic, for our existence is 
 only possible in equality ! 
 
 Luxury is not necessarily associated with trade and commerce : a 
 countiy may safely foster the latter, if due precaution be taken to 
 avoid the former. The mere fact of becoming rich, will not affect 
 the virtue of the citizen, if he still view as a principle above every other 
 
294 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 consideration the well-being of the community at large. But, when 
 men amass large fortunes, and, retiring from their fellow-citizens into 
 a species of luxurious cliquism, attempt the formation of an upper class 
 in the midst of that equality without which democracy is an impos 
 sibility, the aegis of patriotism must be raised against the treason, and 
 hydra-headed oligarchism be met with that hostility which can alone 
 insure the safety of the Republic. The true citizen purges his soul of 
 all selfishness, and lives and labors but for his country. 
 
 The true, the only check to luxury is in religion, education, and 
 public opinion, inducing men to seek the welfare and prosperity of the 
 country rather than their own profit and interest, more especially 
 when these two are in opposition. Memorable are such examples in 
 all ages, and bright the instances in our own history. It is disinter 
 estedness which gives the superiority to republicanism over every 
 other government ; only in republicanism does this self-denial exist, 
 for there alone is it possible. The object of all religion, whether true 
 or false, is to govern human passions, to mould the human will. 
 Armed with the authority of its divine origin, its province is to sub 
 due human nature finding mankind in a state of warfare, it seeks to 
 harmonize the discordant elements and bless the world with peace. 
 Society, the association of man with his fellow-man, is the offspring f 
 religion. 
 
 Education inculcates the laws of this association, those checks which 
 society has imposed for its own safety. Religion must, therefore, be 
 a necessary part of all education, since man s passions are as inimical 
 to the peace of |jie State, as they are hurtful to his own happiness. 
 
 But religion and education are insufficient to perpetuate unity, 
 peace, and concord. History gives many instances of agitators, honest, 
 but misguided in their intentions : such can only be withstood by the 
 force of public opinion. All attempts, therefore, to control this free 
 expression are hurtful to the freedom of a country. The citizen must 
 avail himself of this power, whenever the national liberties are assail 
 ed ; his animadversions upon agitators and their measures are the 
 power of VETO, exerted in right of his sovereignty. When the citizen 
 
THE CITIZEN OF A REPUBLIC. 295 
 
 comes in collision with such, he must freely upbraid their fickleness 
 and expose the fallacies of their opinions ; nor will he be intimidated 
 from boldly lifting up his voice against all rash or perilous public 
 measures, no matter how much odium he may incur, nor how many 
 outrages he may have to face. " Neither the depraved fury of a 
 threatening populace, nor the frown of an angry tyrant, can move 
 the firm purpose of a just man, who is established in his opinions." 
 
 The citizen should beware of all those measures which beget divi 
 sions in free States, and endanger harmony and prosperity. He must 
 be in continual remembrance that he is a freeman, and scorn to ally 
 himself with any who have not proved themselves firm friends of the 
 Republic, or shown themselves unwavering supporters of the Consti 
 tution. Despising factious opposition, he will yield on minor points, 
 so as not to refuse his aid to the par.ty which, in essentials, is clearly 
 in the right. Socrates was explicit on this subject: "The citizen 
 should endeavor to persuade his countrymen of the views he cherishes 
 himself, if he can; but, if this be. impossible, let him follow their com 
 mands." The very perpetuity of a Republic depends upon the con 
 cord of those in whom the legislative power is vested. 
 
 The citizen will submit himself unreservedly to the magistrates. 
 " To show honor to others is often more praiseworthy than to be 
 honored one s self:" he will recognize the power of t the common 
 wealth in the ministration of the judge ; and, so far from withholding 
 obedience, he will esteem it an honor to obey. Nor should this rev 
 erence be paid from regard merely to the office, but, if possible, 
 through esteem for the excellence of personal virtue, which has ele 
 vated the magistrate to povrer. Therefore, should the magistrate be 
 wise and virtuous in order to be reverently obeyed. "Obedience 
 prepares men for empire." 
 
 There are certain acquirements which it is the duty of every citi 
 zen to possess. Such is a knowledge of history, for by this he learns 
 the dangers through which his own and other countries have passed, 
 and observes how certain policies inevitably lead to certain results. 
 From history, he finds examples of the good and great in all ages, for- 
 
296 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 tifies his soul with their virtues, and leaves their memory "a rich leg 
 acy unto his children." Most especially should he apply himself to 
 the study of the resources of the Republic ; acquiring every detail 
 relative to her agriculture, manufacture, and commerce the capabili 
 ties and deficiencies of the State her relations with foreign powers, 
 the numbers of the people, and the popular feeling on public sub 
 jects. 
 
 These acquirements the citizen will find indispensable, since other 
 wise he cannot .legislate in the general good: he must reflect that 
 when the Senate assembles, he. is responsible for their decrees. Armed 
 with these acquirements, he will be enabled to select those who are 
 most capable of legislating beneficially, and will be prepared at all 
 times to meet and controvert the designs and sophistries of traitors 
 and agitators. There is no higher glory on earth than in a citizen 
 faithfully serving his country : in the eloquent language of Cicero, 
 "Of all things human, there is nothing more glorious or more excel 
 lent than to deserve well of the Republic." 
 
 "The acquisition of honors is to be esteemed praiseworthy," yet 
 should offices not be sought for, nor refused, unless they exceed the 
 citizen s merit, lie must not disdain companionship and counsel in 
 them, nor fall into the mistake that his duty to the country is dis 
 charged when, his term of office expires. Aristides and the Roman 
 Cato were seldom in office, yet their republican virtues ceaselessly in 
 fluenced the citizens. 
 
 Self-denial is the highest effort of moral courage. The citizen is 
 as likely to err in false modesty, as in following the. dictates of ambi 
 tion. He should, therefore, accurately woigh the advantages whick 
 may accrue to the State by his accepting office, and no consideration 
 of self-interest should induce him to refuse that which his country 
 men require him to assume. In this respect, he will model himself 
 upon the examples of Cincinnatus, Brutus, and Washington heroes, 
 who lived but for their country in whose breasts ambition found no 
 place men who on their brows bore the proud boast of the Roman 
 orator "Mcns ronscia rccti" 
 
THE CITIZEN OF A KEPUBLIC. 297 
 
 How shall we sufficiently reprehend the conduct of those of our 
 countrymen who forget the glorious traditions of their native land, 
 and become courtiers in foreign climes ? Ansaldo Ceba, the illustri 
 ous citizen of the Genoese republic, observes : " With foreign princes 
 we think the citizen will be wise not to cultivate much intimacy. 
 When he happens to meet them, he should certainly show them all 
 honor, by signs of respect and reverence ; but this should suffice. 
 Nor should he hold any other language with them, than courtesy or 
 necessity may require. But, at the same time, if accident bring 
 them together, or he be in any manner provoked by them, let him 
 with noble resentment give such gentlemen to understand, that his 
 republic loves liberty, and that he is ready to offer his property and 
 his life to preserve it." 
 
 Far different is the conduct of many of our countrymen, when 
 surrounded by all the pomp and circumstance of kings and aristo 
 crats. Unmindful of their antecedents and the precious reminiscences 
 of their distant land ; ignoring the slight which they are thus casting 
 on the republic ; unobservant of the obloquy which the titled valets 
 of Europe rejoice to cast on democracy, when Americans are thus 
 seen worshipping that system which their ancestors fought and bled 
 to throw off, these republican-trained courtiers, these bourgeois- 
 gentilshommes and Potiphars, bedeck themselves in the livery of mo 
 narchical servitude, and, like Themistocles at Persi-a, almost turn 
 traitors to their country, quickly losing even the appearance of repub 
 lican virtue. Returning to their native land, they retain and move in 
 a European atmosphere. Claiming the friendship or acquaintance 
 of this or that noble lackey or aristocratic debauchee, they affect an 
 air of superiority, establish in their salons the etiquette of courts, and 
 smile with ineffable contempt on democratic institutions. Our paint 
 ings and sculptures are false to art, because, forsooth, these travelled 
 coxcombs have lounged in the shadow of the Louvre, or played the 
 minion at Florence. Music has lost its charms, since here it is obtain 
 able by all. Our literature may possibly be tolerated, but it becomes 
 secondary to the productions of other people. America is voted vul- 
 
298 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 gar by her own children, and the horrible putrescence of European,, 
 decay is inoculated into our democratic system. 
 
 Not so acted the- first envoys of this Republic. In refusing court 
 to monarchs, they gained respect for themselves and alliance for their 
 country. In the utmost simplicity of dress and manner, they de 
 manded and obtained more true esteem than the proudest nobles of 
 Europe and left behind them the memory of their simple virtues, 
 which our modern diplomats seem careful not to copy. 
 
 Americans ! will you thus deny your birthright, defame the mem 
 ory of your fathers, and inspire contempt for their country in the 
 hearts of your children ? Oh, distant, immeasurably distant, be the 
 day when such principles shall become general ! Where is the divine 
 afflatus of those heroes, who, inspired by universal democracy, rose 
 majestically with the people, and towered, giant like, amidst their 
 aristocratic foes ? Where are Franklin and Adams meteors, flash 
 ing across the blackness of European diplomacy? Where those 
 ancient senators, whose eloquence, echoing through the forum, found 
 emphasis in the hearts of the people ? Where those citizens, who 
 loved the Republic above property, family, yea, life itself; whom agi 
 tators dared not use before whose inflexible honesty, demagogues 
 feared and trembled? 
 
 We must recall the ancient days. We must return to first prin 
 ciples, and study models of former years. Our children must be 
 prepared with more than Spartan care, and taught how bright and 
 glorious is their inheritance, how hollow the joys which are but the 
 gratification of the senses. The standard of republican virtue must 
 everywhere be raised selfishness be uprooted from every spirit pat 
 riotism no longer remain a high-sounding name ; but the maxim be 
 written in every breast My country, everywhere and at all times, 
 the Republic, one and indivisible, America, above all things. 
 
AMERICAN NATIONALITY. 
 
 " It is true vre should become a little more Americanized." GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 THE national characters of the leading nations of the world are 
 clearly defined and understood. The sturdy, thoughtful, grumbling 
 Englishman the lively, fickle Frenchman the proud and grave 
 Spaniard the reflective and metaphysical German, are as well dis 
 tinguished by these titles, as the Indian, the Arab, and the European 
 by their complexions. 
 
 This nationality is stamped on the individuals of the nation and 
 on its policy. As are the inhabitants, so are their rulers and their 
 measures ; and the home and foreign operations of the government 
 usually take more or less shape from the character of the people who 
 support them. 
 
 In the United States there is a distinct individual nationality. The 
 leading characteristic of the Anglo-American is energy : he is the 
 energetic American. His energy is not only continuous in operation, 
 but wise in its aim ; his enterprises, whatever they be, are admirably 
 contrived, energetically commenced, obstinately adhered to, and per- 
 severingly supported. 
 
 There are other qualities Avhich assist in forming our national char 
 acter. Of these we need only enumerate, first, shrewdness in busi 
 ness, enterprise, and skill ; the results of which, surpassing the slow 
 business methods of the Old World, lead strangers to stigmatize us 
 as mere money-getters and speculators. Secondly, romance and 
 ideality, which are not merely evinced in our literary pursuits, but 
 have given impetus to the actions of our citizens to no inconsiderable 
 extent. A sentiment of romantic enterprise has, from the first, deeply 
 
300 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 imbued the minds of our people, especially those pioneers of civiliza 
 tion the hunter and backwoodsman of the West. Thirdly, hope. 
 Other nations may glory in the Past, but we are the people of the 
 Future. To futurity we look, and as time unfolds the mysteries of promise, 
 surrounding countries behold with astonishment our progress, and even 
 we ourselves are compelled to wonder. 
 
 Such are a few of the principal characteristics of Americans. Our 
 nationality is distinct and strong, but, hitherto, it has impressed but 
 little of itself upon the policy of our government. 
 
 There is no nation of any considerable importance on the face of 
 the earth, that has not its own distinctive policy. Circumstances may 
 give that policy a shape, but it is the native energy of the nation which 
 gives it emphasis before the world. Great Britain has her policy, 
 which is called British, and France has long entertained her own. 
 The policy of Russia has been traditionary, from generation to gene 
 ration. Even Austria understands the significancy of the term, and 
 puts forth her policy in a shape which puzzles all Europe s diplomacy. 
 The policy of Germany is to keep aloof from a war which threatens to 
 become general. Spain is sullenly determined not to loose her hold 
 on Cuba, and thus her policy is known. 
 
 All announce their public purpose but America. With her, the 
 national opinion does not yet seem to have become sufficiently de 
 fined to take expression. It has not yet so strongly centralized its 
 many elements, as to assume a name. We are drifting about on an 
 open sea, without national compass or rudder. Circumstances alone 
 define the national character ; a predetermined sentiment neither 
 governs it, nor gives it shape. We exist but to study the purposes of 
 other nations, having none to contemplate of our own. A great 
 people, we are unwilling to announce ourselves a peculiar nation. In 
 the front of the world in power, we are yet behind all others in a 
 published policy. Fortune seems to guide us unresistingly on her 
 own course, while we merely profit by the temporary and irregular 
 favor* she sees fit to throw in our way. We rather thrive by the 
 mistakes of others, tlrm by nny fixed resolutions of our own. 
 
AMERICAN NATIONALITY. 301 
 
 The picture is none too broad for truth. It has been repeatedly 
 drawn by the course of our rulers, and as often silently acquiesced in 
 by the people. The popular mind has long been so wrongly bent, 
 that the question has come to be seriously debated, whether America 
 shall be American, or shall become an indescribable fusion of all the 
 najjonalities on the face of the earth ! Designing and ambitious men, 
 whose care is for themselves before their country, declare that America 
 is for the world ; -that the sentiment of an enlarged and comprehensive 
 liumanity is to put aside and replace the glowing and vitalizing spirit 
 of nationality ; that while other countries have been bigoted, illiberal, 
 or tyrannical, there is no room on the soil of America for sentiments 
 like these to flourish ; and that we are to announce no particular 
 affection for our country simply for its own sake, and the sake of our 
 fellow-citizens, but to consider that all the world has both equal rights 
 and equal affections here with ourselves. 
 
 This is a most specious and hollow-hearted doctrine. It would give 
 but a negative character to any country, and make it tlie dupe of 
 despots, and the football of the nations. It implies nothing less than 
 a complete abnegation of individuality for a State, and insists on the 
 formation of a composite national character which is neither one 
 thing nor another. They who advocate it with such ignorant zeal, 
 forget that its foreign beneficiaries are armed -with a national spirit 
 that refuses through life to be dispossessed of its position. They are 
 insensible to the truth that the emigrants who amvejiere never give 
 up their love for their native land, and are never^ expected to make 
 e^-^^naturai^aTsacnfice ; and that one of the most notable provi 
 sions of our noble Constitution, forever shutting out the possibility 
 of a naturalized citizen s reaching the Presidency, was an honorable 
 tribute, on the part of its framers, to a sentiment everywhere to be 
 respected. 
 
 It is a false and baseless plea, that if America s mission is for 
 humanity, it cannot, therefore, sustain a separate and distinct nation 
 ality of its own. Except through an individual organization of all its 
 various elements, a nation cannot in the first place enjoy any per- 
 
 14 
 
302 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 V 
 
 manent existence ; and except, again, through the projectile force of 
 that separate organism, it cannot hope to make the influence of 
 its existence anywhere perceived. Without energy, no nation can 
 even keep its place in history. There must needs be an earnest con 
 centration of all the faith, all the hopes, all the affections, and all the 
 ambition of its people around some particular objects, or the nation 
 falls away from its organic strength, and the desires and hopes of 
 humanity must turn elsewhere for their realization. From a truth so 
 apparent there is no possible escape. That nation only is the truest to 
 humanity at large, which never forgets to be true to both liberty and 
 humanity in itself. It may not go abroad in search of objects for 
 its beneficence, until it has first acquired for its own people the power 
 to bestow the coveted blessing. 
 
 In the conflict of parties, and confusion of tongues of this present 
 time, there comes to the ear one voice, louder than all others. It 
 speaks with an emphasis, and a meaning that is unmistakable. Every 
 syllable promises the inauguration of a new era. Every word inspirits 
 our faltering hopes. It seems undeniable that the period has arrived 
 in our history, when we are to make a stand for a character and a 
 policy that shall be entirely American. It is indeed a happy omen, 
 and we hail it as we daily hail the glorious advent of the mornino- 
 sun. The national mind is fully awake. The popular heart beats 
 high and healthily. Patriotism rouses itself from its long sleep of 
 forgetful ness, and liberty once more smiles serenely on her votaries. 
 
 This sudden uprising of the popular sentiment, strikes vigorous 
 blows at the slothful inefficiency of character, which our country has 
 succumbed to, under the long-continued lead of partisan administra 
 tions. It insists on the establishment and perpetuation of a spirit of 
 true nationality, above the reach of political factions and juntos, and 
 removed from the influence of either fawning or flattery. Something 
 like this was certainly needed. America was rapidly becoming a 
 mark for the opposition and intrigues of other nations, rather than the 
 steady director of an imposing and self-sustaining power of her own. 
 Her liberality was fast degenerating into a patient and good-natured 
 
AMERICAN XATIOXALITY. 303 
 
 sufferance of all evils, instead of asserting that inherent force of resist 
 ance, which at the very first lifted her to rank among the nations. 
 Her generosity was relapsing into a disease, whose ulcerous spread 
 threatened the final health of the entire body politic. 
 
 Under these circumstances, any movement on the part of the peo 
 ple to destroy and put out of sight the effete existence of a corrupt 
 ing partisanship, is one which appeals with an eloquent tongue to the 
 heart of the nation. It must command the profoundest attention, and 
 excite the deepest sensibilities of those whose desires are patriotic. 
 The sentiment of nationality demands, at this juncture, a more strenu 
 ous advocacy than it has ever received since the days of the Revolu 
 tion. There exists an urgent need for impressing it on the hearts of 
 the whole people. This day must we assert an American origin, an 
 American spirit, and an American policy, or the opportunity may be 
 gone forever. 
 
 In the first place, we cannot treasure too carefully all those peculiar 
 features whether of character, custom, or opinions, that are so distinc 
 tively our own. That which lies around us, we ought to incorporate 
 into our being, so that it may do its natural work. Even our various 
 idiosyncracies of national character are worth preservation, if only 
 because they are American. The recollection, of them, may some day 
 suddenly fire a train of patriotic impulses, which will terminate in the 
 most noble deeds. 
 
 But, above all, our opinions should receive the tincture of a truly 
 national tone. They should all tacitly refer to the existence of a 
 country, whose grand characteristics we each c*f us seek to reflect. 
 An Englishman will remain an Englishman as long as he lives ; and 
 not more in his habits than in his expressed opinions. France, and 
 her glory, is the touchstone to which Frenchmen undeviatingly apply 
 their thoughts ; and these give it a shape and color that characterize 
 it all over the world. So it is with the people of other countries uni 
 versally. No matter how the national sentiment first took form ; it 
 exists, and works by a process as secret as it is difficult of analysis. 
 And so it should be with ourselves. A true American cannot c6n- 
 
301 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 sistently bold similar political opinions with, an Englishman ; nor 
 ought ho at any time to entertain the idle hope of bringing about 
 their reconciliation. Between liberty and any form or degree of ab 
 solutism, there is fixed an impassable gulf. It must remain so for 
 ever. 
 
 If the American s opinions borrow their tone from the institutions 
 of his country, they will be large, generous, and comprehensive, while 
 they lose none of that local spirit which should give them both life 
 and energy. They will stand as the representatives of humanity every 
 where, yet never put off the national vestments in which they are 
 clothed. They may belong to the world, and still remain rooted in 
 American soil. They may strike boldly for universal liberty, and 
 still consecrate themselves to the welfare of that particular country 
 whose existence they represent. In all respects they will be original 
 and peculiar, free from the taint of old political systems, and clear of 
 alliance with tyrannies and despotisms. 
 
 In estimating the true extent of such a national feeling upon the basis 
 of the records of our more recent political history, the results at which 
 we are forced to arrive are almost too astonishing for belief. If it be 
 seriously inquired whether there is any real need of reviving the sen 
 timent of nationality, our only reply is " Come and see !" And 
 what do we see? A people patiently submitting to the control of 
 men, who, long ago, have stink the sentiment of patriotism in the 
 slough of partyism ; rulers ambitious always for themselves, but rarely 
 for their country ; the government kept artfully in the hands of those 
 whose sworn iidelity to political cabals and factions outweighs the 
 thought of duty to that land, within whose limits all parties and all 
 opinions are tolerated ; public men holding high offices of trust from 
 the people, abusing their trust without a blush of shame, and con 
 verting the administration of government into a game of chance, in 
 which the players are incited by passion, by unworthy ambition, 
 by lust for individual power, and even by malice and revenge ; the 
 wishes of the people forgotten and neglected ; the hopes of the na 
 tion unnoticed, and the name of America receding from that height 
 
AMERICAN NATIONALITY. 305 
 
 of influence to which it once attained, and losing the bright lustre 
 which once radiated in every direction over the civilized world. 
 
 Our politics have degenerated into quibbles and personal quarrels. 
 Exalted motives do not enter as an element into their direction. The 
 country has fallen a long way behind the party in the race. Indivi 
 dual success is paramount to the general welfare. The triumph of a 
 faction, through the election of its candidates, is considered before the 
 glory of the nation. Measures receive their full share of discussion, 
 but the great principles of national existence never. The future 
 seems to be unregarded, and the past is wholly -blotted out. It has 
 come to be supposed, that public men may be never so selfish, never 
 so destitute of any great national idea with which to inspire their 
 conduct, and never so devoted to the single interests of the political 
 organization to which they have promised allegiance, and still the 
 nation will take abundant care of itself. Under a popular form of 
 government it cannot be so : a deep and strong national sentiment 
 must correct, combine, and subordinate all other sentiments, or it will 
 inevitably fall back into a secondary position, to be shaped and con 
 trolled by them. There is no help against so serious a catastrophe. 
 
 We need but to become attentive observers, to discover that there 
 is such a national sentiment in the breasts of Americans, God-given 
 with their existence. But it is, as yet. hardly more than the germ of 
 what should long ago have exhibited the proportions of a vigorous 
 plant. It is scarcely more than the love of home, with the untold 
 associations that cluster about its name. It exists, but it needs cul 
 ture. It must be drawn out, developed, strengthened, and healthily 
 matured. Hitherto, opportunities have not been offered. Circum 
 stances have been extremely unpropitious. The sentiment has broken 
 its strength upon objects unworthy of its attachment, and been fawned 
 upon by sycophants to whom patriotism is a forgotten word. It has 
 been addressed by politicians who failed to comprehend its character, 
 and basely deluded by the appeals of those who sought its aid for 
 mean and unholy ends. 
 
 But, distorted and misused as it has been, it still maintains its 
 
306 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 inherent vigor and virtue. Its surface has been sullied, but with 
 time the taint will wear away. The original sentiment remains 
 intact. As we remarked before, it needs only more propitious circum 
 stances and influences to give it character and defiuiteness. Such 
 names as Jackson and Clay possess the power to draw it out into 
 expression, because no men have lived who were more American 
 than they. They knew no country save their own. They were of 
 ourselves, the natives of our own soil, fresh, large, and original ; 
 and to such men the American heart will instinctively attach itself, 
 because, in their very persons they worthily represent our country and 
 its noble institutions. This impulsive attachment, therefore, betrays 
 the existence of the national sentiment, and tells too plainly what is 
 required to impart to it energy of action. 
 
 When this great national idea takes complete possession of a 
 people, rooting itself so deeply in their hearts as to defy dislodgment, 
 it will not brook even the most trifling opposition on its own soil. It 
 is a power dwelling with the masses, that cannot be provoked or 
 insulted with impunity. It claims an imperial sway, and exacts the 
 deference demanded by despotism. Nothing is so large that it can 
 not embrace it ; nothing so trifling that it cannot invest with undying 
 glory. It stands for its own right, and feels itself strong enough to 
 be secure. Those who underrate its consequence, must fall beneath 
 its power ; those who seek to bring it into contempt, shall themselves 
 one day be held up to universal scorn and detestation. 
 
 It has been claimed that, as we cannot expect our foreign popula 
 tion to forget the ties that hold them to their native land, and to 
 enter into close relationship with a sentiment for which they possess 
 no qualifications, we ought therefore so far to submit to a modifica 
 tion of our national preferences as to accommodate ourselves to their 
 unfortunate situation. This is the doctrine, though it is not, perhaps, 
 quite so plainly announced. But, by what authority are we bidden 
 to put off our own nationality, and go peddling it about to aliens, 
 strangers, or outcasts? AVho commands us to exchange the im 
 mortal memories of Bunker Hill, of Trenton, of Saratoga, and of 
 
AMERICAN NATIONALITY. 307 
 
 Yorktown, for the mess of pottage which they bring from other 
 shores ? What power is it that dares to exercise such authority ; but 
 the shameless and irresponsible power of party, that forgets country, 
 that forgets all things, save only its own selfish success ? ^ 
 
 Our foreign population, as a body, were never induced to come to 
 American shores from the simple love of liberty, or its institutions. 
 It is no deep attachment to us, or our principles, or to the spirit and 
 genius of our government, that brings them here. They can confess 
 to but one motive ; and that, the hope of bettering their fortunes. 
 They come to receive more money for their labor, to provide more 
 liberally for the necessities of their families, to hoard wealth, and to 
 be beyond the reach of tyranny. 
 
 And is it not enough, then, that America offers them the free 
 enjoyment of all these privileges ? Is it not enough that each family 
 may have a farm in the heart of our rich domains, on the simple con 
 dition of their taking possession ? Is it not enough that our laws are 
 as efficient to protect their lives and their property, as to protect our 
 own ? Is it not enough, that we freely open to them all the avenues 
 to wealth and happiness that lie open to our own citizens 2 Is it not 
 enough, that we do all this for them, and do it, not in a grudging 
 spirit, but out of a deep sympathy with their past misfortunes and 
 unhappiness ? that henceforth we stand between them and want, 
 between them and their former oppressors, between them and all 
 the world? 
 
 Must we be expected to surrender our entire nationality to them, 
 and to allow them to inoculate it with their customs, tastes, opinions, 
 manners, and prejudices ? Must we be asked to give up all that we 
 hold most dear, because, forsooth, in the nature of things, it cannot 
 be as dear to them ? Must our hospitality become the means of its 
 own destruction, and our generosity prevent the noble objects for 
 which it is put forth ? 
 
 A thousand times, No ! We may say to our foreign population, 
 both in sympathy and sincerity, that they are no more than our 
 guests ; we neither compelled nor invited them to come among us, 
 
308 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 and we do not insist that they shall remain ; we offer them equal 
 protection with that given to our own citizens, and equal opportuni 
 ties for improving 1 their condition. But it is for them to assimilate 
 their^v r ays of thinking to ours ; not for us to go over to them. If 
 they are dissatisfied with our opinions, they are free to return again 
 whence they came. But they shall never assume the management 
 of our public affairs while they are yet foreign to us in spirit ; and 
 we will insist on exercising the right of passing upon their qualifica 
 tions to a citizenship so fraught with high responsibilities. Short of 
 this point, it is idle to think of stopping. To pause midway, is to 
 invite untold disaster. 
 
 In this country, the predominating race is the Anglo-American, 
 It was that invigorating blood, which reddened the battle-fields of the- 
 Revolution. That race has stamped its mind upon the nation, and 
 given it permanent character. That mind has built up our liberal in 
 stitutions, through which passes the course of all our national thought. 
 It is the same heart that sends the life-giving blood through all the 
 members of the vast political body. If other races have united with 
 it, they have, of necessity, merged their individualities in its overpower 
 ing current ; they have forgotten themselves, and fallen in with the 
 wide stream of American life and manners. . It remains for the original 
 Anglo-Americans alone, therefore, to go forward with the work of im 
 pressing all national sentiments with their own bold and free pecu 
 liarities. They are the dominant race, to whom the possession of the 
 continent has manifestly been delivered. Their native spirit belongs 
 to the soil. It lias been strengthened through the storms of war, and 
 it will be nurtured in the long sunshine of peace. Its sceptre will, 
 not depart ; and it steadily refuses to acknowledge on its own ground 
 any power coequal with its own. 
 
 The national policy of our country must, above all things, be de 
 cided and strong, since the nature and objects of our commonwealth 
 are so widely distinct from the policies of other nations. As a lonely 
 settler among savages must fortify his home, and keep watch and ward 
 against the insidious foe, so must our Republic preserve itself with 
 
AMERICAN NATIONALITY. 309 
 
 scrupulous care against the infectious assaults of foreign elements, 
 incompatible Avith its prosperity or even with, its existence. America 
 demands the careful preservation of whatever has given us our na 
 tional prosperity. Americans must be Americans ; Americans must 
 govern America. 
 
 Under ordinary circumstances, a truth so obvious as this would 
 hardly need assertion. But the true basis of our national existence 
 and success, has for some years been studiously ignored and kept out 
 of sight by a set of wily politicians, who, reckless of the means em 
 ployed, have only sought their private advantage. These agitators 
 have pandered to the violent . and lawless tendencies of a brutal for 
 eign immigration, for the sake of their votes. To win them, they 
 have loudly proclaimed that America is the great receptacle for all 
 fugitives ; scarcely making a distinction between fugitives from jus 
 tice, and fugitives from oppression. They have sought to convince 
 these strangers that they had legislative rights in this country; 
 and by such delusive appeals have, to a very great extent, suc 
 ceeded in managing the foreign vote, which, in the balanced condi 
 tion of parties, became a preponderant power. These operations have 
 resulted in preposterous assumptions on the part of the immigrant 
 population, in the degradation of the average character of our own 
 rulers, and, to a lamentable extent, in forgetfulness of the true char 
 acteristics of our nationality. 
 
 But a true nationalism, although not inconsistent with the broadest 
 philanthropy, is altogether opposed to this spurious cosmopolitanism. 
 The laws and foundations of our American freedom are peculiar and 
 separate ; nor is any man fitted to govern under them, without an 
 experimental training in them. This fallacious pretence of political 
 benevolence, which studiously avoids mentioning either nationality or 
 patriotism, and which enlarges with many windy generalities upon the 
 human race, the equality of man, and the brotherhood of nations, is 
 the merest sophism. Every man has some equal rights, among which 
 are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. But these must be 
 sought by means not inconsistent with the general good. Nor has 
 
 14* 
 
310 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 the criminal equal rights with the lawful citizen. lie has forfeited 
 them. Nor has the beggar, who does not own a foot of land nor a 
 suit of clothes, in fact, equal rights with the millionaire. He has not 
 the right to use as much money or estate, until he gets them. He 
 has the right to earn them, if he can, and then to use them. His 
 attempt to use them without that preliminary, is robbery, or swind 
 ling. Degrees of intelligence and morality also determine what extent 
 a man s rights shall have, in practice. What rights he is fit to use, 
 he may have. This false cosmopolitanism which would grant equal 
 rights in all respects to the ignorant and the wise, the barbarous and 
 the enlightened which would at once confer equal political privileges 
 upon the educated, intelligent, and law-abiding American, and upon 
 the foreign pauper and foreign criminal upon the German, the Irish 
 man, and by parity of reasoning upon the Croat, the Turk, the Chinese, 
 the Hindoo, the Hottentot, the Australian, the Andaman Islander, 
 who crawls on all-fours like a beast, and has neither clothes, language, 
 nor God, cannot meet with too severe a reproof, or too summary a 
 condemnation. As well talk of equal liberty to the philosophic 
 statesman or the lawyer, intrusted with the destinies of millions of 
 men or the interest of millions of capital ; and to the idiot, who can 
 not put his food into his mouth, nor hide his nakedness. 
 
 Such dangerous principles have been so industriously inculcated, 
 and have been so greedily accepted by the foreign population ; such 
 a criminal apathy in regard to the preservation of political purity and 
 the election of good men has prevailed among native citizens ; and 
 foreign emissaries, lay and clerical, are pushing such extended and 
 powerfully contrived enterprises to grasp the control of our educational 
 centres, our political organizations, all the springs of our national 
 life, by schools, hierarchies, and the filthy dregs of European prisons 
 and almshouses, that a great question is this day up before the people 
 of the United States for determination new at least in form, if not 
 in substance. Under the guidance of a truly patriotic feeling we 
 must answer it. Clear-minded and true-hearted Americans are to-day 
 called upon to decide a question the most momentous that has ever 
 
AMERICAN NATIONALITY. 311 
 
 stirred the heart of the nation, since the struggle at its birth. It is 
 no minor question of dollars and cents, no dispute between sections 
 of the country, no dreaming discussion of abstractions or political 
 theories, no question whether this, or that, or the other political measure 
 will benefit the State ; but a question that underlies all these, the 
 decision of which might possibly obviate any necessity of examining 
 them it is, Are we to have a policy at all ? Shall our American 
 Empire, as established with its broad and deep foundations and its 
 noble superstructure, cemented with the blood and the prayers of 
 so many great and good men, yet exist ? Or shall it be mangled 
 and corrupted, perverted and defiled, to suit the diabolic ends of lay 
 and priestly plotters, either native or foreign born? 
 
 Here is a duty sublime enough to gratify the desires of the noblest 
 The appeal is made to the true sons of America. Shall our native 
 land become a sink for the pollution of the civilized world ? Shall 
 our government, organized with a most complex and delicate ma 
 chinery, expressly to be directed by the highest grade of intelligence, 
 be controlled by the bungling hands of the foreign boor, or the med 
 dlesome cunning of the foreign priest ? Shall its wheels be clogged 
 and embarrassed by shipments of men, sent hither, apparently, for no 
 other reason than the deliberate intention of at once relieving Europe, 
 and embarrassing us ? 
 
 Let our freemen reflect. The pure stream of our nationality may 
 perhaps .e.ndure the infusion of a little foreign matter without percepti 
 ble injury. Yet there is some injury; and a continuance of this may 
 corrupt the whole. Our power of resisting such influences is doubt 
 less great, but that is no reason for the wanton abuse of it. 
 
 What then does the Republic now demand of Americans ? The 
 answer is easy. It is not any new or strange doctrine ; it is only to 
 restore the principles of action which heretofore have guided our best 
 and greatest men. It is to rule our own country as Washington and 
 the Revolutionary Fathers would have it ruled ; to cultivate and de 
 velop that strong and good nationality which has already carried us 
 so nobly onward as a nation to Americanize America. 
 
312 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 What were the opinions of the Father of his Country as to the 
 character of foreigners, and the probable consequences of employing 
 them here ? 
 
 He speaks as follows : " These men have no attachment nor ties to 
 the country, further than interest binds them." "I do most devoutly 
 wish that we had not a single foreigner among us, except the Marquis 
 de La Fayette." "My opinion with respect to immigration is, that 
 except useful mechanics and some particular descriptions of men or 
 professions, there is no need of encouragement." 
 
 " It is not the policy of this country to employ aliens where it can 
 be well avoided, either in civil or military walks of life." "It does 
 not accord with the policy of this government to bestow offices, civil 
 or military, upon foreigners, to the exclusion of our own citizens." 
 
 Even for outpost service, among the rank and file of the army, 
 Washington could trust none but Americans. " He therefore orders," 
 reads a general order dated Cambridge, Headquarters, July 17, 1775, 
 " that, for the future, none but natives of this country be placed on 
 guard as sentinels on the outposts." 
 
 Can any one doubt what Washington would now say, were ho 
 alive, as to the demands of an enlightened and nationalized patriotism 
 in the present juncture ? And it is well known that his sentiment? 
 and apprehensions were shared by his venerable coadjutors in found 
 ing this Republic. The profound and wise intellect of Daniel Web 
 ster perceived the same dangers, when he said, ten years since, " There 
 is an imperative necessity for reforming the Naturalization Laws of the 
 United States." 
 
 There is, then, urgent occasion for the re-assertion of a strong and 
 distinctive nationality by all true citizens of our Republic, In de 
 spite of the certain and venomous opposition of the demagogues, who 
 will struggle violently, when " their craft is in danger ;" in despite of 
 the anger and bull-headed resistance of the ignorant foreigners who 
 have been trained by demagogues to imagine that the cherished fran- 
 
 */ o o & 
 
 chises of American freemen are equally theirs ; in spite of obloquy 
 and invective, the time has romp, for the sons of America to stand 
 
AMERICAN NATIONALITY. 313 
 
 shoulder to shoulder in the defence of her free and enlightened Con 
 stitution, in opposition alike to the open and to the concealed attacks 
 of ruthless foes. 
 
 First, and chiefest of all, we must keep the privilege of citizenship 
 as a precious and honorable gift only for those approved worthy of it- 
 Let us not confer it upon the ignorant or the vile. Let us not cast 
 pearls before swine. Why should we lavish upon the rude and vicious 
 stranger the birthright of our free citizens ? In so doing, we nourish 
 in our bosoms the viper that prepares to give the fatal sting. When 
 the immigrants are fit for citizenship, then let them have it. Up to 
 that time, let them rest secure in the refuge which we will give them, 
 and be satisfied with their safety. We must educate them first, na 
 tionalize them next, but naturalize them only, last of all. 
 
 W 7 e are also called upon to select and to elect as our rulers, not 
 the men who bluster and prate of their principles and their devotion 
 to the country, or the professional politicians who want office, but the 
 purest and best men, without regard to their situation or business. 
 They cannot, without dishonor, refuse the voice of their country. We 
 can have them if we will. In the exercise of the powers of govern 
 ment by such men, we should soon see the safety of our institutions 
 replaced upon its accustomed basis. Americans would again rule 
 America, as in days gone by ; and while our great distinctive politi 
 cal beliefs would mark the character and conduct of our empire, we 
 should continue to offer protection and freedom to all, and citizenship 
 to the best. 
 
 We must maintain the peculiarities of our social and civil life. 
 We must maintain our Christian character as a nation. We must 
 still enforce the observation of the Christian Sabbath. W r e must 
 continue scrupulously to preserve the Church and the State separate 
 from each other. We must again avow and maintain the Christi 
 anity of our public education. Shall children be taught here in 
 heathen schools ? Shame on the defenders of such a measure ! 
 
NECESSITY OF AMERICAN HABITS AND PRINCIPLES. 
 
 "This lovely land, this glorious liberty, these benign institutions, the dear purchase of our fathers, 
 are ours ; ours to enjoy, ours to preserve, ours to transmit. Generations past and generations to 
 come, hold us responsible for the sacred trust. Our fathers from behind admonish us with their 
 anxious paternal voices, posterity calls out to us from the bosom of the future, the world turns hither 
 its solicitous eye, all, all conjure us to act wisely and faithfully in the relation which we sustain." 
 
 WEBSTER. 
 
 AMERICANS are frequently reminded that national sympathies are 
 not to be eradicated ; that the Scot cannot be expected to bury those 
 recollections which the songs of Burns so sadly recall ; nor can the 
 exiled German shut out from his heart the feelings that will rise 
 and swell at the mention of Fatherland, or the Swiss forget his wild 
 mountain-home. These appeals come with irresistible power to 
 every mind, and with none do they plead more loudly than with an 
 American. 
 
 We freely concede the force of these appeals ; for our heart would 
 be false to its own instincts if it did not acknowledge their power. 
 We would never ask our foreign friends, who seek amongst us an 
 asylum from tyranny, or a home in which they may better their con 
 dition, to forego and keep out of sight any of those endeared associa 
 tions which give life its chief sweetness, and throw around it the 
 highest charm. These recollections are sacred. They can never be 
 torn from the human heart ; and that would be but a wretched pro 
 fession of liberty which allowed itself to interfere with their existence. 
 Rather would a true liberty feed and foster these deep emotions, 
 underlying, as they do, natures of the finest quality and the noblest 
 capacity. 
 
 But is it conceded, as yet, that such sentiments as these ought to 
 supplant principles that embrace the happiness of a world in their 
 comprehensiveness ? Do those who plead so touchingly for the exile, 
 
316 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 believe that lie is to make no surrender of any of liis feelings, nor 
 even of any of liis prejudices, in exchange for the inestimable privi 
 leges he here seeks to enjoy ? Why has he left home, kindred, and 
 friends, if not to avail himself of an advantage that is to outweigh 
 every other ? And are we to expect that such advantages are to be 
 put aside for the sake of ministering to the pleasures of memory ? 
 that our fundamental principles are to be held as nothing, in order 
 that emotions which stir an individual heart may have free course, 
 even to the building up among us of new nationalities ? With all 
 due respect to the feelings by which our new foreign friends profess 
 to be so deeply moved, such a course is absurd on their part, and 
 inimical to our interests. 
 
 We might, very naturally, discourse of the duty of naturalized 
 citizens to adopt our habits and principles, before we thought of 
 what the advantage would be to them. But our address is not now 
 so much to those foreigners who come into our midst simply for a 
 home and its many untold comforts, as it is .to that portion who have 
 become what is termed " naturalized ;" that is, who, like plants re 
 moved to another soil, are there to take root and thrive in common 
 with all things else which that soil produces. They deliberately 
 declare their intention to throw off all allegiance to, and connection 
 with, foreign, potentates, and bind themselves with a solemn oath so 
 to do. As soon as the requisite period of probation has elapsed 
 which is, indeed, a most indulgently brief one by complying with 
 certain forms, they are admitted to all the rights, privileges, and im 
 munities of American citizens. From that hour they stand on just 
 the same footing with a native of the soil. Our laws throw around 
 them the same sufficient protection which, indeed, they did not fail 
 to do before the same opportunities lie before them for bettering 
 their worldly circumstances, and the same field is allowed them in 
 which to expand and develop their individual characters. Our richly 
 endowed public schools are thrown open to their children, that they 
 may o;o in with the sous and daughters of our citizens, and become, 
 like them, .candidates for an)- of the public Irusl.-, which may in after 
 
AMERICAN HABITS AND PRINCIPLES. 317 
 
 years be imposed upon them. They find no restraint thrown upon 
 their accustomed modes . of worship, but are at liberty to do exactly 
 as their consciences may dictate. In every direction, they find lib 
 erty in its largest sense. The single restraint upon it is, that what 
 they enjoy shall in no wise conflict with the enjoyments of others. 
 It is upon this simple principle of concession, of regard for the rights 
 and privileges of our fellow- creatures, that all government exists ; and 
 without such mutual concession, a government could not stand for a 
 day. 
 
 Such being the position of naturalized citizens, and such the lib 
 erality of the gifts bestowed, it may well be inquired whether their 
 very first duty is not to put themselves in the way of acquiring our 
 habits, and obtaining the most intimate knowledge of, and insight 
 into, our principles. The inquiry seems most natural. Indeed, the 
 wonder rather is, why it should be made at all ; for, were it not for 
 the strange course that popular events have taken, within a few years 
 in this country, in reference to naturalized citizens, it would seem 
 egregious to ask such a question at all. When an alien relinquishes 
 his obedience as a subject, and puts on the allegiance which we owe I 
 our country, he in fact becomes one of ourselves, and is supposed, by 
 the very act, to declare that he admits his duty to be the same with 
 ours. 
 
 What else can this declaration which he has made, and this oath 
 which he has taken, be supposed to mean ? If it have no meaning, 
 then what the necessity of going through such a ceremony at all? 
 But if the forms are invested with any thing like a purpose ; or any 
 intention is thought to lurk within their limits, what can that purpose 
 and intention be ? How shall we know, except by means of the very 
 plain language which the alien, who is about to become naturalized, 
 takes voluntarily upon his lips ? 
 
 We should regard with the utmost aversion a native citizen who 
 openly, or even by his conduct, professed to set at naught the solemn 
 oath by which he bound. himself to perform the duties of a citizen. 
 We should brand such a person as a traitor to his country and its 
 
318 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 interests, and lie would receive nothing but the anathemas and ex 
 ecrations of every true patriot. Naturalization is not simply a one 
 sided case of promising ; it is a matter of mutual obligation, wherein 
 a citizen receives quite as much as he gives. It is a contract which 
 cannot be dissolved except with the consent of both the parties con 
 cerned. Those two parties are the great public on the one side, and 
 the individual man on the other. 
 
 No man understanding the rights and duties of American citizen 
 ship, ever could have thought he was at liberty to slight or overlook 
 the requirements of a citizen. To imagine he may proceed so far as 
 he finds it for his interest, but that when he is called on to make some 
 few sacrifices for the sake of duty, he will retreat within his own self 
 ishness, disregard all the demands of the common interest upon him, 
 and still call on government which is with us but the expression and 
 execution of the common welfare to protect him intact from harm, 
 is impossible and preposterous. No popular government could 
 ever exist for a day on such a basis. The ground on which our polit 
 ical institutions rest is, that the general interest ought to take the. 
 place of that merely individual. Every citizen, freely agreeing to 
 this, is most certainly assured that his private interests will be abun 
 dantly protected ; and whatever concessions it may be needful for him 
 to make in view of the public benefit, will be sure to return with large 
 interest. All private rights being merged in those of the many, the 
 former acquire a new strength, are able to sustain themselves, and 
 never fear conflict with those of any individual. 
 
 We are hardly able to conceive how the majority of our natural 
 ized citizens look at these things in a different light from this. Those 
 of them who may not do so, have yet the alphabet of political free 
 dom to learn. They have still to be taught, perhaps by hard expe 
 rience, that each individual can be free only where all are free ; that 
 respect for others rights by no means implies a loss of one s own priv 
 ileges ; and that mutual concessions, instead of depriving any of indi 
 vidual liberty, are rather the means whereby that liberty may become 
 larger and more expansive. 
 
AMERICAN HABITS AXD PRINCIPLES. 319 
 
 When a foreigner, for the first time, styles himself an American 
 citizen, he feels that he has come into possession of certain privileges 
 that were never his before. He is a new man, in more respects than 
 one ; he has cast off old alliances, and put on broad and new respon 
 sibilities. Henceforth, our schools are his schools ; our public halls, 
 our rights at the ballot-box, our claims upon the protection of law, 
 all are his as much as they are our own. It is but fair to suppose 
 that he has come into this new arrangement, not with the sole idea of 
 personal and selfish advantage, but rather out of love for the princi 
 ples of our system. He must have an affection for those principles, 
 because they allow him, as wel/ as others, to pursue his own highest 
 happiness without hindrance of any description. 
 
 If this,, then, be the case and it most assuredly ought to be with 
 every honest naturalized citizen on our soil how obvious are the ad 
 vantages that will grow out of the immediate adoption by those citi 
 zens, of our peculiar habits and modes of thought ? What a bless 
 ing it is to them, to come at once into a close and hearty realization 
 of those principles for which they have professed so much affection ! 
 How much richer, and broader, and deeper will be their share of our 
 common inheritance, if they acquire an early possession, undivided by 
 the lines ojf any selfish reservations, and retained with all the single 
 ness of feeling which belongs to the native born ? 
 
 Taking the case of our common schools, for example, every natu 
 ralized citizen must feel that there is open to him a privilege -which 
 no other nation has ever offered to its people. In these schools, so 
 amply endowed at the public cost, he finds instruction from well-qual 
 ified teachers for all his children. There they may be taught the ne 
 cessary branches of an education, which in after-life they can expand 
 to any limit. They sit on the same benches with the children of our 
 most worthy citizens. No ideas of quality or rank are allowed to 
 throw up the least barrier between them. They study from the same 
 books, and are placed in the same divisions and classes. They com 
 pete for the same rewards, and are alike honored by the commenda 
 tion of instructors and the appreciation of the public. 
 
320 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 Could any educational system be devised that would give wider 
 freedom, or more extended privileges than this ? Is there the least 
 room for any man, however bigoted, to find fault with a plan of such 
 generous comprehensiveness ? If a naturalized citizen honestly wish 
 to enjoy the boasted privileges which our institutions extend him, and 
 bringing his children to the same enjoyment with himself, to have 
 their minds educated and adapted to the realization of all our national 
 advantages both civil and social by what more easy and direct 
 method can it be done, than by taking advantage of our common 
 schools ? If the foreign-born parent was first led, through pure admi 
 ration for our country and its institutions, to leave the place of his 
 birth for our more favored land, assuredly he must be doubly anxious 
 to secure for his offspring every one of those inestimable privileges, 
 which, till now, he has never enjoyed. He will be watchful, lest 
 some of them may be accidentally overlooked. Every thing that lie& 
 open for the common benefit, he will be specially strenuous to have a 
 share in. Intellectual advantages he will be particularly earnest in 
 his endeavors to obtain ; and all facilities for better comprehending the 
 principles and working of our system of government, he will not only 
 take quick advantage of in his own person, but will likewise introduce 
 his children to, at the earliest moment within his power. 
 
 So far, w r e have only looked at the manner in which a natural 
 ized citizen should show himself consistent with the professions made 
 at the time of his assuming citizenship. There is a point beyond 
 this ; it is the way in which such a newly-made citizen can acquire 
 an absolute advantage, by instantly conforming to the spirit of our 
 institutions, and to our peculiar modes of thought. If the foreigner 
 have had the sagacity to recognize, previously, the advantages of our 
 system, it certainly cannot be very necessary, at this late day, to re 
 hearse to him what he already knows. . Of course it must be sup 
 posed he had pondered this matter well before he took the first step; 
 but having once joined the bands of brotherhood with us, he cannot 
 be too forward or too earnest in adapting himself, wholly and heart 
 ily, to those institutions, the high blessings of which he seeks to enjoy. 
 
AMERICAN HABITS AND PRINCIPLES. 321 
 
 It would seem, too, most natural that a stranger who had deter 
 mined to cast his lot with ours, should throw all his sympathies into 
 the same channel with our own, should closely scrutinize our habits, 
 our principles, our institutions, and show himself behind no other 
 citizen in transfusing the spirit of his new nationality into his own 
 individual feelings and thoughts. He must remember that oure is a 
 government of the people ; of that large community he counts but 
 one. All public affairs rest, for their maintenance and security, upon 
 the popular will. If the people are frivolous, thoughtless, guided by 
 any less serious motive than the single one offered by a sober and 
 deliberate judgment, then the general interest must suffer accord 
 ingly. As one of the people as a citizen among his fellow-citizens 
 our naturalized friend cannot fail to perceive that whatever is done 
 by the popular voice, directly affects himself. Hence he is interested 
 in all our laws, our customs, our habits of thought, and our institu 
 tions. He cannot remove himself away from our midst, and delib 
 erately declare that whatever may transpire, is all the same to him. 
 He cannot conscientiously hold himself aloof, and say that he cares 
 neither for this nor that law. As a citizen, he must care for every 
 public transaction that bears upon the general welfare. Having once 
 adopted certain responsibilities invested at the time of his acquiring 
 citizenship it is out of his power, so long as he remains a citizen, to 
 lay them aside on any pretence whatever. 
 
 The sooner, too, he enters with his whole soul into the spirit of our I 
 American life, the sooner he will learn to love the new possession | 
 that has become his own. It will be easier for him, then, to note and : ; 
 understand the practical working of many things that before were 
 little better than enigmas. As .his interest increases, his affection 
 will deepen. As he feels his own share of the common responsibility 
 enlarge, he will likewise find the confidence of his new fellow-citizens 
 abounding. Instead of being suspiciously pushed aside or overlooked, 
 he will find himself openly welcomed, whilst thousands of generous 
 hearts respond to the anxious beatings of his own. 
 
 But let the naturalized citizen keep back these spontaneous iin- 
 
322 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 pulses of his better nature ; let him say to himself, " I will enjoy the 
 full protection of their laws, but never will I subscribe to their spirit 
 or principle," and matters immediately assume a very different aspect. 
 Adopting such a course, he cuts himself off from his own rights, and 
 forfeits every further claim, either to the protection or the respect of 
 all true Americans. 
 
 If such a one league with others similarly disposed, and place 
 himself at the direction of any man, or body of men, to compass meas 
 ures that are calculated to subvert the fair and open workings of our 
 political system ; if this new organization, stretching from city to city, 
 and from State to State, bind together its cords, and weave over and 
 over its network of conspiracy, till it is thought that no human power, 
 social or political, can break it in sunder ; if these men attack, stealth 
 ily, our common-school system, determined, by cajolery, by supplica 
 tion, by art, or, finally, by force, to overthrow this bulwark of liberty, 
 we are necessarily compelled to look about us in absolute dismay, 
 hardly prepared for a demonstration of such magnitude and power, 
 and perfectly at a loss to understand what may be the object aimed at. 
 But the reaction will inevitably arrive. It must come, where all men 
 are free ; nor can it long be delayed, where the people are the watch 
 ful and jealous guardians of their own liberties. It is but the fulfil 
 ment of the old law, that " they who sow the wind shall, in due time, 
 reap the whirlwind." 
 
 This it is that has called into life the active and repellent spirit of 
 Americanism which is to-day sweeping, with the power and majesty 
 of a tempest, over the length and breadth of our land. Such unnat 
 ural and underhanded demonstrations were the only ones that could 
 summon forth this giant resistance to the enemies of American lib 
 erty. The naturalized citizen should read the lesson carefully, and 
 ponder it with diligence ; for it teaches him but too emphatically 
 what is the deep meaning of those principles which Americans pro 
 fess, and how completely ingrained they are in every true American 
 heart. 
 
THE RIGHT OF THE MAJORITY TO RULE. 
 
 " And sovereign Law, the world s collected will, 
 
 O er thrones and globes elate, 
 Sits empress crowning good, repressing ill." 
 
 MAN was created for society : the necessity of laws for governing his 
 relations to his fellows is, therefore, co-existent with .his nature. No 
 community ever existed, however savage or degraded, which did not 
 acknowledge some of the elements of government. The products of 
 the chase the earth-hole used as a habitation even the rude knife 
 and spear, have their acknowledged owners, and any infringement of 
 these rights, results in personal conflict. A little reflection leads us j 
 to the conclusion, that we have no individual rights which can be j 
 separated from our relations towards others ; for if selfishness could j 
 swallow up the whole being, then self-government was the original 
 law, and man, in the enjoyment of the purposes of his existence, should 
 live alone, and exterminate those about him ; yet this is not the case. 
 The practical effect of such an assumption would result in destruction 
 of the individual ; he would be outlawed even by savages, as quickly 
 as he would be arrested and imprisoned among civilized people. A 
 desire then for government grows out of the necessity of our being : it 
 is an appetite as positive as that for food. 
 
 The time necessarily occupied by the individual members of every 
 community, in procuring subsistence, suggests, as a matter of economy 
 and expediency, the delegation of the management of government to 
 one or many ; and upon this necessity arise, not only the first forms of 
 organized society, but, from the manner in which this authority is 
 delegated, springs every possible form of government. 
 
 Numberless absurd theories, sanctioned by " great names," have 
 
324 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 been proposed to account for the first formation of government. 
 Some declare it to be of Divine origin, and consequently a compact 
 between the people and divinely appointed rulers. Opposed to this 
 proposition, are those who believe it to be simply an agreement 
 among the people themselves. 
 
 To say that government exists by Divine power, is true in the gen 
 eral sense of all things existing by the same cause ; but we are not to 
 stop at the threshold of inquiry by such a misapplication of a tru 
 ism. We are to consider how far that same Divine Authority decreed 
 that man should be left to choose and fashion his political relations. 
 The advocates of the Divine origin of government have always been 
 the idolatrous worshippers of absolutism, and no outrage has ever been 
 committed by tyrants upon the people, that has not had the profane 
 endorsement Divinely chosen rulers can do no wrong. But the wis 
 dom of those fathers of our country who established the American 
 Republic rejected such a theory, finding no Divine sanction for op 
 pression and wrong, and therefore set vigorously to work to extend 
 the blessings of rational freedom, and to build up fortresses against 
 encroaching power. 
 
 In the history of nations and individuals which have passed 
 away, the idea that the only legitimate end of government is the 
 public good, was confined to the breast of the philosopher, or an 
 nounced at the sacrifice of life by the patriot and reformer. The or 
 ganized power of the oppressor was more than equal to the undis- 
 cipled assertors of so great a truth; but in our day, the example 
 the American people have set of the beauty of the practical work 
 ings of this truth, has already had the effect to make its adoption 
 almost universal, not only among reflecting minds, but among the 
 governed of the great bulk of every enlightened population. To 
 the people the importance of cherishing this idea, that government 
 is an implied contract, and not a Divine right, can hardly be esti 
 mated. Its simple conception is the beginning of political wisdom: 
 a clear and comprehensive idea of it in the mind of each individ 
 ual, is one of the best safeguards of our own free institutions. 
 
THE RIGHT OF THE MAJORITY TO RULE. 325 
 
 Having decided that government is a compact, its operation, if 
 consistent, must be to effect the greatest good to the greatest num 
 ber. Hence it is evident that the rule of the majority is the clear 
 est expression of the cherished principle. To say that this rule is 
 an imperative necessity, is harsh and unsatisfactory ; but to say that 
 to pursue some determinate plan for a general happiness among 
 the contradictory interests, opinions, and feelings of society this 
 rule of action is the most admirable, and most in harmony with 
 those great general laws which bind together both the physical and 
 moral world then we shed light upon the reason of the rule, for 
 that the principle grows out of the very nature of the best form of 
 political existence. 
 
 The rule of the majority is the only one calculated to secure the 
 happiness of the whole, for there is rarely an exception in an intel 
 ligent community where the majority is not competent to take the 
 best possible care of its own interests ; and the minority, having the 
 full benefits of the prevailing laws, will be found, on examination, 
 rather to sacrifice opinions and feelings than things of vital impor 
 tance. In the practical working of this principle in our govern 
 ment, it is noticeable that however the people may be agitated upon 
 any question however, for the moment, the minority may feel 
 aggrieved the majority never becomes permanently fixed ; for in the 
 constant changes of our rulers, every possible opportunity is afforded 
 to correct errors or soften opposition, and the clamorous minority of 
 to-day in a few short months finds itself triumphantly borne along 
 on the breeze of popular favor. The keen and searching inquisition 
 under which every scheme of public policy passes in a republican 
 government, before it becomes " a law," may be said to test its value 
 and practicability before it has a vital application. A universal 
 agreement of opinion would soon degenerate into apathy, and apathy 
 would pave the way for the foot of the oppressor. The opposition, 
 therefore, of the minority is just as essential for the full understand 
 ing of our rights, as is the approbation of the majority necessary 
 to give them legal force. The clash, in fine, of the minority and 
 
 15 
 
326 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 the majority, so far from marring the great design of civil institu 
 tions, contributes directly to advance it. 
 
 In its every-day workings, we find society insensibly separates 
 into three divisions the very rich, the people made comfortable by 
 daily industry, and the poor. Now the majority must ever be found 
 among those who are successful laborers, and it will never yield to 
 the assumptions of the wealthy, nor to the unreasonable desires of the 
 very poor. Here then we find the rock against which vainly beat 
 the pretensions of the parvenu, and the distinctions among those 
 who would even demolish society for personal gain. And it will be 
 found, that notwithstanding the public mind is occasionally clouded 
 by threatening storms, or suffers from absolute outbreak, the solid 
 interests of all are carefully guarded ; for this conservative majority 
 is constantly recruited from the ranks of those who, but a short time 
 previously, were among the poor; whilst the pretensions rich, in the 
 vicissitudes that attend the holding of property when no exclusive 
 privileges are granted, sink out of sight before they can do any mate 
 rial injury by the misapplied use of their wealth. 
 
 It is remarkable that a government of the majority has constantly 
 set limitations upon the exercise of its own authority. The ruler, 
 therefore, of a republic is constantly surrounding himself with re 
 straints ; while the ruler of a monarchy, a single individual, is con 
 stantly extending the gratification of his powers, and thus affords 
 the best illustration of the fitness of the majority to rule. Consti 
 tutions, however, when majorities govern, are after all only written 
 checks and limitations upon the actions of men, and are created by 
 their powers without reference to the fact, whether they shall in the 
 future fall into the party in the majority or in the minority. This 
 conduct, so magnanimous, has its moral effect upon the minds of 
 men, for it is rarely that a faction attempts to violate the funda 
 mental law ; or if ventured upon, it quickly retraces its steps. There 
 are always in every majority a large number of persons who will 
 not sacrifice to party what belongs to the country, and these indi 
 viduals are ever ready to abandon an oppressive majority, and bv 
 
THE RIGHT OF THE MAJORITY TO RULE. 327 
 
 mii no* over to the minority, restore the balances of the written con 
 
 j 
 
 stitution. 
 
 Iii the history of our government it will be found that repeated 
 attempts have been made by the legislatures of our States to violate 
 their respective constitutions, and even that of the Federal Govern 
 ment. Every instance has proved abortive. So many people have 
 instantly resented such an attempt, and abandoned the presumptuous 
 party in power, as to render it incapable of doing injury, and the 
 sober second thought of these revolutionists themselves, has caused 
 them finally to seek redress only through the legitimate channels of 
 the laws. 
 
 In the Federal Government the advantage afforded the minority 
 is permanent. Much as the States may differ in relative size or 
 population, they are equal in the Senate. The veto of the Execu 
 tive operates as a check in favor of the minority, for its immediate 
 effect is always to defeat the will of the majority of the legislature. 
 Another class of checks grows out of the distribution of the go vern- 
 ment into departments, thereby separating interests which are com 
 mon to all its parts from those which are exclusively local. Ano 
 ther very important security against excessive accumulation of power 
 is the confinement of the Federal Government to the exercise of such 
 powers as are expressly given to it by the constitution, and the re 
 tention of the remaining portion of sovereignty in the hands of the 
 State Government. 
 
 Such are a few of the most prominent instances of the radical 
 importance and effective character of the checks or limitations which 
 our majority constantly imposes upon the exercise of its own author 
 ity. They are yet more strongly illustrated in the formation of the 
 constitutions of the new States, which, though founded upon the 
 principle of universal suffrage, yet judiciously impose limitations upor 
 the power of the majority, wherever believed to be necessary for the 
 public weal. 
 
 Yet all these checks and limitations, however wisely contrived, 
 skilfully arranged, and harmoniously operative, are mere machinery. 
 
328 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 Notwithstanding the wisdom of its arrangement, and the applicability 
 of its construction, the instrument requires a judicious and energetic 
 hand to wield it. Indeed, its very complexity and delicacy make the 
 proper handling of it an impossibility to the ignorant. Neither our 
 own, nor any other free government, could flourish or exist, unless 
 controlled by checks and restraints exterior to, but necessary to the 
 well-working of its machinery. The real safety of our government 
 its true security against oppression on the part of the majority, or 
 rebellion from the minority is no mere contrivance, no balancing of 
 class against class, no reliance in selfish interests. It is something 
 stronger, safer, wiser than any or all of these : it is the uprightness 
 and wisdom of an educated and Christian nation insuring the justice 
 of the majority s decision, and the acquiescence of the remainder in 
 their judgment. This, therefore, requires wisdom iu our statesmen; 
 it is this makes our country peaceful, happy, and prosperous, and pre 
 vents the wanton abuse of the constituted forms of government by a 
 victorious majority. It is these moral checks which remove any 
 apprehension on the part of the minority, and obviate any vindictive 
 or illegal action, or even a passive resistance to measures honestly 
 intended to promote the well-being of the whole community, however 
 much they may fail to meet the views of a part. Such measures 
 must be maintained or opposed, not from sinister or selfish motives, 
 but from the unfeigned conviction that their retention or alteration 
 will be for the good of the greatest number. 
 
 Such is the course of every true citizen whose patriotism is not a 
 mere name. A contrary action on a question pregnant with such 
 mighty results, is certain to lead eventually to anarchy and revolu 
 tion. From parallel scenes of civil discord the oppression of the 
 weak, the tyranny of the many there is a certain and dread alterna 
 tive, an alternative destroying every hope of liberty, blighting the 
 virtues of the soul and the powers of intellect, enthralling man in all 
 the darkness of mental slavery, but an alternative in which relief 
 may still be found an irremediable, a hopeless despotism. 
 
FREEDOM FROM FOREIGN INFLUENCE. 
 
 " Our virtues 
 Live in the interpretation of the times." 
 
 SlIAKSPEARE. 
 
 IT is a preposterous assumption that any single class of our citizens 
 are exempted from their civil responsibilities by reason of the religion 
 which they may happen to profess. We are not able to understand 
 why all the members of our vast commonwealth are not equally 
 bound and equally interested in the preservation of the general 
 safety. We cannot comprehend the rule by which one man must 
 offer all his resources for the public good, while another, because 
 of a different religious profession, may remit every exertion on the 
 same behalf, as to him alone seems equitable or agreeable. Amer 
 ican citizens should permit no religious creed to teach them forget- 
 fulness of their common country. They should spurn allianc^with 
 every cause which leads them to forego their love for the equal 
 rights of all men. If they cannot stand together upon the broad 
 platform of liberty for the whole human race, there is no hope left 
 that humanity shall be benefited. 
 
 Strange times, indeed, have we fallen upon, that demand of us a 
 demonstration, to any portion of the American population, of the 
 necessity of the duty of their most zealous support of the free system 
 of government under which they live. Mighty revolutions must 
 assuredly have been wrought in public sentiment, when American 
 citizens are discovered to be forgetful of their obligations to the 
 sacred cause of republican truth, and wilfully derelict to the high 
 duty they owe to the country whose sufficient protection they are 
 proud everywhere to claim. No domestic influence, germinating 
 here on the blessed home-soil, could ever have been potent to pro- 
 
330 A VOICE TO A.MKKk A. 
 
 duce a state of things so alarmingly fraught with mischief. It could 
 have arisen from the operation of none of those healthy principles 
 with which our fathers wisely set in motion this comprehensive sys 
 tem of peace. Alien hatred is its real author, and foreign interfer 
 ence is its malicious progenitor. It was produced on a distant soil, 
 and it is diligently sought now to be domesticated on this. It bears 
 the brand of foreign iniquity on its forehead, and stands confessed a 
 monster of too hideous a mien to be the product of the clime whose 
 breezes all whisper of freedom. 
 
 We will not pause to undertake the proof of what is already so 
 transparently obvious, namely, that both Catholic and Protestant 
 Americans are bound by an equal engagement to sustain the liberties 
 of that country whose appointed guardians they are. It is a duty 
 from which, while members of the great body of freemen, they can 
 neither ask nor expect a release. The obligation is stamped too 
 deeply on their souls ; it is ingrained with their nature, by the pro 
 cess of their early education ; and he must, in truth, cease entirely to 
 be an American openly cast off his allegiance altogether, and for 
 swear both the rights and the privileges of citizenship who hopes, 
 by any method, to absolve his conscience from the religious duty he 
 owes to the country, either of his birth or adoption. 
 
 But consenting, for the moment, to set the question of duty aside, 
 we are left to estimate the measure of interest that should lead every 
 citizen, of whatever religious creed, to strive to maintain American 
 freedom intact from the taint of foreign influence. Interest is some 
 times a powerful advocate, when duty cannot find a tongue. Fear 
 often persuades, and moves to action, when a loftier motive feels its 
 power paralyzed and gone. 
 
 The better to understand the nature and extent of this common 
 interest, it is necessary first to study the character of that influence 
 from abroad, by whose threats and usurpations our free institutions 
 are subjected to peril. The grounds of fear must be accurately ascer 
 tained, before the alarmed heart instinctively puts forth all its ener 
 gies for preservation. 
 
FREEDOM FROM FOREIGN l^FLl ENCE. 331 
 
 Xo nation can achieve either character, influence, or power, unless 
 It be founded and compacted on some particular principle. Monarchy 
 builds on the principle that one man is better than his fellows, and 
 possesses therefore an hereditary right to rule. Republicanism cher 
 ishes the heaven-born idea that ALL MEN ARE EQUAL, and not only 
 equal, but free capable of self-control, and the safe direction of their 
 own concerns and interests ; and, so dearly has this grand idea been 
 cherished, that it has become an incorporated principle in the political 
 system, and been employed as the corner-stone of the entire edifice 
 of republicanism. Here, at the commencement, all absolute forms of 
 government are at open issue with democracy.. There is a fatal incon 
 gruity between them from the beginning. And not only so, but it is 
 not possible for the influence of one of them to falter in its active 
 progress, until it shall have finally succeeded in outrooting the other 
 from existence. 
 
 Foreign potentates are not blind to truths of such magnitude, 
 looming ominously from the lessening horizon of their future. They 
 understand that inactivity is destruction ; that silent acquiescence is 
 worse than destruction ; for it is a humiliating confession of wrong, to 
 the syllables of which they have never fashioned their lips. They start 
 up with awakened fears and renewed energies. Watching the con 
 stant changes that occur in the political sky, they draw themselves 
 secretly into closer companionship, each hating the ether w T ith the 
 full measure of his heart s power, but hating the new influence even 
 more. Considerations of safety weigh down thoughts of mere policy, 
 and they swear to forget the smaller evils in the face of one they 
 esteem far greater. It is selfishness that is working at the bottom ; 
 but this selfishness is destined, to perform an important work, for it 
 will be the most active element in the destruction of every system of 
 government where Church and State are connected. The prophecy, 
 even now, is in the progress of a literal fulfilment. 
 
 Opposing republicanism on grounds like these, it is little to be 
 expected that foreign powers will abate a jot or tittle of the intensity 
 of that spirit of hatred which uniformly characterizes their action. 
 
332 V VOICE TO AMERICA, 
 
 Nor do they at any moment give evidence of its relaxation. If 
 America but crosses the Gulf-Stream, their swiftest ships are on her 
 track. If she treats with a nation like Texas, they are there to 
 whisper words of disaffection and discouragement. Our name is 
 employed as a term of ridicule and reproach abroad, and our soil is 
 considered only a fit lazar-house for the reception of all cases of 
 political disease. We are styled the Botany Bay of the world, 
 accepting every ingredient that is offered to help build up a wild and 
 incongruous nation ; and into our lap are poured the paupers, the 
 convicts, the lazaroni, the assassins, and the vermin-eaten rabble, 
 whose presence is a source of peril to governments whose duty it is 
 to make proper provision for them. We contribute of our bounty to 
 famishing nations, and yet are styled the most avaricious and grasp 
 ing of any on the face of the earth. Om 1 march forward is one of 
 peace alone ; yet are we charged with a spirit of piracy which befito 
 only a nation wholly barbarous. If our representatives abroad con 
 vene to confer upon the highest interests of their common country, 
 spies dog their steps, falsehoods hunt down their true purposes, their 
 government is spoken of as an outlaw, and secret pledges are circu 
 lated to destroy its growing influence by whatever means, and at 
 however great a hazard. 
 
 But this is only a superficial view of the matter. It is not altogether 
 abroad it is even on our own soil that foreign powers seek chiefly to- 
 do the work, the performance of which they have undertaken. Know 
 ing that if a battery is to be silenced it must be carried by a vigorous 
 assault, and that in order to destroy a fortification a breach must first 
 be made in the walls, they direct all their secret forces against that 
 government which stands sponsor for free and liberal institution?. 
 To cripple its power, to weaken its energy, to obstruct and over 
 throw its matured purposes, to turn its very forces against itself, and 
 thus give it the name of an insane suicide, these are the objects 
 that are sought with such an unmistakable eagerness, and the 
 accomplishment of which would fill the world with the jubilations 
 of tyranny. 
 
FREEDOM FROM FOREIGN INFLUENCE. 333 
 
 To carry forward so gigantic a purpose, there is need of the co 
 operation of an equally gigantic power. Such ends are wrought but 
 through the aid of mighty instrumentalities. Secrecy is likewise 
 required to insure success, to mask the almost resistless energies of 
 an attempt of such magnitude. Where was a power endowed with 
 qualifications of so peculiar a character to be found? At whose 
 bidding would it start up, mailed in its coat of impenetrable armor, 
 and exclaim " Here am I !" 
 
 The needed power was already in existence. It was the ultramon-. 
 tane party of the Romish Church, whose Pope and prelates sprang 
 forward with an alacrity that showed how welcome was the work. 
 That Church holds almost complete ascendency in the Old World ; ; 
 her emissaries are prowling everywhere; she sustains an army of : 
 secret laborers sappers and miners of true freedom whose toils are 
 never relaxed by favor, and never relieved by sleep ; her temporal 
 head is ambitious only of rule, and her myriad children are com 
 manded only servile and unqualified obedience. Her whole history 
 is at war with free aspirations of any kind or grade. Her principles 
 are those of high-handed usurpation. The rack and the thumb-screw 
 have been her barbarous instruments of discipline, the bloody Inqui 
 sition has been the secret but terrible source of her power, and the 
 Confessional still remains the silent engine of its perpetuation. 
 
 Foreign rulers, as a body, acknowledge the supremacy of that 
 gigantic despotism. It is one which engulfs all others, making their 
 assumptions appear even trifling in comparison with its own. Hence 
 they consider its decrees inviolable. From its high court they expect 
 no appeal. They, therefore, have plotted with it, and the fruits of 
 their machinations they promise to the Mother Church. The head 
 of that Church understands the plan, and forthwith sets himself to 
 divide and conquer the fair realms of Liberty. The means are ample, 
 and are all ready to his hand. Emigrants are coming in long and j 
 unbroken processions to America, all, or nearly all, the sheep of his 
 fold. This vast mass will he secretly and silently congregate on our . 
 soil, not for the pure and lawful purposes of religion, but for the more 
 
 15* 
 
334: A VOJCK TO AMERICA. 
 
 easy and rapid spread of Iris power, and the gratification of the foreign 
 potentates who form the bulwark of his sovereignty. 
 
 He delegates faithful messengers, who are appointed shepherds of 
 his spreading flocks. Patiently and quietly they go about their 
 work, carefully avoiding any irritation of the popular mind, seeking 
 no conflict with any existing power, enduring in silence whatever 
 reproach or contumely may overtake them, and striving continually 
 for the attainment of a single end, the political as well as the spiritual 
 supremacy of the Pope. This countless array of immigrants, though 
 they may hate their former rulers never so intensely, nevertheless 
 acknowledge obedience to the Pope and his prelates. That connec 
 tion it is not even thought of dissolving. Yet the rulers are but ready 
 instruments in the hands of this Pope, the Arch-Priest who is skil 
 fully intriguing for the perpetuation of their power, as well as his 
 own. The connection which holds their interests together, is one that 
 cannot be dissevered. 
 
 By such a complex process is the overthrow of our institutions 
 sought to be compassed. Tyranny first drives its beggared popula 
 tion from the land, to inhabit one of the fairest and freest promise : 
 the Pope is the ally of tyrants, because it is through them alone that 
 his ambitious ends are reached ; and adherence to the Church of 
 which the Pope is the visible head, is the first condition needed to 
 bring the success of both Popery and tyranny to its desired culmina 
 tion. They are joined in an indissoluble league, and the same prin 
 ciple vitalizes both. In that union they will stand or fall together. 
 Popery is a political system ; cunningly constructed, and energetically 
 kept in ceaseless operation. Its ambition enclasps the globe. Its 
 aims circumscribe all nations and all people. It works secretly, when 
 openly might be dangerous ; but for evermore it ivories. Its efforts 
 know no relaxation. It is a gigantic scheme of despotism ; first 
 sapping the course of free thought, and then appealing to the super 
 stitious fears of the heart, whose sentiments are rendered unhealthy 
 by its enchaining wiles. 
 
 No wonder that the foreign powers who seek our destruction, 
 
FREEDOM FROM FOREIGN INFLUENCE. 335 
 
 should apply for aid to the head of a system like this. They must 
 have been forgetful of their own purpose, if they had passed it by. 
 No wonder that they consent so unanimously to do the Pope s bid 
 ding, if he will but engage to perform a service in which they crave 
 his effective assistance. He serves, by this means, both himself and 
 them. He strengthens their power, and adds enormously to his own. 
 If he can but rule in America, his supple minions will be no less 
 satisfied than himself. They do not desire a new empire ; they care 
 nothing for further self-aggrandizement, or the baubles of an authority 
 that cannot fail to prove troublesome rather than profitable ; they do 
 not seek to erect a new despotism, whose head they may, some day, 
 become themselves : they only wish that there may be no America. 
 This beacon-light of the world does but throw into deeper shadow 
 the realms over which they bear rule. They would have it extin 
 guished forever ; and Popery has seriously undertaken the task, de 
 termined here, on American soil, to make its final stand, and fight 
 its last battle. That great conflict, w r e firmly believe, is to be fought 
 out in our own day. 
 
 This is the nature of that foreign influence, exerted on our 
 soil, which has awakened such alarming fears in these present times. 
 The mask has been torn away ; the monster stands exposed before 
 us. So far as Romanism is only religious, it has equal rights with 
 every other form of worship, and every other creed in existence ; but 
 the moment its aims become political, and it seeks aspiringly to 
 bring the State in subjection to the Church, that moment it deserves, 
 as a system, to be scouted from existence, and. its pharisaical leaders 
 to be deprived of that freedom whose interests they have so basely 
 been laboring to betray. 
 
 To check the inroad of such a system of despotism, Americans of 
 all creeds are urged, by every possible consideration of safety, to 
 apply themselves without delay. American Catholics may enjoy 
 their religion, but they should never allow themselves to be used for 
 the betrayal of their freedom. They must see, as the rest of us, that 
 the reign of Romanism in this country through its deputed repre- 
 
336 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 sentatives, is a relapse into the power of the self-same tyranny from 
 whieli they have escaped. It must be plain, that whatever might be 
 the loss to Protestants by the overthrow of our liberties, it would 
 certainly be an equal misfortune to Catholics. Their interest is a 
 common one with ours. "We have no rights to lose by so appalling 
 a misfortune, the privation of which would not cripple and injure 
 them as well. All are bound up in one common destiny. All must 
 know that they are to rise or fall together. 
 
 The words of Washington burn in our memories at thoughts like 
 these : " Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence, I conjure 
 you to believe me, fellow-citizens, the jealousy of a free people ought 
 to be constantly awake ; it is one of the most baneful foes of a repub 
 lican government." And the expressed fears of Jefferson must not 
 be forgotten : " I hope we may iind some means, in future, of shield 
 ing ourselves from foreign influence, political, commercial, cr ID 
 whatever form it may be attempted. I wish there were an ocean 
 of fire between this and the Old World." And Madison added : 
 " Foreign influence is a Grecian horse to the republic ; toe cannot le 
 too careful to exclude its entrance" Warnings like these are not to 
 be passed lightly by. Events have abundantly shown the far-seeing- 
 sagacity of the fathers of the republic, and irrefragably prove that 
 their fears were founded in wisdom. Americans must at this day 
 give such warnings due heed, be their creed what it may. When 
 liberty is menaced from without, it should arouse us all like the 
 sound of a fire-bell in th 
 
THE ORIGIN OF POLITICAL POWER. 
 
 "For what is freedom, but the unfettered use of all the powers which God, for use, has given?" 
 
 COLERIDGE. 
 
 NATIONAL prosperity arises necessarily and only from intelligent 
 freedom. Nations have ever been prosperous and strong, in propor 
 tion to their appreciation and wise use of liberty. All the Divine 
 teachings, whether by revelation or by human example, have shown 
 that the true basis of civil and political liberty the true source and 
 organization of civil and political power are divinely ordained. The 
 greatest happiness is always attained by those who live in closest ob 
 servance of all the divine laws of life ; and this is true of the di 
 vine law of political organization, as much as it is of the divine laws 
 of bodily health or social happiness. 
 
 To fulfil these conditions of happiness, men must think. Just as 
 much as they are left to their own guidance, just so much they need 
 to possess and to use the power of quickly discerning between right 
 and wrong, truth and falsehood. From this truth it follows that we 
 Americans, who live in the enjoyment of a freer exercise of our facul 
 ties, and under less restraints than are experienced by any other na 
 tion, need more than any other the full possession, and constant 
 and active lise of a thoughtful and foreseeing intelligence. 
 
 The true basis of political power is the consent of the people gov 
 erned ; and in proportion to the wisdom of that consent is the wis 
 dom of the government, and the happiness and prosperity of the 
 whole. It is a melancholy fact which might be adduced in reply to 
 this statement, that so vast a majority of the human race has dwelt 
 contentedly in darkness and chain?. But though true, it does not 
 
338 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 militate against our argument. It only shows that their consent has 
 not been wisely given. Nor has any such nation ever attained to a 
 true prosperity, or a true happiness. It is the consent of the gov 
 erned \vhich has upheld all human governments, and the refusal 
 or withdrawal of it has always overthrown them. As the nation, so 
 is the government. The men have always made the ruler not the 
 ruler the men. The ruler has held his place by virtue of being an 
 exponent of the national spirit ; by being such a man that the na 
 tional mind found in his actions its fullest and freest expression. 
 This expression of the national mind, which has always controlled 
 even the direst tyrannies, has found its freest, safest, and most digni 
 fied manifestation in our republic, the best form of government yet 
 established on earth, which arose, by the force of necessity, above 
 forms and precedents, and whose vigor and vitality are sustained by 
 a stern adherence to the original principle upon which it was con 
 structed, where the majority speaks for the whole, without tyranny, 
 and the minority acquiesces without rebellion and the glorious 
 result is a peaceful and happy unanimity. 
 
 That the will of the governed, according to the design of the 
 Almighty, should constitute the substance of the government, is 
 proved by the fact that aspirations after political freedom are an 
 integral part of the human mind as created by God. Ignorance, as 
 we have remarked, may obscure this glowing thought, and may 
 apparently quench its light ; but the capacity for desiring and enjoy 
 ing liberty is yet alive, and the innate longing sometimes bursts forth, 
 like an unsuspected volcano, beneath the very feet of the tyrants who 
 think that they have trodden out every spark of the "sacred fire. We 
 need not prove this assertion to Americans. Every American feels 
 the truth of it, and will recognize the principle in full operation as he 
 looks into his own heart, or observes the actions of his fellow-citizens. 
 
 But God has revealed the truth of free political principles in other 
 ways than by this indistinct and feeble natural light. The revelation 
 is implied often and necessarily, throughout the Biblical history of 
 the Jewish constitution and its workings; and it is once, at least, 
 
THE ORIGIN OF POLITICAL POWER. 339 
 
 absolutely commanded to be proclaimed regularly, in so many words. 
 K"o allegiance was sworn to any human ruler. The code revealed by 
 God to Moses, was submitted to the people, according to the forms of 
 pure democracy, and by them accepted and deliberately agreed on. 
 "All that the Lord hath said," was their promise, " we will do, and 
 be obedient." At the semi-centennial jubilee, there was a ceremoni 
 ous constitutional proclamation of freedom. At those periods it was 
 expressly commanded, in words whose noble meaning and associa 
 tions are sacred in our own land, to " proclaim liberty throughout all 
 the land, unto all the inhabitants thereof."* The whole Mosaic code 
 was essentially popular in character. It was calculated to develop 
 individual well-doing, and to permit only a minimum of litigation. 
 
 The country was subdivided into the same sort of local jurisdic 
 tion as constitutes our " townships," and which is well known to be 
 the strong and essential basis of all the machinery of our own repub 
 lican government. The people elected their own "selectmen," or 
 municipal rulers. "Judges and officers," ran the command, " shalt 
 thou make thee in all thy gates." There were captains of tens, and 
 of fifties, and hundreds, and thousands ; and important disputes, upon 
 appeal, were only occasionally, and in the last resort, to be decided 
 by the leader of the nation. The general scheme of government, 
 aside from their municipal authorities, consisted of the leader for the 
 time being, a chief magistrate or judge, like Joshua ; the great San 
 hedrim, or assembly of the princes, instituted by Moses and discon 
 tinued under Herod ; and the great Assembly of the People, which 
 wielded a supreme and predominating power. Popular movements 
 even controlled the divinely appointed leader, thus nullifying the 
 divine command. The Israelites forced Aaron to make them an idol. 
 They all refused to enter Palestine, upon the report of the spies, 
 although Moses desired them to do so. 
 
 When three of the tribes appeared to be desiarnino- to secede and 
 
 1 Jl OS 
 
 establish a new commonwealth, the rest of the nation assembled at 
 
 * These words were cast upon the old bell that hung in the State-House, in 
 Philadelphia, at the time of the Declaration of Independence. 
 
340 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 Shiloli, and in their governmental capacity sent Phineas and ten 
 princes to treat ; preparing for immediate war in case of their failure. 
 Joshua s last public act was to convene the assembly of the people, 
 and to make a covenant with them before the Lord. When the 
 Levite s wife had been abused by the people of Gibeah, the " whole 
 congregation of Israel" met, and resolved upon war against the tribe 
 of Benjamin. 
 
 It is true that brief directions were early given for the conduct of 
 their king, but with a cautious avoidance to recommend such an 
 officer. And when the nation at last demanded one, Samuel earnestly 
 and displeasedly remonstrated, with a forcible and careful explanation 
 of the nature of the government they were requiring. And he 
 only ceased at the command of God, who distinctly attributes their 
 monarchical tendency to the spread of irreligion, asserting that they 
 were not rejecting the authority of Samuel, but of himself, Jeho 
 vah ; and he orders the prophet to comply with their foolish wish, 
 saying, " Hearken unto the voice of the people," but only after 
 solemn protest. Even then, it was the nation, assembled in conven 
 tion, that chose Saul, as they afterwards chose David. So they re 
 pudiated the heir, Rehoboam, who refused to agree to the sort of 
 Magna Charta which they demanded of him, and chose Jeroboam 
 instead. 
 
 The whole organization, indeed, of the Israelitish government, as 
 -intended by God, was of the very freest and most popular kind. 
 God told them to be free, gave them the means of being free. In 
 proportion as they remained free, they were happy ; the chronicles 
 of their kings are red with blood, or black with crime. Yet among 
 their kings, David and Solomon who were selected, one by God and 
 the other by his father, on the ground of individual merit, and not 
 by the hereditary right which afterwards prevailed, were the best of 
 the kings. The surrender of this freedom which God had given to 
 the Jews, was substantially the surrender of their prosperity and virtue. 
 At once they ceased to bo freemen, and to be virtuous. Moses and 
 Samuel, in foretelling to the nation the ovil results of tho renunciation 
 
THE ORIGIN OF POLITICAL POWER. 341 
 
 of their liberty, emphatically stated that God would be displeased at 
 the measure, and would not hear them ; that such renunciation was 
 especially hateful to him ; that it aggravated all their guilt since they 
 came out of Egypt. The Hebrews were often and long in the prac 
 tice of the true principles of civil liberty. Their Creator was their 
 teacher, and their souls were elevated and purified by the virtue and 
 prowess of their valiant chiefs and inspired prophet-poets Moses, 
 Joshua, Gideon, Samuel, David, and Solomon. When they forsook 
 those principles, courage and success failed them together ; and they 
 were conquered and dispersed into endless exile, by Assyrian and 
 Babylonian armies. . 
 
 Thus it appears, both by the prosperous obedience and the fatal 
 disobedience of the Jews to the divinely given free organic law of 
 their national existence, that God revealed plainly and emphatically 
 the truth, that the will of the people . constituted the government ; 
 that precisely as that will was upright and wise, or degraded and 
 foolish, the government was good or bad, and the commonwealth 
 prosperous or unprosperous. 
 
 The whole of profane history is full of examples proving the same 
 point. By the actual choice of the nations, or by their satisfied 
 acquiescence, have the great majority of rulers been chosen. The 
 Spartans chose their kings by vote for their ability to govern, to lead in 
 war, to conquer. The Athenian, and, indeed, all the Greek States, 
 elected their ordinary rulers, and likewise the leaders who com 
 manded their armies in extraordinary emergencies. Romulus was 
 elected, as were his immediate successors. And when Tarquin un 
 dertook to govern despotically, Brutus and his fellow-freemen taught 
 the tyrant a lesson, and established the Roman Republic. The popular 
 will of the Romans chose not only their annual consuls, but also a 
 dictator, putting the whole government for the time being into the . 
 hands of a Camillus or a Scipio, because only such a man could 
 perform what the nation desired. The Franks and the Saxons, the 
 Goths and Vandals, chose their leaders on the field of battle, or 
 in the camp ; selecting the men who could lead most successfully 
 
34:2 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 the national army, and so guide the popular will to fulfilment The 
 great Tartar tribes, the Huns who came into Europe, and the enor 
 mous hordes who from time to time have ravaged and conquered Asia, 
 all in like manner chose their leaders on account of their fitness so 
 to administer the concerns of the nation as to fulfil its wishes. The 
 Turks and Saracens, while they made conquests, were commanded 
 by chiefs chosen by the nation, or acquiesced under as suitable to 
 govern it. The French dynasties have repeatedly perished for 
 incapacity, and stronger men have founded others, with the consent 
 of the people. Neither Meroveus, Pepin, nor Hugh Capet, could 
 secure the inheritance of their throne to incapable men. All the 
 warlike leaders who descended upon the west and south of Europe, 
 from Scandinavia, during the early part of the Middle Ages, were 
 appointed by their followers, as were, indeed, the kings of the Scan 
 dinavian kingdoms. But the citations of individual cases would bo 
 endless. Always it has been either the actual selection of the people, 
 <5r their satisfied acquiescence, which has supported the government. 
 This popular appointment or permission may most often have been 
 injudiciously made, the acquiescence may have been that of the 
 most stupid folly or sottish cowardice, but such has been the case. 
 
 Emperors, kings, hereditary and usurping rulers, the governors of 
 republics and monarchies and oligarchies alike, all have rested upon 
 the support of the people. Whenever the government has become 
 sufficiently disagreeable to the people to excite them to the proper 
 point, it has fallen helplessly before their wrath. The thrones of ty 
 rants are proverbially unsafe. Most true was that bitter and famous 
 jest of Dionysius with his flatterer : the sword hangs over the tyrant s 
 head by a single hair. 
 
 Freedom and intelligence have ever secured strength and respect to 
 nations and to their members. The close phalanx of the Greeks, few 
 in numbers but strong with the generous discipline of freedom, mowed 
 down as grass the great Persian hosts. It was for such a reason that 
 Cyrus the Younger trusted more in this ten thousand Greeks, than in 
 all his Asiatic hosts ; and in that immortal retreat of which Xenophon 
 
THE ORIGIN OF POLITICAL POWER. 343 
 
 was first leader and then historian, through a thousand miles of hos 
 tile country not an enemy ventured to oppose them in battle array. 
 The proud consciousness of such powers stimulated Agesilaus, with 
 only thirty-six Spartans, and neither money nor influence, to levy Avar 
 against Artaxerxes, the monarch of all Asia. Such powers carried 
 Alexander and his Greeks conquering through a continent. Such 
 power enabled the small Swiss republics to beat off the repeated at 
 tacks of the Austrian empire, and made the Dutch victorious over the 
 veteran Spanish infantry, although commanded by the best generals in 
 Europe. Such power has made England the first among the nations. 
 Such power enabled the Old Thirteen Colonies to resist her ; and is 
 making the empire of which they were the nucleus, first her rival, 
 and then her superior. Free nations have never been conquered or 
 resisted but with the extremest difficulty. No monarch could over 
 come Greece or Rome, as long as Greece and Rome were free. But 
 with their loss of freedom, declined their power ; and in proportion 
 as they became enslaved and debauched at home, they were impotent 
 abroad. The Romans, who trode down more kingdoms than any other 
 single people, in losing liberty lost both vigor and virtue, and lived 
 ignobly, content with panem et circenses " bread and the circus." 
 
 Thus liberty has not only strengthened the strong, and fortified 
 the souls of the valiant, but it has always and everywhere breathed 
 courage even into the timid, and supplied the feeble with strength. 
 
 We have shown, then, that God, in three revelations, has revealed 
 the truth, that government is properly the free exercise of the will of 
 the people : 
 
 I. By the consciousness of the truth, existing in the soul of all. 
 
 II. By express inspired revelation to the Jews, and by definitely 
 establishing such institutions among his own chosen people. 
 
 HI. By revelation to human reason, through the lessons of history. 
 
 Man, therefore, was created by God to be free. As He created 
 man upright, so He breathed this principle of freedom into his soul. 
 And every disuse or loss of its exercise is owing, as all of our human 
 imperfections are owing, to the " many inventions" that men have 
 
344 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 " sought out." Liberty is a right given by God to every individual 
 man. Free political institutions are of immediate divine origin. 
 They are God s appointed means of insuring the utmost freedom of 
 each citizen, together with the utmost prosperity and peace of the 
 State. They are the gift of God ; and when men refuse that gift, 
 they suffer the consequences. Freedom is the life and strength of 
 the individual and of the State. Its prosperous exercise demands 
 intelligence and union. Many causes have retarded its extension. 
 Physical force has predominated in the earth. The apostles of free 
 dom have been silent or destroyed. Yet the basis of freedom exists 
 in every human heart ; and wherever human nature is elevated, 
 morally and intellectually, to a sufficiently lofty position, there free 
 political institutions must necessarily follow. 
 
 Free government is the legitimate government of the world. It- 
 is the one form of State authority which is founded upon the ever 
 lasting justice of God, which appeals to the universal conscience and 
 consciousness of men. By virtue of the immortality of truth, we 
 are bound to hope and expect that it will finally become the sole and 
 universal government which shall exist on earth. 
 
MEXICO AND THE SOUTH AMERICAN STATES. 
 
 " Progress, the growth of power, is the end and boon of liberty. Without this, a people may have 
 the name, but want the substance and spirit of freedom." CHANGING. 
 
 THE republics of Mexico and of Central and South America, when 
 compared with the great Anglo-American republic, instead of pre 
 senting any analogy, exhibit a striking contrast in their political, 
 social, and moral aspects. The question naturally suggests itself, 
 AVhat has produced this marked dissimilarity ? What have been the 
 procuring causes that have rendered those States, possessing territo 
 ries more extensive and more fertile than those of the United States 
 at their original settlement, so weak and powerless ? The problem is 
 not of difficult solution. 
 
 Avarice and rapacity marked the career, in South America, of the 
 colonial system of Spain. The interests of the colonists were sacri 
 ficed ; the spiritual tyranny of the Inquisition suppressed all freedom 
 of thought or action ; and crushing monopoly stifled all attempts at 
 domestic industiy or commerce, for it even denounced death against 
 all who were detected in trafficking with foreigners, whilst the vines 
 and olives of Mexico were rooted out, that its inhabitants might be 
 compelled to draw their supplies from Spain ; and the wheat which 
 the colonists were forbidden to export, was applied to fill up the 
 marshes. Not only did the Romish priesthood control the bodies 
 and souls of the Mexicans, but the crafty policy of old Spain kept 
 them in the grossest ignorance and degradation. 
 
 "Still promising 
 
 Freedom, itself too sensual to be free, 
 Poisons life s amities, and cheats the soul 
 Of faith, and quiet hope, and all that lifts 
 Aiid all that soothes the spirit." 
 
34:6 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 It was remarked by the Duke of Wellington, that, in all his expe 
 rience with Spanish official men, acquired during the Peninsular war, 
 he met with hardly a single man whose abilities rose above the mean 
 est order of mind. If this be their national characteristic, no wonder 
 they prefer to perpetuate ignorance. 
 
 The specious and subtle policy of Spain failed, however, in great 
 part, of its accomplishment. Much of the precious metals became 
 diverted to other countries, as fast as they were robbed from the 
 natives of Hayti, Mexico, and Peru. Yet vast were the treasures 
 that flowed into the exchequer of the haughty and sanguinary Span 
 iards. The cupidity of Spain seems only to have been equalled by 
 her perfidy and cruelty. In order to retain conquests, the natives 
 were exterminated. The spirit of her government was tyranny ; the 
 discipline of her Church, persecution ; her moral of trade, monopoly. 
 The long duration of these fallacies rendered them, in Spanish wis 
 dom, venerable. The Spaniards believed the precious treasures of the 
 New World exhaustless. They imagined their power invincible : 
 their ambition and pride exceeded all limits. But her haughty spirit 
 was doomed to quail before her rivals ; and the pomp and chivalry 
 of Spain, like her wealth and power, became the sacrifice required of 
 her political crimes. 
 
 In order to a right estimate of Mexican character, it will be neces 
 sary to refer to the characteristics of the Aztec race prior to the 
 conquest, of Cortes.* Our historian, Prescott, here comes to our aid. 
 After speaking of the romantic and legendary features of the con 
 quest, he remarks : 
 
 " Yet we cannot regret the fall of an empire which did so little to 
 promote the happiness of its subjects, or the real interests of human 
 ity. Notwithstanding the lustre thrown over its latter days by the 
 o lorious defence of its capital, by the mild munificence of Montezuma, 
 and the dauntless heroism of Guatemozin, the Aztecs were emphatically 
 
 x The ancient Mexicanos were descendants of the Aztccas ; they assumed th. 
 name of Mexicos, from Mcxiotl, that of their chief idol. Prior to the arrival of 
 the Spaniards, they lived under a kind of oligarchical government. 
 
MEXICO AND THE SOUTH AMERICAN STATES. 347 
 
 a fierce and brutal race, little calculated, in their best aspects, to excite 
 our sympathy and regard. Their civilization, such as it was, was not 
 their own, but reflected, perhaps imperfectly, from a race whom they 
 had succeeded in the land. It was, in respect to the Aztecs, a gener 
 ous graft on a vicious stock, and could have brought no fruit to per 
 fection. They ruled over their wide domains with a sword, instead 
 of a sceptre. They did nothing to ameliorate the condition or in any 
 way promote the progress of their vassals. Their vassals were serfs, 
 used only to minister to their pleasure, held in awe by armed gam- 
 sons, ground to the dust by imposts in peace, by military conscrip 
 tions in war. 
 
 " The Aztecs not only did not advance the condition of their vas 
 sals, but, morally speaking, they did much to degrade it. How can 
 a nation, where human sacrifices prevail, and especially when com 
 bined with cannibalism, further the march of civilization ? How can 
 the interests of humanity be consulted, where man is levelled to the 
 ranks of the brutes that perish ? The influence of the Aztecs intro 
 duced their superstition into lands before unacquainted with it, or 
 where, at least, it was not established in any great strength. Tho 
 example of the capital was contagious. As the latter increased in 
 opulence, the religious celebrations were conducted with still more 
 terrible magnificence in the same manner as the gladiatorial shows 
 of the Romans increased in pomp with the increasing splendor of 
 the capital. Men became familiar with scenes of horror, and the 
 most loathsome abominations. Women and children, the whole 
 nation, became familiar with and assisted at them. The heart was 
 hardened ; the manners were made ferocious ; the feeble light of civ 
 ilization, transmitted from a milder race, was growing fainter and 
 fainter, as thousands and thousands of miserable victims, throughout 
 the empire, were yearly fattened in its cages, sacrificed on its altars, 
 dressed and served at its banquets ! The whole land was converted 
 into a vast human shamble ! The empire of the Aztecs did not fall 
 before its time." 
 
 " The American Indian has something peculiarly sensitive in his 
 
34:8 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 nature. He shrinks instinctively from the rude touch of a foreign 
 hand. Even when this foreign influence comes in the form of civili 
 zation, he seems to sink and pine away beneath it. It has been so 
 with the Mexicans. Under the Spanish domination, their numbers 
 have silently melted away. Their energies* are broken. They no 
 longer tread their mountain-plains with the conscious independence 
 of their ancestors. In their faltering step, and meek and melancholy 
 aspect, we read the sad characters of the conquered race." 
 
 The earliest insurrection of modern Mexico against Spanish rule, 
 occurred in 1809, headed by Hidalgo and Allendo. Its real object 
 was not, however, the establishment of a republic, but an abortive 
 attempt to reserve to Ferdinand VII. a portion of his dominions 
 whose sovereignty in Spain had been alienated to France. Subse 
 quent commotions took place, when something like a democratic, 
 basis of government was projected, but rejected by Iturbide, who, ii 
 1822, was declared emperor by the people, but who, before a new 
 order of government could be organized, was, as he deserved to be, 
 deposed and banished ; he was but a military usurper. 
 
 In 1824, Mexico became a republic, and a federal constitution was 
 adopted. General Victoria was elected the first President, and ho 
 has been succeeded by such men as Pedraza, Guerrero, Bustamente, 
 Santa Anna, Herrera, and Paredes, as Presidents or Dictators, at best, 
 with scarcely an exception, rival military adventurers. Actua-ted by 
 no higher motives than those of personal aggrandizement, they mani 
 fested no patriotism above party purposes, and but little conscience 
 above self-interest. Having no hold upon the affections of the peo 
 ple, they relied upon no security except military rule, and this wa> 
 made subject to the greatest treachery, or to the greatest cunning. 
 
 We have a glimpse of her political condition in the following : 
 
 " The unfortunate, miserably governed Mexico, when she emerge L 
 from her revolution, had in her history nothing of representative gov 
 ernment, habeas corpus, or trial by jury; no progressive experiment 
 tending to a glorious consummation ; nothing but a government call 
 ing itself free, with the least possible freedom in the world. She 
 
MEXICO AND THE SOUTH AMEKICAN STATES. 349 
 
 had collected, since her independence, three hundred millions of dol 
 lars, and had unprofitably expended it all in putting up one revolution 
 and putting down another, and in maintaining an army of forty 
 thousand men, in time of peace, to keep the peace."* 
 
 The pictures we have of social life in Mexico are revolting to con 
 template. The Mexicans are, as a people, a nation of swindlers, 
 thieves, and murderers. Their vacillating government has proved 
 false to eveiy sacred trust, has impoverished the country, debased the 
 people, countenanced crime, engendered civil war, and tolerated 
 treason. It has ignored all progress, neglected education, and dis 
 couraged domestic industry. The only party that thrives in the 
 midst of all this moral desolation, is the Romish priesthood. To them 
 belongs a large portion of the real wealth of the country. There 
 are in the city of Mexico alone, some eight hundred secular, and 
 about two thousand regular Romish clergy. They take care of the 
 money, and do their utmost to get it, even from the most abject, at 
 the expense of suffering need. It is said- there is more gross licen 
 tiousness and vice in Mexico than in any other country on the globe. 
 The Romish Church has nowhere so corrupt a priesthood. What 
 moral lesson are we to gather, then, from the republic of Mexico ? 
 Is it not surprising that it has existed so long so racked with dis 
 cordant elements, and so effete and demoralized with crime ? 
 
 Peru is believed to have been founded about the middle of the 
 twelfth century, by Manco Capac, the first of the race of the Incas. 
 The Peruvians were in advance of other aboriginal tribes, having 
 acquired some proficiency in architecture, sculpture, mining, agricul 
 ture, etc. They knew something of the arts, for they constructed 
 suspension bridges over frightful ravines, although they had no im 
 plements of iron ; but their forefathers could move blocks of stone as 
 huge as the sphinxes and Memnons of Egypt, and had an acquaint 
 ance with astronomy, several of the useful arts, and various domestic 
 manufactures. They were pagans, and the ruins of their numer 
 ous temples and palaces are yet to be traced. The great Tem- 
 
 * Daniel "Webster. 
 16 
 
350 A VOICE TO AMEEICA. 
 
 pie of the Sun at Pachacamac, the palace and the fortress of the 
 Incas, were connected together, so as to form one great building, 
 about a mile and a half in circuit. Their code of civil and religious 
 
 O 
 
 laws were favorable to morals ; and they did not, like others, sacrifice 
 human victims to propitiate their deities. On the arrival of the 
 Spaniards, in 1524, Huana Capac, the reigning Inca, and the four 
 teenth of his order, was made prisoner and perfidiously put to death 
 by Pizarro, the discoverer of the country, although the poor captive 
 had paid, according to the stipulation, as much gold for his ransom 
 as would fill the place of his confinement ! Although Pizarro founded 
 the city of Lima, and had thought himself secure, yet several insurrec 
 tions ensued with various success, until the surrender and execution of 
 the last of the Incas, in 1562, when the Spanish rule was established. 
 
 The Sta-te founded by Pizarro remained a dependency on the Span 
 ish crown until the year 1782, when an outbreak occurred, and the 
 standard of independence was reared, around which the natives rallied 
 with grea-t spirit, and in great numbers. For two years the war 
 continued with alternate success; the enterprise, however, finally 
 suffered defeat. But these efforts were triumphant in 1817, under 
 General San Martin; and in July, 1821, the independence of Peru 
 was solemnly proclaimed, with San Martin as Protector. This office 
 he resigned, after constituting a Congress ; but its inefficiency soon 
 became apparent. In 1823, the patriots were defeated, the Congress 
 dissolved, anarchy predominated, and Lima again surrendered to the 
 Spanish troops. They \vere, shortly afterwards, partially dispossessed 
 by Bolivar, and the Chilians ; but Peru, though freed from Spanish 
 subjugation, was like a vessel tossed by every casual wave, unsafe, 
 and exposed to conflicting dangers. 
 
 The history of Upper Peru, better known as Bolivia, a name it 
 derives from its great deliverer Bolivar is briefly told. Previously 
 to the battle of Ayachuco, in 1824, it formed a part of the vice- 
 royalty of Buenos Ayres ; but General Sucre, at the head of the re 
 publicans, having then defeated the royalist troops, the independence 
 of the country was effected ; and in the following year, at the request 
 
MEXICO AND THE SOUTH AMEEICAN STATES. 351 
 
 of the people, Bolivar drew up its constitution. Soon, however, 
 domestic factions sprung up, the purity of his motives were question 
 ed, and he was suspected of aiming at a perpetual dictatorship. He 
 gave, however, a noble denial to these unjust imputations, by quelling 
 the disturbances that affected the State, and then retiring to private 
 life. For a time he was recalled to the exercise of the chief authority, 
 till 1830, in which year his death occurred. The government is still 
 in the hands of a President ; and it may be said this republic is, of 
 all those of South America, the best as to its internal quiet and 
 prosperity, for most of them are, indeed, republics but in name. 
 
 It is needless to fatigue the reader with historic details of the several 
 independent States and Confederacies of Central and South America. 
 Grouping them together, we may sum up the whole by saying, that 
 they have been but experiments towards freedom, and, without excep 
 tion, unsuccessful experiments. Knowing comparatively little of the 
 sweets of real liberty, they seem to be not very ambitious for its 
 attainment; but a sluggish "supineness renders them insensible to its 
 value. An amusing illustration of this occurred not many years ago 
 at Chili. At a dinner given to some officers of an American vessel on 
 the fourth of July, one of our officers gave as a toast, " General Wash 
 ington," when a Chilian followed with " The hundred Washingtons of 
 South America !" In the republics of South America, which pre 
 serve the blood and the indolent pride of the Spaniards, constitutions 
 are destroyed hourly, by the will of some Dictator ; and the people, 
 after a transient appearance in tj^ career of civilization, fall back 
 into the darkness of barbarism, and are not even conscious that they 
 have been free for a day. Society, in short, stumbles at the first step 
 it attempts to take forward, and falls helpless at the entrance of that 
 path in which modern civilization springs forward, radiant and 
 proud, to the goal.* While we, in common with the civilized world, 
 have been constructing our railroads and steamships, many of the 
 natives of these States pursue the barbarous custom of travelling on 
 the back of a man, or of a mule, and thus pursue journeys of several 
 
 * Malte-Brun. 
 
352 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 days across a stony and rugged country. Every species of social 
 and moral degradation seems to prevail. The principal occupation 
 of the wealthier class consists in doing nothing ; that of the majority 
 something worse surrendering themselves to filthiness and vice. 
 
 It has been already intimated that the superior progress in civili 
 zation of the United States is the fruit of the Protestant faith. It is 
 to the refining, elevating, and hallowing influences of a pure Christi 
 anity, that we trace the high developments of social and civil order 
 to which Protestant America has attained. The Bible is the bul 
 wark of a nation s safety and success. Need we proofs, we have the 
 fact amply illustrated in the comparative civilizations of the northern 
 and southern portions of our own continent. 
 
 A few men land, one by one, on the shores of North America, poor, 
 humble, and unknown ; they bring with them but one book, the Bible; 
 they open it on the rocky strand, and begin immediately to construct 
 their infant community or commonwealth in accordance with its sa 
 cred order, subordinating all to its claims. Their sympathies and aims 
 are one in the common faith, and hope of its teachings. Amid the 
 frosts of winter, and on a rugged, sterile soil, yet are they all undis 
 mayed. 
 
 " See the calmness and boldness of these men : we discover in the 
 constitution of this rising empire, the fire of Luther united with the 
 coolness of Calvin. Fancy pictures the scene all glowing with Chris 
 tian beauty and heroism ; with the sound of the axe and hammer, 
 mingles the chant of a psalm. Qlleir firm faith in the favor of their 
 God renders them indifferent to dread of the desolate wilderness. 
 The light of Heaven sanctifies their toil ; and by a sort of social mir 
 acle the wilderness, and the solitary place, is made to blossom as the 
 rose. Where once was the rude wigwam of the savage, we now be 
 hold thousands of cities, towns, and hamlets, filled with the abodes of 
 peace and plenty. 
 
 " Look we on another picture. The proud monarchy of Spain sends 
 her stately viceroy and armament, accompanied with the sanctions and 
 pomp of Rome, to a country and a clime of luxuriant fertility, and which 
 
MEXICO AND THE SOUTH AMERICAN STATES. 353 
 
 is known to abound in the precious metals. As if to render the contrast 
 of circumstances the more convincing, nature herself seems to echo 
 to her Maker s voice. In order that the test may be the more decisive, 
 every physical advantage seems to be in favor of the mission of Ro 
 manism. But while all around is grand and gigantic, glowing with 
 exuberant life and fertility, man is here in weakness, imbecility, and 
 vice. He is under the vassalage of a spiritual thraldom, which effect 
 ually prevents the development of his moral and intellectual nature. 
 To all the noble incentives to action he is alike indifferent ; he is the 
 victim of supineness, indolence, and immorality. 
 
 " What means this wondrous sterility in a new world, except that 
 the idea brought thither had given elsewhere all its fruit ; that Ro 
 manism, essentially conservative during, three ages, has lost power of 
 impulse the creative spirit ; and that, henceforth, she is incapable of 
 giving to the wide expanse the word alone pregnant of a new social 
 world ; that her soul, imprisoned in the cathedrals of the mediaeval 
 ages, has no longer the strength of divine tempests to purify chaos and 
 baptize continents. 
 
 " Let these nations of the South do wjaat they will, they end inevi 
 tably by realizing in their government the ideal which they have in 
 scribed on their state religion, that is, absolute power. All they can 
 do is to change dictators, and thus we see them succeed in nothing 
 but in tightening the bands of their thraldom. Progressive punish 
 ment ! South America lies as it were at the foot of a vast upas-tree, 
 ever distilling its torpor, while the trunk, rooted in another continent, 
 remains visible."* 
 
 " The Spaniards, in spite of unexampled barbarities, which have 
 covered them with lasting shame, have not succeeded in exterminat 
 ing the Indian race, nor even in hindering their sharing their rights. 
 The Americans of the United States have attained this double result, 
 with a wonderful facility ; quietly, legally, philanthropic-ally, without 
 bloodshed, without violating, in the eyes of the world, any of the 
 great principles of morality ."f 
 
 * M. Quinet. t De Tocqueville. 
 
354 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 If respect for its laws be the test of the morality of a country, tho 
 South American States will be found miserably bankrupt in this par 
 ticular : for hardly a day passes that is not the witness of the execu 
 tion of some political offender, while "the United States of North 
 America," writes M. De Tocqueville, " is, I think, the only country 
 upon earth, where, for the last fifty years, not a single individual has 
 been put to death for political crimes. There is not a single manu 
 factory in Buenos Ayres that takes advantage of the products of the 
 soil : thus the country grows poorer and poorer.* It is the same in 
 all the republics of South America. The laws are wholly inopera 
 tive to suppress crime, consequently vices of the most hideous and 
 revolting character obtain to an alarming extent. The social rela 
 tions of life are in a state of moral putrefaction the most extreme 
 licentiousness prevails, and society exists only in name ; its phases are 
 as dark and degraded as in pagan lands. What a fearful responsibil 
 ity, then, must attach to that pre.tended system of religion which, 
 having absolute will over the minds and property of the people, can 
 sanction and perpetuate such a state of things ! 
 
 The South American " republics" teach the people of the United 
 States the evils of a corrupt religion connected with the State, and 
 the fearful consequences of intestine broils. Every month witnesses 
 a revolution in some one of these distracted countries ; and in the 
 objectless struggles, neighbors and relatives imbue each other s hands 
 in fraternal blood. Military executions constantly take place, and the 
 patriot, and the ignorant victim of designing usurpers, are shot like 
 dogs, and consigned to the earth. The imagination cannot compre 
 hend the future of these countries ; they seem every year to fall lower 
 and lower in the scale of civilization. Arts, commerce, and the fruits 
 of peace are decaying away. Nothing flourishes, but the processions 
 the feast-days the pomps and ceremonies of the Roman Church. 
 
 * M. D Orbigny. 
 
AMERICA, THE THEATRE OF THE GREAT 
 DEMONSTRATION. 
 
 * Into the full enjoyment of all which Europe has reached only through such slow and painful 
 Steps, we sprang at once, by the Declaration of Independence, and by the establishment of free 
 representative government ; government, borrowing more or less ffom the models of other free 
 States, but strengthened, secured, and improved in their symmetry, and deepened in their founda 
 tion, by those great men of our own country, whose names will be as familiar to future times as 
 if they were written on the arch of the sky." WEBSTER. . 
 
 IT must strike every reflective mind, that ours is no history of 
 mere chance, or even of simple fortune. This gigantic country, 
 stretched between so many parallels of latitude, its shores washed 
 by the two great oceans of. the world, its past so wonderful, its pres 
 ent so great with mighty promises, this America does not exist 
 without a purpose, as if the careless hand of Chance had origi 
 nated it, with no designed place among the other countries of the 
 world, and no grand promise to perform for the regeneration of man 
 kind. It is not possible, even for him who affects to disbelieve in 
 the providence and the power of a God, to imagine that an exist 
 ence like ours ever sprung out of the chaos of accident, or was the 
 unlooked-for fruit of circumstances which never felt the guidance of 
 a Supreme, controlling hand. 
 
 That w r e are specially deputed to begin and to carry out success 
 fully the greatest social and political problem in the world s destiny, 
 is enough to fill the breast of every man with hope-felt determina 
 tion, for it commands our thoughts, our energies, and our faith. The 
 sooner our citizens recognize this feeling, the speedier and the more 
 energetic must be the steps in that great demonstration in which we 
 are certainly the accredited principals. If individuals have a destiny 
 marked out for them, suited to the. inclinations and endowments of 
 their natures, must it not be equally true that nations, made up 
 
356 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 of vast masses of individuals, with all these same endowments and 
 inclinations, have as large a share in the plans of that Providence 
 which both rules and loves the world ? 
 
 In our country, all things are new; and we ought heartily to thank 
 God for having cast our lot, with this mighty experiment, too, in our 
 keeping, in a locality where the fetters that belong to an old and 
 effete society are not known. We often speak of our vast virgin 
 soil, hiding nutriment enough in its bosom to sustain the entire 
 population of our globe ; but have we not as good cause to boast 
 of that fresh and virgin-like way of thought, and that childlike and 
 impulsive style of sentiment, which hitherto has made the despots 
 and proud nobles of the Old World regard us with ineffable disgust, 
 but which is now beginning to challenge real respect and admiration 
 everywhere ? 
 
 Yes, let us thank God that with us, in this experiment on which 
 we have entered, all things are new. Let us sing praises that we 
 are neither hemmed in by any other tyranny than what we are free 
 to impose upon ourselves, nor made timid by any of those eternal 
 suspicions which rob older nations of their energy and their peace. 
 
 It is sufficiently apparent to even the least attentive observer, that 
 the masses of Europe are fast growing restive under the old yokes 
 and dominions ; that the instinctive sentiment of manhood is rapidly 
 rising and overgrowing every other idea in the breasts of the gov 
 erned ; that the millions of silent subjects in Europe are expectant 
 of a dawn that shall call on them to rise from their sleep to the free 
 dom of a glorious day. Who can tell how much of this is the natu 
 ral result of our own quiet and dignified example ? Or who will say 
 how much these events in the world have, under God., been hastened 
 by the steady and silent illumination which we have been offering 
 for now three-fourths of a century ? Such things as these are evi 
 dences enough of the depth of the sentiment of freedom, native in 
 all breasts ; as well as of the strength of that influence which our 
 own country must of necessity exert wherever her institutions are 
 generally known. 
 
THE GREAT DEMONSTRATION. 357 
 
 The past history of the world points with an unerring finger to 
 America as the nation where all its old, and bloody, and unhappy 
 experiences, are to be spoken. of only as things belonging to darker 
 times, to clouded intellects, and corrupt hearts ; where what was 
 bad is forever to be put behind us, and what is good is forever to 
 allure us along ; where oppression shall cease to be the law, and 
 freedom no longer be the exception ; where those true and lofty senti 
 ments which belong to the human race, are henceforth to be allowed 
 room for indefinite expansion ; where government is to cease to be a 
 crushing process upon the integrity of the heart and intellect, but is 
 to take its very root and sustenance in the intelligent consent of those 
 who are governed ; and where the great truth, that peace is the natu 
 ral political condition of the human family, and love is the loftiest 
 and most absolute law, is to be not simply propounded, but proved. 
 
 Such are the important truths to the existence of which we, as a 
 people, are to testify. This is the time for us to bear willing testi 
 mony, as we are the nation to whom the responsibility has been in 
 trusted. Whether we will or no, our destiny, our history, our na 
 ture, our geographical position, our very inclinations, all conspire 
 to point us to our duty. 
 
 If we- will but take the map and glance at the present geographi 
 cal boundaries of our country, we shall see in a moment what a wide 
 field for carrying forward this great political experiment we are in pos 
 session of. We people a variety of climates, such as no other nation 
 on the face of the earth ever held direct ownership in. Our soil is 
 calculated to furnish all the productions needed for the comfort and 
 sustenance of man. W T e lie between the extreme latitudes of the 
 temperate belt of the earth s surface, a position of infinite conse 
 quence, when considered in connection with the world s past history ; 
 for it has been said with truth, that in none but temperate climates 
 have the great deeds of human history been performed. The state 
 ment is well worth serious thought : it is, that nations only that are 
 occupants of the temperate regions of the northern hemisphere, ever 
 governed the world. 
 
 16* 
 
358 A VOICE TO AMEBICA. 
 
 Let us see how such a statement is supported by foots : 
 
 Below the tropic of Capricorn, there is hardly enough of Africa to 
 attract notice. South America lies chiefly between the two tropics, 
 and has never brought forward any special claims either on the world s 
 notice or admiration. Within the Arctic Circle, there is no better 
 hope held out to the world ; nor, in fact, has it ever been at all dif 
 ferent through the whole course of history. Only one almost eternal 
 winter reigns, against the long torpor of which men have but a very 
 brief time to make provision, and during which term, all life, whether 
 physical or spiritual, seems wrapped in fatal lethargy. 
 
 Now, if we leave these two extremes of the earth s surface, and 
 come within the limits that geographically form the temperate zone, 
 we find, in the first place, Asia, with a population of from five to six 
 hundred millions, swarming, like .bees in a busy hive. What great 
 events in the drama of the world s history has not Asia brought 
 forth ? On her prolific soil was set the cradle of mankind ; there 
 Christ was born, there he delivered his message of love to mankind, 
 and there was he at length crucified. There, too, were the great and 
 powerful cities of antiquity ; there lived and reigned David and Sol 
 omon ; tliere spake the Apostles and the Prophets. The arts first 
 saw their existence there and science, and learning, and religion. 
 In Asia, commerce first made men restless and energetic, and drove 
 them to seek shorter routes to the parts of the world beyond them. 
 
 In Europe, the illustration is still more complete. There, exists a 
 population numbering about two hundred and fifty millions, of vari 
 ous races and languages. In resources of every description physi 
 cal, intellectual, or purely spiritual that population is astonishingly 
 rich. We need but rehearse their deeds, to convince our reader 
 of the vast native superiority of such a people over all others of the 
 Old World. We have only to mention the names of Greece and 
 Rome, to start in every mind the right thoughts on this subject. Of 
 the world s great poets, who has not heard of Virgil and Homer? 
 Of her orators, to whom are not the names of Demosthenes and 
 Cicero familiar ? Who has not yet heard of Plato ? of Socrates ? of 
 
THE GREAT DEMONSTRATION. 359 
 
 Aristotle ? of Alexander ? And to whose ears are not the sounds of 
 both Caesar and Brutus like " household words T 
 
 But such an historical recital is needless. Every intelligent Ameri 
 can citizen is well aware of the truth of these things, and how forcibly 
 they bear on the point which we design to illustrate. All tend to show 
 that over this belt of the temperate zone have passed, from the begin 
 ning, the power, the energy, and the promise of the world s final 
 exaltation and redemption. 
 
 Exactly within this same favored limit, lies our own country. The 
 United States of North America form a new nation in the history of 
 the world. We are a people, likewise, whose government, both in its 
 form and principles, is wholly peculiar. Nothing like it has the 
 world ever seen or known before. In developing the details of such 
 a form of government, we certainly have shown ourselves, thus far, 
 both apt and energetic shrinking from no responsibilities, and rising 
 to the heights of heroism itself by the mere force and fulness of faith 
 in our destiny. Having sprung from a race peculiarly educated, by 
 means of the experiences of the generations gone before, we were 
 first fitted, by this wise dispensation of Providence, for the reception 
 of the broad and deep principles which pertain to our civil existence. 
 
 We have, then, to say, in the first place, respecting ourselves, tha-t 
 though perhaps as yet behind some of the European countries in par 
 ticular fields of science, or literature, or general learning, we may, 
 nevertheless, challenge the whole world in fair comparison with our 
 people for general intelligence, for intellectual activity, for practical 
 learning, for bold and comprehensive thought, and for striking and 
 energetic action. The Americans combine elements in their charac 
 ter that no people, as a whole, ever possessed before. No sooner 
 does a new or progressive idea become born in their brain, than it 
 is forced into the notice and approbation of the world. 
 
 See how we cut the waters of rivers thousands of miles long, and 
 plough our way majestically across the stormiest ocean of the globe. 
 Count up the almost interminable lines of railroad over which steam 
 is made to whirl us every day, and destined yet to lace a continent 
 
360 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 many times across. See with what overwhelming yet steady energy 
 we tunnel mountains, skirt fearful precipices, fly over rolling prairies, 
 and drive on with a noise of thunder to the extreme boundaries of 
 the broad continent. All this, too, the work of a small cycle of 
 years. And our experiments with electricity what amazing won 
 ders have been wrought in" the briefest breath of time ! The world 
 may well look on astonished, though it hardly fills us at home with 
 the same emotion. We comprehend now the answer to the sublime 
 question put to Job : " Canst thou send lightnings, that they may 
 go, and say unto thee, Here we are! " And we feel that tins is 
 all but an experiment as yet, and so toil earnestly on after new victo 
 ries, and the achievement of still grander successes. We are not yet 
 content with this ; we are content with nothing. Our action is fully up 
 
 o / x 
 
 with our national motto, that watchword of the future " Onward !" 
 
 We have conquered earth, air, water, and lightning successively. 
 We have taught mankind how all things were at the first designed 
 for their happiness and comfort, and that nothing was wanting but 
 ingenuity and energy to unlock the hidden treasures of a globe. 
 Our material greatness is not paralleled by that of any nation in 
 existence. Wealth has flooded our coffers, and enabled us gener 
 ously to offer a helping hand to the less fortunate ones of the world. 
 Power has consequently increased, until we are acknowledged to bo 
 one of the great nations of Christendom a nation on which are fixed 
 the eager eyes of all mankind. And, to carry out the point still fur 
 ther, our population has increased in a ratio that seems really incom 
 prehensible. The mind itself is hardly rapid enough to keep pace 
 with the facts thus presented. It cannot be very long, at the present 
 ratio of increase, before we shall have a population on our soil denser 
 even than that which makes old China the standing wonder of the 
 earth. And this crowded and busy people, alive to the vanquishment 
 of time, space, and matter, must be the people from whose midst will 
 go forth the manifold influences that are to subjugate all men and all 
 things to their high sway. We do not contend that this new gov 
 ernment will be in any way related to the tyrannies that have hith- 
 
THE GREAT DEMONSTRATION. 361 
 
 erto cast nothing but gloomy shadows over the hearts of mankind ; 
 nor that it is to seize hold of men and compel them to obey, or even 
 to believe ; but that in such a government will reside the spirit and 
 essence of freedom, more than any other element, that it will bring 
 all men eventually out of political darkness into a world of mental 
 light, that it will succeed everywhere in establishing and vindica 
 ting individual manhood, and that, with their native rights restored 
 to them, men will at once feel new responsibilities, and assert their 
 true claims to all that is high, and great, and holy in their nature. 
 
 This is plainly our mission. Is it not one of unsurpassed grandeur, 
 both in itself and its results ? Power for ages has gradually been 
 moving westward, exactly through this geographical belt of the earth. 
 Each successive step has been attended with still more important 
 results. Every westward remove of this power has been marked 
 with the burning of a still brighter light, and has left behind it a 
 still more luminous track for mankind to gaze upon. It has now 
 struck the Atlantic shore of North America, and, in a space of time 
 almost incredible, has pushed its rapid way to the Pacific boundary. 
 When it leaps that ocean, it gets back on its old ground again, and 
 thus in its course the highest form of civilization has girdled the 
 world. . 
 
 Young and vigorous as America is, its youth and vigor are not to 
 be wasted in dreams. Nor is there much fear, either, that such will 
 be the case. Some timidly caution us against going " too fast," pro 
 fessing ignorance of where our destiny may lead us. That, however, 
 seems plain enough to a mind possessed of true faith. Our course is 
 clear ;. our mistakes are soon corrected by the aid of experience ; our 
 successes overwhelm the warnings of the hopeless, and bid us on. 
 
 We see, then, that the United States offer the field for the fair 
 trial of this great experiment of man. The experiment is, to learn 
 whether men are of more worth than things ; and if autocracies, 
 and monarchies, and all tyrannies, disguise them as you may, 
 are not violent usurpations of the very laws of existence. Upon 
 our fortunes rests the destiny of the world. Our success and our 
 
362 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 example are making all peoples restive ; our moral strength is more 
 powerful than fleets, more dreaded by tyrants than unnumbered men 
 in arms. We are to conquer, but not by the sword. We arc to 
 subjugate, but not by violence. All nations are to come under the 
 sway of our principles, but never are they to pass under any yoke. 
 All is to be freedom and light, and the eye is to see as clearly as at 
 the noonday. Whatever is done, will be done in the direction of a 
 single purpose: and that is, the emancipation of our race. We are 
 not working for mere wealth ; nor position ; nor social consideration ; 
 but while laboring for all these, we are insensibly helping on the 
 great cause, and solving the grand problem of a world s freedom. 
 
 America not even yet thinly populated is the battle-field where 
 the contest is waged between the armies of freedom and tyranny. 
 Every sign points to this imposing fact. Here the last great onset 
 must be made by the phalanxes of darkness, bigotry, illiberality, and 
 bondages of all descriptions ; and, under God, if Americans are but 
 true to themselves and their principles, here will occur a glorious 
 victory for freedom and truth a victory having the regeneration of 
 man for its object, and the happiness of the universe for its result. 
 
SECRET POLITICAL ASSOCIATIONS, 
 
 THEIR USE AND ABUSE 
 
 " A proper secrecy is the only mystery of able men : mystery is the only secrecy of weak and 
 cunning ones." CHESTERFIELD. 
 
 "A fool s mouth is his destruction." SOLOMOX. 
 
 A GREAT outcry has, of late, been raised against the use of Secrecy 
 in political organization and action. It seems to be taken for granted 
 that a secret mode of operation is sufficient to condemn the operator 
 and his work, with all honest men. The prevailing mode of discuss 
 ing the question is so very shallow and insufficient, that we shall here 
 attempt to put it in its proper light, by considering the principle of 
 secrecy in human action, and secret practices in American politics. 
 
 Very little argument is needed to prove, in general, that Secrecy, 
 m itself, is of an indifferent quality, neither right nor wrong ; and 
 that it is only the use or abuse of it which renders it good or bad. 
 Christ himself expressly enjoined secrecy in the performance of good 
 deeds, with a force which he could not express, except by the Oriental 
 hyperbole of commanding that the left hand should not know the 
 doings of the right. Neither such actions, nor the personal religious 
 exercises of his disciples, were to be spoken of or known farther than 
 was unavoidable. Such concealment was practised by the Great 
 Master himself. Again ; how many human beings would like to be 
 deprived of the use of secrecy ? What would become of the shrewd 
 enterprises of business men, if they could not keep their secrets until 
 they are ripe ? How endurable would it be to men in general, to 
 
364: A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 know that all their memories and all their hopes the faults they 
 would fain forget, and the plans they would fain pursue were to be, 
 seen and known of all men? As long as there are individual in 
 terests and human imperfections, so long must secrecy be an iudis 
 pensable ingredient of human life. If the world were perfect whicl 
 would make it heaven secrecy would be needless. Until then, it i> 
 not only proper and useful, but absolutely indispensable ; although, 
 like every thing else, it may be perverted to wrong uses. 
 
 Without further inquiry into a truth so abstract, and so unlikely 
 to be denied, the proposition may now be laid down, that Reform* 
 (real or pretended) directed against powerful existing interests, begin 
 with Secrecy. Secrecy was the cradle of Christianity the greatest 
 Reform movement the world ever saw. Christ himself trusted in his 
 Divinity; and knew that before his time no hands would be laid on 
 him. Yet how often did he conceal himself from his enemies, once 
 even by a direct exercise of miraculous power? And after his death, 
 it is a fact as notorious as any in the whole range of history, that 
 without a practice of concealment more elaborate and profound, 
 perhaps, than any other ever known, the new-born faith would have 
 been exterminated from the face of the earth, simply by the mur 
 der of every professor of it. For years and years together, every 
 discoverable Christian had forthwith to choose between apostasy 
 and death. The reason is clear. Christianity was held to be at 
 enmity, first with the established religion of the Jews, the most 
 ferocious and unrelenting of bigots, and afterwards with the Roman 
 Imperial Power, the greatest existing interest on earth/" At the be 
 ginning, the weak young twig had to be hidden from the destruction 
 with which all the powers of the earth menaced it. But as it grew 
 up into a noble tree, it -threw off its cloak of secrecy. It retains it, 
 however, even to the present day, in countries under the domination 
 of savage Paganisms, or scarcely less savage Romanism. 
 
 The lesser reform movements before the great Protestant Reforma- 
 
 * De Quincy, Hist, and Grit. Essays, vol. ii. Secret Societies, p. 33S. 
 
SECEET POLITICAL ASSOCIATIONS. 365 
 
 tion in the sixteenth century, and indeed that Reformation itself, took 
 more or less refuge in secret investigation and secret communion ; 
 and for the same reason, viz., that open profession would have endan 
 gered the whole movement. Luther, proclaiming aloud his earliest 
 doubts of the Romish doctrines, w T ould have suddenly and silently 
 disappeared. Indeed, it was only a like disappearance into the 
 friendly concealment of the Wartburg, that saved him from the 
 actual gripe of the iron-handed Church of Rome. "Wicliffites and 
 Hussites, wherever they could be hunted out, followed the fiery path 
 to Heaven trod by their bold teachers, whose Reformations were sub 
 stantially quenched in blood. 
 
 The Romish Church is a secret organization. It distinctly claims, 
 and always attempts (and has too often succeeded), to over-influence 
 and thoroughly control and direct all civil governments. For this 
 purpose, as well as for the purpose of retaining a good hold upon the 
 people at large, its constitution has always- been essentially secret. 
 It has operated through mystic forms. It uses an unknown tongue 
 in its ritual. It wields a secret influence through the confessional. 
 It centralizes its power in the hands of one man, and so proceeds that 
 the masses of lay members, who are the basis of that power, are 
 utterly ignorant of the mode of its use. The two great instruments, 
 moreover, of the Romish Church the two griping talons which serve 
 it as his two great claws serve the lobster, to seize, hold, and crush 
 its victims are the Jesuits and the Inquisition. The Jesuit claw is 
 for governments and nations, the inquisitorial claw for individuals. 
 It is unnecessary to show how secrecy is the very life and breath of 
 these wicked engines. They could no more live or work without it, 
 than a fish could breathe without water. 
 
 This secret plotting of the Romish Church, and the secret manoeu 
 vring of its two ministering spirits, have become so notoriously and 
 undisputedly believed, that they serve to supply some of the com 
 monest and most forcible words of the English tongue. Seek out a 
 name for some false and treacherous proceeding ; for some revoltingly 
 tyrannical piece of oppression under forms of legal inquiry ; or for 
 
366 VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 the man guilty of such things; the proceedings, you say, are a 
 Jesuitical plot ; or they are an Inquisitorial proceeding. The man is 
 a Jesuit ; a crafty, Jesuitical fellow. Fasten those names on him 01 
 his schemes, and whatever an ill name can do, is done. 
 
 Yet notwithstanding this secret character perhaps we should say, 
 according to it the Romish Church has invariably sought to destroy 
 all secret organizations not professedly subordinate to it, by arms spirit 
 ual and temporal sometimes by cursing, and sometimes by burning. 
 The Freemasons were excommunicated by a Bull of Clement XII. 
 Freemasonry has been the crime for which many victims of the 
 Roman Inquisition have died in the fire, or suffered torture and con 
 fiscation. The purely literary or philosophical Illuminati and Rosi- 
 crucians in Germany, the Carbonari in Italy and France, the Free 
 masons and Odd-Fellows everywhere, have operated under open 
 opposition, and even actual persecution. 
 
 To leave organizations distinctively religious The Illuminati and 
 Rosicrucians, although they proposed only philosophical investiga 
 tions, or the moral and intellectual improvement of their members, 
 yet used doctrines so liberal as not to be orthodox in the estimation 
 of established governments ; and therefore necessarily worked secretly, 
 as long as they existed. The United Irishmen, who aimed at estab 
 lishing an independent government in Ireland, worked in the pro- 
 foundest secrecy ; were a terrible bugbear to the English government, 
 and were finally suppressed by it. The Italian Carbonari, as well as 
 their successors who are yet seeking the freedom of Italy, held their 
 lives in their hand. They existed, as they yet exist, only because 
 the Romish despots of the Peninsula could not find them. Patriot 
 Republicans, seeking the freedom of Hungary, yet live amidst the 
 oppressive and penetrating espionage of Austrian soldiers and Aus 
 trian pettifoggers, solely by secrecy. The bullet, or the hangman s 
 rope, would be their portion within the day of their discovery. 
 
 But it is needless to multiply instances. In religious, politico- 
 religious, and political movements alike, for purposes good or bad, 
 in every case when they have directly or indirectly oppose^ strong 
 
SECRET POLITICAL ASSOCIATIONS. 367 
 
 constituted interests, secrecy has been an element. Especially, it is 
 hardly possible to name an important political enterprise, successful 
 or not, which has not been nursed under a secret shadow. Our own 
 history informs us, that the Convention which framed the Constitution 
 of the United States sat with CLOSED DOORS from the 25th of May, 
 to the 17th of September following. 
 
 Few words, indeed, are more familiar to the reader of history, than 
 plot and conspiracy. We barely suggest the English Revolution of 
 1688 ; the Irish revolutionary efforts from 1780 to 1848 ; the various 
 French Revolutions ; the Hungarian Revolution ; the Italian, German, 
 and other Continental Revolutions of 1848; the periodical pop-gun 
 revolutions of Mexico and South America ; and our own Revolution 
 of 1776. The beginnings of such enterprises, according to the Greek 
 fable, must be hidden, as the baby Jupiter was on Mount Ida, other 
 wise they will be swallowed up by the powers that be ; as Saturn, 
 the constituted authority of the period, swallowed up all Jupiter s 
 little brothers and sisters ; and for a like reason. The old monster 
 knew that it was foretold that one of them should supersede him. 
 But when the new-born power has strength enough to proceed 
 openly, it does as Jupiter did it vigorously assaults and dethrones 
 the wicked Titans. 
 
 In the political management of the present day, more peaceful 
 phases of the spirit which operated the bloody plots of old times, yet 
 prevail. Secret political machinations are perhaps as numerous, and 
 as harmful, in our free nation, as in any other. Our parties originate 
 in secret scheming, and are managed by secret scheming. Who 
 knows the facts of the political life of any leading politician of the 
 present century? how. he secured a nomination; arranged with the 
 "friends" of this or that rival; secured the support of this or that 
 leading newspaper ? Mackenzie s notorious Collection of Letters is a 
 series of confidential communications passing among the set of New 
 York politicians, of whom Martin Van Buren was one. It furnishes 
 a great mass of details relating to the mingled threads of their per 
 sonal and political fortunes, as unreservedly discussed among them- 
 
368 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 selves. That collection, embracing many documents referring to the 
 lives and fortunes of Van Buren, Hoyt, Swartwout, B. F. Butler, Cam- 
 breleng, and the numerous tribe of their allies and followers, furnishes 
 the best illustration ever yet published, of the spirit and practice of 
 American politicians. And throughout the long and tortuous series 
 of transactions of which it treats, it is secrecy always, and inviolable, 
 which is assumed to be the cloak and necessary medium of all the 
 enterprises and combinations. 
 
 Was it open management that organized the opposition that lat 
 terly arose against Washington s administration, under the name of 
 the Republican party ? Was it open management that nearly made 
 Aaron Burr President of the United States ? Is it open management 
 that at the present day presents candidates for the suffrages of Ameri 
 can freemen? Did open management nominate Polk or Pierce for 
 the Presidency ? Who knows, indeed, how his own State Governor 
 was nominated and chosen ; how many sly bargains and private 
 schemes were contrived and executed to complete the present organi 
 zation of any State Legislature ? Who knows even the precise mode 
 in which were selected and appointed the municipal government of 
 his town or city, and the business committees under it, or even the 
 officers of his school district ? Who knows precisely how arc origin 
 ated and carried through such measures as the Nebraska Bill ; the 
 Collins Mail Appropriation ; or any other of the public or private 
 measures that yearly are enacted by Congress ? Who knows how the 
 State Legislature is guided ; or how the vote in town meeting or city 
 council, for or against a sewer or a park, is arranged ? It is not 
 claimed that nobody know r s, by any means. A few know ; and these 
 few take very good care not to tell. The main body of voters DO 
 NOT KNOW how or why the men for whom they vote, were set up for 
 suffrage. 
 
 It is true that the old political parties, in their " nominating con 
 ventions," proceed with open doors ; speeches are made, and resolu 
 tions adopted, but all this machinery amounts to nothing more than 
 the mere publication of the acts of secret committees, the moving 
 
SECRET POLITICAL ASSOCIATIONS. 369 
 
 cause ana reason for the resolves being unknown and unseen. When 
 the great elections are pendiag, does not each party have its secret 
 agents in Washington meeting in dark conclave flooding the 
 country with sealed packages ? And does not the party in power 
 carefully keep the key of the Post-office? Is not then the finger 
 pressed on the lips? " Say nothing !" " Keep dark !" These and 
 other cabalistic words, with all the mysterious inuendos of conspiracy, 
 are uttered with low tones and smothered breath ; and all justified, 
 commended, practised, and applauded. What, then, is there so 
 strange in the practice of the American party, desiring to keep its 
 own secrets ? 
 
 Secret management, by the retention of these "State secrets" in 
 the hands of a few astute men, who handle the caucus and conven 
 tion machinery, the parties through it, and the nation through the 
 parties ; is the whole essence of political operations in the United 
 States. Indeed, our political parties belong to tlje most perfect spe 
 cies of secret organizations, because the rank and file of the army 
 do not know its leaders. 
 
 The conclusions thus far reached in this chapter are these : 
 
 1. Secrecy is indifferent in itself, and good or bad according to the 
 use which is made of it. 
 
 2. Secrecy is often necessary in the beginnings of reformatory en 
 terprises which interfere with established interests. 
 
 3. Secrecy is an established and universal element in the usual 
 course of American politics. 
 
 The American Party is young. It has grown to its present stature 
 by the spontaneous gathering of the people to its standard, rather 
 than by the efforts of any apostles. Its strength has come volun 
 tarily from either of the two great parties, or from the increasing host 
 of political sectarians or neutrals. The active enmity of all these it 
 naturally would and did incur. The masses of these established 
 organizations were not altogether opposed, as the success of the new- 
 
370 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 comer shows, to its principles : but the leaders of them were in the 
 unhappy case of a sleeping cur whose tajl is pinched. They jumped 
 up in a fury, and barked at all creation. But they did no execution, 
 because they did not know where the trouble came from. Under 
 such irritating circumstances, it is perfectly natural that they should 
 indulge in condemnations of the very practices which are the basis 
 of their own influence. People seldom relish being attacked with 
 their own weapons. Their editorial yokefellows were in the same 
 difficulty, and were further annoyed at the slight put upon their pro 
 fessional importance. They could not discover the facts about this 
 new movement, either for their personal gratification, for paragraphs 
 and editorials in the paper, or for the use of " the party." They con 
 sidered that they had a prescriptive right to know every thing first, 
 and to tell it or not, at their discretion ; and here was something of 
 which they seemed doomed to know nothing, first or last, except by 
 its results. So they very generally joined in the outcry. It was to 
 be expected that editors, shut out from all participation, would revile 
 an organization that they knew nothing about ; and that politicians, 
 with their legs knocked from under them by invisible blows, should 
 cry out in distress as they fell into the pit which their own hands 
 had prepared. 
 
 No one doubts, however, that the safety ensuing upon this mode 
 of action has, in fact, saved the American Party from very great dan 
 gers, if not from destruction. It has confounded and confused all 
 measures of opposition. If there had in the beginning been open 
 proselyting, importunate grasping after disciples, and all the ordinary 
 " advertising department" of new enterprises, would not the usual 
 party discipline have sufficed to keep the new party down, and the 
 old ones together ? There would have been a great blustering show 
 of argument for some, and of threats and promises for others. But 
 these accustomed weapons were useless, because the enemy was invi 
 sible. There may have been very many errors in the practical details 
 of the plans adopted to secure this secrecy. It is not necessary to 
 claim perfection for human productions. But this secret mode of 
 
SECRET POLITICAL ASSOCIATIONS. 371 
 
 operating, if the history of our political parties is authority, is in itself 
 proper and defensible. 
 
 Secrecy is not a necessary constituent principle of the American 
 Party. Secrecy is an old abuse an established vicious practice of 
 the old parties. It was a temporary necessity of the new party. But 
 if the American Party has any mission in this respect, it is to break 
 up the secret mode of operating, and to introduce a new and open 
 mode of political action. It proposes to destroy the old irresponsive 
 despotism which has been exercised over the masses of the people, 
 and to introduce the present generation, for the first time, to a free 
 democratic practice in self-government. The American Party pro 
 claims the New Era of Government by the Intelligent Action of 
 American Freemen. This is now, in effect, a new principle. This 
 Intelligent Action is a necessary constituent principle of the new 
 party. And by just so much as the members of it are more intelli 
 gent, by as much the permanent maintenance of the secret mode of 
 operation is less practicable. Accordingly, the approaching end of 
 this state of things is shown by the many and significant secessions, 
 and threats of secession, which are already dividing the Party in 
 various States. Now, therefore, the American Party needs carefully 
 to consider whether henceforward an open activity a new thing in 
 American politics is not its necessary condition of success. This 
 " unprecedented attraction" will be much more potent than the veil 
 of a concealment which, after all, is enticing to the weak-minded 
 rather than attractive to the wise. 
 
 The American Party has not been organized to take advantage of 
 secrecy, as if it were a newly discovered method of political operation. 
 It has been organized to work against secret political organizations, 
 namely, the old political parties, and the Romish Church. It does 
 not attempt to introduce an unjustifiable new mode of political 
 management ; it proposes to destroy an unjustifiable old mode. It is 
 already contrasted with the old parties by its free and bold avowal 
 of that secret mode of operation which they used without avowing it. 
 It now has an opportunity to cast away even this avowed secrecy, and 
 
372 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 to enlist our voters into a great and new party a united, intelligent, 
 free and open organization of American freemen, expressing their 
 own views and wishes as to the government of their own country ; 
 when that shall have been accomplished America will be redeemed, 
 not from Popish Jesuits only, but from political Jesuits as well. Then 
 will be inaugurated the dominion of true political freedom ; of which 
 there is practically none, to-day, in these United States. 
 
THE AMERICAN REPUBLIC, THE HOPE OF THE .WORLD. 
 
 " The preservation of the sacred fire ef Liberty, and the perpetuation of the Republican model 
 of government, were considered by its founders as finally staked on the experiment intrusted to 
 the hands of the. American people." 
 
 "WASHIXGTOX. 
 
 OCRS is a period in the world s history, when great and important 
 events crowd on the attention almost too rapidly to admit of properly 
 studying them, or of estimating their consequences. The Present 
 seems to be in league with the Future, to put to open shame the 
 deeds of the Past. Events have run together so hurriedly for the last 
 half century and more, that it would appear as if the time had arrived 
 for their unravelment Where the torpor of indifference has lain 
 with its benumbing influence, symptoms are now beginning to be 
 perceptible of returning consciousness and animation. The oppressed, 
 whose energies have long been worn with the chain, are ready to 
 herald the first ray of light in their prisons, with peans that shall 
 reach the heavens. The weary-hearted are once more recruiting 
 their strength, with the hope that the beautiful dream of their souls 
 is about to find its happy realization. The blind are again groping 
 about in their cells, calling for the aid of their deliverers. All things 
 are made to feel the influence of the new spirit that rules the age. 
 
 The nations of the earth seem to be hurrying forward for the ad 
 justment of accounts long overlooked and forgotten. All are eager 
 to present their claims, and to receive, as soon as may be, the share 
 that in equity is their own. Topics are now in discussion, that, but 
 a short while ago, were left out of the category altogether. Interests 
 that, till now, never presumed to thrust themselves from the oblivion 
 in which they were buried, are now openly canvassed. Eights now 
 find a tongue, that heretofore have been unnoticed and unknown, for 
 
 17 
 
\ 
 
 374 A VOICE TO AMEEICA. 
 
 V 
 
 want of any one to advocate and plead for trtern. The times are 
 wonderfully changed. A revolution lias been wrought. The sword 
 has not done it, though the sword has been sheathed but little during 
 this long interval ; but it is the silent work of awakened and intelli 
 gent public opinion, which no power is able to withstand. It cannot 
 be cajoled from its position ; it cannot be bribed ; once fixed, it can 
 not be driven from its place by either force or fear. 
 
 For years, the continent of Europe has been the theatre of revolu 
 tions, succeeding one another with a rapidity truly astonishing. 
 France seems, from the beginning, to have been the furnace in which 
 all the fires have originated. One ruler has given place in Paris to 
 another, till it has become difficult to keep the various changes in 
 mind. Thrones have been erected and overthrown, as if they were 
 but the baubles and playthings which the greater Napoleon affected 
 to consider them. 
 
 Italy has given signs of regeneration. Throughout her >line oi 
 States, from time to time, encouraging voices have been heard in the 
 name of liberty, and now and then her people havq risen upon their 
 usurpers, to wrest from them the power they hate so wrongfully, 
 exercised. From far-off shores, the flame has bedh s seen burning- in 
 that classic laud ; and hopes have been entertained that it was a 
 bright and lasting illumination. But such hopes have all been cast 
 .down. AYith Austrian swords at their throats, and French bayonets 
 at their breasts, it was scarcely to be expected that the people of Italy- 
 could succeed in so unequal a contest. A guard is quartered now 
 in every house ; but no military surveillance can imprison those 
 expansive ideas, or the spirit of those vital principles, that spread so 
 mysteriously over the face of a land. JS"o power is sufficient to over- 
 awe those deep and scarcely audible mutterings, which presage the 
 earthquake by which all things are destined to be shaken. 
 
 The struggle of Hungary for independence adds a new and bright 
 chapter to the book of the world s history. It was an unsuccessful 
 effort ; and some may conclude that its failure established the worth- 
 lessness of the cause contended for : but the very unhappiness of the 
 
f 
 
 THE, HOPE OF THE WOKLD. 375 
 
 m 
 
 leail 
 
 issue has had the pftect to draw upon that people the sympathies 
 of liberty-loving Marts everywhere, and their example has been re 
 corded as one worthy of imitation, wherever the sound of freedom 
 has been heard. Hungary reposes ; but we believe that hers is the 
 rest which recruits the strength, and precedes other and more earnest 
 efforts in the cause for which her energies have been exhausted. 
 She fell by treachery, more than by the combination of foreign ene 
 mies ; and when her tattered ensigns are lifted again from the dust, 
 the wish of all American hearts will be, that they may lead on her 
 armies to the speedy and successful achievement of her freedom. 
 
 The German States from time tq^tinie have felt the throes of this 
 mighty convulsion. Of all others, they seemed the least likely to 
 resist the current of liberal ideas. They were the earliest to hail the 
 light that came dancing over the/earth, and welcomed it with hearts 
 that had been tutored to the love of liberty. Great things were ex 
 pected of them, and great things should have been performed. But 
 the spirit was not universal. .It had not yet struck deep root in the 
 common heart. The masses had not yet gone far enough in that 
 school of bitter experience which inculcates high resolves in man. 
 The existing ord^r of things carried a preponderating influence which 
 was hard to overcome. The ancient and time-honored barriers it was 
 difficult to remove ; but another and a far mightier obstacle was, the 
 close and compact union of absolutism in its own defence. Monarchy 
 was made to feel that upon this one effort might forever depend its 
 existence. The conspiracy was successful. The weary ones, whose 
 faith had been so enduring in behalf of their holy cause, succumbed 
 to the pressure they could no longer resist, and took up their abode 
 in foul prisons^ wandered, sad-hearted, abroad, to eat the- bread of 
 exiles, or laM down and died, desponding forever of freedom. 
 
 If we scan the history of Europe for the last few years, it will 
 offer us little else than a confused record of struggles and repulses, of 
 efforts and disappointments, of hopes and fears, of popular outbreaks 
 and tyrannical usurpations. Sometimes, indeed, the rulers, trembling 
 for their immediate safety, have granted concessions, in order to ap- 
 
376 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 pease the popular clamor ; but on regaining power, all these conces 
 sions have been blotted out, and tyranny has become more exacting 
 than ever. In this, absolutism was only true to its own nature. As 
 soon as it was safe to lay aside the mask, it never failed to exhibit its 
 true character in all its hideous proportions. jSTot once has it offered 
 gifts to the people, which it did not, at $ie time, resolve to take back 
 again, with usurious interest. 
 
 Austria, Prussia, Russia, France what else can the eye fasten itself 
 upon in scanning the history of their more recent acts, but records of 
 murder, of imprisonment, of fines and confiscations, of banishment, 
 of leagues against liberty, of cruelty and tyranny in all their multi 
 plied forms ? Where is the hope to-day that their people are making 
 themselves ready to go forward with the conflict that will reward 
 them with freedom ? How many of the population of those empires 
 are languishing abroad at this moment, dying lingering deaths far 
 from home and friends, rather than swear away the freedom of their 
 consciences at the dictation of crowned conspirators ! Who shall tell 
 the number, or the acuteness of their sufferings ? Who shall estimate 
 the depth of that grief which seems able to consume both body and 
 soul together ? 
 
 Europe is now a seething caldron. The great game of the kings, 
 carried on so long with impunity, at last appears to be completely 
 blocked. The rulers are at a stand. Events have mastered ambi 
 tious men ; and the extended laws of cause and effect, running silently 
 through a course of centuries, at length seem about to vindicate their 
 supreme authority. Politics is now another name for confusion. Min 
 isters study and scheme how they may extricate their royal masters 
 from their dilemma, and give over their efforts with exclamations of 
 mortification and despair. The rulers grasp their sceptres more 
 firmly, fearing that it cannot be long ere they must give them up 
 forever. Cabinets have grown timid, and dare not assert with former 
 boldness the policy of their several courts. There is a manifest want 
 of confidence everywhere. Armies are called into service, till there 
 are scarcely any men left to recruit them. The treasuries are de- 
 
THE HOPE OF THE WORLD. 377 
 
 pleted by enormous drafts, and bankruptcy and ruin threaten nations 
 that but yesterday were prolific in resources. 
 
 But in the midst of this inextricable confusion, certain signs are 
 beginning to betoken the increasing interest which foreign countries 
 take in our national welfare. We see, from time to time, symptoms 
 of a more decided leaning to republicanism. Here and there sturdy 
 words are spoken at the right time and in the right place in our 
 behalf. The spirit and principles of our government find admiring 
 friends where it was least to be expected. Our institutions are criti 
 cised and commented on in an appreciative temper, and without that 
 rancor and prejudice which was once so certain to be excited, by the 
 mere mention of our name. 
 
 It is too important a truth for any of us to overlook, that the 
 American Republic is the home of Liberty, and the final hope of the 
 world. Through the efficacy of her example and her teachings, 
 must redemption finally come. We hold the treasure in our own 
 keeping ; we are the trustees of a possession that is to enrich man 
 kind. On our soil dwells that living spirit, which is, in time, to 
 overthrow error, tear away the deceits of usurpation, deprive tyranny 
 of its power, and everywhere animate the human soul with the belief 
 that freedom was coeval with its birth. 
 
 If the world may not hope in us, then all hope is in vain. The 
 experiment of a free government is one with which we have made 
 ourselves familiar. With the institutions which belong to such a form 
 of government, we have an acquaintance that is practical, and thus 
 the more valuable. Their spirit has infused itself into our habits, 
 our customs, and our ways of thought. If these privileges are worthy 
 to be perpetuated, none ought to be more eager and earnest in the 
 performance of such a work, than we who have so freely enjoyed 
 them ; and it should therefore be a labor of love with us, to publish 
 their blessings to the world. 
 
 Foreign rulers no doubt regard us with jealousy, convinced that 
 our system is incompatible with the secure existence of their own. 
 It must be so, in the very nature of things. The work of Republi- 
 
378 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 canism is a silent one, because it deals with the understanding alone. 
 Other systems put forth military power, to crush out opposition by 
 brute force, and to secure acquiescence by fear. But true Liberty 
 has no such murderous weapons in her armory. The means bv 
 which she works are those that soonest disarm tyranny, and bring 
 usurpers to confusion. She appeals not to prejudice, but to reason. 
 She overcomes opposition, not with opposition, but with the teaching 
 of sublime truths that cannot be resisted. 
 
 Americans should not forget their invaluable trust. They should 
 be as true as their forefathers to the hope which is committed into 
 their keeping. Through menace, and artifice, and open opposition, 
 they should walk undaunted ; holding their way with the resolute 
 ness that will take them out of the reach of fear, and vindicating by 
 every act of their lives those immortal truths which form the broad 
 basis of our national existence. 
 
 Above all things, sectionalism is to be frowned upon as the worst 
 enemy known to the republic. Let it come from what quarter it 
 may, the heart that harbors the thought of it without fear, and with 
 out regret, is nowise worthy of the stamp of the American name. 
 They who cherish it with the hope thereby of raising their individual 
 fortunes, will certainly be classed with the Arnolds and Iscariots of 
 our race. 
 
 It is a monstrous thing, that after so many years of national pros 
 perity, the men can be found who dare openly excite one portion of 
 our people against the other. Honest differences of opinion are to 
 be looked for, and open expressions of those differences are a neces 
 sary consequence ; but to excite treason, to inflame sectional preju 
 dices, to build up barriers between one State and another, to breed a 
 swarm of pestilential sentiments that threaten to infest the laud like 
 a plague, is to put one s self without the pale of honorable American 
 citizenship, and beyond the reach of honest men s consideration. 
 
 If we are to possess a nationality of our own, we must become 
 one people. There can be no strength to the national character, if 
 its forces are dissipated by domestic divisions. Unless we are able 
 
THE HOPE OF THE WORLD. 379 
 
 to stand together, we must straightway fall in pieces. The moment 
 unity begins to relax, disease and death set in with all their ravaging 
 train. Differences should exist only as spurs to efforts of greater 
 patriotism. If they take hold on the character of citizenship itself 
 qualifying its value and demeaning its rank, they become mischiefs 
 instead of aids, and ought to be silenced, even at the cost of the 
 greatest sacrifices. 
 
 In so vast an area as that comprised within the limits of the United 
 States, it would not be at all strange if there were a great diversity of 
 interests. It is to be expected that, on numberless subjects of local 
 concern, the inhabitants of the different sections should entertain di 
 rectly opposite opinions. Nothing is potent to counteract the effect 
 of these divisions, and to draw together the widely separated interests 
 of our extended country, but some sentiment that shall take a deeper 
 root in the heart than mere interest, and control all other influences 
 by its superior power. We look in vain to any other sentiment for 
 the performance of this work, than that of love for one s country. 
 Once fixed in the heart, there is no supplanting it. It is strong 
 enough to shape all the affections and interests that are recorded in 
 the list of our common humajiity. 
 
 And if other people are to be found whose hearts beat quick at the 
 mention of their country s name, Americans have reasons a thousand 
 fold stronger for laying all their nobler feelings on the altar of patri 
 otism. We are addressed by considerations such as appeal to no 
 other people on the face of the earth ; we have entered on an experi 
 ment without a parallel in the history of the world ; we are seeking 
 great and hidden truths ; we hold the hopes of all liberty in our 
 hands ; and the wise men of other nations are watching the course of 
 our star with both jubilant and prayerful emotions. Surrounded by 
 such stern realities, and weighed down with these vast responsibilities, 
 imposed by Heaven itself, he must utterly fail to understand his true 
 relations to his fellow-men, or even to discern the meaning of his own 
 existence, who remains indifferent to the great circumstances that 
 beset his situation. 
 
380 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 There is no safety for us, except in unity of feeling and harmony 
 ~, of action. "We must learn to consider the whole country as dear to 
 our hearts as any single part of it ; to forget the too ready feelings 
 which promote distrust and alienation; to cherish every true and 
 noble sentiment that enfolds within its embrace the welfare of the 
 whole of our common country ; to cultivate feelings of brotherhood 
 and peace ; to hold steadily up to contemplation the one idea of our 
 high American name and nationality. 
 
 No consideration should be allowed to take precedence of a spirit 
 of patriotism. Our country before all things, should be both the 
 sentiment and the motto. Union as well as liberty, should be on 
 every one s tongue. Nationality as well as freedom, should vitalize 
 the thought of every one s heart. No great good can be permanently 
 secured, except by generous and oft-repeated sacrifices. No human 
 institutions can hope for stability, unless they are founded in the 
 deepest human conviction of their necessity, and sustained by the 
 perpetual heroism of those to whom their value is apparent. "We 
 must either be brethren, or become aliens to the memories of the 
 past, W 7 e must sink jealousies in nobler considerations, or lose sio-ht 
 of all the promises of our glorious future. We must earnestly de 
 termine to be nothing but AMERICANS, knowing no greater name, 
 and resolved that there shall be no greater nation, and at once the 
 bright inheritance becomes ours, and our grandest hopes leap forward 
 to their swift realization. 
 
I. 
 
 SECKET SOCIETIES AXD OATHS. 
 
 JUDGE GAYLE, of Alabama, formerly a Whig member of Congress, 
 and a prominent man in his State and elsewhere, has written an able 
 letter to some of his personal friends, from which we make the fol 
 lowing extracts, bearing upon the political topics of the day. After 
 considering and endorsing the platform of the American party as 
 maintaining the great principles of free government, he gives reasons 
 which ought to commend his views to all good citizens. 
 
 This remarkable party was formed some eighteen months since, to correct the 
 flagrant abuses which had crept into public affairs, and which threatened the 
 most serious consequences to the union of the States and the government. The 
 arts of demagogues, and the corrupt practices of the two great parties of the 
 country, had trained the public mind to regard with indifference, if not with 
 approbation, the advancement of men without merit to the high and responsible 
 trusts of the government, which had hitherto been reserved as the reward of 
 experience, of wisdom, of tried patriotism, and of elevated and enlightened 
 statesmanship. 
 
 Each of these parties professed to have some good principles, it is true, but 
 all observing men witnessed, with disgust, the total disregard and abandonment 
 of these principles in disgraceful and revolting scrambles for office. 
 
 The extraordinary increase of the foreign population had been witnessed with 
 concern by all considerate Americans. Tides of immigration had wafted to our 
 shores, in almost countless numbers, the people of all nations and all countries 
 of all grades, classes, and conditions from the haughty Briton to the grovel 
 ling, besotted Chinaman ; from the high-toned, educated gentleman, to the ig 
 norant serf and convicted felon : all demanding and all alike admitted (none are 
 
 17* 
 
382 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 ever rejected) to the privileges of the ballot-box, thereby filling our halls of 
 legislation with men of their own choice, and exerting a commanding influence 
 in the passage of laws for the government of this American country of ours. 
 
 They had seen these people occupying, as they are constantly doing, exten 
 sive districts of country in large communities to themselves having but little 
 intercourse with our. citizens, without which they can never acquire the true 
 American impression of our government, or imbibe the true spirit of our laws. 
 
 They had seen them form separate societies and associations, and organizing 
 into large military bodies, to the exclusion of our people, showing an aversion 
 to incorporate with them, or to assume the American character, and evincing 
 a preference for the manners, habits, customs, and institutions of their respec 
 tive nations. 
 
 They had seen them convene in large political assemblies, and with charac 
 teristic arrogance demand changes in our constitution and laws to suit the pe 
 culiar views in which they had been trained and educated from infancy. 
 
 And above all, and worse than all, they had witnessed the degradation of the 
 country in^our national legislature, by the passage of laws conferring upon un- 
 naturalized foreigners the full right of suffrage in the territories, and all the 
 other rights, privileges, and immunities which form the priceless heritage; of the 
 native-born citizen, in total disregard of the Constitution, which confers on 
 Congress the power to pass uniform naturalization laws only. 
 
 The allegiance of these aliens is wholly due to the crowned heads of the 
 countries from which they emigrated. They have no right to claim the protec 
 tion of our government, _or to petition for a redress of grievances. In case of 
 war with the nations to which they belong, as alien enemies, they would be lia 
 ble to be seized under the laws of Congress, to have their goods confiscated, and 
 themselves imprisoned or sent out of the country. And yet it is upon these 
 people, composed, as a large majorirty are known to be, of the vicious dregs of 
 European society, that authority is conferred of controlling the ballot-box, and 
 of exercising the high and responsible functions of our territorial governments. 
 The right of suffrage has also been conferred on aliens in some of the States. 
 
 Now, if the foreign population has, at this early period of our history, ac 
 quired such commanding influence in our national and state legislatures, it re 
 quires no prophetic sagacity to predict that the day is not distant when they 
 will control the destinies of this great republic. 
 
 This idea has strongly and universally impressed itself upon the public mind, 
 and given rise to that truly noble and patriotic sentiment that "Americans shall 
 " rule America." This sentiment proclaims the existence of that intense Ameri 
 can feeling and love of country which is a surer safeguard of our liberties than 
 all our constitutions, and which can never more than partially animate the bo 
 som of the foreigner, because nature has given him the same inspiration for his 
 own native land. 
 
 The correction of these and other abuses, to the dangers of which no one can 
 be indifferent, was the principal inducement to the formation of the American 
 
APPENDIX. 383 
 
 party. They saw that they had their origin mainly if not entirely in our natur 
 alization laws. A million and a half of American voters have banded together 
 in one great political brotherhood to cause these laws to be repealed or modi 
 fied; and roused and animated as they are by the feeling just stated, you can 
 no more defeat them, in their purposes, than you can suppress the feeling 
 itself. 
 
 The feature of this remarkable American party that has been deemed most 
 assailable, and accordingly has been attacked with the greatest violence and 
 rancor, is the secret or private character of its organization. Jacobin club, se 
 cret conspiracy, underground party, dark-lantern party, and such like epithets, 
 have been unsparingly applied to it. These are very ugly names, intended to 
 awaken popular prejudice, and to render au object hideous which is otherwise 
 comely enough. 
 
 The party is composed of numerous societies or councils, dispersed through 
 the country, and established at localities to suit the convenience of its members. 
 These localities are made public, the times of meeting are made public, their 
 membership is public, and, what is of more importance, the result of their de 
 liberations is made public. These councils, or societies, to accomplish the great 
 objects of their institution, went sedulously to work, and their joint efforts, in 
 au incredibly short space of time, have enabled them to iay before the public, 
 the great principles, to the support of which they stand pledged before the 
 American people. Their consultations, as to the details of their platform, were 
 necessarily private ; but when their great work was done, they submitted it to 
 public inspection, and if well done, the public will not take the trouble to in 
 quire into the process by which it was accomplished. 
 
 The simple question, is, are these private associations, formed for great public 
 purposes, hostile in their tendency, as they are asserted to be, to the free insti 
 tutions of our country, and to the true spirit of the Constitution ? 
 
 The right of the people peaceably to meet together and to .consult upon pub 
 lic affairs, whether their meetings are private or public, whether in the form of 
 private societies or public assemblies, has never before been questioned in this 
 country, even during periods of the highest political excitement and exasper 
 ation. 
 
 As evincive of the jealousy und apprehensions of the fathers of the republic, 
 they classed the right of the people peaceably to assemble (privately or publicly 
 and without restraint) with the right of petition, religious freedom, the freedom 
 of speech and of the press, and in the first articles of the amendments of the 
 Constitution, prohibited Congress from passiug any law to abridge them in any 
 manner whatever. 
 
 These have always been revered by the enlightened friends of free govern 
 ment, as among the great elements of human liberty, and it is to be regretted, 
 that, without reflection it is hoped, they or any of them should be denounced 
 by persons of standing and character, as hostile to our free institutions. 
 
 If there is truth in history, private political societies have ever proved them- 
 
384 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 selves the natural enemies of tyrants, and the natural and indispensable allies 
 of republics. In despotisms they are resorted to by necessity, and in free gov 
 ernments through choice, as being more efficacious and convenient in compass 
 ing the objects proposed, whether they look to the improvements in govern 
 ment or to the correction of abuses. Since the accession of the house of Bruns 
 wick to the English throne in 1714, these private associations for all purposes, 
 whether political, commercial, religious, or any other, have been of universal 
 prevalence. They are so interwoven with the business of the people, in all its 
 branches, that they have become a part of their social organization, and if any 
 attempt were made to restrain them, a blaze would be kindled throughout Eng 
 land that it would be difficult to extinguish. 
 
 But of all countries in the world, they are most prevalent in the United States, 
 especially those of a political character. They are the peculiar and exclusive 
 machinery which have kept our political parties in motion during the entire 
 period of our existence as a nation. This will be acknowledged by all, and 
 denied by none. All the platforms that have ever been formed by these parties 
 have been the result of private and secret meetings, of secret consultations and 
 deliberations ; and the mere matters of detail employed in their formation arc 
 never known, and never sought to be known, except at the instance of imper 
 tinent curiosity. \ 
 
 Pending our presidential elections, these societies are formed throughout the 
 country under the name of clubs. They are as numerous as the cities, towns, 
 villages, hamlets, and neighborhoods of the whole country, and all affiliated in a 
 common brotherhood. The information of each is rapidly and secretly commu 
 nicated to the others, and all their schemes, plans, and contemplated move 
 ments are as carefully withheld from the public as are the plans of hostile 
 armies from each other. These periodical organizations are very much on the 
 plan of those of the American party, and they are quite as secret in their char 
 acter. No one has ever blamed or censured them for this, for it is obvious that 
 without them success would be hopeless. It is therefore too late in the day to 
 denounce private political associations, and anathemas come with a bad grace 
 from those who invented, and have always resorted to them. 
 
 But the American party administer oaths to their members. This, in the 
 opinion of its enemies, is very horrible, and the Billingsgate vocabulary is too 
 meagre to supply appropriate epithets for its condemnation. It is, they say, 
 anti-republican and anti-democratic. This accusation has been as inconsider 
 ately made as that against the secret character of the order. If oaths are taken 
 to bind men to a course of conduct that is moral, charitable, and benevolent in 
 its purposes, or if they arc taken to bind them to the support of the great prin 
 ciples of liberty as contained in the Constitution of the United States, such 
 oaths cannot be regarded as either wicked, immoral, or unlawful. They are re 
 quired to be taken by all public officers to support the Constitution, and it is 
 not perceived that there is any tiling wrong in requiring the members of a polit 
 ical party to come under the obligations of an oath to support the great princi- 
 
APPENDIX. 385 
 
 pies contained in the same instrument, such as the right of petition, the liberty 
 of speech and of the press, the purity of the ballot-box, &c., which are among 
 the cardinal principles of the new party, and it is devoutly wished that they 
 may be faithfully maintained, even if it be by the instrumentality of oaths. 
 
 But it is said that the members are required to swear that they will be gov 
 erned by the decisions of the majority, and particularly in the nominations of 
 candidates for office. The answer to this is, that any member dissatisfied with 
 any of the principles or regulations of the party is at liberty to withdraw front 
 the order, and he becomes immediately released from any oath he may have 
 taken. 
 
 The charge of religious proscription is not to be combated by argument or in 
 ferences. It is a fact to be determined by the platform itself. Conspicuous 
 among the articles of that instrument is " the protection of all citizens in the 
 legal and proper exercise of their civil and religious rights and privileges, and 
 the maintenance of the right of every man to the full, unrestrained, and peace 
 ful enjoyment of his own religious opinions and worship." 
 
 Thus, gentlemen, you have my views and opinions briefly and hastily ex 
 pressed, though deliberately formed, of the character, principles, and objects of 
 the American party. They have been derived entirely from its own publica 
 tions, and conversations with its members. I am not a member of the order, 
 and have no connection with it beyond a lively sympathy in its efforts to estab 
 lish and maintain the great conservative principles it has adopted. 
 I am respectfully your obedient servant, 
 
 JOHN GAYLE. 
 
 II. 
 
 RELATIONS OF THE POPE TO THE CIVIL POWER. 
 Letter from 0. A., Brownson. 
 
 BOSTON, Tuesday, June 12, 1855. 
 
 Mr DEAR SIR : I have received this moment yours of the 7th instant, with its 
 iuclosure. I am a little at a loss to determine what course to take. There are 
 no numbers of my Review wherein I have maintained the civil authority of 
 the Pope in this country ; but as there are several numbers in which I have 
 discussed the relations of the two orders temporal and spiritual I think I 
 shall, upon the whole, best answer your wishes by sending them. I will there 
 fore order my publisher to send you all the numbers of 1853 and 1854. 
 
 You will find in the articles entitled the " Two Orders," January, 1855, " The 
 Spiritual not for the Temporal," April, and " The Spiritual Supreme, 1 1 July, of 
 
386 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 the same year, the statement of my doctrine on the subject ; and in " You Go 
 too Far," January, 1854, " The Temporal Power of the Popes, 1 1 April, 1854, and 
 " Uncle Jack with hi-s Nephew" for October of the same year, my explanations 
 and defence of my doctrine. 
 
 May I ask you to read these articles in the order in which I have named them ? 
 If you will, although you will doubtless find much which, if a non-Catholic, 
 you will object to, I am sure you will find no such doctrine as I am accused of 
 holding. The subject I treat has been much obscured by controversy, and I am 
 liable to misapprehension by those who have not studied it somewhat profound 
 ly from the Catholic point of view. I treat the subject only under certain aspects, 
 and for Catholics, and many of the terms I use have in Catholic theology a tech 
 nical sense, which those not familiar with that theology may misapprehend. I 
 say this in excuse of those who have misrepresented me. 
 
 I claim and never have denied for the Pope, out of the Ecclesiastical States 
 of which he is the temporal sovereign no temporal or civil jurisdiction, power, 
 or authority, properly so called. The only power the Pope has in this country, 
 is his power over Catholics as the spiritual head of the Church. It is purely a 
 spiritual power, and can be exercised only for a spiritual end, and even then 
 only over Catholics, for the Church does not judge those who are without. 
 
 Mr. Brownson is here asserting the usual doctrines of his Church 
 in those countries in which his creed is in the minority. The CJmrch 
 DOES judge those ivho are ivithout, else wherefore the Athanasian 
 curses ? 
 
 In matters purely temporal, I, as a Catholic, owe no obedience to the Pope, 
 because he has received from Jesus Christ no authority as a temporal sovereign 
 over me. lie cannot make or unmake the rights of the sovereign or the duties 
 of the subject abrogate the former or absolve from the latter. 
 
 This paragraph is entirely annulled by the succeeding portion of 
 the letter, and history stamps falsehood upon such assertions. 
 
 Thus far, all Catholics, whether the so-called ultra-Montanes, or the so-called 
 Galileans, are agreed. The dispute lies not here. All agree that the State b 
 supreme and independent in its own order that is to say, in the temporal order. 
 Butwhatlmaintamis,thatthe temporal order is not supreme and independent, 
 but, in the -very nature of things, subordinated to the s>iritual, since the end of man 
 the end for which God made him, directs and governs him ly his providence 
 lies in the spiritual, not in tke temporal. Every man who believes any religion 
 at all, whether Catholic or non-Catholic, does, and must admit this ; for it is 
 only saj ing that we must obey God rather than man, and live for the Creator 
 rather than the creature. This premised, I think I can state to you, in a few 
 words, the doctrine I do really hold. 
 
APPENDIX. 387 
 
 The italics are Mr. Brownsou s own. The inference drawn from 
 them immediately after, is worthy the followers of Loyola, but Prot 
 estants cannot, will not admit it. If " the State is supreme and in 
 dependent," what does the wiiter intend by its being " subordinated 
 to the spiritual ?" " Much learning doth make theo mad.! 
 
 Inasmuch as the temporal order is subordinated to the spiritual, it follows iliat 
 the State is -under the laics of justice, consequently the prince holds his powers as 
 a trust, not as an indefeasible right, and therefore forfeits them when he abuses 
 them, and loses his right to reign. This is the common doctrine held by all of us 
 Americans, and all Catholic doctors teach and always have taught it. It lies at 
 the foundation of all true liberty, and is the only doctrine that can ever justify 
 resistance to the teinporal powers. This right of resistance of power, when it 
 becomes tyrannical and oppressive, I take it for granted, is held by every 
 American. 
 
 But here is a difficulty. The Church, following the Holy Scriptures, makes 
 civil allegiance a religious duty, and says with St. Paul (Romans viii. 1, 2) : 
 " Let every soul be subject to the higher powers, for there is no power but 
 from God. Therefore, he that resisteth the power resisteth the ordinance of 
 God, and they that resist purchase damnation to themselves." Here you see 
 I am forbidden by the law of God to resist the power, and commanded, on peril 
 of damnation, to obey. Here is my conscience bound to obedience, and my 
 conscience as a Catholic can be released only by a declaration of my Church, as 
 the divinely appointed director of conscience, that the prince of tyranny and 
 oppression has forfeited his right, fallen from his-dignity, and ceased to reign. 
 What I claim for the Pope, as visible head of the Church, is the power to re 
 lease my conscience from this religious bond, and to place me at liberty to resist 
 the prince become a tyrant. This is all I understand by the dispensing power. 
 
 The power itself, everybody, not a tyrant or a slave, asserts. The American 
 Congress of 1776 asserted it, and deposed George III. The only difference is, 
 some give it to the people, some to the individual ; and I claim it for the Church, 
 and the Pope as head of the ChurcJt. 
 
 So that the Church has, necessarily, " an indefeasible right" to 
 control the secular power, as seemeth it best ; and constitutes itself 
 a judge in all matters between the State and the ecclesiastical power. 
 Mr. Brownson claims the same right to resistance on behalf of his 
 Church, which the whole body of Americans possess ; but he forgets 
 that the ight to resistance, when invested in a whole nation, is 
 scarcely s ) liable to abuse, as when the sole prerogative of one man 
 be he Pope, or aught else. 
 
388 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 The Pope does not hi this exercise a civil power or jurisdiction, and it is call 
 ed his temporal power only because it is a power exercised over temporal sov 
 ereigns, or in relation to the obligation of the subject to obey the prince. But 
 even here the Pope does not relieve from cicil allegiance, for that the prince had 
 forfeited by his tyranny, lie releases the subject only from the spiritual or re 
 ligious obligation, superadded by Christianity to the civil, and this only in case 
 of the Catholic conscience. 
 
 The Pope is the proper authority to decide for me lohcthtr the Constitution of 
 this country is or is not repugnant to the laivs of God. If he decides that it is 
 not, as he has decided, then I am bound in conscience to obey every law made 
 in accordance with it ; and under no circumstances can he absolve me from my 
 obligation to obey, or interfere with the administration of government under it, 
 for the civil government is free to do according to its constitution whatever it 
 pleases, that is not repugnant to the laws of God or to natural justice. That it 
 is free to do more than that, I presume no man in this country will pretend. 
 
 Again the italics are the author s. We forbear to criticise, but \ve 
 say to our fellow-countrymen behold these opinions, the sanctioned 
 tenets of the Romanist party in our republic ; for Mr. Brownsou 
 " never publishes any thing, until he has first submitted it to the 
 bishop." There is a sword hanging in terror cm over our heads, and 
 it merely awaits the verdict of a mitred prince, to raise civil war in 
 our midst, and. desolate the Union throughout its wide extent. 
 
 I have made these remarks to aid you to understand the doctrine of the 
 articles to which I have called your attention. 
 
 You are a stranger to me, but I take you to be a serious-minded man, and a 
 lover of truth and justice ; as such I have addressed you. I have no doctrine 
 or opinions that I wish to conceal. I am a Catholic. As such, I aim to be truo 
 to my God, and to my fellow-men. 
 
 I have the honor to be your obedient servant, 
 
 O. A. BROWNSON. 
 HUGH J. DAVIS, Esq., "Warrenton, N. C. 
 
 III. 
 
 FOREIGNERS AND THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE 
 
 Less than ten days since, we had occasion to notice the manifesto c^ 1 the Louis 
 ville Branch of the "Free German" Union, and to point out the dangerous ten 
 dency of such anarchical organizations. We did not then anticipate tiiat the ef- 
 
APPENDIX. 389 
 
 fects of the principles they hold, aided by Irish violence at elections, would be 
 so speedily and fatally felt in that city. It will not be possible, until more accu 
 rate details shall have been received with regard to the bloody occurrences that 
 have disgraced Louisville, to decide adequately in what proportion the guilt of 
 murder, arson, and riot is to be divided between the native and foreign popu 
 lation. If the telegraphic reports prove to be accurate, a general understand 
 ing must have existed between the Germans and Irish, previous to the election, 
 that they would go armed during the day, and prevent Americans, by every 
 means, from approaching the polls. The first outrage was committed by a body 
 of Irish or Germans, as early as nine o clock in the morning. The next attack 
 was made upon Americans, several of whom were wounded, by Germans, who 
 fired upon them from their houses and a brewery in which they had intrenched 
 themselves. It is not stated that any provocation was given ; but exasperation 
 perhaps inflamed by drink at the defeat of their ticket, was probably the 
 main cause of the violence which these ruffians had recourse to. They reaped, 
 however, bitter fruits from their mad folly. A crowd of Americans assembled, 
 burned the brewery, and after a conflict of considerable duration, sacked sev 
 eral houses. Up to this time, although some persons had been wounded, it does 
 not seem that any one was killed. The scene of slaughter commenced in a dif 
 ferent part of the city at a later hour, and was again initiated by a gang of Irish. 
 From this time the riot assumed the dimensions of a street battle. The Irish, 
 who had been guilty of the last assault, intrenched themselves in houses, where 
 they were besieged by a crowd of Americans, infuriated at the crime that had 
 been committed, and the tumults of the night did not end until a large num 
 ber of lives had been lost, and several blocks of houses had been burned. On 
 the day after the election, the excitement still continued, and at the last accounts 
 yesterday, renewed outbreaks were feared during the coming night. Many 
 foreigners were, however, leaving the city, and there is little doubt that a com 
 plete victory has been gained over them by their antagonists. 
 
 Pitiable is the lot of most foreigners that land on our shores. They emerge 
 suddenly from subjection to tyrannical rule, and habits of slavery that genera 
 tions have stereotyped, into that paradise of the depraved and unthrifty, the 
 possession of active political rights. The story is familiar to every one, of the 
 Irishman, who, after regarding for some time with wonder a threshing machine, 
 cr.ed out, " Ye re bloody sthrong, biit ye can t vote" The Irish, alas, can vote ; 
 so can the Germans, and between them they are acquiring, in the hands of dem 
 agogues more iniquitous than themselves, a control of elections in many of our 
 States, of which it is time that Americans should be wearied and ashamed. 
 Eight months ago, the subject of amending our Naturalization Laws was brought 
 before Congress, by Senator Adams of Mississippi. Eeference was made, at the 
 tune, in our columns, to the able speech which he made on that occasion, and 
 hopes were entertained that the measure he proposed would be dispassionately 
 discussed, and, with some necessary amendments, adopted by Congress. It 
 fell, however, to the ground. Politicians are afraid to meet boldly, either in 
 
390 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 Congress or the State Legislatures, the embarrassments which this question, so 
 important for the future interests of the country, presents. They dread the 
 local opposition which advocacy of manly and patriotic measures of reform would 
 subject them to, and shrink from being ostracised by foreigners, whose opposi 
 tion at the polls might prevent their re-election to office. The wisdom of the 
 proposal that the term of residence of aliens should be prolonged, before they 
 are permitted to enjoy every right of Americans born, is recognized by provi 
 dent, far-sighted Americans of all parties ; but this cowardly fear of losing 
 votes, on the part of aspirants for office, opposes more than any thing else an 
 effectual obstacle to proper legislation. The indiscreet manner, too, in which 
 foreigners have been confounded by many with the power they wield, and the 
 intermingling of religious elements in all Native American parties that have 
 hitherto existed, have tended to delay, if not totally hinder, an impartial exam 
 ination of the question, what rights it is expedient to bestow upon persons born 
 abroad. 
 
 It is the duty of the people and government of the United States to welcome 
 to our shores those who come here with a claim upon our hospitality, and to 
 the home for themselves and education for their children, which we can so ea 
 sily afford to bestow. It is also a bounden obligation to act towards them the 
 part of kind protectors, shielding them by our laws, permitting them to hold 
 property, and to transfer it to their children, and even to acquire such control 
 over the soil as they can secure by the labor of their hands. These privileges, 
 however, which the immigrant has a right to look for, and which our laws the 
 oretically give, are poisoned, and rendered practically nugatory by the prema 
 ture addition, indiscriminately, of the right of suffrage. The poor Irishman or 
 German encounters, as he lands in our seaports, a monster who is legally au 
 thorized to obstruct with a frequently impassable barrier his pathway to the 
 happy home to which he is entitled, and where he might enjoy abundantly the 
 products of the soil, and become a frugal, sober, and industrious denizen of 
 the land. This monster is political temptation. The hard-handed, humbly- 
 conditioned Irish laborer, as well as the clodhopper socialist from Germany, both 
 sink into corruption by our own fault, more than by theirs. They are at once 
 instructed that they may vote in six months, a year, or less, if fraud is employ 
 ed to attain the object. They are taught to consider themselves an army of po 
 litical invaders, are enlisted either in infidel associations, or under the banners 
 of rum-selling middle-men, and made to reinforce the vast floating coudottieri 
 between parties, which often at elections turns the scale in favor of the highest 
 bidder or the latest payer, and wrests pledges from candidates in favor of infi 
 del encroachments, or impunity to do wrong. Foreigners who if their con 
 sciences were not drugged by the fatal right to vote before they know the 
 A B C s of our political alphabet, or can distinguish between liberty and license, 
 excitement and disorder, or comprehend the secret of acquiescing in the will of 
 the majority might become eventually themselves, or through their children, 
 good citizens, are enticed by the glitter of goldea. bribes to remain in large 
 
APPENDIX. 391 
 
 towns and cities, where they spend freely what has been easily got, acquire 
 habits of debauchery, and a ternate between riotous indulgence, the alms- 
 house, and our prisons. The neglected offspring of such, brought up with 
 their heads in the public-school, and their bodies in the gutter, ripen into that 
 unnaturally shrewd, depraved, dangerous race of infidel bullies, fearing neither 
 God nor man, whose vocation is to seduce others to sin and misery, and increase 
 as widely as possibly the realms of moral ruin. 
 
 Every little while, some solemn warning, like the recent riot at Louisville, 
 troubles the minds of thinking men, and points forward to that period of civil 
 discord by which we may some day be convulsed, if a remedy is not applied to 
 the evil created by our present naturalization laws ; but unfortunately the age 
 is too peculiarly one of excitement for any single event to leave a lasting im- 
 pression. Yet if citizens will look back twenty-five years, to a time when disor 
 ders that are common now were regarded as impossible, and will then reflect 
 upon the consequences of a like decline, for another quarter of a century, they 
 will be convinced of the danger of delay, and of the rapidity and strength that 
 anti- American influence is acquiring in the country. 
 
 New York Journal of Commerce, Aug. 5, 1855. 
 
 IV. 
 
 EELIGIOTJS TOLERATION HERETICS AND ROMANIST GRAVE 
 YARDS. 
 
 P. Sharkey, Esq., of Jackson, Miss., writes to the Southern Mer 
 cury as follows, giving an incident of the War of 181 2-] 5, in which 
 he served : 
 
 July 25, 1855. 
 To the Editor of the Mercury : 
 
 As there has been a great deal said about ancient Catholicism, and old files 
 hunted up to prove their hostility to the Protestants, and as I am a man of but 
 little ancient reading, and a little on the Young American order, I will content 
 myself by referring back to 1815, after the battle at New Orleans. 
 
 I belonged to the Mississippi Militia, and was encamped on a French Catholic 
 farm above New Orleans. After the battle was over, several of our men died 
 by wounds and sickness, as they had been placed at Chef Menteur, where there 
 was not one foot of dry land to stand or lie on, only as they would gather flags 
 and make beds to lie on. We were some distance above New Orleans, and 
 having no way of conveyance to a grave-yard, we proposed to bury our dead on 
 the back or out-post of the farm. Went to dig a grave, without knowing the 
 
392 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 hostility the Catholics had to heretics. The owner of the laud came down and 
 forbid us from burying our corpse. He appeared to be very much enraged, 
 crying out, " Sacre fungas ! de American heretic no be put on my land." "We 
 said we must bury the man. He replied " Me no care ; dere is de Mississippi 
 river ; throw him in de river." We soon made him leave, and when we went 
 to bury our dead we always had our guns. Jo. Templeton was one of our 
 Warren soldiers who shared the fate of the balance that were buried there. 
 We were discharged at that place, and came home. Letters followed us from 
 our friends, stating that as we left all the dead were taken up and put in the river 
 by the owner of the land ; as though a dead heretic could hurt a live Catholic. 
 
 Now I refer to any man that was belonging to Hinds Dragoons, or the Mis 
 sissippi Militia, for the facts of this and the report that followed us. I will re 
 fer to a few by name : Esq. McDonald, of Madison ; Eichard and Battle Harri 
 son, of Jefferson ; Haley Cotton, of Leake, as they were there, and know the 
 facts as well as myself. 
 
 P. SIIAEKEY. 
 
 The above letter is from one of the most substantial and well- 
 known citizens of the State of Mississippi, and what is the fact de 
 veloped? This: a lay member of the Romish Church is so fired 
 with hatred towards Protestants, that he denies a t burial-place to the 
 brave and patriotic men who came from an adjoining State to repel 
 an invading foe. Men who died in battle in defending the home of 
 the Romanist, have their bones dug up from their mother earth, and 
 thrown contemptuously into the Mississippi, as if their dust defiled the 
 land. Innumerable examples, where the Romish priests have undis 
 puted sway, displaying the same feeling, constantly occur all over 
 the world. 
 
 V. 
 
 MILITARY IN THE CHURCH. 
 
 The enthusiastic in the faith that American institutions need no safeguards, 
 contend that the illuminating influence of Protestantism will, in this country, 
 destroy the pagan rites of the Romish Church so common in Europe. We find, 
 however, that this is not the case. The heathen custom of inaugurating statues, 
 so common among the Greeks and ancient Romans, maintains its place in a 
 church claiming to be Christian, and situated in enlightened America, and in 
 the city of New York. 
 
APPENDIX. * 393 
 
 At the Cliurch of the Eedeemer (German Kotnish), on Sunday, the 12th of 
 August, 1855, "a statue of the Virgin was inaugurated with the celebration of 
 High Mass. Some time before the hour for the commencement of the services, 
 the body of the church was densely crowded, but the gallery was attainable to 
 the lucky possessor of a sixpence, and was very comfortably roomy. Occupy 
 ing the front central seats was a military band, and behind them a company 
 one of the German rifle companies, we believe in uniform. Up the side aisles, 
 at short intervals, were the banners of various Catholic and benevolent societies. 
 Festoons of flowers and leaves, arranged very tastily, ran from pillar to pillar 
 all the way up the church, each bearing the name of a saint. 
 
 " The large altar-piece was decorated, to use the choice expression of the an 
 nouncement, in a manner particularly beautiful. Flowers and leaves were 
 profusely used from top to bottom, and over all ran a cordon lieu, inscribed with 
 the prayer, Regina sine lobe concepta, ora pro nolis."* 
 
 "In the centre of this high altar-piece, in a white-draped niche stood the 
 statue of the Virgin, bearing the infant Eedeemer in her arms. The material is 
 not mentioned, and of course could not be distinguished : we suppose it is of 
 wood. The announcement above quoted, says it is ; of exquisite beauty. It is 
 very brilliantly painted. The robe is blue, fringed and starred with gold. The 
 statue was encircled by a halo of gas-burners, arranged in star-shaped groups, 
 and all the candles were burning at its feet. Mass was celebrated very finely. 
 There is, or was on Sunday, a fine choir at the church, and the band assisted." 
 
 Here we have the introduction of foreign military companies, as part of the 
 pageant of a professedly religious ceremony. We would have every reflecting 
 American to ask himself, What is the meaning of this association? and what 
 right have troops, organized by the State, to connect themselves thus with the 
 church ? 
 
 VI. 
 
 AMEEICAN NATIONALITY. 
 
 The " stars and stripes," the glorious* emblem of the Union, form a parallelo 
 gram, with six white and seven red parallel stripes, denoting the union of the 
 original Thirteen Colonies, with a blue square in the upper corner, next the 
 flag-stan , cutting off four red and three white stripes, and containing thirty-one 
 white stars, representing the number of States in the Union, combined in one 
 large star, symbolizing the "many in one" of the national motto, " E plurfinu 
 unum" 
 
 The great Union" Flag was hoisted on the 2d day of January, 1776, at Cam 
 bridge, by General Washington. Lieut. Carter wrote from Charlestown Heights, 
 
394 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 January 26th, 1776 : " The King s speech was sent by a flag to them on tho 1st. 
 In a short time after they received it, they hoisted a Union flag (above the Con 
 tinental, with thirteen stripes) at Mount Pisgat ; their citadel fired thirteen guns 
 and gave the like number of cheers." And Gen. Washington wrote from Cam 
 bridge, on the 4th of the same month, to Col. Joseph Reed: "The speech I 
 send you. A volume of them was sent out by the Boston gentry, and, farcical 
 enough, we gave great joy to them, without knowing or intending it; for on 
 that day the day which gave being to the new army but before the proclama 
 tion came to hand, we had hoisted the Union flag, in compliment to the Colo 
 nies. But, behold ! it was received in Boston as a token of tho deep impression 
 the speech had made upon us, and as a signal of submission. So we hear, by 
 a person out of Boston, last night. By this time, I presume they begin to think 
 it strange that we have not made a formal surrender of our lives." Thus we 
 have an acknowledgment of the presence of the stripes, and a device resembling 
 the British Union Jack. This latter, instead of being above the stripes, was prob 
 ably in the place now occupied by the blue square and the white stars. From 
 this it would appear that the Great Union Flag of the Colonies was the British 
 flag modified by drawing six white stripes through the red field, thus making 
 thirteen red and white stripes, representing the rebellious Colonies in Union. 
 This flag probably was originated by the Committee of Conference, appointed 
 by Congress, and composed of Dr. Franklin, Mr. Lynch, and Mr. Harrison ; and 
 the idea of such a modification of the British flag is not only simple but cer 
 tainly a very natural one, when we consider the circumstances and history of 
 the times. 
 
 The necessity for a change of the emblem of union was apparent ; and the 
 thirteen Colonies readily suggested the idea of a constellation of stars. Conse 
 quently we find that the constellation Lyra was actually under consideration, 
 and was used on passports. June 14, 1777, Congress passed the following: 
 "Resolved, that the flag of the thirteen United States be thirteen stripes, alter 
 nate red and white : That the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, rep 
 resenting a new constellation." It appears that the first act of Congress chang 
 ing the flag was on the 18th of January, 1794, when it was enacted, "That from 
 and after the 1st day of May, A. D. 1795, the flag of the United States be fifteen 
 stripes, alternate red and white ; that the union be fifteen stars, white in a blue 
 field." The stars were arranged in a circle indicating eternal union. This was 
 the flag of the United States during the war of 1812-14. In 1818, the flag of the 
 United States was again altered, and, as we are informed, on the suggestion of 
 the lion. Mr. "VVendover, of New York, a return was made to the thirteen stripes ; 
 as it was anticipated the flag would become unwieldy if a stripe were added on 
 the admission of each State ; and, moreover, by the plan proposed, the union 
 of the old thirteen States, tis well as the number of members composing the 
 existing Union, would be pre>euted by this flag of the United States. Mr. W. 
 also proposed the arrangement of the stars in the union in the form of a single 
 star. In this there was n departure from the original design, as the perpetuity 
 
APPENDIX. 395 
 
 of the Union ceased to be indicated by the flag, as it had previously been in the 
 circle of stars, except so far as indicated by the several stars forming one large 
 star. The resolution of 1818 was as follows : " That from and after the fourth 
 day of July next, the flag of the United States be thirteen horizontal stripes, al 
 ternate red and white ; that the union be twenty stars, white in a blue field. 
 And that, on the admission of a new State into the Union, one star be added 
 to the union of the flag ; and that such addition shall take effect on the fourth 
 day of July ne:xt succeeding such admission." 
 
 vn. 
 
 AMEKICAN ELECTIONS. 
 
 There was a time, we remember, when the good order and decorum of Amer 
 ican Elections was a common proverb, at home and abroad. That time, we fear, 
 has passed, or is passing away. Not that the American people have grown, or 
 are growing less attached to the principles of peace and propriety, nor less ca 
 pable of self-government, nor the government of their passions and prejudices, 
 but rather because of the introduction into our popular contests of a strange 
 element, that is inherently inimical to Americanism in every leading impulse and 
 aspiration. This pestilent influence, within a very few months past, has been 
 fearfully provocative of bloodshed and strife, in some of the most populous cities 
 of the Union. New Orleans, St. Louis, Cincinnati, and places nearer home, 
 have, each in its turn, been made the scene of a sanguinary strife, generally 
 growing out of nefarious attempts by Irish and Germans but chiefly Irish to 
 interfere with American meetings, and American freedom of speech, in cases 
 where it so happened neither those meetings nor that speech were shaped to 
 accord with the sentiments, opinions, or beliefs, of a set of men, who are, of 
 late years, but too prone to acknowledge the civil and political privileges they 
 enjoy here (but which they never were permitted to enjoy "at home") by shoot 
 ing down Americans in their own streets, and blowing their brains out, when 
 ever they have the audacity to assemble together. Louisville, in Kentucky, it 
 is grievous to see, is now passing through the same ordeal. A T . Y. Express. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 WHAT CAUSES ELECTION KIOTS 
 
 Is the low education of our foreign population. The musket and the bayonet 
 are the exponents of the law in foreign cities ; and what we bow to here, in 
 
396 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 deferenco and obedience, as "law" as the icill of the majority in other coun 
 tries is bowed to under the prick of the bayonet. Hence, when among such a 
 people, the prick of the bayonet is removed, the law, or the will of the major 
 ity that makes the law, is resisted by riot, row, or murder. In Louisville, Ken 
 tucky, for example, the Americans beat on election-day ; but the foreigners 
 there, instead of doing as Americans do, submit to the majority, in the absence 
 of the bayonet, shoot from their houses Americans in the streets ! If the di 
 vision in Louisville had been between Whig Americans and Democratic Amer 
 icans, the moment the result was known it would have been acquiesced in, with 
 general submission ; but the indignant foreign population in Louisville do, just 
 as they would do when they dare in Paris, or Berlin, or Vienna ; that is, ap 
 peal to the musket and fight. 
 
 It is this spirit of resistance to law, to the majority, and to the declared will 
 of that majority, which makes republican government almost impossible over 
 sea a minority that will not submit to a majority, but prefers a fight, as in 
 Louisville ; and hence a result so deplorable. 
 
 These numerous riots that we are having, wherever American interests come 
 into political conflict with the interests or passions of foreigners, only go to 
 show that government is a trade, which a foreign population cannot learn by 
 instinct, but must be educated in by long training. Voting is a very simple 
 act, but it means and embodies the idea of government, and goverrmient is a 
 science, which an Irishman, who cannot read, or a German, who knows not our 
 language, and customs, and traditions, cannot learn in a single day. Indeed, 
 the education of our foreign population is far easier, if we may so express our 
 selves, than their uneducation. To unlearn what they know is their first duty ; 
 and it takes years and years, but it is much harder work to unlearn than to 
 learn. Jury trials, habeas corpuses, &c., are all Greek to them; but all these 
 they can learn. What they have to unlearn, however, is harder than Greek, 
 and that is, armed resistance to law, to government, to majorities. The prick 
 of the bayonet is not half so formidable to an American as the writ of the con 
 stable ; but this necessity of feeling the prick of the bayonet before they yield, 
 they must all unlearn. Revolutions are wrought here, not in arms, but witli 
 bits of paper in the ballot-boxes. Minorities have 110 rights against laws con 
 stitutionally passed, and constitutionally expounded and executed, while ma 
 jorities, even, have no rights, under laws unconstitutionally passed, or uncon 
 stitutionally executed. These are very hard problems for foreigners to solve, 
 but we Americans solve them. We often learn, too, that submission to wrongs 
 is oftener wiser than armed resistance by force. When we are whipped elec 
 tion-day, we lament our bad luck, and try it again, but seldom or never fight, 
 unless attacked by force. The loss of the anti- American candidate for Congress, 
 in Louisville, led to shooting Americans in the streets, and, of course, to the 
 subsequent fearful" retribution. 
 
 Foreigners, if they were wise, would, themselves, call for a long training for 
 their countrymen, before they gave them tho right of governing at the ballot- 
 
APPENDIX. 397 
 
 boxes. Men can no more be good soldiers after a day s enlistment, than good 
 voters without training. Government is a curious piece of human mechanism, 
 which untaught fingers may spoil, but which they can never safely touch. A 
 foreigner may he as wise as Humboldt in philosophy, but as ignorant as a babe 
 of the mechanism of the government of the United States of America. Twen 
 ty-one years are wisely demanded of us Americans to live, to think, to look on, 
 to hear, and to talk, and to see, and to study, before we vote. Thousands of 
 foreigners vote fraudulently who ha-ve been in the country scarcely a year, and 
 hundreds of thousands that cannot read the Constitution of the United States 
 in the language in which its makers wrote it. y. Y. Express, Aug. 10, 1855. 
 
 IX. 
 
 GOLDEN MAXIMS OF WASHINGTON. 
 
 " Let us have a government by which our lives, liberties, and properties, will 
 be secured." 
 
 " The government of the United States, though not actually perfect, is-one of 
 the best in the world." 
 
 "It is among the evils, and perhaps not the smallest, of Democratic govern 
 ments, that the people must feel, before they will see : when this happens, they 
 are roused to action." 
 
 " If we mean to support the liberty and independence which it has cost us so 
 much blood and treasure to establish, we must drive far away the demon of 
 party spirit." 
 
 " As there can be no harm in a pious wish for the good of one s country, I 
 shall offer it as mine, that each state would not only choose, but absolutely com 
 pel their ablest men to attend Congress, that public abuses may be corrected." 
 
 " The preservation of the sacred fire of liberty and the destiny of the repub 
 lican model of government are justly considered as deeply, perhaps as finally 
 staked on the experiment intrusted to the hands of the American people." 
 
 " There are four things which I humbly conceive are essential to the well 
 being I may even venture to say, to the existence of the United States as an 
 independent power : 
 
 " 1. An indissoluble union of the states under one federal head. 
 
 " 2. A sacred regard to public justice. 
 
 " 3. Tlie adoption of a proper peace establishment. 
 
 "4. Prevalence of a pacific and friendly disposition among the people of tho 
 United States, making them forget their local prejudices and politics, &o." 
 
 18 
 
398 A VOICE TO AMEEICA. 
 
 " As avenues to foreign influence in innumerable ways, such attachments are 
 particularly alarming to the truly enlightened and independent patriot. How 
 many opportunities do they afford to tamper with domestic factions, to practise 
 the arts of seduction, to mislead public opinion, to influence or awe the public 
 councils ! Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence, I conjure you to 
 believe me, fellow-citizens, the jealousy of a free people ought to be constantly 
 awake, since history and experience prove that foreign influence is one of the most 
 lanefvl foes of republican government. But that jealousy, to be useful, must be 
 impartial, else it becomes the instrument of the very influence to be avoided, 
 instead of a defence against it. Excessive partiality for one foreign nation, and 
 excessive dislike for another, cause those whom they actuate to see danger only 
 on one side, and serve to veil and even second the arts of influence on the other, 
 Eeal patriots, who may resist the intrigues of the favorite, are liable to become 
 suspected and odious, while its tools and dupes usurp the applause and con 
 fidence of the people to surrender their interests. 
 
 " The great rule of conduct for us in regard to foreign nations is, in extending 
 our commercial relations, to have with them as little political connection as 
 possible. So far as we have already formed engagements, let them be fnHillcd 
 with perfect good faith. Here let us stop. 
 
 " Europe has a set of primary interests which to us have none or a very re 
 mote relation. Hence, she must be engaged in frequent controversies, the 
 causes of which are essentially foreign to our concerns. Hence, therefore, it 
 must be unwise iu us to implicate ourselves by artificial ties in the ordinary 
 vicissitudes of her polities, or the ordinary combinations and collisions of her 
 friendships or enmities. 
 
 " The unity of government which constitutes you one people, is a main pillar 
 in the edifice of your real independence, the support of your tranquillity at 
 home, your peace abroad, of your safety, of your prosperity, of that very liberty 
 which you so highly prize. But as it is easy to foresee that from different 
 causes, and from different quarters, much pains will be taken, many artifices 
 employed, to weaken in your minds the conviction of this truth as this is the 
 point in your political fortress against which the batteries of internal and ex 
 ternal enemies will be most constantly and actively (though often covertly and 
 insidiously) directed it is of infinite moment that you should properly estimate 
 the immense value of your national union to your collective and individual hap 
 piness ; that you should cherish a cordial, habitual, and immovable attachment 
 to it ; accustoming yourselves to think and to speak of it as a palladium of your 
 political safety and prosperity; watching for its preservation with jealous anx 
 iety ; discountenancing whatever may suggest even a suspicion that it can in 
 any event be abandoned ; and indignantly frowning upon the first dawning of 
 every attempt to alienate any portion of our country from the rest, or to enfeeble 
 the sacred ties which now link together the various parts. 
 
 " For this you have every inducement of sympathy and interest. Citizens by 
 birth or choice of a common country, that country has a right to concentrate- 
 
APPENDIX. 399 
 
 your affections. The name of American, which belongs to you in your national 
 capacity, must always exalt the just pride of patriotism more than any appella 
 tion derived from local discriminations. "With slight shades of difference, you 
 have the same religion, manners, habits, and political principles. You have, in 
 a common cause, fought and triumphed together. The independence and lib 
 erty you possess are the work of joint counsels and joint efforts, of common 
 dangers, sufferings, and success. 
 
 "But these considerations, however powerfully they address themselves to 
 your sensibility, are greatly outweighed by those which apply more immediately 
 to your interest. Here, every portion of our country finds the most command 
 ing motives for carefully guarding and preserving the union of the whole." 
 
 X. 
 
 MAXIMS AND OPINIONS OF EMINENT STATESMEN, ETC. 
 
 "Hearken not to the unnatural voice, which tells you that the people of 
 America, knit together, as they are, by so many cords of affection, can no longer 
 live together, as members of the same family ; can no longer continue the mu 
 tual guardians of their mutual happiness ; can no longer be fellow-citizens of one 
 great, respectable, and flourishing empire. Hearken not to the voice which 
 petulantly tells you that the form of government recommended for your adop 
 tion, is a no velty in the political world ; that it has never yet had a place in the 
 theories of the wildest projectors ; that it rashly attempts what it is impossible 
 to accomplish. No, my countrymen; shut your ears against this unhallowed 
 language. Shut your heart against the poison which it conveys. The kindred 
 blood which flows in the veins of American citizens, the mingled blood which 
 they have shed in defence of their sacred rights, consecrates their union, and 
 excites horror at the idea of their becoming aliens, rivals, enemies. And if 
 novelties are to be shunned, believe me, the most alarming of all novelties, the 
 most wild of all projects, the most rash of all attempts, is that of rending us in 
 pieces, in order to preserve our liberties, and promote our happiness. 
 
 "But why is the experiment of an extended republic to be rejected merely 
 because it may comprise what is new ? Is it not the glory of the people of 
 America, that, whilst they have paid a decent regard to the opinions of former 
 times and other nations, they have not suffered a blind veneration for antiquity, 
 for custom or for names, to overrule the suggestions of their own good sense, 
 the knowledge of their own situation, and the lessons of their own experience ? 
 To this manly spirit posterity will be indebted for the possession, and the world 
 for the example, of the numerous innovations displayed on the American theatre, 
 in favor of private rights and public happiness." Jamts Madison. 
 
400 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 " When your lordships look at the papers transmitted to us from America ; 
 when you consider their decency, firmness, and wisdom, you cannot but respect 
 their cause, and wish to make it your own. For myself, I must declare and 
 avow that in all my reading and observation (and it has been my favorite study, 
 I have read Thucidydes, and have studied and admired the master-states of the 
 world), I say I must declare, that for solidity of reasoning, force of sagacity, and 
 wisdom of conclusion, Tinder such a complication of difficult circumstances, n-o 
 nation, nor body of men, can stand in preference to the General Congress at 
 Philadelphia. I trust it is obvious to your lordships, that all attempts to im 
 pose a servitude upon such men, to establish despotism over such a mighty 
 continental nation, must be vain, must be fatal." Extract from Mr. Pitfs speech 
 in the British Parliament, Jan. 20, 1775. 
 
 " What is patriotism? Is it a narrow affection for the spot where a man wa-> 
 born ? Are the very clods where we tread entitled to this ardent preference 
 because they are greener ? No, sir, this is not the character of the virtue ; and 
 it soars higher for its object. It is an extended self-love, mingling w r ith all the 
 enjoyments of life, and twisting itself with the minutest filaments of the heart. It 
 is thus we obey the laws of society, because they are the laws of virtue. In their 
 authority we see, not the array of force and terror, but the venerable image of 
 our country s honor. Every good citizen makes that honor his own, and cher 
 ishes it not only as precious, but as sacred. lie is willing to risk his life in its 
 defence, and is conscious that he gains protection while he gives it. For what 
 rights of a citizen will be deemed inviolable when a state renounces the prin 
 ciples that constitute their security ? Or if his life should not be invaded, what 
 would its enjoyments be in a country odious in the eyes of strangers, and dis 
 honored in his own ?" Fisher Ames. 
 
 " The imperishable records of our grand crusade against despotism are em 
 blazoned upon the scroll of Time, and are unsurpassed by the loftiest exploits of 
 Koman or Grecian heroism. The entire world watched with intensest interest 
 the successes of our revolutionary progress, and that which many had considered 
 problematical, has long since become matter of historic truth. To the people of 
 the United States lias been assigned the glorious work of effecting and pro 
 claiming the triumph of freedom. More than half a century has tested its 
 stability and its power, affording a sufficient augury of its brilliant future. "- 
 Welder. 
 
 "It cannot be denied, but by those who would dispute against the sun, that 
 with America, and in America, a new era commences in human affairs. This 
 era is distinguished by free representative governments, by entire religious lib 
 erty, and by improved systems of national intercourse, by a newly-awakened 
 and an unconquerable spirit of free inquiry, and by a diffusion of knowledge 
 through the community, such as has been before altogether unknown or un 
 heard of. * * * If we cherish the virtues and the principles of our fathers. 
 
APPENDIX. 401 
 
 Heaven will assist us to carry on the work of human liberty and human hap 
 piness." Ibid. 
 
 " The spirit of union is particularly liable to temptation and seduction in 
 times of peace and prosperity." Hid. 
 
 "If we are true to our country in our day and generation, and those who 
 come after us shall be true to it also, assuredly we shall elevate her to a pitch 
 of prosperity and happiness, of honor and power, never yet reached by any 
 nation beneath the sun." Ibid. 
 
 " The spirit of liberty, growing more and more enlightened, and more and 
 more vigorous from age to age, has been battering for centuries against the 
 solid battlements of the feudal system. All that could be gained from the im 
 prudence, snatched from the weakness, or wrung from the necessities of 
 crowned heads, has been carefully gathered up, secured and hoarded, as the 
 rich treasures, the very jewels of liberty. The popular and representative right 
 has kept up its warfare against prerogative with various success : sometimes 
 writing the history of a whole age in blood, sometimes witnessing the martyr 
 doms of Sydneys and Eussels : often baffled and repulsed, but still gaining on 
 the whole, and holding what is gained with a grasp which nothing but the 
 complete extinction of its own being could compel it to relinquish." Ibid. 
 
 " The first object of a free people is the preservation of their liberty ; and lib 
 erty is only to be preserved by maintaining constitutional restraints and just 
 divisions of political power." Ibid. 
 
 "Under the present Constitution, wisely and conscientiously administered, 
 all are safe, happy, and renowned. The measure of our country s fame may 
 fill our breasts. It is fame enough for us all to partake in Jier glory, if we will 
 carry her character onward to its tru destiny. Kot only the cause of American 
 Liberty, but the cause of Liberty throughout the whole earth, depends in a 
 great measure on upholding the Constitution and Union of these States. Let 
 it be a truth engraven on our hearts, let it be borne on the flag under which 
 we rally in every exigency that we have one country, one Constitution, one 
 destiny?" Ibid. 
 
 " This glorious Liberty these benign institutions, the dear purchase of our 
 fathers, are ours ours to enjoy, ours to preserve, ours to transmit. Generations 
 past and generations to come hold us responsible for the sacred trust." Ibid. 
 
 " I have no fears for the permanency of our Union, whilst our liberties are 
 preserved. It is a tough and strong cord, as all will find who will presump 
 tuously attempt to break it. It has been competent to suppress all the domestic 
 insurrections, and to carry us safely through all the foreign wars with which we 
 have been afflicted since it was formed, and it has come out of each with more 
 strength and greater promise of durability. It is the choicest political blessing 
 
402 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 which, as a people, we enjoy, and I trust that Providence will permit us to trans 
 mit it, unimpaired to posterity, through endless generations." Henry Clay. 
 
 " The Constitution of the United States. Like one of those wondrous rocking 
 stones reared by the Druids, which the finger of a child might vibrate to its cen 
 tre, yet the might of an army could not move from its place, our Constitution is 
 so nicely poised and balanced that it seems to sway with every breath of opinion, 
 yet so firmly rooted in the hearts and affections of the people, that the wildest 
 storms of treason and fanaticism break over it in vain." R. C. Witiilirop. 
 
 " A divine right to govern ill, is an absurdity : to assert it, is blasphemy. Pre 
 tensions to a divine right have been generally carried highest by those who have 
 had the least claim to the Divine favor. Liberty is to the collective body what 
 health is to every individual body. Without health, no pleasure can be tasted 
 by man ; without liberty, no happiness can be enjoyed by society." Bollnglroke, 
 
 " Which is the most perfect popular government ? That, said Bias, where 
 the laws have no superior. That, said Thales, where the inhabitants are 
 neither too rich nor too poor. That, said Anacharsis, where virtue is hon 
 ored and vice detested. That is the the best government, which desires to make 
 the people happy, and knows how to make the people happy. Neither the in 
 clination nor the knowledge will suffice alone, and it is difficult to find them 
 together. Pure Democracy, and pure Democracy alone, satisfies the former con 
 dition of this great problem. That the governors may be solicitous only for the 
 interests of the governed, it is necessary that the interests of the governors and 
 the governed should be the same. The interests of the subjects and rulers never 
 absolutely coincide till the subjects themselves become the rulers ; that is, till 
 the government be either immediately or mediately democratic." Hacauiay. 
 
 " Our own country, though happily exempt, and God grant that it may long 
 continue so, from the troubles of Europe, is not exempt from the influence of 
 the causes that produce them. We too are inspired, and agitated, and governed 
 by the all-pervading, all-inspiring, all-agitating, all-governing spirit of the age. 
 What do I say ? We were the first to feel and act upon its influence. Our revo 
 lution was the first of the long series that has since shaken every comer of 
 Europe and America. Our fathers led the van in the long array of heroes, rnar- 
 tvrs, and confessors, who have fought and fallen under the banner of liberty. 
 The institutions they bequeathed to us, and under which we are living in peace 
 and happiness, were founded on the principles which lie at the bottom of the 
 present agitation in Europe. We have realized what our contemporaries are 
 laboring to attain. Our tranquillity is the fruit of an entire acquiescence in the 
 Bpirit of the age. We have reduced the action of government within narrower 
 limits, and given a wider scope to individual liberty, than any community that 
 ever flourished before. 
 
APPENDIX. 403 
 
 " We live, therefore, in an age, and in a country, where positive laws and 
 institutions have comparatively but little direct force. But human nature re 
 mains the same. The passions are as wild, as ardent, as ungovernable, in a 
 republic, as in a despotism. "VYhat then is to arrest their violence ? I answer in 
 one word, Religion" Edward Everett. 
 
 " Let no one accuse me of seeing wild visions, and dreaming impossible 
 dreams. I am only stating what may be done, and what will be done. We 
 may most shamefully betray the trust reposed in us we may most miserably 
 defeat the fond hopes entertained of us. We may become the scorn of tyrants 
 and the jest of slaves. From our fate, oppression may assume a bolder front of 
 insolence, and its victims sink into a darker despair. 
 
 " In that event, how unspeakable will be our disgrace with what weight of 
 mountains will the infamy lie upon our souls. The gulf of our ruin will be as 
 deep as the elevation we might have attained is high. How wilt thou fall from 
 heaven, Lucifer, son of the morning ! Our beloved country with ashes for 
 beauty, the golden cord of our Union broken, its scattered fragments presenting 
 every form of misrule, from the wildest anarchy to the most ruthless despotism, 
 our " soil drenched with fraternal blood," the life of man stripped of its grace 
 and dignity, the prizes of honor gone, and virtue divorced from half its encour 
 agements and supports these are gloomy pictures, which I would not invite 
 your imaginations to dwell upon, but only to glance at, for the sake of the warn 
 ing lessons we may draw from them. 
 
 " Kemember, that we can have none of those consolations which sustain the 
 patriot who mourns over the undeserved misfortunes of his country. Our Rome 
 cannot fall and we be innocent. Ko conqueror will chain us to the car of his 
 triumph no countless swarm of Huns and Goths will bury the memorials and 
 trophies of civilized life, beneath a living tide of barbarism. Our own selfish 
 ness, our own neglect, our own passions, and our own vices, will furnish the 
 elements of our destruction. With our own hands we shall tear down the stately 
 edifice of our glory. We shall die by self-inflicted wounds." G-. S. Billiard. 
 
 " We less need new laws, new institutions, or new powers, than we need on 
 all occasions, at all times, and in all places, the requisite intelligence concerning 
 the true spirit of our present ones ; the high moral courage under every hazard, 
 and against every offender, to execute with fidelity the authority already pos 
 sessed ; and the manly independence to abandon all supineness, irresolution, 
 vacillation, and time-serving pusillanimity, and enforce our present mild system 
 with that uniformity and steady vigor throughout, which alone can supply the 
 place of the greater severity of less free institutions. 
 
 " To arm and encourage us in renewed efforts to accomplish every thing on 
 this subject which is desirable, our history constantly points her finger to a most 
 efficient resource, and indeed to the only elixir, to secure a long life to any popu 
 lar government, in increased attention to useful education and sound morals, 
 
404 A VOICE TO AMERICA. 
 
 with, the wise description of equal measures and just practices they inculcate on 
 every leaf of recorded time. May we not all profit by the vehement exhortation 
 of Cicero to Atticus : If you are asleep, awake ; if you are standing, move ; if 
 you are moving, run ; if you are running, fly ! 
 
 "All these considerations warn us the gravestones of almost every former 
 republic warn us that a high standard of moral rectitude, as well as of intelli 
 gence, is quite as indispensable to communities, in their public doings, as to 
 individuals, if they would escape from either degeneracy or disgrace." Levi 
 Woodbury. 
 
 " The prosperity of the United States is the source of the most serious dangers 
 that threaten them, since it tends to create in some of the confederate states that 
 over-excitement which accompanies a rapid increase of fortune ; and to awaken 
 in others those feelings of envy, mistrust, and regret, which usually attend upon 
 the loss of it. Yet the Americans of the United States must inevitably become 
 one of the greatest nations in the world. The continent which they inhabit is 
 their dominion." De Tocqueville. 
 
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